Page 4 of An Indecent Longing

“Then you need to get out more. You have friends. Ask them to set you up.”

She did have a few good friends. Whom she hadn’t seen in months because she’d been busy with all that stuff Risa had said.

With a sigh, Dorrie put her elbow on the table and propped her chin on her hand. “I’m pitiful.”

Risa shrugged. “You’re a little pitiful, yes. But all hope is not lost. There’s always—”

A knock at the door announced the arrival of their dinner.

“Hold that thought,” Risa said as she headed for the door.

They didn’t speak again until Risa had wheeled in the dinner cart. She always let her sister pick their meals and wine. It wasn’t that she didn’t have an opinion. She just trusted Risa to handle it. There was no one else in her world she trusted more.

“So.” Dorrie poured herself a glass of wine and passed the bottle to Risa. “You were going to tell me how I was going to get laid.”

Risa took a sip before answering. “Well, you could always pay for it. I actually know a guy who knows a guy who’s apparently pretty good at his job as a sex therapist. I mean, he’s almost like a doctor. Whatever goes on during your ‘session’ stays in your session.”

Dorrie blinked away her shock then shook her head. “You’re seriously telling me to hire a prostitute?”

“He’s not a prostitute.” Risa waved her fork in the air. “He’s a therapist. Licensed and everything.”

For a split second, the thought didn’t repulse her.

Oh, my god. Are you actually considering a sex therapist?

She shook her head. “No. I think I’d rather shrivel up and die than go to a sex therapist.”

“Well, your hoohah may actually shrivel if you don’t use it.”

Dorrie burst into laughter as Risa’s wicked smile made another appearance. Dorrie considered herself one of the lucky few who ever got to see this side of Risa.

“Wouldn’t it be nice if life really was like…oh, I can’t think of the name of the movie. The one with Kate Beckinsale that we watched a couple months ago.”

Nose wrinkling as she thought, Risa started to laugh. “I hope you don’t mean Underworld. The one with the vampires and werewolves.”

Rolling her eyes, Dorrie stabbed her fork into her steak. “No, the one with John Cusack.”

“Mmm. Serendipity. The one where they were apart for, like, ten years or something.”

Dorrie grimaced. “Okay, maybe not that one either. See, even in the movies it’s not all hearts and flowers.”

Risa laughed full out, something that didn’t happen often. “Oh, babe. It’s not even close.”

Over the next two hours, they finished their meal, shared a couple of really luscious desserts that would make Dorrie regret them the next time she stepped onto a scale, and polished off two bottles of wine.

Actually, Risa drank most of the wine. Dorrie made a mental note to keep an eye on that. Her sister’s stress level seemed unusually high tonight, something else to worry Dorrie. Risa only ever showed her strength to the rest of the world, never any vulnerabilities.

Being the legitimate daughter of the city’s Russian mob boss had honed Risa’s acting abilities to Oscar caliber. Just as being the illegitimate daughter had honed Dorrie’s ability to lie.

“I really hate to say this but I have to get going.” Risa shook her head as if trying to clear it. But when she rose, she didn’t wobble at all. “I’ve got an early morning. Daddy’s got businessmen flying in from Moscow, and I promised I’d keep the wives and daughters busy while the men gather to discuss world domination.”

Standing, Dorrie hugged Risa tight. “Have fun with that.”

For a second, her sister looked utterly serious, which was such a departure from her normal sarcasm that Dorrie took a second look. But Risa’s expression was gone in a flash.

“I won’t. Sometimes…” Risa sighed but didn’t continue. “But I will get the number of the sex therapist for you.”

A kiss on the cheek then Risa left through the back door, where her guard was waiting for her. That man was easily recognizable as one of Karel Antonoff’s men. Blond, blue-eyed and six feet of honed Russian muscle.

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