Where There's Smoke

by Sandra Brown

  “Haven’t you got anything better to do than watch ice cubes melt? Like, for instance, buy a lady a drink?”

  Frowning over the unwelcome interruption, Key lifted his gaze to find Darcy Winston seated on the barstool beside his. “Where’d you come from?”

  “Just stopped to get in out of the rain. Do I get that drink or not?”

  Hap approached. Key nodded tersely, and the bartender took Darcy’s order for a vodka and tonic. Key declined when asked if he wanted another.

  “Making me drink alone? How rude!” Darcy’s carefully painted lips formed a pout.

  “That was the idea. To drink alone. You didn’t take the hint.”

  She sipped the drink Hap slid toward her. “Worried about your mama?”

  “For starters.”

  “I’m really sorry, Key.”

  He doubted that Darcy gave a damn about anybody’s well-being except her own, but he nodded his thanks.

  “What else is on your mind?”

  “Not much.”

  “Liar. You’re sulking. Does it have anything to do with Helen Berry going back to Jimmy Bradley? I hear they’re more in love now than they were before you broke them up.”

  He lowered his head until his chin almost touched his chest. The breakdown of communication was so absurd that he chuckled.

  “What’s so funny?”

  “This town. The other side of the world could blow up, stars could collide and cause another Big Bang, and folks here would still be scurrying around to find out who was screwing who.”

  “Who are you screwing?”

  “That’s my business.”

  “Bastard.”

  She glared at him with such ferocity that he laughed again. “You sure are dressed up for a Tuesday night, Darcy,” he observed, taking in her conservative dress and plain high-heeled pumps. Of course nothing looked conservative or plain on Darcy. The dress was made of flaming pink silk, which she wore well despite her red hair. Her chest filled out the bodice and then some. She’d left the top three buttons undone to provide an enticing peek at cleavage. The high heels added length and shape to her already long and shapely legs. She looked hot—there was no doubt about that.

  “I was on my way home from the Library Society meeting,” she told him.

  “Eden Pass has a Library Society? I didn’t even know we had a library.”

  “Of course we do. And the society has forty-two members.”

  “No shit? How many of them can read?”

  “Very funny.” She finished her drink and slammed the glass onto the bar. “Thanks for the drink. Call me if you ever get your sense of humor back. You’re a real drag these days.”

  “What’d you say to piss her off?” Hap asked after she had stalked out. He reached for her glass and dunked it in a basin of soapy water.

  “Does it matter?” Key asked testily.

  It was still raining, but Key didn’t even duck his head as he walked to his car. His mind was on so many other things, the inclement weather was inconsequential.

  He got into the Lincoln on the driver’s side and had inserted the key into the ignition before he noticed her. She slid across the yellow leather seat and placed her hand high on the inside of his thigh.

  “I know what’s wrong with you.”

  “You don’t have the foggiest notion, Darcy.”

  “I’m an expert at these things, you know. I was born with a sixth sense. I can tell what a man wants and needs just by looking at him.”

  “ ’S a fact?”

  “That’s a fact. When a man wants it, he gives off an odor just like a woman does.”

  “If that’s true, there ought to be a pack of dogs after you.”

  Taking that as a compliment, she moved her hand to his crotch. “You want me, Key. I know you do. You’re just too stubborn to take back the ugly things you said that night at the town meeting.” She stroked him, and he had to admit that her technique was excellent.

  “This is silly. Neither of us wants to make the first move to reconcile. There’s no point in both of us being miserable over a little pride, is there?”

  She began unbuttoning his jeans. Key, assuming the role of an impartial observer, let her. He was curious to gauge his response. She lifted him out of his jeans and massaged him between her hands. His cock began to grow hard.

  “Oh, baby,” she said with a sigh. “I knew that all you needed was Darcy’s magic touch.”

  She smiled at him seductively, then lowered her head to his lap. Her tongue was alternately quick and light, then languorous and lazy. She licked him delicately and sucked him hard. Her teeth threatened pain before her lips kissed soothingly. She knew what she was doing.

  Key rested his head against the seat and squeezed his eyes closed. He didn’t desire Darcy and was therefore amazed that his body was functioning as it should. On the other hand, why should that surprise him? he wondered. He’d bedded women without ever learning their names. He’d forgotten more women than he remembered. They’d only done for him something he could have done just as well for himself. His body could do it without involving his mind.

  He was glad that Darcy hadn’t kissed him. That would have made it personal. He would have had to share a part of himself with a woman who meant nothing to him. He didn’t even like her.

  If Darcy had kissed him, her avaricious tongue might have swept away the taste of another kiss, which he wasn’t ready to forget. He kept the memory of it under lock and key like an old man hoarding victory ribbons. On occasion, Key let himself think about that kiss, recall its sweet sexiness, just as that old man would take out his ribbons and finger them sadly while remembering past glories. Then, annoyed with himself and feeling like a fool, Key would shut out the memory, as the old man, ashamed of his sentimentality, would slam the drawer in which he kept his treasured ribbons.

  It was pathetic, Key thought, the way individuals longed for something that could never be.

  Now he let his mind go blank, disassociating himself from the act but granting his body permission to respond. He didn’t touch Darcy, not even when he came. Instead, he clenched his hands around the steering wheel until his fingers turned white. As soon as it was over he calmly rebuttoned his jeans.

  Darcy sat up and opened her purse to get a tissue, then daintily blotted her lips. “You know how we know God is a man?” Key said nothing; he’d heard the joke. “Because if God were a woman, come would taste like chocolate.”

  “Charming.”

  Either she failed to catch the disgust underlying his comment or she chose to ignore it. Laughing, she rubbed her breasts against his arm. “Where do you want to go? Or should we use that lovely backseat?” she suggested, glancing behind her. “Pity they’re not making big cars like they used to. Some of the best fucking I ever did—”

  “Good night, Darcy. I’m going home.”

  “The hell you are! We’re not finished.”

  “I’m finished.”

  “You mean to tell me that I—”

  “You did exactly as you pleased. I didn’t ask you to,” he reminded her softly. “Now will you kindly haul your carcass out of my car so I can go home?”

  She spat in his face.

  As quick as a striking cobra, he grabbed a handful of her hair and yanked her head back. “I didn’t kill you for shooting me, but I just might for doing that.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Darcy believed him. She was well aware of the murderous temper for which Key was famous. However, it went against her nature to back down once the die was cast.

  “Let go of me, you son of a bitch.”

  He relaxed his fist, releasing her hair. “Get out,” he said succinctly.

  “I’m going. But not before I tell you exactly what I think of you. You’re sick. Not just mean, sick.”

  “Fine. Now that we’ve established what’s wrong with me, get out of my car.”

  “You’re fucked in the head, and it’s not that fat Berry girl who’s doing it to you.
It’s Lara Mallory.” His right eye twitched, but the rest of him went dangerously still. Knowing she’d struck a chord, she plucked it again. “Don’t you feel just a teensy-weensy ridiculous, falling for your big brother’s ex-bimbo?” She laughed derisively.

  “Shut up, Darcy.”

  “The notorious lady doctor has big bad Key Tackett by his short-and-curlies. He didn’t learn a thing from his brother’s experience with her, did he?”

  She knew she should stop while she was ahead, but she couldn’t resist making him squirm. Since adolescence, she’d been able to manipulate every man she’d met. Except Key. That had wounded her ego severely, but she knew it wouldn’t prove fatal.

  “Have you fucked her yet, Key?” she taunted, pushing her face close to his. “When she came, did she cry out your name or dearly departed Clark’s? Who’s the better lover, I wonder, Senator Clark Tackett or his baby brother? Is that what attracts you to her? Do you want to prove that you’re every bit as good in the sack as Clark was?”

  Key moved so suddenly, she flinched. He shoved open the driver’s door and got out. Then, reaching in, he grabbed the front of her dress and pulled her out. The pink silk soaked up the rain. Her heels sank into the muck.

  He ignored her screaming curses as he got back into his car and started the engine. When he reached for the door, Darcy grabbed the handle and wouldn’t let go. “Where are you going, Key? To visit your brother’s mistress? You’re going to be a laughingstock when word of this gets around. And you can bet both balls on it getting around. I’ll see that it does. As if it’s not funny enough that she’s a whore, she’s your late brother’s whore.”

  “At least whores put a price on it, Darcy. You can’t give yours away.” He jerked the car door closed, pushed the gear stick into reverse, and peeled away. The wheels slung wet gravel and mud onto Darcy’s shoes and designer stockings.

  She shouted dirty names after him. Then, standing there in the drenching rain, she resolved to teach the bastard a well-deserved lesson. She would find Key’s greatest weakness and devise a way to pierce it. Only not tonight. She would wait until her anger cooled down and she could approach the problem analytically.

  As she slogged toward her car, she was adamant on one point—nobody treated Mrs. Fergus Winston the way Key had and got away with it.

  “Thank you, gentlemen,” Lara said in conclusion to her address to the seven members of the Eden Pass school board. “I hope you’ll give my proposal for some informal sex education seminars careful consideration. If you want any further information to facilitate your decision-making, don’t hesitate to call me.”

  “You’ve made some very convincing arguments and raised some interesting points,” Fergus Winston said. “It’s a touchy topic. We’ve got a lot to mull over. It might take a week or two before we reach a decision.”

  “I understand. Thank you for allowing me—”

  She broke off when the door behind her opened. All eyes swung to it, astonishment registering on every face. Lara swiveled around. Darcy Winston had entered the conference room. Accompanying her was Jody Tackett.

  Lara almost recoiled from the malice in Darcy’s eyes when she looked at her. She also had an air of complacency, although she wasn’t actually smiling. Jody didn’t even deign to glance in Lara’s direction.

  Hastily the seven board members came to their feet. Only Fergus spoke. He addressed his wife by name, but his eyes were fixed on Jody Tackett.

  “What are you doing here, Darcy? This is a closed session.”

  “Not anymore.” Jody still looked unwell, but her voice was strong enough to penetrate matter.

  “She insisted on coming,” Darcy explained. Fergus finally tore his baleful stare from Jody and looked at his wife. “I’m sorry, Fergus. I know you asked me not to discuss the items on the school board’s agenda until they were ready to be made public, but I felt so strongly about this particular issue that I had to do something.”

  Lara rose from her seat. “I presently have the floor, Mrs. Winston. If you want to address the school board, I suggest you go through the proper channels and petition for an audience the way I did. Or aren’t the rules the same for everyone?” She turned and looked pointedly at Fergus.

  He had been glaring at Jody Tackett as though she were poison. He looked ready to strangle his wife for bringing her into a chamber where he was in charge.

  “Dr. Mallory’s right,” he said. “If you and Jody have something to call to this board’s attention, do it in the proper manner. You can’t just bust in like this and interrupt a meeting.”

  “Ordinarily we wouldn’t,” Darcy agreed. “But—”

  “I’ll speak for myself.” Impatiently Jody approached the conference table. When she was certain she had the undivided attention of each board member, she asked bluntly, “Have y’all lost your senses?”

  Eyes were averted. No one spoke. Finally Fergus stiffly invited her to take a chair.

  “I’d rather stand.”

  “Suit yourself.”

  “I always have.”

  The animosity between them was palpable. The others seemed embarrassed by it and looked away, but Lara didn’t let the awkwardness prevent her from speaking. “Mr. Winston, I insist that the board extend me the courtesy of concluding our meeting.”

  She was patently ignored.

  Jody turned to Reverend Massey, pastor of a local church. “I can’t understand you, preacher. Every Sunday you preach against fornication. Yet you’re thinking of letting an adulteress talk to our young people about sex?” She sniffed with incredulity and disdain. “Makes me wonder why I’m giving my tithe to your church.”

  He smiled sickly. “We haven’t reached a decision, Jody. We’ve merely listened to Dr. Mallory’s proposal. Rest assured that she’s not advocating sin.”

  “Is that right?” Jody looked toward Darcy. “Tell him what you told me.”

  She stepped forward, making certain to stand directly beneath the overhead light like an old pro of the boards locating center stage. In a rushed, breathless voice she said, “I took Heather in for a checkup a few weeks ago. Afterward, she told me that Dr. Mallory urged her to start having condoms handy whenever she went on a date.”

  “That’s not what I said!” Lara cried. “I warned Heather about being sexually active without using condoms. Obviously what I told her was misconstrued. Either she didn’t fully grasp my meaning, or Mrs. Winston is rearranging the words to suit her purpose here.”

  “I’m doing no such thing,” Darcy shot back. Then, to the board, “Not only that, she told Heather to tell all her friends the same thing. Now if that’s not goading teenagers to fool around, I don’t know what is. All they need is the power of suggestion and they run with it. You know how kids are. Telling them to take rubbers on their dates is like handing them a license to… you know.” Chastely she lowered her eyes.

  Lara wanted to retaliate, to tell them that Darcy had brought Heather to her specifically to get a prescription for birth control pills. But she couldn’t do so without violating patient confidentiality. The secret smile Darcy flashed her indicated that she was well aware of that.

  “I cautioned Heather about promiscuity and a multiplicity of partners,” she admitted. “I suggested she share the information with her friends. I in no way advocated sexual misconduct.”

  “Even though you’re an expert on the subject?”

  “Darcy, please,” Fergus said with a soft groan. “Let’s keep personalities out of this. Our focus here should be on the young people of our community.”

  “Amen,” the reverend intoned. “Frankly, I have misgivings about holding such open discussions on human sexuality. Our youth have enough temptations to withstand as it is. Their minds are fertile. We should plant seeds that would yield strong spiritual fibers, not doubts and confusion over the devil’s handiwork.”

  “Save the sermons for Sunday, preacher,” Jody said. “But I’m glad to know I can count on your vote against this idea.”

/>   Her gaze moved down the long table, pausing on each member of the board. She looked straight through Lara as though she weren’t there.

  “Once you’ve had time to think about it, I’m sure all of you will come to the same conclusion. If you don’t, I’ll have to reconsider my own plans.”

  “What plans?” one of the board members asked.

  “My son Clark loved every day he spent in the Eden Pass school system and often credited it for preparing him for his political career. He would have liked having his name on a school facility. Something like the Clark Tackett the Third Gymnasium. It’s getting to where I’m scared to go to the basketball games anymore, afraid I’ll break my neck climbing into those rickety bleachers. Those computerized scoreboards are nice, too, aren’t they? Wouldn’t it be something if Eden Pass were the first school in the area to have one? We’d put the bigger schools to shame, wouldn’t we?”

  Lara lowered her head. In her mind she could hear the tap-tap of a hammer nailing the coffin shut on her proposal.

  Jody let their greedy minds devour the bait before continuing. “I was born in Eden Pass. Lived here all my life. Went through twelve grades of public school here, and so did my three children. I’ve always boasted that our school system is one of the best in the state.”

  She leaned on the table and thumped it with the knuckles of her blunt, freckled hand. “I’ll change my opinion in a New York minute if you let this woman speak one word under the schoolhouse roof. Why in God’s name would you even consider it, knowing what everybody in the country knows about her? Do you want a woman like her having any influence over your kids?” Her face had turned red. She was laboring to breathe.

  “I would rather die than let her lay a hand on me. And I’m not just throwing words around. Ask anybody who was in the Sak’n’Save last Tuesday morning.”

  “You’ve made your point, Mrs. Tackett.” Lara was afraid that Jody was building up to another stroke. She didn’t want to be blamed for bringing on the fatal one. “I’m sure everyone here knows that you resented my efforts to save your life. I’m not going to fight you on this because engaging in a contest like that is beneath my dignity. Secondly, I know I can’t win. I don’t have the resources to bribe the school board with new gymnasiums and state-of-the-art scoreboards.”