Courting Gossip

by Kimberly Dean

  The air snapped, and Brody felt himself respond. So she had the temper to match her hair. The soles of his bare feet prickled and his toes curled. On cue, his stomach rumbled. Utter glee leapt into her eyes, and she pointed at him in victory.

  ‘All right,’ he said, conceding once again. She had a point; he was being a bad host. She’d worked while he’d been sleeping, and she’d made herself useful. Suddenly, the urge to provide for her seemed important. She followed him on his way to the back yard, but he stopped her at the sliding glass door. ‘Stay behind this line.’

  She let out a harrumph, but crossed her arms over her chest and leaned against the doorway, pushing right up against that limit. ‘Do you want to hear what’s been reported or not?’

  He fired up the gas grill to let it heat. ‘Talk.’

  He’d made this outdoor area as a place to escape. It was a quiet haven where he could relax and unwind from the chaos that came with his job, but he hadn’t used it much. He looked around for peepholes in the fence or tree limbs where the paparazzi could have set up to get pictures. Maybe he was being paranoid. He worked with high-profile clients, but he stayed out of the limelight. He’d made sure nobody had followed them here last night. He just didn’t want to take any chances – not with her.

  But the yard did look nice. He had to admit, she’d made the space even more inviting, especially if her petunias survived. She’d weeded some, too. Had she hosed down the stepping stones?

  God, if she did this much in a day, how was he going to keep her entertained if this drew out much longer?

  ‘The news,’ he said as he put the burgers onto the grill. ‘Tell me everything.’

  She drew up a foot to brace it against the wall behind her, and his gaze slid down to her legs. Did she do things like that on purpose, or was her sexiness embedded down to a cellular level?

  ‘Everyone seems to be focusing on TMI News right now: who they are, where they came from and what laws they broke. One reporter went to their headquarters, but nobody answered the door. Is it just the two of them?’ she asked.

  ‘From what I’ve been able to find out, yes.’ And that was a good thing. It meant there wasn’t another scared college dropout running around town with information to trade to keep out of jail.

  ‘The list of charges against them is long,’ she said. ‘Breaking and entering, invasion of privacy, bribery, destruction of hotel property, and bodily injury. That’s what I remember, anyway.’

  She had a good memory.

  ‘Nina’s detective threw the book at them.’

  Brody watched the flames as they danced and swayed. Morgan was a wildcard for him. He didn’t know the guy, and he seemed to have a complicated relationship with Luxxor. Did he need to start working that angle, too? Just how far would the detective push to research the reporters’ motive?

  Brody scowled. He should have pressed Gunderson to end that contract with her long ago, like he’d intended.

  He flipped a burger, and the flames inside the grill leaped when drippings fell onto the coals.

  ‘Medium-well for mine,’ she reminded when he began to flip the other one.

  He glanced over his shoulder when he thought she followed that up with a ‘well done’.

  She was staring at him lazily again, her green gaze sliding down and settling on his backside. A blast of heat went through Brody that had nothing to do with the grill.

  Payback.

  He wiped his wrist across his brow. She wasn’t even subtle about it as she gave him a dose of his own medicine. He knew he’d stared at her in her little nightie, but he was fully dressed.

  ‘I like my bun toasted, too,’ she murmured.

  ‘I’ll toast your buns.’

  She blinked, but then her smile turned sexy. ‘Why, Brody, was that a joke or a promise?’

  He closed his eyes, shook his head and returned to the grill. Still, his lips twisted as he determinedly stared into the fire. The vixen.

  It didn’t take long before the burgers were done with stripes all in a row. He scooped them up, put them on a plate and walked back to her. ‘What else?’

  ‘I made pasta salad.’

  ‘I meant the news.’

  She looked sheepish. ‘They showed a lot of pictures of me.’

  Thunderclouds must have appeared above him. He knew because he heard the crash inside his head. He pointed to the kitchen table with his spatula. ‘Sit down and tell me everything.’

  ‘They’re old pictures,’ she said hurriedly. ‘Of me and Samuel at events.’

  ‘That means they’re looking into you.’

  ‘I know,’ she sighed. She went to the refrigerator and pulled out the rest of the meal she’d prepared. She grabbed two beers and silverware before joining him at the table. ‘One celebrity show was evaluating my dresses.’

  ‘Hell,’ he muttered. He’d known it was coming. The locusts were swarming. They were looking for her. They’d want to know everything. ‘You didn’t think that was important enough to wake me?’

  ‘My dresses?’

  ‘The focus on you.’

  She shrugged. ‘We knew it was going to happen. That’s why I’m here.’

  And that was why he wanted to hide her away from prying eyes. The DC press could be relentless and the news they published didn’t stay within the city limits, it went nationwide. ‘What did they say about you and Gunderson together? Was there any talk about you two as a couple? Any mention of the age gap?’

  ‘No.’ Her eyes narrowed. ‘Why would there be? Senator O’Hearn is dating someone younger than me.’

  ‘O’Hearn?’

  ‘Didn’t know that one?’

  No, he hadn’t. O’Hearn usually kept his nose clean. Was he going to have to add him to his list, too? Brody frowned. Then again, there was one key difference there. She and Gunderson hadn’t been dating.

  ‘What about the other?’ He cleared his throat. ‘Did they mention anything about you being an escort?’

  ‘Hmm.’ She tapped her chin. ‘Would that have qualified as something important enough to wake you up for?’

  ‘So no.’

  ‘No.’

  He pushed at his pasta salad with his fork. It was good, but it had suddenly lost its taste. ‘I know you don’t want to talk about Luxxor’s other clients, but that could really bite us—’

  She put down her burger. ‘OK, listen. I understand you’re trying to help, but I’m not going to betray Nina.’

  ‘She got you into this mess.’

  ‘No, she didn’t. I made the choice.’ She held up a finger of warning before standing up and walking to the refrigerator. When she returned, she dropped a pudding pie onto the table with a thud.

  Brody stared at it dumbly. When the hell had he bought pudding?

  ‘Nina’s had my back every step of the way. She’s looking out for me.’

  Frustration rumbled through him. So was he. ‘I’m just trying to mitigate all our risks.’

  ‘She’ll handle Luxxor’s issues just fine, trust me. This conversation is over.’

  He stewed as Genieve served them both up some deep wedges of gooey chocolate. He recognised the crust. Those graham crackers had been on the second shelf. She slid the dessert in his direction, and he decided to try one more time. ‘I—’

  ‘Put the pie in your pie hole, Brody. I have something else I want to discuss with you.’

  Something else? Warning bells went off inside his head. What could be worse than the potential exposure of a high-class escort ring working within DC?

  She picked up her fork and twirled it at him. ‘You talk in your sleep.’

  * * *

  The reaction she got tickled Genieve. It was subtle. So subtle it ventured on nonexistent, but she saw the muscle in Brody’s jaw twitch. His fingers went white around the neck of his beer bottle, but then the index one began to tap.

  At about the rate of a hummingbird’s wings.

  She took a bite of her pie. It tasted sweet.


  ‘I do what?’ His voice came out so tight, she could have bounced a quarter off it.

  ‘You sleep talk.’ As she watched him, she realised he wasn’t stoic at all. There was a lot brewing beneath the surface; she just needed to know what to look for. She fought back a grin, but couldn’t stop it. The cauldron was bubbling right now. ‘I was walking down the hallway, and I heard you call my name.’

  Was that colour on his cheeks?

  ‘I thought you needed something, so I opened the door and poked my head in.’

  He pushed out of the chair so fast, it made her jump. He rubbed his head as he paced back and forth behind his chair. ‘That wasn’t – I shouldn’t have—’

  Holy moly. She hadn’t meant to put him in a panic. ‘It’s all right. You just told me your favourite colour is purple.’

  His head snapped around so fast, she worried about whiplash.

  ‘You made it seem as if it was important I know that.’

  His hands wrapped around the back of the chair. ‘So, I talked. In my sleep.’

  ‘You told me I shouldn’t use that hammer. That it didn’t make sense.’ She laughed. ‘What does that even mean?’

  He shook his head and sat back down heavily. Some of his tension left, but he was still sitting forward in his chair. ‘Did I say anything…bad?’

  ‘It was a bunch of nonsense, but it was funny.’

  ‘What did I say, exactly?’

  She hadn’t meant to intrude, but when she’d heard him calling for her she’d thought he’d wanted her to do something. Instead, she’d found him lying flat on his back with the sheet down around his hips. She licked her lips. The scenery had made her stay. ‘There wasn’t much else. You said something about not expecting it to rain today and why was everything so wet?’

  His head dropped.

  ‘Oh, come on, Brody. Don’t be embarrassed. It was cute. I told you that you should use an umbrella next time. You agreed it was a good idea and rolled over.’ Giving her a mouthwatering view of a toned backside that had made her palms itch…She fanned herself. It was getting warm in here again. ‘That was it. Nothing more.’

  His gaze lifted to pin her. ‘You don’t know what that meant?’

  ‘No. Do you?’

  He shook his head abruptly, and his expression went smooth as glass. ‘No idea.’

  She spooned up a bite of pie and watched him carefully. Something was going on there, but she recognised the look on his face. He was lying again. ‘Do you talk in your sleep often?’ she asked.

  He ran his thumb around the lip of his beer bottle. ‘I used to do it as a kid, but only when I was really tired.’

  ‘It took me a minute to realise you were out cold.’ She cocked her head. ‘What did you think you’d said?’

  He gave her that stoic look, but then, for the briefest of seconds, a gleam entered his eyes that could only be described as wicked. It came and went so quickly, Genieve couldn’t be sure she saw it, but even the possibility took her breath away.

  ‘I plead the fifth,’ he said softly. He stood abruptly and began clearing the table. ‘I’ll get this. You’ve done enough for the day. I’m sorry if I came off as unappreciative.’

  She’d just been trying to keep herself busy. She knew what was going on outside those doors, and she was nervous about it. There was a lot at risk for her, for Luxxor and for Samuel. She didn’t know why people were so interested in what went on in others’ beds, but they were.

  And they liked to talk about it.

  She traced the pattern on the plate with her fork. ‘I know you’re just trying to do your job.’ And doing his job would keep her out of jail. ‘How long is this going to last? How long until we’ll know if it’s just going to blow over?’

  He turned from the dishwasher. In his T-shirt and jeans, he looked so much more approachable. Most people found him cold and intimidating, but she was beginning to see more. He might not play by the rules, but he was a good guy to have on your side. ‘Give it at least a week. News cycles are getting shorter and shorter.’

  ‘So until then we just wait?’

  ‘You wait. I make moves.’ He glanced at the clock over the microwave. ‘The evening news is about to come on. Can you tune it in? I’m going to find my laptop.’

  He finished his pie as they watched the news together, flipping from channel to channel. Genieve tried to watch it from Brody’s point of view. The story remained consistent, focusing on the hotel-room break-in. Only one channel had garnered the interview with Samuel, but each station somehow managed to catch a photo of the infamous mummy arm.

  ‘It was a good idea,’ she admitted.

  ‘I know,’ Brody said as he surfed the internet.

  Still pictures of her graced the upper right corner of the news screens. In each of them she was on the senator’s arm, confirming the fact that they’d been together for a while. That was a good thing, wasn’t it?

  ‘I like the green one,’ he murmured.

  ‘The green what?’ she asked.

  He was already head-down again, reading something new that made him frown. ‘Dress,’ he muttered.

  And so it went.

  They watched the local news and then the national news. Brody scoured his email and sent out a few missives. At one point, he even took a call from Samuel. When Genieve had held out her hand to take the phone, he held up a finger to his lips.

  He didn’t even want Gunderson to know where she was.

  She plopped back against the pillows on the sofa. She wondered when he was going to break up with the senator for her. She wound a strand of hair from her ponytail around her finger. She knew she was in a strange line of work, but his didn’t seem much better.

  Finally, he closed his laptop.

  She glanced at him sitting at the other end of the sofa. His legs were stretched out in front of him with his feet propped up on the coffee table. Did he realise he’d been barefoot all evening? Because she’d noticed. Inside the walls of his castle, she was seeing the Black Knight without his armour. ‘Did I miss anything?’ she asked.

  ‘Not from our side, but it appears Nina had a visit from Detective Morgan.’

  ‘That’s not news.’ The man used every excuse he could to put himself on her boss’s doorstep. This time, though, the fireworks might not have been so pretty.

  ‘Are you doing all right?’ he asked after a bit.

  She flipped to another channel, but didn’t see anything she liked. ‘I’m bored.’

  The night was young. She hadn’t gotten much more sleep than he had, but she wasn’t tired. She’d spent most of the day alone, and she was used to being around people. She felt like she’d used double the energy being alone all day and having to entertain herself.

  ‘You’re nervous.’

  She sighed. He was right, and the two weren’t a good combination for her. ‘It’s dusk. Can I go plant that last petunia?’

  He drew his feet off the coffee table and put his laptop where they had been. ‘Tell me where it goes.’

  She directed him from behind the line of the sliding glass door and then had him water them all. He cleaned the grill before coming inside and making sure the door was locked firmly behind him. He drew the curtains. With the windows covered, they were truly alone together, locked away from the rest of the world.

  ‘OK, what do you want to do?’ he asked.

  She lifted an eyebrow. ‘You don’t need to strategise or move any more troops?’

  ‘We’re at a good holding point.’ He put his hands on his hips. ‘What’s it going to take to use up all that energy going on inside you?’

  Her pulse quickened. She could think of one thing off the top of her head. It would relieve all kinds of tension and help them both sleep.

  ‘There’s workout equipment downstairs,’ he said.

  So close. It was physical exertion, but not the kind she’d been thinking of. ‘I know. I used your elliptical machine earlier today.’

  ‘Want to watch a movie?’
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  ‘There’s nothing on.’

  ‘OK, just tell me.’

  She was tired of giving off signals and not having him pick them up. She started to shoo him away, but then an idea came to her. She glanced at the spiral staircase that led to the loft above. ‘Can I enter the man cave?’

  He drummed his fingers along his hip. ‘How do you know it’s a man cave?’

  He knew how. She’d been all over his house today, except for his bedroom. She was like a bird in a cage. She’d flittered around where she could. ‘Because I looked earlier today. You told me to make myself at home.’

  ‘And you sure have.’ He gestured for her to go first. ‘I didn’t even know I had gardening gloves.’

  Genieve climbed the staircase, going round and round. It had been one of her favourite spots that she’d discovered. It and the back yard were the two places that told the most about him. She’d seen glimpses in his gym downstairs, too, but she liked this not-so-secret spot, tucked away out in the open.

  The loft was one big open space that overlooked the living room. Skylights let in the moon and stars. They shone down on a bar with stools. A big-screen TV was at one end, with comfortable lounge chairs and beanbags in front of it. Old-school video games and pinball machines lined the wall, but those weren’t what she was going for.

  Brody went behind the bar and got himself another beer. ‘Want anything?’

  ‘I’m good.’

  He took a drink and set the bottle on the bar. ‘All right, lady’s choice.’

  She looked around the room as if she hadn’t already made up her mind. Finally, she settled on the machine they’d passed first on the way in. ‘Is that a darts game?’

  He nodded. ‘Want to play?’

  Oh, did she. ‘Teach me?’

  She watched with interest as he turned the game on. It played a jaunty little tune, and he punched in directions to pull up the games. ‘Which game? 301? Around the Clock? Cricket?’

  ‘Ooo, Cricket. I like the sound of that one.’

  ‘All right.’ He chose darts and handed her a set. ‘How much do you know?’

  ‘I throw the arrow at the board and try to hit the middle?’

  He wobbled his head. ‘Kind of.’

  He walked over to the board and held up his three darts. ‘You get three shots per turn. See how each pie-shaped section has numbers? Those are the points you get for landing your dart inside the zone. For Cricket, we’re concentrating on hitting fifteen through twenty, plus the bullseye.’