by Susan Crosby
“Nate,” he called out. “We’re in a passageway between the rooms. If Dana’s housekeeper gets back while we’re still here, give us a shout.”
“You got it.”
“Let’s keep going,” he said, taking her hand again.
They inched along until they came to the end, then couldn’t find a latch to open an exit door to the stairway. “Batteries are dying,” he said, shaking the flashlight, the power fading. “I’ll check it out again later. Let’s head back to the office.”
There was no way they could change places, so Dana led, although much more slowly, feeling her way. The light died. The batteries were probably years old. At the same moment they heard Nate greet Hilda and introduce himself and Arianna by name without explaining who they were.
Putting his hand on her back, Sam stopped Dana from going any farther.
“Where is Senator Sterling?” they heard Hilda ask.
“She went for a walk,” Arianna answered. “We expect her back anytime now.”
Dana’s nose twitched again. Panicked, she pinched her nose and turned to him. “I’m going to sneeze,” she whispered frantically.
“No, you’re not.”
His command struck her as funny. She tried to hold her nose and cover her mouth at the same time. “Oh, yes…I am. What are you…going to…do about it?”
He pulled her to him and wrapped her in both arms, pressing her face to his chest, muffling her, startling the sneeze right out of her but replacing it with something altogether different—need. Her nose touched the vee of skin where he’d removed his tie and undone his top two buttons.
“Will you be staying for dinner?” Hilda asked.
“We’re not sure,” Nate said. “We’ll know more when the senator returns.”
Dana heard Sam’s heart beat, strong and steady. Wouldn’t it be lovely to fall asleep to that soothing sound? She pressed her lips to the spot over his heart. He went perfectly still but his heart rate picked up.
“I’ve never known her to go for a walk and leave company behind,” Hilda said, an edge to her voice.
“She said she needed air.”
And Sam. I need Sam. She curved her arms up his back and felt him jerk. His mouth touched her hair, smothering a harsh breath, but there wasn’t much he could do to stop her without making noise. He cupped her face and tipped her head back. They were poised to kiss but he didn’t lower his mouth to hers. She felt his breath dust her face and knew what an effort he was making to resist her.
His resistance only encouraged her. She slipped her arms around his waist and pulled herself closer to him, feeling his response. She moved against him.
“Sam—”
He put his hand over her mouth then slid both hands over her rear, cupping her, lifting her into him, the effort to remain undetected both dangerous and exciting.
“We’re not company,” Arianna said in the next room, her tone all business. “We’re working on a project for her.”
Dana swallowed a groan and leaned back as Sam moved his mouth down her neck and into her cleavage. He nudged aside her blouse with his nose, dipped his tongue under the lacy edge of her bra. Her head touched the wall. She arched higher toward him. It was impossible to keep contact above and below the waist at the same time, yet she wanted both.
“I’ll bring refreshments while you wait for the Senator,” Hilda said.
Arianna said something about the offer being wonderful…or something. Dana didn’t care. The darkness swallowed her. There was only touch, and no way of knowing where the next touch would come. He set his hands on her waist. She was afraid he would push her away, but he pulled her blouse free from her slacks, slowly, seductively, the drag of fabric against her skin almost painful. He unbuttoned her blouse and snapped open the front closure of her bra without fumbling. She’d have to think about that later.
He let her stand there without touching her, her breath uneven, her pulse racing. Then his hands covered her breasts with heat, startling her for a moment. His fingers sought her aching nipples, then at last his mouth. Ah, his mouth. Warm, wet, wonderful.
“What would you like?” Hilda asked.
Sam inside me. Right here. Right now. Dana arched higher as he drew on her nipples, squeezing the flesh around them. He slid a hand down her body, following her zipper, then lower.
“Some iced tea would be great,” Nate said, his tone dismissive—or was it desperate?
Sam dragged his thumb along the seam of her jeans, stopping when she gasped, making a circular motion in the same rhythm he used with his mouth on her breast, twisting his body to accommodate the confines of the small space.
“Nothing to eat?” Hilda asked.
“No, thanks.”
“Very well.”
Oh. Very well, indeed. There, she thought, raising her hips. Don’t stop. Don’t stop. Don’t—
“You’d better get out of there while you can, buddy,” Nate said a moment later. “She’s suspicious. She’s probably going to look for Dana.”
Noooo. She was right on the edge. Just one more touch, one more swirl of his tongue on her breast. A little more pressure down low—
She needn’t have worried. He kept going until release slammed into her. She bit her lip as she came hard against his hand. She’d forgotten the power, the rush, the heat of sex. The oblivion.
Warm air bathed her damp body when he moved away from her. He was breathing as deeply as she.
She wanted to kiss him, not only to end the moment but to let him know what it meant to her. She reached out in the dark. Her hand bumped his chest.
“Get dressed,” he ordered in a hard whisper.
She dragged her hand down him, wishing she could see him and glad she couldn’t.
“Dana.” The pleading tone could have meant for her to continue or to stop.
Testing, she molded her hand over him. He moved, one quick, hard lurch, as if trying to control an uncontrollable action.
He swore. His response filled her with power.
“No more.” He encircled her wrist, stopping her. “No…more.” He seemed to struggle to breathe. “Get…dressed.”
The shifting of fabric filled the space around them. He put his hands on her hips and moved her forward. They stopped where they’d entered, listened for a few seconds, opened the door a crack.
Empty. They rushed into the room and latched the door, then straightened the items that had shifted on the bookshelves. She felt his gaze on her as she tucked in her blouse and ran her fingers through her hair. His silence said more than words.
“Don’t you dare say that was a mistake,” she said, lifting her chin. “Don’t you dare.”
“I—”
The office door opened. Hilda stood there. “You’re home.” She looked confused for a moment then slipped back into her designated role.
“Did you want something?” Dana asked, irritated, wishing she knew how Sam felt. He would undoubtedly take advantage of the interruption to change the subject.
“The people working in the library said you’d gone for a walk.”
“I did.”
“I didn’t hear you come in. You weren’t here when I got home.” She seemed to really look at Dana then. Her eyes shifted to the bookshelves. She drew up a little taller. “I offered refreshments to your people.”
“Thank you. They’ll be staying for dinner, as well. Give us until seven o’clock, please.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Hilda closed the door behind her.
“She knows about the passage,” Sam said.
“Why do you say that?”
He pulled something from her hair. “She put one and one together. Cobwebs and you missing then reappearing without her hearing you.”
“Do you think she uses it?”
“Not recently. In the past? I don’t know. The speaker is more current technology, but either Randall or his father could’ve installed it.”
“I can’t figure out why he didn’t tell me a
bout the passage. I thought we shared everything.” She sighed. “That’s ridiculous, of course. I didn’t tell him everything either, not the secrets I’d buried before I met him. Certainly not about how Harley tried to rape me.”
She stopped short. Finally she’d said the humiliating words aloud. Sam’s expression darkened. She couldn’t understand how he could be willing to help her now after what she’d put him through fifteen years ago.
“I’m so sorry, Sam, for going to the police. I should’ve listened to you. You were right when you said Harley’s father would stop an investigation cold. I thought you were being heroic. I didn’t know naming you as a witness would put you in danger.”
“What did happen to Harley? Anything?”
“After you left town, it came down to my word against his. The police chief told my parents that Harley had been given a ‘good talking to,’ so that he understood when a girl says no, it means no.”
“Why were you with him? You never liked him.”
“I had stayed after school for a student council party to celebrate graduation. Afterward he offered a bunch of us rides home.” She took a deep breath, visualizing what she’d tried to put out of her head. “He left me for last. I tried to get out of the truck, but he grabbed my arm and held me. Then he dragged me into the woods.” She closed her eyes. “He liked it when I fought him. He kept saying how he knew I wanted him and to stop acting like I didn’t. God. My parents gave me a car the next day for graduation. The next day! I wouldn’t have had to accept a ride with him—”
She stopped. This wasn’t about her. It was about what Sam had done for her. “If I hadn’t gone to the police, nothing would have happened to you.”
“I survived. Let’s move on. We’ve got a more important issue to face, like who wants you out of the political picture.”
She admired his ability to stay focused. She enjoyed his quick, logical mind, the power he showed in subtle ways, even his occasional protectiveness. She’d made a mistake in not asking him from the beginning for his help, because he wasn’t a man easily thwarted or daunted. Not to mention how appealing he was as a man, his strength and his tenderness.
She took a cue from him and refocused. “What’s next, then?”
“Abe is talking to a few people, checking out some—”
“That’s how you and my chief of staff keep something confidential, by bringing in more people?”
“Why are you so determined to try to solve this yourself? We can’t do it without help from people who can work some aspects of the investigation much more efficiently than we can. After all these years you must know he’ll be discreet. He knows the players. He’ll make a few friendly calls. I think we need to focus on Harley. The timing is too right to ignore.”
“I’d hoped never to see Harley again.” She pressed a hand to her mouth. “Harley. He phoned in to Lilith’s program—what day was it? Tuesday. She sent me a tape. It’s in my briefcase.” She called herself all kinds of names. “How could I forget something like that? I’ll go get it.”
“I’ll be in the library checking on Nate and Arianna.”
“Okay.” She ran up the staircase, found the tape and a small tape player, then started toward the door. On the wall of her bedroom hung a picture from her wedding. She didn’t look like a first-time bride. No flowing gown, no veil. Her simple pearl-pink suit seemed appropriate for a judge’s-chambers wedding. Randall had seen no reason to wait. She’d agreed.
But she’d regretted not having the fairy tale. Oh, maybe not a five-hundred-guest extravaganza, but a gown that would make her feel like a princess walking down the aisle to her Prince Charming, and all her friends and family watching instead of just her parents and Lilith.
It had been so dignified, instead. She had become dignified.
She’d believed what she’d told Sam, that there was more to marriage than passion, but she’d been thinking only about sexual passion. There were other kinds of passions that mattered, too. But if anything, she’d become more emotionally controlled and composed.
She hadn’t lost that passion completely. Being near Sam made that clear to her.
Well, if she needed things to change, it was up to her to change them. There was still time.
And there was a man downstairs who’d been her knight in shining armor three times now, without asking anything in return. A man who’d rekindled a fire inside her that he’d first lit in high school then rejected in a way she’d never understood.
Maybe he was afraid, too. She wanted him to give her a chance and see what could happen. The old flames could be used to torch new ones.
She could start tonight. She would change into something more feminine, freshen her makeup, spritz on a little perfume. She would smile at him, flirt with him.
If he would let her.
She tamped down her insecurities. He was good at picking up her signals and understanding them. Surely he would realize that she wanted to continue what they’d started in the passageway.
Sam watched Dana hunt down an electrical outlet for the portable tape player. She’d changed into a lacy, stretchy top and hip-hugging pants, taking five years off her normally conservative appearance, and removing all hints of her political status from view. He’d touched that skin underneath, tasted it, stroked it. He’d heard her sighs, felt her hands on him…
He caught Arianna watching him. No one was better at reading unspoken cues than she, the reason he almost always called her in on interviews. Sam was good at it, but Arianna was masterful.
Arianna and Nate also knew about his past with Dana, thanks to a night a few years ago when they thought they were going to die. In the dark hours while trapped and waiting to be rescued after a bombing of their army headquarters, they each shared their greatest success and deepest regret. Dana was the key player in his.
He was irritated now that Arianna knew. She wasn’t one for letting such things slide. It didn’t help that his sexual frustration with Dana had reached meltdown, then his mood blackened further when he heard Harley’s voice on tape.
“I’m looking to help a woman lose her frigidity,” Harley said.
Arianna laughed. Sam didn’t think it was the least bit funny.
“Her frigidity,” Lilith repeated slowly. “What exactly do you mean by that?”
“You know, she’s cold. Maybe she’s a hopeless cause, I don’t know. I mean, if I can’t help her, no man can.”
“Tell me a little more about her.”
“I have a name for her. The princess of Prospector High.”
Two beats of silence passed. “I see. Since your title isn’t exactly complimentary, why are you interested in her?”
“Because it just kills me that she’s going through life without enjoyin’ it.”
“And you would be the one to bring her pleasure?”
“You bet I would.”
“Maybe she just doesn’t like you.”
It was his turn to pause. “Well, now, that’s not a professional thing to say to a man who’s tryin’ to help someone out, is it, Dr. Lilith?”
“I would say, caller, that the problem lies in your ego, not this woman’s frozen desires. It sounds like a lost cause to me. My advice is to back away.”
“Can’t do that. It’s my destiny. I won’t be satisfied until I’ve taken care of this gal, that’s for sure. Taken care of her but good.”
“Frankly, I don’t know how to break down this woman’s defenses, caller. Better just move on to someone more receptive…I see it’s time for a commercial.”
“Lose her frigidity?” Arianna repeated, chuckling. “Pompous ass.”
Dana’s eyes finally took on some sparkle. “I see you’ve met him.”
“Yeah, him and a few thousand others like him.”
Nate chimed in. “And they all hightailed it outta there clutching their wounded crotches.”
“That was for the part of no that they didn’t understand.”
“You ever said yes, Ar?”
> She tossed a pen at Nate, who caught it midflight.
“Children,” Sam said, pushing past the bubbling fury that wasn’t going away. “I think it’s time I paid a call on our old friend. Looks like I’ll be going to the funeral with you, after all, Dana.”
“You are not going to cause a scene at the funeral.”
He hoped his expression said, What do you think I am, an idiot?
She held up her hands in surrender. “Just checking. You left me to deal with the aftermath of the scene you made at the reunion.”
Arianna’s eyebrows went up. “Sam made a scene? Surely you jest.”
Dana warmed to the subject. Her eyes sparkled. “I’m not kidding. He swooped in, danced with me, caused a ruckus with Harley—after which Harley ended up on the floor, but no one could figure out how—then he swooped out. He was only missing the black cape. I caught hell for his superhero tactics.”
“What do you mean? What did Harley do?” Sam asked, ignoring the teasing glint in her eyes. This was serious. Why hadn’t he thought about the potential retribution in front of everyone at the dance? He’d guarded her house for hours in case Harley followed her home. But, dammit, he hadn’t even thought about what could have happened at the reunion itself. What the hell was the matter with him?
“He was his usual arrogant self,” Dana said. “I dealt with it. But I was not too happy with you.” She grinned, contradicting her words, then she walked to the door. “I’m going to phone Candi and tell her I’ll be attending the funeral. She wanted me to say a few words. And Lilith will want to know, too, although her husband says she’s not going any distance in a car right now. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
The library door had no sooner closed behind her when Arianna leaned her elbows on the tables, rested her chin in her hands and raised her eyebrows again.
“What?” Sam said.
“You.”
“What about me?” But he knew. He knew.
“You are still gaga over the Honorable Dana.”
“So?”
“So, you’ve not only got to go to the funeral, you’ve got to act like her lover.”
“Why the hell would I do that?”
“See? You’re not even thinking straight or you would know you don’t have a choice. It’ll tick off this Harley royally, then you’ll see what he’s got going, if anything. Something tells me it’s a role you won’t mind playing. In fact, you’d probably even like to play it again, Sam.”
