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  “I’m probably going to lose my job too.” Dennie shook her head. “I’m going to bounce back from this, I really am. It’s just taking me a minute.”

  “You know if your job involves doing something you’ll get arrested for, you might want to rethink careers,” Alec said, adding silently, especially since I don’t want to be the one who busts you.

  Dennie shrugged. “Oh, heck, what’s a jail sentence? At least I’ll have three square meals.” She looked at him plaintively. “Will you bring Walter to visit me in the slammer?”

  “Hell, I’ll bail you out for conjugal visits.” Alec put his arm around her and pulled her close, patting her shoulder. “You’re just depressed because you look like a nun. It depresses me too.”

  “I know this is a tough one,” Dennie said, more to herself than to Alec, “but I need it. I need to know I can get the really tough ones. Even if I go to jail.”

  “If it’s that bad, I strongly suggest a career change. Depressing careers are bad for you. Also, I think your hair’s pulled back too tight.” Alec pushed her head forward and started pulling bobby pins out of the knot. “It’s got to be giving you a headache. It’s giving me a headache.”

  “It’s not that bad.” Dennie put her chin in her hands and stared into the lobby while he unpinned her hair. “I thought it made me look more stable.”

  “It made you look like Nurse Ratched.” Alec pulled the last pin out and watched her hair fall down into tangled silky curls. He pulled his fingers through it, partly to even out the tangles and partly because he knew it would feel so good against his fingers. Dennie never moved. “You know you’re pretty passive here. Would this be a good time for me to make my move?”

  “Not if you want to keep your teeth,” Dennie said, but there was no threat in her voice.

  “Hey,” Alec said again, and pulled her back to face him. “Whatever it is, it can’t be that bad. I’m here. I’ll help. Come on.” He leaned forward and kissed her on the forehead and then on the nose and then, softly, against his better judgment, on the mouth.

  “Don’t do that,” Dennie said, her voice cracking. “You’re just a cog in my career wheel. Don’t try to get important to me.”

  “Of course not,” Alec said, and then he had to kiss her again, still softly but this time with some staying power. “Feel free to toy with me and then cast me aside,” he whispered against her mouth, and kissed her again, feeling her lips finally move against his and her hands rest lightly on his arms.

  People were staring, he noticed vaguely as he came up for air. Probably envious. He’d have been envious. He leaned forward to take her mouth again but she pulled back. “Do you think I’m a loser?”

  “Well, I didn’t until you started acting like one,” Alec said, and Dennie dropped her hands and straightened.

  “That was cruel,” she said, some of the flash back in her eyes.

  “Probably dumb too,” Alec said. “If I’d stuck with being understanding, I might have gotten laid in gratitude.”

  “Oh, yeah, I bet you get a lot of sex that way,” Dennie said, all of the flash coming back. “On account of you being so sensitive and all.”

  “Good,” Alec said. “Now tell me I’m ugly, and I’ll take you into dinner and introduce you to my aunt Vic.”

  Dennie grinned at him with such warmth, he was rocked by it. “And then you’ll buy me ice cream, right? You are a nice guy, Alec.”

  “Well, don’t tell anybody.” Alec stood up to keep from reaching for her again. “The last thing I want is for somebody to think I’m one of those sensitive nineties kind of guys.”

  “Don’t worry,” Dennie said, standing too. “Nobody thinks you’re sensitive.”

  “Good.”

  “Except me.”

  “Knock it off,” Alec said, and pulled her toward the dining room.

  Harry sat in the kitchen and listened to Victoria pretending to be a half-wit while they waited for Alec and the Banks woman to join them. He enjoyed it enormously.

  This is some woman, he told himself. Tough. Bright. Brave. Smart. Soft. Good thing he had fifty-eight years of experience to protect him or he might have fallen for her. Good thing he was too smart for that.

  He heard Vic say, “So this would be an investment in my future. Oh, Mr. Bondman, that sounds very … good. Really.” Then he heard her pause and add in a soft, slightly confused voice, “Did you say this was in Florida?”

  Bond must be ready to throttle her. They wouldn’t need to send him up the river. They could just let Vic drive him crazy. He started to laugh, and then he remembered her in black lace and stopped.

  Oh, hell.

  Whatever was bothering Dennie hadn’t gone away, Alec realized. It just metamorphosed into something different: antagonism toward Brian Bond.

  Alec introduced her to Victoria, Donald, and Bond, and watched her charm the daylights out of them all, especially Victoria. She really was amazing once she got her sights on someone. Witty and intelligent, she drew Victoria out all through dinner, asking her about her career and discussing her paper from that morning with clarity and understanding. Alec gave her another point for thoroughness: He loved his aunt and even he hadn’t sat through three academic papers for her, but Dennie had. Hell of a woman.

  “You came to hear my paper this morning?” Victoria had said, clearly flattered but fortunately still pretending to be a half-wit.

  “I actually went to hear Janice Meredith,” Dennie said. “But I stayed to hear yours when I saw your name in the program. Alec had told me so much about you, and obviously he hadn’t exaggerated.”

  “Alec told you about my research?” Victoria asked, flabbergasted.

  “Certainly. He’s very proud of you,” Dennie said.

  Alec opened his mouth to comment, and Dennie kicked him under the table. “Ouch,” he said, and glared at her.

  “I notice you’ve done a lot of work on Shakespeare and pop literature.” Dennie leaned forward, and Victoria did too. “I also thought your article on Much Ado as a forties screwball comedy was fascinating.”

  “That article was in Signs two years ago.” Victoria looked at Dennie in disbelief.

  “I know,” Dennie said. “I read it this afternoon at the library.”

  Attagirl, Alec thought, and then remembered she was one of the bad guys.

  Victoria transferred her gaze to Alec. “Since when do you date women who go to libraries?”

  “Hey,” Alec said. “I have taste. I know a winner when I see one.” He smiled goofily at Dennie. “Right, honey?”

  Dennie ignored him to concentrate on Victoria’s publishing history while Victoria nattered on about nothing. Bond and Donald listened politely and then began to talk quietly to themselves.

  Alec shifted in his chair. Something was very wrong. If Dennie was on Bond’s team, she should be working the conversation around to real estate by now. Hell, if she hadn’t been there, Bond could have brought it up; that had to be what he was talking about with Donald now. After all, that’s why they were all having dinner together. Alec bowed to no one in his respect for Dennie’s deviousness, but for the life of him, he couldn’t see how she was going to move the conversation from feminist literary criticism to Florida oceanfront property.

  After another fifteen minutes and the salad, it became obvious that she wasn’t.

  “So, Brian,” Alec said, breaking into Dennie’s discussion of Thelma & Louise as the nineties version of The Awakening. “My aunt tells me you have some pretty exciting land deals cooking. Tell me about it. I’m always interested in a good investment, especially real estate.” He flashed his standard goofy grin. “Can’t go wrong with real estate.”

  “What?” Dennie said, momentarily thrown off stride.

  “Well,” Bond said modestly, “I wouldn’t want to exaggerate the possibilities, but—”

  “Absolutely phenomenal,” Donald pronounced. “Alec, you really should get a piece of this.”

  “You think so?” Alec said, t