Dennie tapped him on the nose with her breadstick. “Pay attention. Do … you … know … Janice … Meredith?”
“No,” Alec said, enjoying the view. “But my aunt does. You know, Thursday is a notoriously bad day for making decisions. Maybe you ought to reconsider—”
“Sleeping with a man I just met whose main occupation seems to be staring at my breasts? No.” Dennie leaned back. “You’re cute, Alec, but my Yorkie, Walter, is deeper than you are. My next relationship, which is going to be several years in the future when my career is well-established, is also going to be my last, and it’s going to be deep. Tell me about your aunt.”
“I’m deep,” Alec said, and then grinned. “Okay, I may be no match for Walter, but I have depths. And if you were deep, you wouldn’t be wearing that dress or that underwear. Purple lace? No.”
Dennie looked down. “You’re right. This calls for a whole new wardrobe.”
“No, it doesn’t,” Alec began, but their salads arrived, and Dennie attacked hers. She had a good, healthy appetite, he noticed. That usually boded well for other things. If she hadn’t decided to give up other things. Maybe he could convince her not to give them up yet, all in the line of duty, of course. He tried to imagine explaining to Harry how seducing Dennie fell in the line of duty.
The hell with Harry.
Unfortunately she wanted deep, and he’d been projecting dumb. And if he was going to be honest, deep was not in his repertoire anyway. Smart, yes; brave, yes; fast-thinking, yes; honest, yes. Deep, no. But he might be able to fake it.
“Tell me about your career,” Alec said.
“Why?” Dennie looked at him suspiciously from behind a forkful of dripping greens.
“I want to know why you’re giving up the best sex you would have ever had for some dumb job.”
“Okay, that sounds more like you,” Dennie said, and ate her salad.
“More like me?”
“For a minute there, I thought you were trying to be sensitive,” Dennie said after she’d swallowed. “With you, that could only mean one thing.”
Alec tried to look blank and insulted at the same time. “Thank you.”
Dennie shrugged. “Don’t get annoyed. I just know your kind. You sure you don’t want me to pay for dinner?”
“Positive.” Alec fought back his annoyance. “So what’s this career?”
Dennie looked wary suddenly. “You wouldn’t be interested. The important thing is, your aunt can help me. Please notice that I’m being very upfront here. I want you to introduce me to your aunt and tell her I’m a wonderful person.”
“Why?” Alec said warily.
“Because I want to talk to her. All I need is for you to tell her that I’m clean, brave, and reverent, and convince her to talk to me. I’ll do the rest.”
Alec sat back. “What do you want from her?”
Dennie shook her head. “That’s confidential. I’d tell you, but it’s not my secret.”
She blotted some salad dressing from her lips, and Alec repressed his instincts. They were great lips, but it looked more and more as though he wouldn’t be getting access to them because he’d be arresting her, so he tried to ignore them and concentrate on what she was saying.
“So will you do it?” she asked.
“What?” Alec said.
Dennie closed her eyes in pain. “Introduce me to your aunt, dummy. Why are you acting like this?”
“Like what?” Alec said.
“Like you’re a moron,” Dennie said. “Is this some kind of weird pickup thing you do that attracts women? Because I’ve got to tell you, I like you smart and sassy a lot better.”
“Sassy?” Alec said. “Me?”
“Forget it,” Dennie said. “Concentrate on your aunt. When can I meet her?”
“You know, I wasn’t expecting you to be this pushy,” Alec said. “You’re not what I was expecting at all.”
“What were you expecting?”
“Well, I was hoping for easy.”
Dennie nodded. “That’s right. You thought I was a bimbo. We already did this.”
Alec looked hopeful. “You walk like a bimbo.”
“I do not.” Dennie leaned back in her chair and looked at him with critical eyes. “But you do.”
“I do not.”
“Yeah, you do. All shoulders. Big man in town. You come on like a flashlight. You should have ‘Eveready’ printed on your forehead.”
Alec raised his eyebrows. “And that sway you left the bar with today was professional? Jaws were dropping all around you.”
“Look, I have hips. They move.”
“They certainly do. And I wouldn’t dream of criticizing them if you hadn’t made fun of my shoulders.”
“I wasn’t making fun.” Dennie batted her eyes at him. “They’re wonderful shoulders. Shoulders to die for. Shoulders that beg to be wept on. Shoulders—”
“Thank you, that will do,” Alec said. “I may make you pay for dinner after all.”
“Forget it.” Dennie eyed the steaming platter that the waiter put in front of her. “Fighting with you has given me an appetite. I want dessert too.” She looked up sharply as Alec opened his mouth. “Do not say anything juvenile about what you can give me for dessert.”
“Juvenile?” Alec looked up at the waiter. “Is there anything about me that strikes you as juvenile?”
“No, sir,” the waiter said.
“Now ask me,” Dennie said.
“Don’t,” Alec said.
“So, about your aunt,” Dennie began again.
Alec closed his eyes. This was what he wanted, Dennie making a move on Victoria. It would have been really bad if she’d made a move on him instead. They’d never nail her for fraud if all she did was seduce him. He opened his eyes. “Are you sure you’re giving up sex?”
“Positive,” Dennie said. “When can I meet your aunt?”
Across the room, Victoria was having her own trauma.
“Well, this is certainly pleasant,” Donald Compton said, beaming at her across the snowy linen of the tablecloth.
Pleasant, Victoria thought. I’m sixty-two years old. Screw pleasant. I want exciting.
Donald consulted with the waiter on the wine list. He looked wonderful consulting with the waiter. Handsome, distinguished, debonair. They made a nice couple, Donald and the waiter. Maybe she should leave them alone. After all, Donald and the waiter had so much more in common than Donald and she did.
Donald and she. Ugly little phrase. She speculated aimlessly about a future with Donald. Donald and she would buy property on the Cape; the exclusive section, of course. Donald and she would vacation in Belize; he’d want someplace not spoiled by the tourist trade. Donald and she would drive a Mercedes; it would be the only car that didn’t clash with his Rolex.
Donald and she, Victoria decided, were doomed as a couple. He hadn’t even cracked the wine, and already she was making fun of him.
Donald turned back to her and toasted her with his glass. It was full. He and the waiter must have achieved climax while she was daydreaming.
“To you,” he said. “You look elegant.”
Elegant. Wonderful. “You too.” She raised her glass to him and then looked past him and saw Alec. He was leaning toward a brunette, but all Victoria could see of the woman was the back of a head full of glossy dark curls. Alec smiled, and Victoria thought, How can she resist him? He has the family charm.
“Victoria?”
“Hmmm?” Victoria looked at her glass, still in midair. “Oh, yes. To both of us. Elegant. Absolutely.” She drank her wine and remembered what Janice had said about risking. The only thing she was risking by being with Donald Compton was death from boredom.
Donald began to tell her about a wonderful real estate investment a man he’d met in the bar that afternoon had told him about. Victoria began to tune him out and then remembered what Alec had said.
“What’s this man’s name?” she asked. “Tell me all about him.”
/>
“This was wonderful,” Dennie said, blotting her mouth again after they’d cruised through their entrées. “Thank you for not making small talk during dinner. It would have ruined everything.”
Alec winced. “You know, you’re not good for my ego.”
Dennie looked apologetic. “That’s not what I meant. I meant—”
“I know what you meant.” He grinned at her. “I feel the same way. Why mess up great food by trying to think about something else?”
“Exactly.” Dennie smiled at him, and his head reeled for a minute.
Concentrate, he told himself. She’s a crook. “About my aunt.” He threw Victoria out like a lifeline.
“I need to talk to her,” Dennie said. “If she’ll help me, I could make it big. Out of the minor leagues, into the majors.”
“The majors?”
“New York.”
“You want to work in New York?” Alec shook his head. “Mistake. Come to Chicago. Much nicer city.”
“What’s in Chicago?”
“Me,” Alec said, and then wondered why he’d said it. It was pretty stupid telling a woman to move to a major city so he could have dinner with her occasionally, especially since he was planning on arresting her. Of course, stupid was the personality he was trying to project, but still. It was humiliating being stupid in front of Dennie Banks.
“You think I should move to Chicago because you’re there? After one dinner?” Dennie shook her head. “There’s a dim bulb in your flashlight.”
Alec opened his mouth to retort and then closed it. He’d asked for that one.
“So when can I meet your aunt?” Dennie asked.
“Have lunch with me tomorrow,” Alec said. “I cannot guarantee my aunt will be there, but I’ll try. How about one? I have a late meeting tonight.”
Dennie beamed at him. “Terrific.” She sipped the last of her wine and said, “What kind of meeting do you have?”
“Hey,” Alec said. “You want the intimate details of my life, you have to get intimate.”
Dennie frowned at him in disbelief. “I have to sleep with you to find out about your meetings?”
He gazed at her hopefully. “Would that do it?”
“No,” Dennie said. “You are achieving a new low in superficial here.”
“My aunt’s going to like you,” Alec said.
“I’m devastated at having to leave you, Victoria,” Donald said as he pressed her hand at her hotel room door. “If only I hadn’t made plans to speak with this Bondman fellow about the investment.”
“Perfectly all right,” Victoria said, trying to disengage her hand.
“It really is a wonderful investment. Florida beach-front property. Perhaps you’d like to join us?”
“Not tonight, Donald.” Victoria smiled up at him as she shoved her card in the door and opened it. “But perhaps tomorrow. For dinner. Do you think you could arrange it?”
“Delighted to!” Donald said. “And who knows? Maybe we could invest in something together. Like our futures?” He raised an arched eyebrow at her.
“Who knows?” Victoria sidled inside her door. “Until then.”
“Until then.” Donald leaned forward to kiss her, and she shut the door in his face. Then she leaned against it, relieved to be alone.
The things she did for her nephew. And now she had to play hostess to Alec’s grumpy old boss.
Still, he had to be better than Donald.
Anybody was better than Donald.
Dennie continued to battle with Alec during the elevator ride to her room, cheerfully insulting him at regular intervals because he seemed to enjoy it. He had either no ego at all or the healthiest ego on the planet. She studied him when they stopped in the dim light of the hallway outside her room. He stood before her, carelessly relaxed and lazily confident.
He definitely had an ego.
He was also definitely a mystery. He was a lot smarter than he looked and a lot more dangerous. She was positive that his aw-shucks innocence was a cover-up for a devious, twisted mind. Too bad her career was on the line. Exploring Alec could have been educational, and since he wasn’t the easy kind of guy she’d dated before, Patience would have been pleased too. “Look what I found in a hotel bar,” she could say, towing Alec behind her like show-and-tell at school. “Ignore the dumb act. This one is complicated.”
“Lunch at one,” Alec said, and she turned her face up to him, startled into remembering him.
“One,” she started to say, but he kissed her while she was puckering her mouth to say the word. He stepped on her toe, and bumped her nose with his, and then missed her mouth at first, but when he found it, clumsily, he tasted so good that she leaned into him slightly, touching his lips with her tongue.
And then suddenly he changed; his kiss stopped bumbling and became solid and deep, and he slid his arms around her and pulled her close. He felt so good against her that she wound her arms around his neck and pressed herself to him. Heat washed over her, and evidently over him, too, because by the time she broke the kiss, he had her plastered up against the wall, his thigh between hers, his tongue licking her mouth while she gasped for breath.
And when he lifted his face from hers, he looked as surprised as she was.
“Listen, I could learn to be deep,” he told her, and she said, “Shut up and kiss me again,” and he did, teasing her mouth with his tongue until she opened to him, and they both sagged boneless against the wall. His hand found her breast and made her shiver and then moved up to the draped neck of her dress and inside it, and when she felt the shock of his fingers on her skin, she remembered where she was and all her plans and how he wasn’t part of them no matter how damn good his hand felt inside her dress.
She caught his wrist. “Wait a minute. I forgot. I don’t have time for this. I’m sorry. I just forgot.”
Alec moved his hand to her waist. “Give me another chance. I’ll make you forget again. I’ll make you forget your name.” He bent to kiss her again, and she ducked away.
“No. Thank you, but no. Good-bye. Lovely evening. Can’t wait to meet your aunt.” Dennie turned while she babbled and jammed her key card in the door, and before he could say anything else, she’d slipped inside and closed the door in his face.
Whoa. She let her head fall back against the door. This boy was definitely nobody to mess with. At least not while she was in the middle of career building.
What a shame.
Harry called Alec’s room when he got to the hotel at ten-forty-five.
“What’ve you got?” he asked when Alec picked up the phone.
“Don’t you ever start with ‘Hello’?”
“No,” Harry said. “What’ve you got?”
“I’ve got Dennie Banks doing everything in her power to meet my aunt.” Alec thought about Dennie’s kiss. “And Harry, she’s got a lot of power. If she tries to seduce me into a life of crime, I’m going for it.”
Harry snorted. “You should be so lucky. What else?”
“Aunt Victoria’s in. We’re meeting in her room as soon as I call her.”
Harry scowled. “I hate the Aunt Victoria part.”
“Harry, you haven’t met her yet.”
“I don’t like the idea of sending in a little old lady to meet Bond.”
Alec tried not to laugh. “Aunt Vic is no little old lady. Hell, she’s only a couple years older than you are.”
“I don’t care,” Harry said. “I don’t like it.”
“Too bad. I’ll call her now. Room 1914 in ten minutes,” Alec said. “Don’t be late.”
* * *
Harry knocked on the door to room 1914, steeling himself to be nice to the little old lady. He was so prepared that he was looking down with the closest thing he had to a reassuring smile on his face when she opened the door.
The problem was that Victoria was only two inches shorter than he was so that instead of looking down into a kindly little-old-lady face, he found himself looking down into the V neck
of her navy silk dress.
She didn’t look like a little old lady.
Victoria followed his gaze down. “I lift weights. I may not be defeating gravity, but I’m giving it a run for its money.”
“What?” Harry said.
“You must be Harry Chase. Alec told me about you. I’m Victoria Prentice.” Victoria held out a perfectly manicured hand, and Harry took it, his stunned gaze traveling from her cleavage to her face. She had Alec’s eyes—bright brown eyes—and his sharp, mobile mouth, but she was all female where Alec was male. Her hair was styled short and framed her face in soft white curls, and she was wearing small gold earrings. Expensive gold earrings. She should have looked attractive, elegant, and remote, but there was a glint in her eye and a quirk to her lips that gave her away.
This is a dangerous woman, Harry thought, acting on the instincts that had kept him alive and single for fifty-eight years. This is a woman who has been places and done things and who has ideas of her own.
Get me out of here.
He turned to go, but Alec came up behind him and slapped him on the back. “Good to see you, Harry,” he said, and crowded him into Victoria’s room, and then it was too late to run.
Victoria stepped back to let them in. She had thoroughly enjoyed Harry’s reaction, but now she was taken aback to notice how much he resembled Alec. It wasn’t the physical details so much. Alec’s brown hair was always neatly combed while Harry’s iron-gray mop looked like it was permanently rumpled; Harry’s jaw jutted more than Alec’s, and his shoulders were a little broader; Harry’s eyes were black and snapping compared to Alec’s warm brown gaze. No one would mistake them for relatives.
It was the way they stood, she decided. And moved. And looked around a room. Big men so confident, they couldn’t imagine a situation they couldn’t handle. That agency they both worked for must train them to be that way. No one could be born as sure of himself as these two were.
Alec pulled chairs out from the desk in the corner of the room, waving to them as he spoke. “Victoria, this is Harry Chase, my boss. Harry, this is my aunt, Victoria Prentice.”
“We’ve done that already,” Victoria said. “Should I call down to room service for coffee?”