Free Keeping Company by Tami Hoag

object. Man, she had gorgeous breasts! He’d had his share of dreams about them as well as about her legs. The neckline of her blouse didn’t afford him a view of her cleavage as her Princess Andora outfit had, but the fine silk still outlined the feminine mounds to perfection. In his imagination he already knew how theywould feel in his hands—heavy and warm. And he would have bet his Space Marauders decoder ring that they were encased in a scandalously expensive, deliciously cut, sheer black French-lace bra.
    She shifted against the counter, and the overhead light caught the crystal just right. The vivid colors of the rainbow within it drew Dylan’s eye. It struck him that the pin was a very whimsical accessory for a woman who projected such a tough image. He lifted his gaze and tried to see past Alaina’s cool barriers, a dozen questions stuck in his throat. He didn’t ask any of them, but held his breath as a fine thread of awareness stretched between them like spun glass, fragile and tenuous.
    “Dylan Harrison, when did you get here?” Marlene demanded to know as she powered open the swinging door between the kitchen and the dining room with a thrust of her hip. She held a steaming bowl in each hand. A flowing orchid caftan covered her ample form.
    The spell was broken. Dylan stepped back from Alaina, casually tucking his hands into his pants pockets, hoping to disguise the fact that hewas about half turned on from fantasizing about her underwear. “Hours ago, Marlene. You must have fallen into a time warp.”
    “I fell into ten pounds of mashed potatoes,” she said, plunking the dishes down on the table. “I hope you’re hungry.”
    “Oh …,” Dylan drawled, casting a wolfish look Alaina’s way, “my mouth is literally watering.”
    Alaina smiled and rolled her eyes, wondering giddily when her heart was going to stop racing.
    “Good.” Marlene turned to face them. “I see you two have met.”
    “As you no doubt intended,” Dylan said dryly.
    “Actually, I wanted you to meet Ramona Madrone. She’s in the den.” She shrugged as she gave up the flimsy pretense of the innocent dinner party. Alaina’s black scowl didn’t faze her as she glanced at her boss. “And I wanted you to meet Morton Sternberg. He’s in the den too.” She looked from Alaina to Dylan, waving a hand between them as she frowned. “The two of you? You’re not compatible in the least.”
    It was on the tip of Alaina’s tongue to protest. Her hormones had their own idea of compatibility.They could have lit up all of Anastasia with the electricity that zinged between herself and Dylan Harrison. But she bit her tongue on the admission and tucked her chin defensively, as if Marlene’s charge of incompatibility were a terrible insult.
    I’m losing my mind
, she decided calmly as she went to stand behind a chair at the dinner table. Why she would want to be considered compatible with a lascivious, licentious lunatic was beyond her. The Crystal of Kalamari, indeed. She had to admit, though, it had been a creative way of getting within touching distance of her breasts. She had to give him points for his style, unorthodox as it was.
    She refused to wonder about the moment that had passed between them. Awareness like that seemed a dangerous thing to contemplate. So did the wanting it stirred deep within her. Wanting meant vulnerability, vulnerability left a person open to hurt, and hurt was to be avoided at all cost. But …
    She looked across the table just as Dylan glanced away. The hula girl tie made her shakeher head in disbelief. There was something ridiculously tempting about him. It was damned annoying.
    Their respective dinner partners turned out to be everything Marlene’s blind dates usually were and then some. That the woman ever made a nickel as a matchmaker was a minor miracle. Alaina thought it was a wonder no one had ever threatened to sue.
    Ramona Madrone was a prosthesis builder from Ukiah, thin as a whip with