hurts us in South Dakota, because he has powerful political allies in Pierre and no scruples about using them against us. One of them,â he added darkly, âis the state attorney general herself!â
âI know,â she said. Her pale eyes gazed into his dark ones. âBut Iâm working on the senator.â
He didnât even blink. âWorking on him, how?â
Here we go again, she thought with resignation. Her eyebrows lifted. He was acting as if sheâd already seduced the man! On second thought, why not live down to that image? She leaned forward avidly. âWell, first I smeared him with honey and licked my way down to his throatâ¦â she began earnestly.
He cursed sharply.
She laughed helplessly. âAll right, it was just dinner. But he really is a very nice man, Tate,â she said.
He gave her a hard glare. âListen, Cecily, going around with a man old enough to be your father isnât the way to fight your hang-ups.â
âMy hang-ups?â She glared at him. âDo feel free to elaborate.â
âYou have friends instead of lovers,â he said curtly.
âIâm a modern woman,â she said coolly. âThat means I have the right to decide what I do with my body. Some women, I might add, advocate using men only for breeding purposes. I myself think theyâd be more useful as house pets.â
His black eyes twinkled. He waved to his mother who was just dancing past them with an ear to ear smile. âAll the same, I donât like seeing you with Holden.â
âI donât particularly care what you like,â she said and smiled sweetly at him.
He hated that damned smile. It was like a red flag. âListen, kid, you donât know beans about some of the political superstars in Congress, and Holden is an unknown commodity. He guards his privacy like a mercenary. I donât like him and I donât trust him. Heâs too secretive.â
âLook whoâs talking!â she exclaimed. âYou could probably topple governments with things you know and donât tell!â
âSure I could,â he agreed. âBut Iâm not shady.â
She just looked at him. It was a speaking look.
âMaybe a little shady,â he conceded finally. âA man has to have a few secrets.â
âSo does a woman.â
He smoothed a hand down the buckskin leggings on one of his powerful thighs. âI hope you arenât going to let what happened to you in Corryville ruin the rest of your life,â he said without looking at her. âYou should go around with men your own age.â
She met his narrowed eyes. âI had my share of dates when I started college. Itâs amazing that every single one of them thought he was entitled to my bed in return for a nice dinner and some dancing. And you know what I got when I said no? They told me I wasnât liberated.â She threw up her hands. âWhat does liberation have to do with rejecting a man with bad breath who looks like a lab rat?â
âYou wonât get around me by changing the subject,â he continued doggedly. âHolden isnât the sort of man you need in your life and neither is Colby Lane.â
The silence beside her was thick with suppressed anger. Colby was ex-CIA, too, now a mercenary who did freelance work for various organizations, including, so rumor had it, the government. He was almost as tough as Tate. But he had a few more visible flaws. Tate was his friend and he couldnât miss the fact that Cecily and Colby were closeâeven Audrey had pointed it out to him. But he didnât like having Cecily dating the man, and Cecily knew it by his very silence.
She held up a hand before he could continue. âI know heâs had his problems in the pastâ¦â
âHe canât keep his hands off a liquor bottle at the best of times, and he still hasnât accepted the loss of his
J.A. Konrath, Bernard Schaffer