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chase.”
    Joe stared back.
    â€œThanks,” Arianna said when their host walked away.
    Joe shrugged. “Sometimes he doesn’t know when to quit.”
    â€œI’ve noticed.” She slid a green olive off the toothpick and sucked on it. “Pushing the right buttons is what makes him good in the courtroom, though.”
    â€œBut lousy as a friend sometimes.” Joe leaned toward her. “Would you like to get out of here? Go somewhere quiet?”
    She was tempted. Entirely too tempted. But if she accepted his invitation she couldn’t move the relationship into a business one when she needed to. She had no intention of lying to him or stringing him along. She just didn’t want to ask her favor publicly—or in costume. It was too serious for that. The party had been a way to open a dialogue. “I’d love a rain check,” she said.
    He studied her for a long time. She made herself breathe.
    â€œWalk me to my car and I’ll give you my number,” he said, standing. “You can call me when the sun comes out.”
    She smiled. “All right.”
    Joe offered her a hand up. He was probably crazy topursue her. He should at least wait until his life was back on track, yet he couldn’t help but feel she was part of the solution. Wishful thinking, maybe?
    They made their way through the crowded house. He guided her slightly ahead of him with a touch to her lower back, just enough to feel the bones of her vertebrae against his fingertips now and then. She turned and looked at him once, her dark eyes again taking his measure in a way no woman in his memory had. She looked deeply, as she had by the waterfall, without blinking. Did he meet her standards or pass her test or whatever it was she was doing when she looked at him like that?
    They reached his SUV. He got a business card out of his glove compartment, wrote his home and cell numbers on the back and passed it to her.
    â€œSomething on your mind?” he asked when she said nothing. He curled his fingers into his palms, resisting touching her. He wondered how long her hair was. A year ago it was just past her shoulders.
    â€œYou’re different from other detectives,” she said. “I noticed that before.”
    â€œDifferent, how?”
    â€œQuieter.”
    â€œAnd not intimidated?”
    She smiled. “Do I intimidate?”
    â€œCompetence is often intimidating.”
    Arms folded, she leaned a hip and shoulder against his passenger door. “I think I’ve been complimented.”
    â€œYou have.”
    â€œYou impress me as well.”
    â€œI’m glad to hear that.” He moved closer, crowding her space a little.
    She didn’t budge, not even when he slipped a finger under her strap as he had by the waterfall. He focused on thelittle beauty mark at the corner of her mouth. “This is very pretty,” he said, kissing the spot. He felt her lips part, heard a soft sound, more than a breath catching, less than surrender. He moved his mouth over hers lightly, brushing his lips against hers, pulling back, making her come to him.
    A horn honked. Teenage boys shouted crude encouragement. The only encouragement Joe needed was Arianna’s. When he wouldn’t take the kiss any deeper she placed her hands along his face and held him still.
    â€œYou tease,” she said, her voice husky.
    â€œJust making sure of my welcome.”
    Her hesitation lasted all of two seconds. “The door’s open.”
    He wanted to skim his hands over her incredible body, to feel the weight of her breasts, the curve of her hips, the firm fullness of her rear. He settled for a long, leisurely kiss that she kept trying to deepen and he kept thwarting. He knew he had to leave her wanting more or she wouldn’t call him, so he gave her enough to think about but not to satisfy. Gave himself a lot to think about, too, like what it would be like to make love, a foreign concept to