by Carolyn Hart
That evening, I opened a bottle of champagne when Dan came. I waited until after dinner, beef stroganoff and rice and a green salad, before I told Dan about my day. Sort of. We were on the couch and his arm was around me. “Dan, I have a hypothetical case I’d like to tell you about.”
The nice thing about hypotheticals is that no one has to act on information received.
When I had finished, he was striding up and down the living room, sweeping his hand through his hair.
“My God,” he said simply when I was done. He looked at me, shook his head, then plumped down on the couch beside me.
“Ellen . . .” He cleared his throat. “Ellen, my God! Blackmail. Duress. Extortion. My God.”
I said demurely, “But the contract says a sale for seventy-eight thousand dollars and other considerations.”
That drove him off the couch again. He strode to my bay window then swung around and came back to look down on me, his legs spread apart, his hands on his hips.
“You need a keeper,” he muttered. “You and Jimmy and Miss Chow; my Lord, the streets of San Francisco aren’t safe with the likes of you running about.”
I was admiring the long lean lines of his face and the way his mouth moved and the breadth of his shoulders and the powerful stand of his legs and . . .
“Ellen!”
“Hmm?”
“You aren’t listening!”
I laughed. “No. I was thinking . . .”
“What?”
“Oh, rather scientifically.”
He sat down beside me again. “You don’t look scientific.”
In a moment, a long moment, I said breathlessly, “Simply considering what good genes can do.”
He didn’t say anything.
“You know,” I explained, “when you combine long and lean and handsome with whatever I can contribute, well, I feel it in my bones, we’ll have gorgeous kids.”
He threw back his head and roared with laughter. “And a gorgeous time producing them,” he added happily.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Carolyn Hart is the winner of multiple Agatha, Anthony, and Macavity Awards. She is a cofounder of Sisters in Crime. Her prolific career has included the enduring Death on Demand series as well as the Henrie O and Bailey Ruth books. In 2007 she received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Malice Domestic convention.
Hart’s mysteries and suspense novels have sold more than 3 million copies. Her fiftieth novel, Dead, White and Blue, will be published in May 2013. Hart’s books range from taut standalone suspense novels to three series that have captivated readers of traditional mysteries. She is best known for her Death on Demand series about Annie Darling, an eager and fun-loving owner of a mystery bookstore on a sea island, and her husband, Max, who specializes in solving problems, though he insists he isn’t a private eye.
Earlier in her career, Hart wrote several suspense novels, including Skulduggery and The Devereaux Legacy, both of which are being reissued as part of the Seventh Street Books™ Carolyn Hart Classics line.
Visit her online at www.carolynhart.com and www.facebook.com/AuthorCarolynHart.