“There are only three,” he said, as though that should console her. “One, you have to relax. For the remainder of this evening, you have to stop being Miss Winters, the uptight aide to the senator, and just be Ellery, an average woman out on a date with an average guy.”
“I am not uptight,” she protested, then changed her tone of voice to prove her innocence. “My position requires a certain image, that’s all.”
“That’s understandable, but I’m interested in getting to know the woman, not the image. Can the real Ellery come out of hiding for a few hours?”
She opened her mouth to object to that remark as well, but caught herself in time. “Agreed. What are the other two terms?”
“If you can manage the first, the second should be easy. You have to talk about yourself for a minimum of fifteen minutes, and it can’t be only career-related information. At least half the time has to be spent on personal trivia.”
“An extemporaneous speech? How very academic of you.”
“From personal experience, I know how good you are at getting other people to talk about themselves, so as part of the second term, you are forbidden to ask me any questions about myself until you’ve done your fifteen minutes.”
Cocking her head at him, she asked, “Is that a fifteen-minute filibuster, or do I get a dinner break?”
“I’m not totally unreasonable. You can break it into five-minute segments.”
“How very kind of you. All right, I can agree to that term as well.”
Since neither had ordered an alcoholic beverage, a bottle of sparkling water was delivered with their appetizers. After the waiter made a show of filling their glasses, Luke lifted his goblet to Ellery. “Here’s to agreeable women.”
“And to disagreeable men. Fortunately, we outnumber you.” She took a sip of her water and set it down. “Did you do anything interesting today?” She removed a snail from its shell and placed it in her mouth.
“No questions to me, remember? Besides, you haven’t agreed to the third term yet.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “Don’t you think the first two are more than enough?” With a bit more force than necessary, she pierced another dark morsel with her fork.
“If I had thought two were enough, I wouldn’t have asked for three.” He took a bite of his iced shrimp.
She waited several seconds for him to name his third term, but it soon became obvious that he wanted her sitting on the edge of her chair before he would reveal it. “Is it just me or do you enjoy aggravating everyone you meet?”
He rubbed his jaw as though giving her question serious thought. “To the best of my recollection, you’re the first person I’ve ever gone out of my way to aggravate. It seems to have something to do with your seeming too good to be true.”
She felt herself getting flustered again. She tried to diffuse the sensation with another attack on her appetizer, but there was nothing left on the plate but shells. Every snail had made its way into her stomach without her tasting any of them. Setting down her fork, she gave him what he was waiting for. “Fine. What is your third term?”
“You have to promise to give me a kiss before we part.”
She clucked her tongue at him. “How trite. And here I had given you credit for not being predictable.” She thought for a moment and came up with a way to beat him at his own game. “I’ll tell you what. I’ll agree to your third term on one condition. You don’t say the word ‘the’ for the entire time we’re in this restaurant.”
Luke looked at her curiously then slowly grinned. “You’re on. And your first five minutes begins,” he set the alarm on his watch, “now.”
Ellery smiled confidently. “Perhaps I should begin by telling you that I was captain of the debate team in high school, and in college I won several awards for extemporaneous speaking. One time, I actually managed to orate continuously for twenty minutes, without prior preparation mind you, on the merits of censorship, something I was, and am still, highly opposed to. So be prepared to have your ear talked off without my saying anything even slightly interesting.”
She straightened her spine, cleared her throat, and began. “I was born thirty-one years ago, on the twentieth of January, in Palo Alto, California.”
By the time his alarm beeped at the end of her first five minutes, their salads had been served and she had covered her life up through the age of two. Just to show Luke who had the upper hand in this challenge, she continued to tell him lots more boring details of her early childhood in between bites.
After the salad course, she moved on to her entrance into kindergarten and tried to put him to sleep with a list of all the things she accomplished that year, such as learning how to print the letter “a” then the letter “b” and so on through the entire alphabet.
When he continued to listen with rapt interest, she described her first trip to a dentist and gave him a step-by-step account of her tonsillectomy at age seven.
Delivery of their entrees slowed down her discourse, but it didn’t stop her. His first interruption came when she jumped from age seven to eleven.
“Wait a minute. What happened in between?”
She hadn’t expected him to notice the omission. “I grew up. Shall I continue or have you had enough?”
He checked his watch. “You have three more minutes. But you’re welcome to continue for another fifteen if it would get you into your teen years. I’m dying to hear about what sort of wild things you and your debate team got into.”
Although she could have kept it up if necessary, the truth was she was boring herself to death. When his alarm went off for the third time, she waved her white linen napkin in surrender. “Now you know why I perfected the ability to get other people to talk about themselves. I haven’t got an adventure or a fascinating story anywhere in my memory banks.”
“How can you say that? I thought your tonsillectomy story was spine-tingling. Besides, I find it very hard to believe that you’ve worked in politics all these years without collecting a ton of stories.”
“Well, maybe I have more than a few anecdotes, but I’m not sure how entertaining they’d be to anyone outside the political arena. Anyway, I fulfilled my talking quota for the evening. It’s your turn now, Professor Madigan, and here’s your assignment. Since you’re so very good at telling stories, you have to do the opposite. Tell me about yourself in statistical terms—just the cold, hard facts.”
“Just—” He caught himself before the word “the” came out of his mouth. His eyes twinkled and he started again. “Just facts. Okay, here goes. I was born thirty-six years ago, on August 5 in Pasadena, California—”
“I thought you said you were from North Carolina,” she said, narrowing her eyes at him. Brevowski warned her not to try to trip him up, but that one was too obvious not to catch.
“I moved after high school. Let’s see, where was I? Oh yes, I was th—um, second son of Robert and Doris Madigan. My brother Chad was eight years younger, so we were never close. My father was an accountant. My mother never worked outside of—um, home.”
Ellery could not believe he caught himself again. Surely if she kept him talking long enough, he would have to say the word “the”. It was such a common word. She was certain he wouldn’t be able to speak without using it. But somehow, he managed to deliver all the dry facts of his life without once using the all-important word.
She took her time over dessert, urging him to tell her how he was spending his time in Sacramento, but not once did he make a mistake. And she could tell he was feeling quite cocky about it too. How could she hope to figure out whether or not he was a spy if she couldn’t even trick him into saying a simple three-letter word?
And if he didn’t say that little word soon, she was going to have to live up to the bargain she’d made. She tried to tell herself that one kiss could hardly be fatal, but in the case of Lucas Madigan, she really couldn’t be certain.
Luke glanced at his watch. “It’s only nine-thirty. If you’d like,
we could catch a movie. I saw a theater down—um, a few blocks away. They have—um, that new Johnny Depp movie there. It starts in about twenty minutes.”
She was about to say no, but yes came out of her mouth. “I’d like that.” Her rationale was that she was no closer to knowing if he was a spy than when she’d arrived, so she needed more time with him. The fact that watching a movie required silence did not support that logic, however. The nagging little voice in her head spoke the truth. The real reason she decided to go was because it would put off the parting kiss he was expecting, or at least give her more time to figure out how to avoid it.
The instant they were outside, Luke leaned close to her ear and sing-songed, “The-the-the-the-the-the.”
She could not help but laugh at him. “You think you’re pretty smart, don’t you?”
He shrugged. “It’s a gift, sort of like your being able to talk non-stop without giving up one piece of interesting information about yourself.”
“I thought you loved my tonsillectomy account.”
“Oh yeah. I’ll be dreaming about it tonight.”
When they reached her car, she stopped and said, “Now I don’t want you to take this as a compliment or anything, but so far, this is the strangest first date I’ve ever had.”
With a crooked grin, he replied, “Well, that’s better than the worst first date you’ve ever had. Shall we take your car or mine?”
“Both. I don’t trust you enough to get into a moving vehicle with you.”
He clapped his hands over his chest. “You cut me to the quick, princess. But alas, I am yours to command.”
She made a face at him and unlocked her door. “You can follow me.”
* * *
Teddy was somewhat relieved when he saw Ellery and her dinner companion get into separate cars without so much as a parting handshake, but when they drove off in the same direction, he decided to follow her a little longer.
Now that he knew she was the woman he’d been waiting for all these years, he wanted to make sure there was no serious competition for her affection. He’d realized with one glance that Brandon Ross meant nothing to her, nor did any of the other men she’d danced with Saturday night. And when she agreed to a dinner date tomorrow night, his heart had leapt with joy.
Unlike most women, she didn’t look at him with pity in her eyes, nor did she lose patience and finish his sentences for him when his stutter could not be controlled. Of course, he still had high hopes that, once his confidence around her stabilized, he would be able to speak as normally with her as he could with Abe and Viv.
Soon he would not have to rely on his brother’s wife for female companionship. Soon he would have a wife far more beautiful than that hag had ever been.
Soon he would have a jewel of his very own.
* * *
By the time she pulled into the theater’s parking lot, Ellery felt back in control and had a plan ready to avoid the agreed-to kiss. Unfortunately, when they got out of their cars, she immediately noticed that he had removed his tie and unbuttoned his shirt collar. She knew it was foolish, but that made her nervous all over again.
“Do you go to movies often?” She started walking toward the theater ahead of him, but he clasped her elbow and brought her to a halt.
“Wait,” he said. “We can’t go in yet.”
She felt the trap being set but went for it anyway. “Why not?”
“Anticipation.”
“I seriously doubt that standing out here for an extra minute will build our anticipation sufficiently to make any difference in our enjoyment of the movie.”
“I wasn’t referring to the movie.”
Despite the certainty that she would regret it, the urge was irresistible. “What were you referring to?”
“The kiss,” he said and lowered his gaze to her mouth.
As though he’d commanded it, her lips parted, and she lost the ability to breathe normally. “That’s… ridiculous.”
He moved closer and slid his hands up her arms to her shoulders. “The way I see it, neither one of us is going to be able to pay attention to the movie. You, because you’re afraid of the kiss—”
“I am not afraid—”
“You’re afraid, but you’d never renege on a deal. My problem, on the other hand, is that I’m looking forward to it too much. Trepidation, anticipation, the end result is the same. Believe me, it will be much better if we get it over with beforehand.”
“Get it over with,” she repeated, as though that would help her understand why her trepidation had suddenly turned into anticipation. She searched for the avoidance plan she had come up with, but it was nowhere in sight. “I… I suppose you might have a valid point.”
She watched his mouth coming closer to hers, ever so slowly, as though time itself had slowed down. Then she closed her eyes and time stopped completely.
In a heartbeat, she understood what it meant to feel like the rest of the world had faded away as she waited for something she suspected might change her whole life.
But her wait was in vain. The anticipated kiss never came. She opened her eyes and saw Luke frowning at her. Taking a step back, she instantly returned to her world of trepidation. “What?”
“You seem to have forgotten that the third term was that you were to kiss me.”
She blinked at him and replayed his words in her head until they got through the fog. “I see. And once I give you this kiss, our truce is sealed. No more goading me or challenging me or… flustering me on purpose. Correct?” She expected him to give her one of his lopsided grins, but he continued to frown at her.
“Yep. That was the agreement.”
She didn’t know what he was up to now, but she knew what he deserved. She moved close enough for their bodies to touch from shoulders to knees, wrapped her arms around his neck and looked deeply into his eyes. “Ready?” She felt somewhat repaid when he wasn’t able to give her an audible answer. Her fingers threaded into the hair at the back of his neck. “Close your eyes.”
As soon as he obeyed, she gave him a sisterly peck on the cheek and stepped away. “Can we go inside now? I really hate missing the beginning of a movie.”
She expected him to have some witty comeback, but all he did was add a furrowed brow to his frown, shove his fists into his pants pockets and start walking toward the theater. How disappointing, she thought. Men were so dull when they pouted.
* * *
Luke had no idea what happened during the first half hour of the movie. He was too busy trying to figure out what had happened in the half hour before it started.
He knew for certain that he had been holding the reins up until the moment when he suggested they get the kiss out of the way. He had expected her to try to get out of it, and he’d have another excuse to tease her a bit more, get her good and nervous, then he would decide whether they would kiss or let the anticipation build for another two hours. That had been his plan.
But instead of trying to get out of it, she turned the tables on him. He might have found some humor in that—he certainly deserved it—but her turnabout wasn’t what had left him speechless.
There was a moment there, actually it had probably been no more than a millisecond, just before she closed her eyes and sighed. She had looked at him and he felt something turn on inside him, a light he didn’t even know he had.
And he knew in that instant she was the one, the soul mate that Terrell talked about, the woman he had been positive didn’t exist.
Why now? Why her? One thing he believed for certain was that if you love someone, you should be honest with them, but that was impossible under his present circumstances. How could he tell her that the real reason he had come to Sacramento was to use her to get evidence on her boss? He couldn’t. Yet he also couldn’t forget the importance of that real reason. She was still the best chance he had of getting that evidence.
To make matters worse, he didn’t think she felt an equal attraction to him. At the moment, he was
just an annoying itch that she couldn’t seem to help scratching even if it made the itch worse.
The question was, now that he had her attention, could he change the game to one where they could both win? He would find out what he needed to know about Jones, she wouldn’t get angry when she found out that he’d used her and they’d live happily ever after.
The odds against his getting all three were astronomical, but he had always been a sucker for a good, high-risk adventure.
* * *
Ellery had no idea what happened during the first half hour of the movie. She was too busy alternating between congratulating and kicking herself.
He thought he was so smart, with his terms of surrender and tricky wording, but she had gotten him back for that. She had flustered him for a change. That was what she needed to remember, not the other thing.
She didn’t even know what to call that other thing. It was just a thing that happened, and now that it had, she would recognize the warning signs in the future and prevent it from affecting her again.
She could still feel it now, even though no part of her body was touching any part of his. In fact, she was being so careful not to make contact that she was getting stiff. It was like static electricity jumping between them. Every so often she felt the need to smooth the hairs on her neck, but when she checked, every hair was securely pinned in place.
When he had first come into her office, she had quickly recognized that he had the uncanny ability of getting under her skin, but she had thought it was because he sensed what buttons to push. It hadn’t occurred to her that there might be something less psychological, and more chemical, going on between them.
She understood chemistry between the sexes. She simply had not experienced it in a long time. Thus, she was unprepared for its effects. Now that she was aware that Luke’s chemistry had the ability to burn through her shields, she would just have to do a little extra reinforcing.
Perhaps her only problem was extended celibacy. It could be a good idea to go see Brandon this weekend and put an end to her self-imposed drought. At least with Brandon, she had no fear of losing her identity. He had kissed her the other night without much effect whatsoever. The way Luke made her feel at the mere thought of a kiss proved that it would be far too risky to have a fling with him. In fact, she should probably avoid being within a hundred feet of him. Her mission was far too important to risk being distracted by chemistry.
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