She pictured the assistant managing editor’s shock of graying hair and customary stern expression. He’d intimidated her when she started working at the Outlook. However, he’d also impressed her with his high standards.
The one thing he’d never displayed was a warm heart. Although he’d respected Alli’s abilities, that hadn’t been the case with another young reporter who’d arrived a year later. He’d raked the woman over the coals when she failed to ask the hard questions of her subjects, so relentlessly that she’d quit after a few months. Yet she hadn’t made nearly as many errors—nor such serious ones—as Payne.
Ned might not recognize it, but Alli considered that she was doing him a favor. The sooner he snapped out of his nepotistic daze, the better for him and the paper.
The bathroom door clicked. Kevin emerged in gray slacks and a hooded black pullover. In these casual clothes, he looked younger than usual.
However, seeing him reminded Alli that she couldn’t use this story if his client objected. “What did she say?”
“She tried to borrow the money from relatives, but they don’t have it,” he explained grimly.
“She must be upset.” Judging by his glower, so was Kevin.
“She was in tears. I had to reassure her that no matter what happens, the authorities aren’t likely to swoop down and grab her son without lengthy legal proceedings.”
“What did she say about notifying the cops?”
When he stood behind her chair, she sensed his gaze sweeping the screen. “She feared any publicity would make the situation worse, but I persuaded her she has nothing to lose. I hope the cops jump on this one, although catching a blackmailer can be tricky.”
“I should think they’d especially resent the fact that he’s portraying them as bogeymen who steal children. Wait! That would make a great quote!” Alli typed rapidly, putting these words into the mouth of one of her unidentified policemen.
Kevin sat on the bed beside her. “It looks like you’re having fun.”
“It’s a little scary how much I’m enjoying it,” Alli admitted. “When I hear about real reporters who invent their stories, I feel disgusted. It’s the worst kind of lying, because it tarnishes an entire profession.”
“But this is more like a game?” he surmised.
“It’s working out that way.” She couldn’t help smiling. “I’m making the piece as outrageous as possible. My sources all have funny mannerisms in their speech.”
“Don’t carry it too far,” Kevin warned. “Payne can’t be that stupid.”
“That remains to be seen.” She couldn’t bear to gut her beautiful fake prose.
He helped her outline the rest of the article. Since there was no telling which parts might make it into print, they agreed to soft-pedal Dr. Graybar’s role and use innuendo regarding LeMott’s possible access to the adoption data. There was no point in naming a suspect when implications would suffice.
“I’ll refer to the mayor’s alleged past as a loan shark. Of course, Payne might plug in the stuff he’s already run to make the mayor look like the villain,” Alli said.
“Which he might be.”
“He’s certainly no angel,” she agreed, although the journalistic recklessness left her uneasy.
She stretched her shoulders, which ached from the uncomfortable chair. Reaching over, Kevin massaged the knots with strong, gentle hands.
When he lifted her hair out of the way, his fingers caressed the long strands before returning to her muscles. “Ready?” he murmured close to Allie’s ear.
She nearly answered, “Getting there fast,” before she realized he was referring to the article. “Uh, I think so. Want to read it over before I close it online?”
“Sure.” Looping his arms around her, Kevin brushed his cheek against hers as he scrolled through the story. His warmth enclosed them both. By the time he said, “Fire away,” Alli had nearly melted.
Taking a deep breath to regain her composure, she dialed the server. Once she was on the Internet, she closed the story. It seemed to Allie that there should be bells and kazoo noises, or at least a notice that said “Spyware at work.” But to all outward appearances, nothing happened.
“How fast does this work?” Kevin asked.
“It pops up immediately,” she said.
“I wish there were a way to find out if he’s reading it. He might have gone home by now.”
“Hey! I thought I was the impatient one in this crowd.”
“There’s a lot riding on this.”
The only way to do that would be to ask Larry to go over to Payne’s desk, but that was likely to give away the tactic. And Alli didn’t want her friend to risk attracting too much attention.
The sight of the blinking cursor started to annoy her. It felt like a traitor, so she angled the screen away.
Her watch showed a few minutes past nine. That didn’t leave Payne much time to surprise his uncle with the story and make his calls. “This could be held over another day,” she admitted.
“Let’s not agonize over things we can’t control,” Kevin advised. “By the way, did you talk to your contact?”
“She wasn’t home.”
“Probably out robbing a bank,” he quipped.
“I’m sure she was tempted.”
Kevin stretched out on the bedspread. He’d taken off his shoes somewhere along the line, Alli saw. “I don’t know about you, but I’ve had a long day.”
“Wimping out on me?”
“Why? Were you expecting me to do something else tonight?” he asked playfully.
He looked different than usual, more relaxed. The way he’d pushed up his sleeves and rumpled his hair made him hard to resist.
“My back is itching like crazy.” Alli moved from the chair to the edge of the mattress. Never mind that she was playing with fire. Even cheap motels came with extinguishers, didn’t they? “It’s this bra. They must hire sadists to design the hooks so they dig into your skin.”
“I didn’t think you were wearing a bra under that sexy pink dress.” Kevin lifted the back of her tank top and began lazily scratching her. “Not to mention this tank top. Where do you hide the straps?”
“They do make strapless bras,” Alli said.
“I’m trying not to think about that.” His palms smoothed upward, lifting the bra’s fabric and scratching the points beneath the hooks that she could never reach. “Does that help?”
“It’s fabulous.”
She was still sitting up, while he lay beside her. They hadn’t gone beyond the point of no return, or even the point of questionable return.
She could leave it that way. Kevin wasn’t going to push her. Yet bit by bit he’d lowered the barriers until almost none remained.
Alli didn’t have to make a decision to cross the line. She simply knew instinctively the time was right.
With a quick motion, she lifted her tank top over her head and tossed it to the floor, revealing the strapless construction. “It’s a marvel of engineering, isn’t it? Keeping a space station aloft is nothing compared with this.”
Kevin smoothed his fingers to the front and outlined the rim of the bra. “Thanks. Now I can see what I’m doing.”
“Always happy to oblige.” She might have carried off the blasé attitude except for the moan that escaped her.
Kevin responded by raising himself until his mouth met hers. The kiss connected them with a sizzle, sending a rush of desire through Alli.
He prolonged the kiss, teasing her with his tongue as he peeled away the bra. When he bent to take her nipples between his lips, she could hardly bear the tension welling inside her.
She tugged upward on Kevin’s jersey. He shrugged it off over his head, baring an impressive chest. After exploring his sculpted muscles with her palms, Alli swung her hair across his bare skin.
His breath quickened. Down her ribs, his thumbs seared a path to the waistline of her jeans, where he worked the snap. Together, they stripped them off and lay side by
side, basking in the whisper of skin against skin.
With the heel of her hand, Alli rubbed the center of his slacks. She enjoyed the deep groan that tore from his throat.
“Woman, anyone would think you meant to seduce me,” Kevin murmured.
“Oh, I thought you were doing that to me.”
“It crossed my mind.”
“What’s crossing your mind now?”
“This,” he said, and pulled her atop him.
Her bare breasts pressed into his chest as he kissed her again. Below, only a few wisps of fabric separated them.
When their mouths parted, Alli traced a line along his stomach with her tongue. Removing his slacks, she tantalized him until a gasp warned that he couldn’t hold out much longer.
“Alli.” Kevin half whispered her name. “I have to ask—did you bring any—I don’t have protection.”
“I’m on the prevention plan.”
“Really?” He quirked one eyebrow. “You never struck me as the cautious type.”
“That’s why I’m on it.”
If she’d meant to say anything more, she never got the chance. After rolling her onto the bed, Kevin removed her panties. Then his mouth brought her to the brink of losing control.
When he tucked into her, Alli cried out with the sheer pleasure of his long, hard entry. She relished his burnished skin, his chuckle of delight, the perfect way he fit against the length of her.
“Let’s do this all night,” she said.
He didn’t answer. He was too busy rocking in and out of her, pausing only to watch her reaction and give them both a chance to savor the experience.
They skirted the edge of a cliff. Alli clung to Kevin’s strength, yearning for this ecstasy to last forever, but their sheer velocity carried them too far.
She felt them tumbling through a waterfall, sunlight and magic glinting around them. She gripped him as if she might spin away and get lost entirely, and he anchored her through all the brilliance and the glory.
Afterward, ripples of color sparkled through Alli’s awareness, blending with the heat of Kevin’s body. Curled against him with his arms holding her tight, she registered the amazing fact that they had just blasted through paradise.
This was the man she’d considered stuffy and stiff-necked—Kevin, whose picture she’d saved for three years because she couldn’t bear to throw it away. Kevin, who’d sneaked below her radar because she knew how utterly impossible it was for her to fit into his life or for him to fit into hers.
With all the worry about drive-by shooters, she’d missed the real danger. If she wasn’t careful, she might fall in love with him, and she knew what that would mean, because she’d grown up loving a man she couldn’t have.
Alli refused to go there. Not even now.
Chapter Fourteen
Lying under the covers with his arms around Alli, Kevin tried to figure out what had hit him. He’d always considered her sexy, but that didn’t explain the surge of passion that had awakened a new tenderness in him.
While making love, his pleasure had come as much from her response as from his own. He’d anticipated her every move and relished every gasp. Only when he’d felt her release had he soared until they became one.
If only he had words to describe what had happened. He wanted to relive the experience again and again—except that to do so might deepen his need instead of satisfying it.
Did Alli share his amazement? Kevin wondered. Was she willing to take the next step with him? Maybe it was worth trying.
He drew her closer. “Incredible.”
She brushed a kiss across his temple. “Those secretaries at city hall don’t know what they’re missing.”
A laugh burst out of him. “I should hope not!”
“You’re every woman’s fantasy male. It was great.” She sounded sleepy, contented—but hardly as if he’d turned her world upside down.
“We should talk,” Kevin said.
“We can’t.”
“Why not?”
“Guys never want to talk after sex,” she told him. “It’s too weird.”
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“You always like to have meaningful discussions after orgasm?” she challenged.
“That’s not what I meant.” Sure, the green-apple scent and the silky texture of Alli’s hair spilling across his chest could easily carry him into a stream of driftwood and dreams. “The thing is, I wanted to know…”
Whether they were starting a journey together or whether they’d soon be parting ways, Kevin thought. Yet he wasn’t ready to ask the question that bluntly.
“We’ve made love. That changes things,” he said, instead. “You agree, right?”
“Don’t tell me you’re turning possessive.” The way she snuggled into him took some of the sting from her words. But not all.
“Of course not. What makes you think that?” he plied, a little annoyed.
“Because you usually insist on taking charge, so I assume that’s what you’re doing now.”
He wasn’t taking charge. He was simply trying to steer the conversation to where he wanted it to go. “Unfair,” he said. “I didn’t push you into anything tonight.”
“Of course not. What we did was terrific.” Alli covered a yawn. “Can we go to sleep now? I’m exhausted.”
“Sure.” He could hardly conduct a conversation alone, could he?
“Good night.”
“Night.” Kevin tried to lie still so as not to disturb her. Gradually, her breathing grew regular.
Obviously, he’d mistaken her response to him. Whatever new vista he’d uncovered tonight, he’d gone there by himself.
He pulled the blankets over them both. Nice and warm. He ought to doze off with no trouble at all.
People made love all the time, and nothing resulted from it. No epiphanies, no shared dreams, no happy futures. If Alli hadn’t been affected in more than a superficial way, Kevin didn’t intend to dwell on it.
Why had he imagined this bed to be comfortable? The mattress was hard and the blanket so small it barely reached his feet.
He was going to be stiff in the morning, and in the wrong places. All because of one lousy motel with inferior beds.
Growing more irked by the minute, he closed his eyes and waited for sleep to claim him.
ALLI HAD EXPECTED to lose consciousness immediately. Instead, although she pretended to doze, she lay there wondering what Kevin had meant about things having changed.
Maybe she should have given him a chance to explain. Maybe she ought to start trusting him more.
But she didn’t want to. Only fools made the same mistake over and over.
A cell phone rang. “Is that mine?” she asked.
“Must be. Mine’s on vibrate.” He sounded wide awake.
Drowsily, she extricated her limbs from the covers. By the time she reached the phone, she feared the caller might have hung up, but the line remained open.
The voice that answered Alli’s “Hello?” had a thick quality as if from crying. “This is Rita,” she said.
“Thanks for calling back!” Alli sat back on the bed, aware of Kevin’s gaze playing over her naked torso. She’d never been uncomfortable about nudity. “Has the blackmailer called?”
“Yes. He phoned to arrange about the money.”
“Did he give you any details?”
“No. I had to tell him we can’t raise that much. What does the man expect? We’re not rich.” Rita sounded torn between tears and anger.
“What was his response?”
“He said we’d better come through or we’d regret it. I told him we could only find ten thousand and he said that might do as a down payment.”
“A down payment?” Alli hoped the Hernandezes wouldn’t fall for that. “What’s to stop him from demanding more and more? It could go on indefinitely!”
“What should we do?” Rita wailed.
“I know there’s at least one other victim who can’t pay.”
A new angle occurred to her. “That means that if he carries out his threat to even one of you, he’ll have to notify the authorities. Yet if he rats out one family, everybody’s shafted, whether they paid or not.”
“You don’t think we should pay him anything?” Rita asked. “That’s what Jose wants. He says we should save our money for a lawyer.”
“I’m no expert,” Alli conceded. “But one way or the other, I think the police are going to find out about it, and they’ll notify Immigration and Child Services. So your husband’s probably right.”
“The guy seemed in an awful hurry,” Rita said thoughtfully. “He got so frantic he forgot to tell me where to send the ten thousand and I didn’t think of it until he’d hung up.” She paused briefly before adding, “Somebody spoke to him in the background, a woman. He clicked off before I could hear much.”
Alli pulled out a pad. Anything Rita had heard might be helpful in establishing the man’s identity. “What language did she speak?”
“English.”
“Did she have an accent?”
“Standard American, if there is such a thing.”
That was good news, in a way. Someone in Costa Buena would most likely have spoken Spanish. “Could you make out her words?”
“She said, ‘Who are you talking to?’ No, wait. First she addressed him by a name, or I think it was a name. It sounded like Ardee.”
“Ardee? Are you sure?” Alli wrote the name down.
“Now that I think about it, yes. I don’t know why it didn’t register with me sooner,” Rita said. “I was so upset it didn’t quite sink in that she might have spoken a name. I don’t even know if it’s his last or his first.”
“Still, it’s something.” Alli quizzed her for a while longer but nothing else turned up. Apparently the extortionist had rung off before his companion could grow too curious about what he was doing. “I’ll see what my detective friend makes of it. In the meantime, please call me again when he lets you know where to send the money.”
“Okay,” Rita said. “But we won’t really pay him.”
The Baby Scheme Page 17