“Hello."Her mood deflated as if she'd been pricked with a pin. "Alan.""Shelby."She struggled not to be moved by the quiet,serious tone that should never have moved her.She liked men with a laugh in their voice. "Alan, this has to stop.""Does it? It hasn't even started.""Alan-" She tried to remember her decision to be firm. "I mean it. You have to stop sending me things. You're only wasting your time.""I have a bit to spare," he said mildly. "How was your week?""Busy.Listen,I-""I missed you."The simple statement threw the rest of her lecture into oblivion. "Alan, don't -""Everyday," he continued. "Every night. Have you been to Boston, Shelby?""Uh...yes," she managed, busy fighting off the weakness creeping into her. Helplessly she stared up at the balloons. How could she fight something so insubstantial it floated?"I'd like to take you there in the fall, when it smells of damp leaves and smoke."Shelby told herself her heart was not fluttering. "Alan, I didn't call to talk about Boston.Now,to put it in very simple terms,I want you to stop calling me, I want you to stop dropping by, and -" Her voice began to rise in frustration as she pictured him listening with that patient, serious smile and calm eyes. "I want you to stop sending me balloons and pigs and everything! Is that clear?""Perfectly.Spend the day with me."Did the man ever stop being patient? She couldn't abide patient men. "For God's sake, Alan!""We'll call it an experimental outing," he suggested in the same even tone. "Not a date.""No!" she said, barely choking back a laugh. Couldn't abide it, she tried to remember.She preferred the flashy, the freewheeling. "No,no,no!""Not bureaucratic enough." His voice was so calm,so...so senatorial, she decided, she wanted to scream. But the scream bubbled perilously close to another laugh. "All right, let me think-a standard daytime expedition for furthering amiable relations between opposing clans.""You're trying to be charming again," Shelby muttered."Am I succeeding?”

“You're trying to be charming again," Shelby muttered."Am I succeeding?"Some questions were best ignored. "I really don't know how to be more succinct, Alan."Was that part of the appeal? he wondered. The fact that the free-spirited Gypsy could turn into the regal duchess in the blink of an eye. He doubted she had any notion she was as much one as the other. "You have a wonderful speaking voice.What time will you be ready?"Shelby huffed and frowned and considered. "If I agree to spend some time with you today, will you stop sending me things?"Alan was silent for a long moment. "Are you going to take a politician's word?"Now she had to laugh. "All right, you've boxed me in on that one.""It's a beautiful day, Shelby.I haven't had a free Saturday in over a month. Come out with me."She twined the phone cord around her finger. A refusal seemed so petty, so bad-natured.He was really asking her for very little, and-dammit-she wanted to see him. "All right, Alan, every rule needs to be bent a bit now and again to prove it's really a rule after all.""If you say so.Where would you like to go? There's an exhibition of Flemish art at the National Gallery."Shelby's lips curved. "The zoo," she said and waited for his reaction."Fine," Alan agreed without missing a beat. "I'll be there in ten minutes."With a sigh,Shelby decided he just wasn't an easy man to shake. "Alan, I'm not dressed.""I'll be there in five."On a burst of laughter, she slammed down the phone.”

“Carpool,my foot. But it's still not a date,MacGregor. What we'll call this is a...a civilized transit agreement. That sounds bureaucratic enough.I like your car," she added, patting the hood of his Mercedes. "Very sedate."Alan opened the trunk and set the box inside. He glanced back up at Shelby as he closed it. "You have an interesting way of insulting someone."She laughed,that free smoke-edged laugh as she went to him. "Dammit, Alan, I like you." Throwing her arms around his neck, she gave him a friendly hug that sent jolts of need careening through him. "I really like you," she added, tilting back her head with a smile that lit her whole face with a sense of fun. "I could probably have said that to a dozen other men who'd never have realized I was insulting them.""So." His hands settled at her hips. "I get points for perception.”

“Lazily...possessively he ran a hand down her back."Mmm, again," Shelby murmured.With a quiet laugh, Alan stroked up and down until she was ready to purr. "Shelby..." She gave another sigh as an answer and snuggled closer. "Shelby,there's something warm and fluffy under my feet.""Mmm-hmm.""If it's your cat, he's not breathing.""MacGregor."He kissed the top of her head. "What?"She gave a muffled laugh against his shoulder. "MacGregor," she repeated. "My pig."There was silence for a moment while he tried to digest this. "I beg your pardon?"The dry serious tone had more laughter bubbling up. Would she ever be able to face a day without hearing it? "Oh, say that again.I love it." Because she had to see his face, Shelby found the energy to lean across him and grope for the matches on the nightstand. Skin rubbed distractedly against skin while she struck one and lit a candle. "MacGregor," she said, giving Alan a quick kiss before she gestured to the foot of the bed.Alan studied the smiling porcine face. "You named a stuffed purple pig after me?""Alan, is that any way to talk about our child?" His eyes shifted to hers in an expression so masculine and ironic, she collapsed on his chest in a fit of giggles. "I put him there because he was supposed to be the only MacGregor who charmed his way into my bed.""Really." Alan tugged on her hair until she lifted her face, full of amusement and fun,to his. "Is that what I dd?""You knew damn well I wouldn't be able to resist balloons and rainbows foever.”

“He works fast," Alan commented as he lifted his wine."David?" Shelby sent him a puzzled look. "Actually his fastest sped is crawl unless he's got a guitar in his hands.""Really?" Alan's eyes met hers as he sipped, but she didn't understand the amusement in them. "You only stood him up tonight, and already he's planning his wedding to someone else.""Stood him-" she began on a laugh, then remembered. "Oh." Torn between annoyance and her own sense of te ridiculous, Shelby toyed with the stem of her glass. "Men are fickle creatures," she decided."Apparently." Reaching over, he lifted her chin with a fingertip. "You're holding up well.""I don't like to wear my heart on my sleeve" Exasperated, amused, she muffled a laugh. "Dammit, he would have to pick tonight to show up here.""Of all the gin joints in all the towns..."This time the laugh escaped fully. "Well done," Shelby told him. "I should've thought of that line myself; I heard the movie not long ago.""Heard it?""Mmm-hmmm. Well..." She lifted her glass in a toast. "To broken hearts?""Or foolish lies?" Alan countered.Shelby wrinkled her nose as she tapped her glass against his. "I usually tell very good ones. Besides, I did date David.Once.Tree years ago." She finished off her wine. "Maybe four.You can stop grinning in that smug, masculine way any time, Senator.""Was I?" Rising, he offered Shelby her damp jacket. "How rude of me.""It would've been more polite not to acknowledge that you'd caught me in a lie," she commented as they worked their way through the crowd and back into the rain. "Which you wouldn't have done if you hadn't made me so mad that I couldn't think of a handier name to give you in the first place.""If I work my way through the morass of that sentence it seems to be my fault." Alan slipped an arm around her shoulders in so casually friendly a manner she didn't protest. "Suppose I apologize for not giving you time to think of a lie that would hold up?""It seems fair.”

“Can I tell you something without it going to your head?" Shelby murmured as she ran her fingers down his chest, over his ribs."Probably not." His voice had thickened from the pleasure of being touched. "I'm reasily flattered.""In my workroom..." Shelby pressed her lips to his chest and felt his heartbeat thud faster against them. "When I messed up your shirt and you took it off to rinse it? I turned around and saw you-I wanted to get my hands on you like this." She ran her palms up,then down again to where his waist narrowed. "Just like this,I nearly did."Alan felt his blood start to pound-in his head, his heart,his loins. "I wouldn't have put up much of a fight.""If I'd decided to have you, Senator," she murmured on a sultry laugh, "you wouldn't have had a chance.""Is that so?"Shelby ran her tongue down his rib cage. "Mmm," she said when she heard the small, quick intake of breath. "Just so.A MacGregor will always buckle under to a Campbell."Alan started to form a retort, then her fingers skimmed his thigh. As a politician, he knew the value of a debate-but sometimes they didn't require words.She could have the floor first.”