“It's crowded," she murmured as her eyes laughed into his."The longer we're in here..." His thighs brushed against hers as a toddler wiggled up to the glass. "The fonder I am of snakes.”

“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.”

“He'd find out, he thought and nodded as he rose. " Are you worried about you? " It surprised her, the gentleness in his voice, the light brush of his knuckles over her jaw. She could lean against him, she realized with a jolt. She could lay her head on that shoulder, close her eyes, and for a moment at least, everything would be all right. She nearly stepped forward before she decided it would be foolish. " You're not going to be nice to me, are you? " " Maybe. " It might have been the confusion in her eyes, or that sultry scent that wafted from her skin, but he needed to touch. He laid his hands on her shoulders, rubbed while his eyes stayed on hers. " Do you need help?”

“When Grant opened the door, he thought she looked like some fairy princess-part ingenue,part seductress. Her eyes met his in the glass, and she smiled while following through with the last stroke of the brush."Take the wrong turn?""I took the right one." He closed the door behind him,then flicked the lock."Is that so?" Tapping the brush against her palm, Gennie arched a brow. "I thought you had the room down the hall.""The MacGregors forgot to put something in there." He stood where he was for a moment, pleased just to look at her."Oh? What?""You.”

“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.”

“She wanted to take a look at you, too. She heard you were a hunk.""Is that so?" Amused, Brian shifted. "Did you tell her that?""I certainly did not. I have more respect for you than to speak of you in such a sexist way.""Respect's a good thing." He yanked her into the box, crushing his mouth to hers before she could laugh. "But I'm banking on passion just at the moment. Have you passion for me, Keeley?" he murmured against her mouth.”

“You gonna have dinner with her and everything?"Grant lifted a brow but managed to keep his composure. Everything, he reminded himself, meant different things to different people. At the moment it conjured up rather provocative images in his brain. "Things are presently unsettled," he murmured, using one of Macintosh's stock phrases. Catching himself, he grinned. "Yeah, we're going to have dinner." And something, he added as he strolled out after Gennie."What was all that about?" she demanded."Man talk.""Oh,I beg your pardon."The way she said it-very antebellum and disdainful-made him laugh and pull her into his arms to kiss her in full view of all of Windy Point.As the embrace lingered on,Grant caught the muffled crash from inside Fairfield's. "Poor Will," he murmured. "I know just how he feels." Humor flashed into his eyes again. "I better start around in the boat if we're going to have dinner...and everything."Confused by his uncharacteristic lightheartedness, Gennie gave him a long stare. "All right," she said after a moment. "I'll meet you there.”