Trust Me on This (13 page)

"It's my charm," he said. "Although you seem to be pretty resistant to it in general."

"My defenses are down this afternoon." Dennie snuggled closer. "God, you feel good."

"Remember that," Alec said, hating what he had to say next. "Because I have to change the subject here." She looked up at him then, and Alec said, "I need your help to get Bond." When she didn't say anything, he went on. "Brian Bond is a real estate con. He regularly swindles people out of their savings. He's bad, and he should be in jail, and my boss and I would like to put him there. But we need your help."

"I thought you had that under control," Dennie said, pulling away a little and frowning. "Didn't Victoria—?"

"We hit a snag. Bond owns the land he's selling." Dennie's frown deepened. "So where's the fraud?" "He's telling people it can be developed, and he's selling it for about ten times what it's worth."

"Oh, yeah." Dennie nodded. "The I've-got-the-EPA-fixed bit."

Alec shook his head. "He doesn't even tell them that. He says the EPA will be fixed, not specifically by him. He puts nothing on paper. He's not breaking the law." He scowled. "Except morally. By the time the people who have bought the land have caught on, he'll be long gone. And even if they caught him, they probably wouldn't have much recourse. They'll have paid prime dollar for worthless swamp, but as long as he didn't promise them anything different—" Dennie broke in. "So where do I come in?" "One of the selling points he's been using on me is what a great place this would be for me to settle down. And he's seen us together. As a matter of fact"—he paused, unsure of how she'd take the next part—"when I thought you were working with him, I told him you were the perfect woman. He thinks I'm crazy about you."

Dennie nodded, and her curls brushed his cheek and derailed his train of thought again. "I am the perfect woman," she said, "and you should be crazy about me. Get to the point."

I am crazy about you
, Alec told her silently and then jerked his mind back to the problem at hand. "We get engaged, we meet Bond for drinks, I get ready to buy the property for you, and you spoil the deal."

Dennie blinked. "I what?"

Alec grinned. "You bat your eyes and tell me that you want a house, not a lousy piece of swamp. I tell Bond, no sale."

Dennie nodded. "I get it. And then he promises us a house which he can't deliver." She looked thoughtful. "Is he that dumb?"

"It won't be the first time he's sold something he didn't have," Alec said.

Dennie thought about it some more. "I'll do it. On one condition."

"Oh, hell," Alec said, letting go of her. "Can't you just do it out of the goodness of your heart?"

"No." Dennie folded her arms and set her chin. "I want the story."

"What story?"

"I want to break the story of the arrest. I want you to tell me everything you know about this guy, and I want to write the story. In depth."

"No," Alec said. "We have to take him to court. I can't—"

"No problem," Dennie said. "This isn't a newspaper story. I got fired, remember? This is a magazine article. An in-depth article I can peddle as a freelance. It won't see print until after the trial. You can tell me all about how you work. It'll be great."

"My boss would never go for it," Alec said.

"Let me talk to him," Dennie said. "I'm good with men."

"Not with Harry." Alec shook his head. "Harry doesn't like women."

"Harry never met me."

"No."

"Then I won't do it." Dennie picked up her sundae and ate while Alec glared at her.

"I can't believe I was comforting you a minute ago, and now you're turning on me," he said, trying to sound indignant.

"Forget the guilt trip." Dennie grinned at him. "You can give me this story. You know you can."

"It'll blow my cover."

"I'll refer to you as a generic geek. Only those people who know you will recognize you from that description."

"Dennie—"

"I get the story, or you don't get me." Dennie spread her hands, one full of sundae, the other with the spoon, the picture of rationality. "I don't see the problem."

There was still a shadow behind the bravado, but she was Dennie again, and that threw him the way it always did. "How much of you do I get?" Alec asked.

"Probably not that much. So, do we meet for dinner tonight?"

Alec gave up. "Yes."

"Thank you." Dennie smiled at him and dipped into her sundae again. "You won't regret this."

"I regret it already," Alec said. "We need to meet with Harry and Victoria this evening before we meet Bond. Is seven all right for you?"

"Why Victoria?" Dennie said.

"Victoria's going to sweeten the deal. She's going to dinner with us, and when she hears you talk about a house, she'll decide she wants one next door." Alec stopped, distracted for a moment by the beauty of the plan. "All that money, just lying there, and all he has to do to get it is lie. He'll do it." He narrowed his eyes, thinking about Bond.

"You really want him, don't you?" Dennie said.

"Yes." He met her eyes, deadly serious, "This is important. This guy should not be preying on people. He wipes out their savings and leaves them nothing, Dennie. Nothing. We've got to stop him."

Dennie blinked. "This is what you meant, isn't it? When you said you'd do it even if they didn't pay you. Because you're trying to save people."

"Hey, look, I'm not Robin Hood," Alec said, taken aback. "Don't make me into a hero. I do this for a living. It's a job."

"I bet the pay's lousy," Dennie said.

"It could be better," Alec said. "But look at the fun I have."

"I bet you could make a bundle doing something else."

Alec studied her, trying to see why she was suddenly so interested. "Probably," he said cautiously.

Dennie smiled at him. "You are really something else, Alec Prentice." She put her sundae on the table and then leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. "I don't know what you are exactly, but I like it, whatever it is, and I will be your baby tonight. No tricks. I promise."

She was so close that he couldn't resist. He turned his head and kissed her softly, and she put her hands on his chest and leaned into him, moving her lips against his until his arms went around her. She tasted of chocolate and of Dennie and of love, and he eased her down beneath him, losing himself in the way she moved into him.

"You love me," he whispered in her ear.

"Maybe," she whispered back, but she held him tighter and that was the better answer. "I love the way you feel against me, but I need to think about all of this, about who I am and what I want. I'm not making any more dumb moves."

"I am not a dumb move," Alec said, and he kissed her again, once, with all the passion he had for her, and when he broke the kiss and she blinked up at him, dazed, he said, "Think about that first, please." and then left her, still blinking at him.

It wasn't easy leaving her, he thought as her door closed behind him, but he was going to see her again that night. And if he had anything to do with it, a lot of nights after that.

Surprisingly cheered by the thought of commitment, Alec whistled all the way back to his room.

Harry knocked on Victoria's door at five-thirty with roses and champagne, and when Victoria answered the door and saw it was him, she said, "I'm sorry I was so bitchy," and pulled him into her arms, and he dropped the flowers and the champagne and just held her until she pulled him toward the bed.

An hour later, Harry cuddled Victoria a litlle closer and said, "I was going to tell you something important when you jumped me at the door and then I forgot how to talk."

"I think you should stop bringing champagne," she said into his chest. "We never drink it."

"Will you listen to me?" he said, tipping her chin up so he could look in her eyes, but she interrupted him.

"I called the university and resigned this afternoon," she said. "It took me all afternoon but I finally found the head of my department, and I resigned. I'm not even going back for next quarter."

"You what?"

"I resigned," Victoria said. "I bitched at you about your lousy priorities, and I knew the whole time mine were just as bad. So I picked love instead of work, and it's okay. I've always wanted to write, and now I can live with you and write, and we can make love every night. I can't think why I didn't jump at the chance the first time you mentioned it. This is going to be wonderful."

Her voice was relentlessly cheery, but he could hear the loss beneath the cheer. "It was tough, wasn't it?"

Victoria buried her face in his chest. 'Yes," she said. "It was very tough. I've been teaching for forty years. And now I won't be." She pulled back her head to look at him. "Thank you for knowing that it was tough."

He kissed her gently. "I know because it was tough for me too."

Victoria froze in his arms. "What?"

"I called Chicago and resigned. Hardest thing I've ever done." He put his cheek against her hair.

"You resigned?"

"I recommended Alec for my job."

"Oh." Victoria held him tighter.

Harry tried to sound cheerful too. "Maybe I'll write my memoirs. I'll tell you about all the brave things I've done, and you can be impressed and write them down."

Victoria was quiet for a moment, and then she said, "You did the bravest thing this afternoon. I'll be impressed about that forever."

They clung to each other, absorbing their losses and comforting themselves.

"You realize we can live anywhere now," Harry said after a while. "Anywhere at all."

"I can get us a great deal on some land in Florida," Victoria said, and they both started to laugh.

By the time dinner was over, nobody was laughing, and the only comfort Alec could take from the whole night was that at least he'd spent it with Dennie. She'd worn the red dress again, too, and every now and then he'd caught a flash of purple lace at the edge of her neckline. He'd been planning on catching more than a flash later, but later was now, and they were still working.

Bond hadn't been as greedy as they'd hoped he'd be.

"I can't believe how slippery that litde toad is," Victoria said when they were all back in her room.

"Where'd we go wrong, Harry?" Alec asked him. "I was there and I couldn't tell, but I might have been distracted. Did we say something that tipped him off?"

"If you did, I didn't hear it." Harry sat on the edge of the bed looking tired, and Alec thought that for the first time, the man looked his age. "You were all good. I don't know what happened. Maybe he's just a lot smarter than we figured."

Victoria went over and sat beside him. That was Aunt Vic, always comforting people, even people she didn't like. Alec felt a wave of gratitude toward her.

"I thought for sure when Donald agreed about the house that was it," she said. "Donald is so clueless that Bond has to believe him. He couldn't have turned us down because he didn't believe us. It must just be caution."

"He wanted to do it," Dennie said, and they all turned to look at her, surprised because they weren't used to hearing a fourth voice in their meetings. "Well, he did," Dennie said defensively. "You could see he wanted it. All that money. There were just too many of us."

Alec considered it. "She might have a point," he said finally.

"Might?" Dennie said. "Thank you very much."

Alec ignored her and went on. "All of us talking at once would put Bond on his guard whether he suspected anything or not. He'd have to be careful dealing with that many people. But if only one of us went down and talked to him, it could be different."

"Hell, it's worth a shot," Harry said.

Alec stood up. "I'll call him."

"No," Dennie said, and they all stared again. "Look, am I part of this or not?"

"Of course you are, dear," Victoria said. "Alec's just not used to hearing women say no in a bedroom."

"Aunt Vic—" Alec said, and Dennie cut him off.

"I met with Bond this afternoon," she said. "He likes me. he thinks I'm a gold digger out to get Alec's money. He'll believe me if I tell him I'm going for the house too." She looked up at Alec. "And it'll be a lot easier for me to confuse him than it would be for you. He's not going to be staring down your shirt."

Alec glared at her. "He's not going to be staring down yours, either."

"Yes, he is," Harry said, and when Alec transferred his glare over, Harry shrugged and said, "She's right. She's our best bet."

"You had to wear that dress, didn't you?" Alec said bitterly.

Dennie nodded. "This dress clouds men's minds."

"Well, it's certainly working on Alec," Victoria said, and Alec gave up.

"Call him," he told Dennie, and when there was no answer in Bond's room, he said, "We'll have to try the bar. Get the wire, Harry."

"Which I will tape on her," Victoria said to Alec.

"Fine," Alec said, and thought,
But I'll take it off her
.