Zane (Alluring Indulgence) (46 page)

Oh,
hell, who was she kidding? She
was
a little worried.

She
found some consolation in the fact that Tag Murphy considered her the enemy;
therefore, thwarting any chance of her getting close to the man. Little did he
know, McKenna was the least he had to worry about. But, it was easier to accept
his aversion to her than risk the chance of facing him one on one again.

Their
impromptu introduction a couple of months before had left her reeling. Similar
to her intentions today, McKenna had been at the courthouse in hopes of
speaking to Tag in regard to his personal take on the trial. Considering he
wasn’t representing Sierra, she had been hoping to get his opinion on a future
outcome.

From
the moment she asked the question, McKenna had been caught up in the
mesmerizing intensity of his beautiful green eyes. He never did fully answer
her, but something else had transpired between them that day. Something McKenna
thought about often in the days since.

In
recent days, she’d acquired a few juicy tidbits of information about the sexy
lawyer that she was tempted to share with her readers, but for some reason, she
felt it necessary to keep those intricate secrets to herself. After all, she
hadn’t become successful by exploiting people. No, her readers had come to love
her online magazine for her insight and her honesty. But, just like any other
journalist worth their salt, McKenna had learned how to get the information she
needed.

That
was her job, and she was good at it.

Although,
it didn’t explain why she couldn’t get her mind off of him and hadn’t been able
to for longer than she cared to admit.

Tag
Murphy was sex personified, and she could only imagine what he’d be like
between the sheets. Not that she would ever find out, but she could have fun
pretending for a little while.

Her
attention was pulled to the woman standing next to her, feeding a line of
unsubstantiated bullshit into one of the lingering microphones. McKenna already
knew what the bitter Susan Toulmin had to say. Same thing she always did.

According
to Susan, the club Luke owned was one that dealt in raunchy, indecent acts of
debauchery that were often orgiastic in nature. She continued to taunt the
media by threatening to mention names of supposedly prominent members of
society who frequented the club. However, whenever asked about her own
membership, Susan often backtracked, hinting that she hadn’t realized what she
was signing up for at the time she applied, was accepted and then paid the
outrageously expensive membership fee.

McKenna
knew she should be interested because, at some point, Susan was going to slip
up. She just had an issue with taking her at her word because no one had the
lowdown on the legendary Club Destiny, which meant there wasn’t enough proof
for her even to hint at a story and feel good about it. She was curious though.

Figuring
the day was already shot, McKenna switched off her microphone and turned to go.
She didn’t need to hear any more, and if she was honest, she didn’t come to
hear Ms. Toulmin speak in the first place.

Her
real reason for coming had just walked away.

Grabbing
her cell phone from her pocket, McKenna dialed her assistant’s number,
wondering whether she was any more successful in getting information from
Sierra or Luke.

“Whisper?”
McKenna greeted when her assistant answered the phone.

Yes,
her assistant’s name was Whisper, and no one knew whether that was her birth
name, or if she’d changed it along the way. No matter what, the name didn’t
suit her at all. McKenna was pretty sure the term “quiet” wasn’t even in the
woman’s vocabulary.

“Hey,
Mac? You have any luck?” McKenna barely heard her assistant over the sound of a
hundred voices speaking at one time, so she waited until she emerged on the
other side of the group huddled closer and closer to the mouth at the
microphone.

“No
luck on my end,” McKenna said, thinking back on that smoldering hot look Tag
had gifted her with seconds before he turned his back on her. “How about you?”

Any
good reporter knew that Sierra Sellers was going to escape through the back
doors of the courthouse while a diversion had been set up out front. McKenna
had known, but she had also opted to take her chances on that diversion being
Tag.

“No,
Sierra wouldn’t talk and the glares I received from those muscles on her arm
had me backing off. I’m not an idiot, you know.”

McKenna
laughed. Whisper might’ve been the loudest, most obnoxious woman she’d ever met
– and she meant that in the most endearing way possible – but at least she knew
when to back off.

Most
of the time.

“I’ll
meet you back at the office. I’ve got something I want to write up for
tomorrow’s blog,” McKenna told Whisper as she headed to her car. “Don’t worry,
it’s nothing juicy, but I figure it’s not a bad idea to dangle the carrot every
now and again.”

“McKenna.”
Whisper managed to drawl her name into way more than three syllables, which she
recognized as a warning.

“Oh,
hush. I’ve got this one covered,” McKenna told Whisper.

“You’re
going to push that man too far, honey. I can feel it.”

McKenna’s
sole objective these days seemed to be finding more and more ways to push him.
The man was too self-controlled for his own good. She wanted to rough him up a
little bit, and this little stunt just might get her what she wanted.