LITMIR.BIZ

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slow grin spread across his face. “No. But if that’s what it takes to get you to agree to go out with me, I’ll see what I can do to push a bill through Congress to that effect.”

      She rolled her eyes and leaned to snatch at a weed. “Don’t waste your time.” He closed a hand over hers, stilling her movements, and she jerked up her head to glare at him.

      “Look,” he said patiently. “All I’m asking for is a little of your time. A chance to get to know you, and for you to get to know me. Now, that’s not too much to ask, is it?”

      “Suzy? Is that you, dear?”

      She groaned at the sound of her neighbor’s warbling voice coming from the other side of the privacy fence. “Yes, it’s me, Mrs. Woodley!”

      “Are you all right, dear? I thought I heard a man’s voice.”

      She snatched her hand from beneath Gil’s. “Nosy busybody,” she muttered, then raised her voice, “Yes, I’m fine, Mrs. Woodley. Just visiting with a—” she glanced at Gil and curled her lip in a snarl “—friend.”

      “Who, dear?”

      Hissing a breath through her teeth, she scrambled to her feet and grabbed Gil’s hand, tugging him to his feet, as well. “No one you know, Mrs. Woodley!” Dragging Gil behind her, she ran for the house. “I’m going inside now, Mrs. Woodley,” she yelled. “Talk to you later.”

      Before the woman could respond, Suzy yanked Gil inside the house and slammed and locked the door behind them. Ripping off her hat and gloves, she tossed them onto the table as she raced to the window that faced her neighbor’s house.

      Gil chuckled as he watched her jerk down the shade. “I take it Mrs. Woodley is a bit like Gladys Kravitz.”

      She snorted as she darted past him to pull down the shade over the window above the kitchen sink. “Worse. And if she finds out the governor’s at my house, she’ll be on the phone telling all her friends. Wouldn’t surprise me if she herded them all over to ask for your autograph.”

      He lifted a shoulder. “I’d be happy to give all your neighbors my autograph.”

      She sent him a withering look as she headed down a hall.

      Shaking his head, Gil followed. “Are you going to pull every shade in the house?”

      “You’re darn right I am.” In the living room she dropped a knee onto the sofa and stretched to grab the shade that partially covered the window behind it. She froze, then leaned over the back of the sofa to peer outside. “Oh, no,” she moaned.

      Gil crossed to stand behind her, stooping to see what had disturbed her. “What is it?”

      She grabbed the string and jerked down the shade. “Not what. Who!”

      Not having seen anything out of the ordinary, he straightened. “Who, then?”

      She pushed from the sofa and stood, wringing her hands as she stared at the front door, as if she expected it to burst open at any moment. “Reporters.”

      “Reporters?” Gil moved to the end of the sofa and lifted the shade a fraction to peer outside. He glanced over his shoulder. “You mean those guys in that black sedan across the street?”

      She gulped, then nodded.

      He laughed and dropped the shade. “They aren’t reporters. They’re my bodyguards. Although Dave acts like an overprotective father at times.”

      “Are you sure?”

      “Sure I’m sure.” He opened the door and shouted. “Hey, Dave! Show this lady your ID.”

      The man behind the wheel lifted a hip, pulled out his wallet and flipped it open. Sunshine glinted off a silver badge he held out the open window. Gil glanced over at Suzy who had joined him at the door. “Satisfied?”

      “They go everywhere you go?”

      “Yeah,” he said as he closed the door. “Well, not everywhere,” he amended. “I am allowed to go to the rest room alone.”

      Suzy glanced up in surprise, then sputtered a laugh when she saw the teasing in his eyes. “Well, it’s good to know that at least some things in life are still sacred.”

      “Do that again.”

      Her laughter dried up in her throat as she watched the amusement in his eyes soften to wonder. She took a nervous step back. “Do what?”

      “Laugh.” He caught her arm and turned her around to face him, holding her in place by her elbows. “I like the sound of it.”

      Heat from his hands radiated up her arms, setting off warning bells in her head. Though she knew she should send him packing, she found she couldn’t move. But it wasn’t his strength that held her in place, though she could feel the power in the hands that gripped her. It was something in his eyes. A warmth. A gentleness. And something in his voice. Warmth again. And a huskiness that made her toes curl inside her tennis shoes.

      He touched a finger to the corner of her eye, and a slight smile curved his mouth. “And I like what it does to your face. It softens your features. Makes you seem friendlier, more approachable.”

      He drew the tips of his fingers along her cheek, and a shiver chased down her spine. “What…are you doing?”

      “Touching you. Is that okay?”

      Before she could reply, he placed a thumb against her lips and smoothed it along the crease. Another shiver chased down her spine as he slipped his hand around to cup the back of her neck. Her eyes riveted on his, her pulse thrumming, she watched the blue in his eyes darken, turn molten.

      “I’m going to kiss you, Suzy,” he said quietly.

      Even as he offered the warning, he was lowering his face to hers.

      And Suzy, God help her, was pushing to her toes to meet him halfway.

      Two

      Suzy knew one thing for sure.

      Gil Riley sure as heck wasn’t gay.

      No man could kiss a woman like this and be anything but totally heterosexual. She couldn’t think. Couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t move.

      Well, maybe she could move, she decided belatedly and lifted her arms to loop them around his neck. The change in position brought him a step closer, his chest chafing against her breasts, his arms winding around her waist. With a skill that sent her blood racing, he teased her lips apart with gentle flicks of his tongue.

      And forced her to add a new item to the governor’s already lengthy résumé: master seducer.

      He’s good, she thought, giving herself up to the sensual rock of his mouth over hers, the erotic play of his tongue. Maybe too good, she thought with a shiver. Mesmerized by the pillowed softness of his lips, the commanding pressure of his mouth, she was only distantly aware of him sliding his hands from her waist to splay them across her buttocks. But when he tugged her up against him, she forgot about his mouth and the seductive lure of his lips, her attention snagged by the hard column of the erection nudging her abdomen. Alarm bells clanged in her head.

      What are you doing! What is he doing! You don’t need this kind of trouble. Get rid of him. Tell him to get lost. Toss him out the door on his ear!

      She intended to heed the warnings. She really did! And would have, if he hadn’t, at that moment, dug his fingers into her buttocks and lifted her, dragging her body up the length of his, until their groins were flush, their mouths perfectly aligned. With her held tightly against him, he deepened the kiss, softened it, then deepened it again, sending her pulse tripping, her mind reeling…and her good intentions skipping straight down the proverbial road to hell.

      As he spun the kiss out, his tongue tangling with hers in an erotic dance for dominance, she lost all sense of time, all sense

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