No Stranger to Scandal - By Rachel Bailey Page 0,32
know we can’t.”
She pushed herself up to a sitting position and rubbed her eyes. The movement just made him want to draw her into his arms even more, so he forced himself to go over to the other sofa, creating something of a safety barrier. Though if her pink tongue peeked out and wet her lips one more damn time, that distance would provide no obstacle at all.
She tucked her legs up beneath her and nodded. “Okay. Let me make a proposal.”
“Sure,” he said. It would need to involve a suit of body armor for one of them if it had any chance of effectiveness. Or perhaps separate cities.
“Here’s how things stand.” She held up a closed hand, ticking the points off by raising a finger for each one as she went. “We have some undeniable chemistry. You’re only in D.C. for a short time. You don’t have space in your life for a relationship. Your work won’t allow for a relationship with me in particular.”
He winced. Said aloud like that, their situation sounded even more hopeless than it did in his head. But he nodded slowly, prepared to hear her out. “I’m with you so far.”
“Then we’ll have a secret fling,” she said, smiling, seeming pleased with herself.
Everything inside him tightened, ready to accept her offer, but he frowned. “What is that? Just sleeping together?”
“Purely physical,” she confirmed. “Completely under the radar.”
Was she serious? His body might already be on board, but the idea was insane. However, Lucy didn’t seem to be joking. “The investigation—”
“We’re both already compromised—this will hardly make it worse. Tell me,” she said, tucking strands of blond hair behind her ear, “has sleeping with me convinced you of Graham’s innocence?”
“No.” Graham was guilty, he had no doubt, and nothing but irrefutable evidence to the contrary would change his mind about that.
She tilted her head in acknowledgment of his point. “Are you at all likely to alter your findings because of our intimacy?”
“Not a chance.” It was inconceivable that he’d ever alter his findings. Integrity was everything in this business, to say nothing of his own sense of right and wrong.
“Then we’re good,” she said and nodded. “We can have a fling.”
“A fling,” he repeated. He really didn’t have enough blood in his brain for this conversation. It had all headed south at the first touch of her lips, and now he was struggling to follow Lucy’s reasoning.
“It solves everything. It’s a great plan,” she said, holding upturned palms out as if this was obvious.
He stood and stalked to the window, hoping the movement and view of nighttime D.C. would bring clarity. It didn’t.
“You’re okay with this?” he finally said. “A purely physical arrangement.” He might want her more than he wanted any woman, but he wouldn’t use her. It went against everything inside him.
Her blond brows drew together and she glanced down at her hands, as if deciding how much to confide. “I don’t want anything serious right now. You say that your focus is on your son and your business—well, my focus is on my career.” She paused and the skin around her eyes pulled taut. “Because of who my father and stepfather are, I have to work twice as hard as anyone else to prove my independence, prove myself. And to be honest, after the work I’ve already put in, the last thing I need is a relationship with a rich older man who has a high profile and connections.”
He drew in a long breath, suddenly struck by her meaning. He’d been worried about his reasons for not getting involved, but hadn’t thought about it from her side before. She had as much to lose as he did. Yet she still wanted him enough to propose this plan.
He crossed to the sofa she was perched on and sat on the armrest, taking her hands in his. “We’ll have an affair with an end date of when I leave town, both of us going in with our eyes open.” He managed to keep his voice even, but his entire body was straining forward at the thought.
“So you want to?” she asked, her voice surprisingly uncertain.
“Lucy, I want to more than I can say. But I have conditions.” He released her hands and stood again before he consigned his own conditions to hell and took her there on the sofa. “First, we keep the rule we already made about secrecy. No one can know we’re doing this. And the rule about us not letting our