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“Now you do sound like Serenity.”

“Occupational hazard.” He took her hand in his. “Have I totallyscared you away?”

“No,” she said honestly. “You’ve intrigued me. You’re full ofcontradictions. And, according to Serenity, you give a great massage.”

He chuckled. “You’ve already had a sample of that.”

“I have and I’m surprised you have time to do anything else inyour day. I would think your massage clients would keep you busy.”

“I don’t usually offer massage to my clients,” he said,releasing her hand.

“Really?”

“Serenity’s a special case.” He hesitated for a second. “Whatwith her being from out of town and a temporary client.”

Before she could ask anything more, the server returned withthe bread basket.

“Is it hard for you to eat out?” he asked, leaning toward herand speaking quietly. “Are you thinking about how you’d do it better?”

“I try not to,” she admitted. “Eating out is fun and I don’twant to lose that by being critical.”

“Sort of like me taking an over-the-counter pain reliever for aheadache.”

She turned to him, pretending shock. “You don’t.”

“Sometimes.”

“What would your patients say?”

He laughed. “They’d be appalled. Can I convince you to keep mysecret?”

She found herself getting lost in his blue eyes again.

“Maybe,” she said, trying to sound casual. “For a price.”

“A woman who negotiates. I like that.”

Which was good, because she was quickly beginning to realizethat there were many things that she liked about him.

Twelve

Jenna floated home from her date. Oh, sure,a car was involved, but that was a technical detail. In her heart, she wasfloating.

They’d laughed and talked and laughed some more all throughdinner. She couldn’t remember anything she’d eaten because she’d been so wrappedup in Ellington. Then he’d walked her to her car and kissed her with anintensity that had left her breathless.

As she parked in her garage, she told herself not to get tooexcited. That one great date did not a relationship make. But it had been solong since she’d had such a good time with a guy, including the last few yearsin her marriage. Sad but true.

Instead of going directly into her town house from the garage,she went out the open double door to collect her mail. On her way back, a manstepped out of the shadows.

She stopped in midstep, not sure what to do. Run? Scream? Withher garage door standing open, he could get directly into her house, possiblydragging her with him to do who knew what. Except this was Georgetown, notexactly a hotbed of murderers and rapists.

Indecision kept her in place, and in that second when shecouldn’t decide, she realized the man was on his cell phone. More than that, hewas holding up his hand in the universal “wait and be quiet” signal.

“...the Baxter files. Email me the results. And double-checkthe billing. They screwed up the hours last month. Thanks, Cathy. Have a goodday.”

Jenna relaxed. She doubted many criminals left messages whileon a stakeout or told anyone to have a good day.

“Sorry about that,” the man said, stepping closer to her andinto the light from her garage. “Work stuff. My assistant gets frantic when I’mgone, and that’s never good.”

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