Page 17 of Holiday Power Play

I settle on an instrumental station and pull away from the tiny roadside mini-mart.

An hour later, Mick is totally out snoring in the back seat, and I have to put the volume up higher just to drown him out.

Lana is scrolling through what looks like a photo album on her phone and deleting things as she does.

I notice they're pictures of her with a guy from my peripheral. Photos of the two of them together. Some of just him. One of him with Mick. She hesitates over that one. Like if she's not sure she should. But deletes it, too.

"So," I find myself saying into the dead silence, lowering the music.

The trees outside are rushing past us, and there's been a noticeable change in the terrain since leaving Houston. More greenery. Chiller air. The sun is up.

She shifts uncomfortably in her seat, legs crossing one over the other as she attempts to move further away from me.

"What?" she says when I don't continue.

"Was he a friend of Mick's?"

Her eyes flick to mine as she catches what I'm referring to.

"Do you make it a habit of yours to stick your nose where it doesn't belong?"

"Not just my nose," I tease.

"You're disgusting," she mutters.

"What? I was going to say my head, too," I say.

"Which head?"

I fake gasp. "Now, who's being disgusting?"

"Please," she mutters. "You players all talk the same. I've been around Vance and his friends my whole life. I know what you guys talk about the second a girl leaves your vicinity."

I sit up straighter, excited that she's actually engaging in conversation with me.

"Oh, do tell," I urge her.

She shakes her head. "You comment on her ass. Or her tits. Or where you'd like to dip your stick, and all of those remarkswill never have anything to do with her as a woman. Her dreams. Her desires. And everything to do with you and yours."

A feminist… this should be fun.

"So what are your desires, Lana?"

"It was a hypothetical scenario," she explains.

"But this is a real question," I say back. "What are your desires?"

Did my voice just drop an octave?I didn't mean to do that. Something about the way the vixen is tugging at her bottom lip as she takes in my question has my body reacting in a way I can't even fully control.

She studies me a beat longer before answering. "In a perfect world?"

"Sure," I say. "In your perfect world."

"I'd want every little girl to get the same opportunities as every little boy. Regardless of their family's financial status. Or the color of their skin. I'd want them to achieve their dreams because they're good at what they do. Bottom line."

I was expecting to hear a different answer, but then again, this is the Ice Queen.

"And that's not something that's currently available?"

---