Extreme Exposure (18 page)

She could hear the frustration in his voice and searched for the right words. “If it helps, what you’ve done here will probably save lives. If that’s not the work of a real man, I don’t know what is. You’re a hero, Mr. Marsh.”

For a moment he was silent. “Thank you, ma’am.”

“Talk to you again soon.” She ended the call, dropped the folders onto her desk and, unfortunately, her cup of tea with them. “Shit!”

“Potty mouth.” Holly came up behind her, wearing a dress of bloody Valentine’s red. “Oh, you have made a mess, haven’t you?”

Kara pushed past her, hurried to the paper towel dispenser above the drinking fountain, and thrust several paper towels into Holly’s hands. “You going to help or just stand there?”

A few dozen paper towels and five minutes later, the mess was cleaned up.

Kara opened the tea-stained folder that had taken the worst hit and held up dry pages. “At least it didn’t ruin the documents.” She looked up to find Holly staring at her, a piece of paper in her hand. “What?”

“A Depo Provera shot?” Then Holly’s lips curved in a knowing smile. “Who is he?”

Kara grabbed the receipt from the women’s clinic out of Holly’s hand, crumpled it, and tossed it in the trash. She’d stopped by the clinic over her lunch break on Tuesday, determined not to make the same mistake twice. Apparently, she’d left the receipt on her desk. “None of your business.”

Holly put her hands on her hips. “Oh, come on! I tell you everything!”

Kara sat and tore the plastic wrap off her sandwich, so hungry she felt shaky. “Yes, you do, and I wish you didn’t. Don’t expect me to do the same.”

Holly looked stricken. “Well, if you don’t want to know about my life, just say so.”

Kara hadn’t meant to hurt her. “I’m sorry, Holly. Really. You know I didn’t mean it that way. I’m just more private than you are. Can you keep a secret?”

Holly glared at her. “Of course.”

“Let me at least get a few bites of this sandwich in my stomach, and I’ll tell you.”

R
EECE CLOSED
his office door and locked it. “Tell me what you’ve got.”

Carol plopped several file folders on his desk, sat, and took a deep breath. “It’s a damned mess, Senator. As far as I can tell, we’ve got a handful of senators who are deliberately overcharging the taxpayers.”

“How so?” Reece rounded his desk, sat down, and grabbed his notepad and a pen.

“Well, you all get paid your salary, and you all receive a per diem for every day the Senate is in session, which is January through May, and for each day business calls you in to the Capitol outside of session.”

“Right. The per diem is supposed to help compensate for travel and other expenses.”

Carol fixed him with a serious look above her wire-rim bifocals. “But a handful of senators, including our Senate president, seem to be charging a per diem as if it were part of a full-time salary.”

“How can they get away with that?”

“Basically, they just claim to have been here and they get paid for it. The forms aren’t part of any permanent record, so there’s no paper trail to prove who has claimed what or whether they were truly here on business or not.”

“And someone like Devlin, who lives in Aurora, can simply turn the Capitol into an extension of his living room and make lots of extra money at the taxpayers’ expense without anyone being able to prove anything.”

Carol nodded. “That’s it exactly.”

He glanced at his watch and leaned back in his seat. His education bill was scheduled for first reading on the Senate floor in forty minutes. “Well, hell, Carol. If we can’t prove anything, I guess that leaves us with fixing the system to prevent this from continuing. If I’m not mistaken, that will require a change in state law. Someone will have to introduce a bill.”

The older woman smiled, a devilish gleam in her eyes. “Devlin will crucify you, sir.”

Reece grinned. “He’ll try.”

K
ARA RUBBED
the kink in her neck, her eyes on the page. When her phone rang, she picked it up without thinking. “Kara McMillan.”

“You think changing your number makes any difference to us, little girl?”

She clicked record, but she was at work now, not at home. It wasn’t fear she felt, but anger. “You know, on top of being an annoying asshole, you’re a sexist pig, aren’t you? Do your bosses at Northrup know you treat women like this?”

For a moment she thought he’d hung up, but then she heard his breathing. So her rage had taken him by surprise.

“You’ve been warned, bitch.”

“Oh, that’s original.”

He hung up.

“Dammit!” She slammed down the phone and stood.

“Him again?” Matt looked up from his computer screen. “Sounds like a sicko.”

“Yeah.” She glanced at the clock. She had thirty minutes until she needed to pick up Connor. She grabbed her water bottle and headed for the water cooler.

She’d gotten through almost eight hundred pages since Monday—a drop in the bucket. Tessa and Sophie had been taking a few files each at night and working from home. Matt had slipped in a few hours of data entry yesterday. Between the four of them, they’d made it through about one third of the total.

It had been slow going at first, while she worked her way through the jargon and the abbreviations. She wasn’t a mining or cement-manufacturing expert, and she had no idea what a “bag house” or a “nine belt” was. With the whistleblower’s
help, she’d be able to move through the material more quickly now. She’d been relieved to hear he and his family were safe and sound. That was one less thing for her to worry about.

She reached the water cooler, bent down to fill her bottle, and found herself looking down at three pairs of women’s shoes in addition to her own. She looked up and found herself surrounded by Tessa, Sophie, and Holly, who all smiled at her with that unmistakable look of women who know a secret. “Holly!”

“I didn’t tell them anything!”

Kara stood upright and glared at her friend.

Sophie slipped an arm around Kara’s shoulders. “Don’t blame her, Kara. We’re investigative reporters. We’ve known something’s going on for a while.”

“Oh, bless her heart!” Tessa’s voice dripped with sweetened southern sarcasm. “She wants to claw our eyes out!”

Realizing she wouldn’t make it back to her desk alive, Kara gave in, feeling very much like she was in high school again. “I’m spending the weekend with Reece Sheridan at his cabin above Estes Park.”

“
Senator
Reece Sheridan?” Sophie gaped at her.

Tessa looked amazed. “Oh my God! I had to interview him once. He was such a sweetheart—and sexy as original sin.”

Sophie leaned closer. “How long have you been seeing—?”

“What’s going on?” Matt walked up behind them.

Tessa glared at him. “You thirsty, Matt? No? Then scoot. We’re women. We gossip.”

Kara saw her chance and took it. “That’s all for now. I have work to do.”

Three disappointed groans turned to excited whispers as Kara pushed her way through them and made her way back to her desk. But her pulse was beating a bit faster.

Sexy as original sin
.

And Kara would be spending the next three days with him.

R
EECE LIFTED
his duffle bag into the back of the Jeep, running through a mental list of preparations. He’d driven up with groceries, flowers, and an extra load of firewood yesterday after getting out of session. Then he’d spent a few hours tidying the place up. He’d remembered everything.

Except condoms.

“Damn!” He unlocked the door, climbed into the driver’s seat, and glanced at his watch.

If he hurried and mid-town traffic wasn’t too bad, he’d be able to swing by the drugstore and be only a few minutes late. Either way, he had no choice. He needed to buy condoms—the biggest box of condoms he could find.

K
ARA THREW
an assortment of long johns, turtlenecks, and sweaters in her bag, not sure what she should take. How cold was it up there? Would he expect to go hiking around or cross-country skiing? What should she bring to sleep in—her old flannel granny gown or something sexy?

Unable to decide, she threw them both in, together with five pairs of her warmest socks, a pair of slippers, two pairs of mittens, her laptop, and the files she’d brought home from the office.

“Mommy, when is Lily coming?”

Kara looked at her alarm clock. Her mother was running late. “She ought to have been here by now. Are you all packed and ready to go?”

Connor nodded and pointed to his little suitcase, which sat by the door, his favorite teddy bear on top.

“Why don’t you watch a little
Sponge Bob
until she gets here?”

Kara settled him in front of the TV, finished packing, and then slipped into the bathroom to have one last glance in the mirror. She’d gotten home a bit early, jumped in the shower, shaved her legs, and gone over her skin with the lavender sugar
scrub Reece seemed to like so much until her skin was bright pink and silky smooth. Then she’d blown her hair dry, put on her makeup from scratch, and dressed in jeans and a burgundy-colored turtleneck. For a treat, she’d worn a lacy black thong and matching bra—something she hadn’t done in ages.

It had been so long. So long.

Was that fear she saw in her own eyes? She supposed it was. Could she really blame herself for feeling nervous, even afraid?

She knew Reece well enough to know he would go out of his way to make this weekend enjoyable for her. What she didn’t know was what that would do to her. She couldn’t afford to lose herself over a man again, couldn’t afford to lose her balance. Not this time.

She had just zipped her bag and was carrying it down the hallway when the front door opened and her mother’s voice rang through the house.

“Where’s Connor?”

“Lily!”
Sponge Bob
forgotten, Connor ran to his grandmother.

Kara watched them hug. Despite her eccentricities, Lily McMillan loved her grandson.

“Look how much you’ve grown! My goodness, you’re growing before my eyes!”

“We went to see the dinosaurs at the museum, and I saw the T-rex!”

“You’ll have to tell me all about that.”

“Thanks, Mom. I really appreciate it.”

“I’m happy to help out.” Her mother leaned in closer, whispered. “Especially if it means you’re going to get laid. Where is this man? I want to meet him.”

Kara felt a rush of horror. “Oh, no! God, no! No. I’m not ready for that yet. Connor, do you have everything? Let’s get your coat.”

Her mother raised a finely penciled eyebrow. “So you’re going to hustle me out the door?”

Kara met her gaze, feeling both guilty and determined.
“Yes, I am. I don’t want you to read his aura or align his second chakra or probe his past lives. I don’t know what he’d think about that, and I don’t want to find out.”

When the doorbell rang, Kara almost moaned out loud.

Her mother shot her a look of triumph and marched straight toward the door.

Kara beat her to it. “I’ll get it.”

She opened the door, and the butterflies in her stomach collided. He wore Levis and a black cable-knit sweater that contrasted sharply with his blond hair. The faintest whiff of aftershave preceded him through the doorway.

“Kara.” He ducked down and brushed his lips over hers.

The kiss made her lips tingle, but with her mother watching, Kara couldn’t help but feel self-conscious. “Reece.”

“Reece!” Connor dashed across the room, his face bright like sunshine.

Reece scooped him up. “Hey, buddy. I hear you went to see the dinosaurs a second time.”

Connor nodded. “Mommy let me put money in the saber-tooth tiger’s mouth, and he growled at me.”

“Did it scare you?”

Connor shook his head. “It’s a fake saber-tooth.”

“You’re a smart boy.”

“Mom, I’d like to introduce Reece Sheridan.” Kara shot her mother a warning look. “Reece, this is my mother, Lily McMillan.”

But her mother wasn’t watching Kara, her gaze focused instead entirely on Reece. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Senator.”

Reece leaned down, Connor still in his arms, gave her mother a kiss on the cheek. “The pleasure is mine. And please—just call me Reece.”

Kara could feel her mother’s hot flash standing four feet away. “They were just leaving, weren’t you, Mom?”

T
HE DRIVE
to Estes Park lasted a little over an hour and took them up a winding canyon of evergreens, red rock formations,
and little cabin-style inns. Kara had expected the drive to be awkward. But nothing was ever awkward with Reece.

At first they talked about skiing, both confessing to a secret passion for Telluride. Then they talked about how Reece had learned to cook from his father, who had insisted that a man without a wife was not consigned to a life of TV dinners. Then they talked about her mother, who had at the last minute asked Reece his sign. His answer—Scorpio—had clearly made her quite happy.

“Kara is a Cancer, you know,” she’d said, before Kara could shut the car door.

Kara had been mortified. But it didn’t seem to bother Reece at all.

“I think she was just trying to tell me that you and I are sexually compatible,” he said, taking his eyes off the road long enough to fix her with one of his lethal smiles. “But I already know that.”

Kara found it hard to breathe and felt warmth flood her body. “So sure of that, are you?”

“Oh, yeah.”

“Sorry about last Friday.”

He glanced over at her. “Sorry for what?”

Didn’t he know? “Well, you . . . I . . . I enjoyed myself, but you didn’t.”

He chuckled. “That wasn’t your fault. And, sweetheart, if you think I didn’t enjoy myself, you’re wrong.”

They drove in silence through Estes Park, past gingerbread cottages and log cabins, past the Stanley Hotel with its alleged ghosts, toward Rocky Mountain National Park with its snow-covered peaks that rose like apparitions out of the darkness.

“Our property is bordered by the park on two sides, so it’s sort of like having the entire park as our backyard,” Reece explained as he slowed and turned onto a steep dirt road. “Hang on, darlin’.”

Kara understood now why he drove a Jeep. Even padded with snow, the road was rutted and rough. Her car would
have gotten stuck or slid backward to the bottom of the hill. But Reece drove with confidence, carrying them up the hill with no trouble at all.