"Yes, ma'am."

"Good. Bailey, we're going to need some help." She pointed at the two men who stood just behind her. "This is Eric and this is Cameron. They are your shoe slaves."

Bailey covered her mouth with her hand and giggled before ducking behind Alex.

Dani reached for her and dragged her toward the leather chairs.

"Sit," she said sternly and pointed. "You're the princess today, young lady. We're here to make you happy."

Bailey continued to giggle. Eric winked at her, while Cameron said her hair was a beautiful color of red. Alex slid close to Dani.

"Your doing?" he asked, nodding at the two guys.

"I said today had to be exceptional. They'll flirt in a nice, safe way. I want her to feel special."

"You've gone to a lot of trouble for a girl you barely know."

Dani stared up at him. "I know as much as I need to. I like Bailey. I'm not a saint, Alex. Don't get any weird ideas. I'm acting selfishly because it makes me happy."

"I get that."

He also got that she wouldn't see her actions as anything extraordinary. But he knew better. He knew exactly what kind of person bothered and what kind didn't.

Dani collapsed next to Bailey and kicked off her shoes. "I'm thinking something flashy," she said as Eric, or maybe Cameron, slid a pair of magenta suede pumps on her feet.

"Me, too," Bailey said. She had on the same pair.

Dani pushed herself into a standing position. Bailey tried to do the same, wobbled, then collapsed back into her chair. Dani sighed. "I see we have some work to do. Gentlemen?"

Eric and Cameron each took a hand and drew Bailey upright. When she was balanced, Dani walked in front of her.

"The trick is to keep your weight forward and low. Those skinny heels will kill you if you let them. But you don't want to go too far forward or you'll fall on your face and that's never pretty."

With Bailey laughing, Dani demonstrated an exaggerated walk, complete with swinging hips and fancy turns. Bailey followed her, staggering only a little. She nearly fell on the turn, but one of the guys caught her and held her arm while she straightened.

"I'm walking!" she cried as she moved through the center of the shoe department. "Look, Alex. I'm really walking in high heels."

His baby sister was growing up, he thought as he watched Bailey get more confident with each step. She and Dani returned to their chairs and tried on another pair of shoes.

Two hours later the decision had been made. Both Bailey and Dani had purple suede pumps with impossibly high heels. They elected to wear their shoes out of the store. He trailed behind, holding their shopping bags.

He liked Dani a lot. He wouldn't have slept with her otherwise. But today he saw a side of her he hadn't expected. A side that impressed the hell out of him. She was more than a pretty face-she had a giving heart. She was smart, sexy and she cared about people. Which made her an amazing woman. Someone he shouldn't let get away.


***

"We really shouldn't be doing this again," Dani said as she followed Alex into his kitchen. She had the pizza they'd stopped for and he carried a six-pack of beer. "We're going to get caught."

"We've already been caught."

"Interesting point." She wasn't about to challenge the Fates by saying it couldn't get worse. It certainly could and that was a place she didn't want to go. "So long as we don't get caught again."

He put the beer on the counter. "Are you worried? Would you rather leave?"

"No, I'm good." She liked spending time with him and the potential for another close encounter in his bed was enough to make her stroll across hot coals. "You survived our shopping expedition. You must be so proud."

"It was easy duty," he told her. "I like hanging out with you and Bailey."

She was sure he meant the words casually, but they still caused her to get all squishy inside. "Your sister is a lot of fun. I hope she loves her shoes."

"Do you have any doubts?"

Dani smiled, remembering Bailey's excitement. "Probably not. Those guys at the store were really great. I'm going to send a letter to their boss and tell her what they did."

Something flashed in Alex's eyes.

"What?" she asked. "Are you mad I had them be extra nice to her?"

"Why would I be mad about that?"

"I don't know. What were you thinking? You looked weird."

"How flattering."

"You know what I mean."

He shook his head. "It was something totally different. Something I should let go."

She set the pizza on the counter and moved toward him. "Want to talk about it?"

He shrugged. "I'm still pissed about Mark getting those charges dropped. I have to deal with him-I just don't know what to say. I'm not willing to leave the campaign. I owe him my loyalty. But what he did was wrong."

"Even though it helped you?" she asked, already knowing the answer.

"In my book."

She put her hands on his chest. "Maybe doing the wrong thing for the right reason is okay sometimes."

"Do you really believe that?"

She sighed. "No, but it sounds good." She stared into his dark blue eyes. "While we're on a vaguely uncomfortable topic, I have a subject of my own."

He covered her hands with his. "Which is?"

"Your mother. I kind of overheard her talking to someone earlier. They were talking about me, about us. She said all the right things, but she seemed…" Dani hesitated, then decided she wasn't about to tell Alex his mother had been crying. "She was sad," she said instead. "I'm hurting her, aren't I?"

"She's dealing with a lot. You're one more thing. But you didn't do anything wrong. You were just looking for your father. The rest of this is incidental."

It felt like more than that to her, Dani thought. "I don't want to make her life harder. I admire everything she does. I don't want to be responsible for anything bad in her life."

"You're not."

Dani didn't agree with that. "But if she could have children of her own-birth children-don't you think she would have? Aren't I a reminder of what she couldn't have?"

"No more than any of us."

Which she didn't believe. "I don't know the answer," she admitted. "Sometimes I think about just disappearing."

He tugged her a little closer. "Running away won't fix the problem."

"I'd be less visible."

"Is that really what you're going to do?"

"No," she admitted. "I don't want to leave. I just hate that she's in pain because of me. This whole family thing is complicated."

"Especially our family.”

She laughed. "We are totally twisted. If someone tried to write a movie of the week about us, all the producers would say it was too unrealistic."

"Some of it is real enough," he said before bending down and kissing her.

She closed her eyes in anticipation of the gentle yet firm brush of his mouth against hers. The contact was as warm and welcoming as she remembered. She raised her arms so she could wrap them around his neck and pressed her body to his.

He was hard. Hard and confident and deliciously sexy. He was everything she'd ever wanted and exactly what she needed. A strong man with a sense of right and a need to take care of what was his. Did that include her? Because she could sure use a little being taken care of.

He teased her lower lip with his tongue and rational thoughts faded away. She gave herself up to simply feeling the long, slow strokes of his hands as he moved them up and down her back. She surrendered to the wicked marauding of his tongue as he slipped it inside her mouth, moving lazily to kiss him back.

When he reached for the buttons on her blouse, she stepped out of her shoes, then went to work on his shirt. They bumped into each other, laughed and kept on working. He moved to her skirt next. When it fell to the ground, he swore.

Dani glanced down at the thigh-high panty hose she'd worn that day. Normally she would have wrestled her way into regular panty hose, but on the off chance that she and Alex might do the wild thing, she'd gone for sexier lingerie.

The bikinis were second cousin to a thong and matched her lacy bra.

"You're killing me," he murmured as he pulled her close and cupped her rear. "Seriously. I'll be dead soon."

"No, you won't. But I can keep the stockings on, if you'd like."

He squeezed her curves, then bent down to touch the stockings on her legs. As he straightened, he dipped his tongue between her breasts, arousing her with damp heat.

"You're a fantasy I didn't even know I had," he said before kissing her again.

She got lost in the passion stirring between them, but also couldn't get his words out of her head. Was she his fantasy? She'd never really considered herself fantasy material. Still, a girl could dream.

He nudged her backward a few steps. She took them, then turned and led the way into his bedroom.

The space was as she remembered. Clean and masculine with oversize furniture and a fireplace big enough to live in. He hit the remote as they walked past. Flames jumped to life and provided soft, sexy illumination.

The bed was still huge. Dani stretched out on it, then patted the space next to her. Alex pulled a package of condoms out of his nightstand, moved next to her and began to kiss her.

He moved his tongue in a dance so erotic, she didn't realize he had reached behind her until her bra fell away. Cool air caressed her breasts, making her shiver. He dipped his head and took her right nipple in his mouth. He sucked gently, then circled the tip, moving around and around until she felt herself get wet and swollen.

She clung to him, wanting him with a desperation that took her breath away. She wanted his weight on top of her, his erection between her legs, stretching her, taking her. She wanted to surrender to this man in ways she never had before. Giving herself, exposing herself. The need was so strong, it frightened her…but not enough to stop what she was doing.