Kevin was at the kitchen table, eating a piece of leftover pie. “She’s death to wastebaskets,” he said. “Got it right in the kneecap.”

“How’d he get in?”

Kevin pointed to the patio door in the dining room. “Carved out a chunk of glass with a glazier’s knife and unlocked the door.”

Steve started to dial the police. He punched in two numbers and stopped. Elsie didn’t have a license for her gun. If Elsie were in trouble with the police, he wouldn’t have anyone to ride with Daisy. He ran his hand through his hair and swore under his breath. “Everyone pack up. You’re all coming to my house, and you’re going to stay there until we find out what’s going on with this guy. Take clothes for overnight. We can do a more thorough move tomorrow.”

“That’s fine with me,” Kevin said. “I’m no hero. I’m not excited about staying here to get blown away while I sleep. I’m only fourteen. I have a long life ahead of me. I got an A in sex ed last year. It would be terrible to waste all that knowledge.”

Elsie shrugged. “Don’t make any difference to me. I haven’t hardly unpacked yet.”

Daisy leaned against the doorjamb. She’d never been so scared in her life. Her heart was still racing, and her stomach was nauseous. She’d felt vulnerable and victimized when her car had been stolen, but that was nothing compared to what she was feeling now. She shivered when she thought what might have happened if it hadn’t been for Elsie and her gun. She’d been lucky, she realized. She hadn’t taken any of this seriously. She’d hired Elsie, not because she thought Elsie would make a good guard but because she wanted to give a chance to the elderly.

Now she didn’t know what to do. A one-way ticket to Texas sounded appealing. She realized she’d been thinking along those lines a lot lately and pushed the thought aside. Running away never solved anything, she told herself. She didn’t like being bullied out of her house, and she didn’t like giving in to her fear. Unfortunately, she had Kevin and Elsie to consider. It would be wrong to endanger them just to satisfy her belligerent pursuit of independence.

“I suppose it would be a good idea to hide out for a while,” she said to Steve. “It’s nice of you to offer us the use of your house.”

Daisy was sitting at the kitchen table, enjoying a second cup of coffee, when Steve ambled in. She opened her mouth to tease him about sleeping late on a glorious Saturday, but her thoughts scattered at the sight of him. His hair was silky clean, fresh from a shower. His movements were efficient, but his eyes were soft and drowsy, as if the shower hadn’t quite awakened him.

He wore a gray T-shirt with the sleeves cut out and a pair of shorts that had been washed to butter softness. She’d never been a sucker for muscle, but Steve Crow in a sleeveless shirt made her eyes glaze over. He wasn’t big and full of bulges like a wrestler; Steve was lean and hard and dangerous-looking. Her thoughts flew back to the night of the barbecue when they’d made love on his living room floor, and she remembered in breathtaking clarity just how lean and hard and yummy he could be.

She’d spent a lot of time lying awake thinking last night and had reached the conclusion that she would be much better off if she could maintain a platonic relationship with Steve. It wasn’t exactly a new concept, but it seemed to be a decision that required constant rethinking and reinforcement.

Now they were alone in the kitchen, and she was having a difficult time remembering why a platonic relationship had seemed so important. It would be easier if Elsie or Kevin were here, she told herself. There wouldn’t be such a strong feeling of morning intimacy; there would be diversions. As it was, she found her attention focused on Steve, and she found herself trying desperately not to look like a starving woman suddenly confronted with a five-course meal.

Steve poured himself a cup of coffee, leaned against a kitchen counter, and openly studied Daisy. Her cheeks were flushed and her eyes were wide. She had that “kid in a candy shop” expression on her face again, he thought. She was looking at him like he was lunch-and he loved it. He wanted to be the bill of fare for the next fifty years.

“Where did Elsie and Kevin disappear to?” he asked.

“They went back to the town house to get essentials. You know, clothes, toiletries, the kitchen sink.” Her eyes narrowed a little as she looked at him. “There’s something I’ve been wanting to ask you.”

“Anything.”

“What were you doing at my house at two in the morning?”

“I was worried about you, and didn’t entirely trust Elsie to be able to handle a disaster. So I camped out in the SUV.”

“You were willing to sleep in your car all night just to protect me?”

“Mmmm.” He sipped his coffee. “I have plans.”

“Oh, boy.”

“Oh, boy? Is that a negative reaction?”

“I don’t know if I can handle any more plans right now. I’m about all planned out.”

“Some of my plans don’t require much planning. For instance, I plan to take you to a garden party this afternoon.”

“You mean a barbecue?”

“No. This is definitely a garden party. There’ll be inedible little sandwiches without crusts, white wine with fruit floating in it, and tasteless cookies for dessert.”

“Gee, I can hardly wait.”

He took a frozen waffle from the freezer and slid it into the toaster. “You haven’t even heard the best part. My Aunt Zena will be there.”

Daisy leaned forward in her seat. “You mean there’s really an Aunt Zena?”

“You bet. Aunt Zena comes from the Crow side of the family. Her father was Crow, but her mother was Hungarian. Her third husband was elected to Congress sort of late in life. He died six months after taking office. Aunt Zena decided she liked Washington, so she stayed here. Now she’s heavily into fundraising.”

“Is this party a fund-raiser?”

He took his waffle from the toaster and ate it like a cookie. “Yup.Some junior congressman from Oklahoma. I get invited to all of Aunt Zena’s fund-raisers. She’s decided I need to get married. Not only do I have to contribute to all of her causes, but I have to show up and run the gauntlet of eligible women she’s drummed up for me.”

He sat across from Daisy, slouching back in his chair with his coffee cup resting on his stomach. “This is the part where you are supposed to show some jealousy as you contemplate all those eligible women.”

Daisy smiled at him. “Won’t Aunt Zena be disappointed if you show up with me in tow? What about the sacrificial lambs she’s recruited for this bash?”

“Hell, she’ll be ecstatic. I’ll tell her I’m madly in love with you, that we’ve already made whoopee on the floor and our bodies fit together like a dream, and that you’ve moved into my house. Aunt Zena will be relieved. I think she’s running out of marriage applicants.”

“You wouldn’t dare tell her that!”

“I might.”

She tipped her nose up a little. “Well, then I’m not going with you.”

“Okay, then how about if we tell her we’re engaged?”

“No.”

“You’re not very cooperative,” he said. “This is my big chance to get Aunt Zena off my back.”

“You can tell her we’re friends.”

“Honey, I’m friends with eighty percent of all the unmarried women in Northern Virginia and the District of Columbia.”

“That’s a lot of women.”

“I’ve been to a lot of fund-raisers.”

“Well, it’s friends or nothing.”

He reached forward, took her face in his hands and kissed her. It started out as a playful type of kiss with his eyes open and smiling, but all that changed when their mouths met. He dragged her onto the table, mindless of the coffee cups crashing to the floor, and in an instant his hands were under her shirt.

She gasped in protest, but his mouth covered hers, and objection quickly turned to obsession as desire bit into her.

He came fast and hard, trembling under the intensity of his own passion, wondering at the pinnacle if he would live through it, wondering if a man could survive loving a woman like this.

Still on the kitchen table, they slowly became aware of their surroundings. Coffee and cereal had been flung from one end of the kitchen to the other, dishes lay broken on the floor, chairs had been overturned.

There was the sound of a car pulling into the driveway, and Daisy and Steve looked into each other’s eyes and saw panic.

“Elsie and Kevin,” Daisy whispered.

They scrambled to their feet and adjusted their clothes. They both glanced furtively at the only escape route which would lead to a shower and knew they’d never make it. Elsie was already in the foyer.

“Just act like nothing happened,” Steve said. “We can pull this off.”

Daisy clapped a hand to her mouth to stop a hysterical giggle. He had smashed Froot Loops on his knees and his shirt was torn.

Elsie stopped in her tracks at the kitchen door, and Kevin looked over her shoulder. “Whoa,” he said, “who trashed the kitchen?”

“Bob,” Steve told him. “Bob did it.”

Chapter 7

Steve took his eyes off the road for a moment to smile at Daisy. She was wearing a little white number that hugged her body in all the right places and still miraculously projected an image of classy respectability. The slim skirt stopped a few inches above her knee, showing off long, tanned legs and dainty feet trapped in gold strappy sandals. The top of the dress was off-the-shoulder, with a band of material that wrapped across her upper arms and slanted down to her full breasts. The dress was entirely devoid of ornamentation, proving the old adage that less is sometimes more. She wore dangly gold earrings and wide gold bands at each wrist.

She was a knockout, and Aunt Zena would love her, Steve thought. Zena would also be suspicious and nosy as hell, but an impetuous love-at-first-sight romance would appeal to her.