"I said a half hour." Dar glanced at the kitchen clock. "So what have you been up to, besides baking?" She reached up and ruffled Kerry's hair. "I like the snips." Her voice warmed with approval. "This looks really cute on you."

"Got my car done, got my hair done, got our laundry done, paid the bills..." Kerry ticked off her accomplishments. "Wrote you a poem," she finished, a trifle shyly, still unsure of her skills in that particular arena. "It's been a good day."

Poem? Dar felt a faint flush of surprised pleasure. Kerry had written some poems she'd shown her, one had even been about her. "What kind of poem?" She didn't recall any that had been written for her, however, and the thought intrigued her.

Distracted her, in fact, from the disturbing revelations in the bar.

Kerry produced a grin. "Well, let's get our cookies and milk, and you can come read it. Decide for yourself what kind of poem it is." She tugged open the oven door and slipped her hand into an oven mitt. She pulled the tray out and set it on wooden holders she'd put out on the counter earlier. "Mm."

Dar peered over her shoulder with deep interest. "Mm, is right." She sniffed delicately. "Are those hearts?"

Kerry nodded, gently easing them free of their baking sheet with a wafer thin spatula and putting them on a wire rack to cool. "Yep, they sure are." She felt Dar's warm breath on her ear and half turned, pressing her cheek against her partner's. "Just wanted to make sure you knew where those little chocolate chips came from."

"Kerry?"

"Mm?"

"It's too warm for it to be my birthday." Dar slid both arms around Kerry's body and simply held her, watching the cookies make their slow progress. "So why does it feel like it?"

Kerry carefully selected one of the smaller specimens and broke it in half, handing a chunk almost dripping with chocolate over her shoulder. "No reason." She took a careful bite, making an approving noise at the taste. "We should let these cool."

"Where's the fun in that?" Dar sucked in air to cool her stinging tongue. "You bring the rack, I'll get a jug of milk. Meet you on the couch."

Kerry was more than glad to oblige. She followed Dar into the living room, nearly tripping over a wildly tail-wagging Chino and settled onto the soft leather of the couch.

Dar dropped off the milk, but kept going toward the bedroom, unbuttoning her shirt as she ducked through the door. "I'm going to take off this damn suit and put on something more comfortable."

"Naked works," Kerry commented, grinning when she heard the dry chuckle from the next room. "I like that suit on you, by the way. I think it really looks good." She selected a channel idly, turning the sound down as Dar returned in a pair of cotton shorts and a tank top. "On second thought, I like that outfit better."

Dar eased onto the couch, laying down on her side and extending her long legs along the leather surface. "Glad you had a better day than I did," she said. "I'm gonna have to go up to New York tomorrow night. That damn project is turning out to be a bigger problem than I thought at first."

"Really?"

Dar sighed. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's not bandwidth," she said. "I told Stewart I saw some micro bursting, but the link's not really saturated."

"Least it's not us," Kerry reasoned. "Can you help them figure out what the problem is?"

"Probably," her partner said. "I'd go up there anyway, because their VP has a friend in the business, as they say, and is itching to bring them in to take care of it."

"Ah." Kerry frowned. "That wouldn't make good press if they did. Since you were pretty vocal about our service excellence." She gave Dar a wry look.

"Don't remind me." Dar covered her eyes. "I spent the day kicking my own ass for being such a jerk."

"Aw, honey." Kerry made a face.

"Kerry, I was. Do you know what Mark's having to deal with?" Her partner looked up at her through parted fingers. "That's all we need to have happen after what I said. We slip up, and it'll be all over the news."

Kerry grimaced.

"Not to mention I agreed to give an interview to CNN tomorrow." Dar sighed. "Let's hope I don't do something else stupid."

"C'mere." Kerry patted her thigh, smiling as Dar inched over and settled her head on the spot. "So, just overnight?" She riffled her fingers through the dark, soft hair now spilling over her bare leg. "To New York?"

"Yeah, I'll be back Wednesday, probably late." Dar looked up at her as they both silently acknowledged the change of subject.

Kerry picked up a cookie and broke it in half. "Okay, since I'll be downtown for that meeting, why don't I plan on picking you up at the airport then? We can do D and B's at the Dolphin for dinner."

"Mm." Dar made an agreeable noise, accepting her half of the cookie and taking a bite of it. "Listen. Stacy and Rhonda told me they overheard our two friends fighting in a bar after the trade show."

"They get pictures?"

"No." Dar rolled over and looked up at Kerry, watching the expression shift subtly on her face. "Ker, this wasn't a joke."

"I don't give a damn," Kerry said. "You know what I decided tonight? I decided they, and especially that bitch Shari, had better stay the hell out of my way on this bid."

Dar blinked at her.

"I'm serious. I've had it with them. If they start up with me at that meeting on Wednesday, you'll be coming home to post my bail that night. I swear, Dar. I'm not going to put up with any shit from them anymore."

Dar gazed steadily at her. "Shari thinks she's got something on you that'll make you cave in to them."

Kerry's eyebrows almost hit the popcorn ceiling. "On me?"

"Yeah."

"Me?" Kerry pointed a thumb at herself. "What in the hell do they think they can come up with on me that half the English speaking world hasn't seen for themselves on television or read in the Washington Post? That I'm gay? That I'm Republican? That I'm a budding hedonist? What?"

Dar shrugged. "I dunno, sweetheart. It didn't make a lick of sense to me when I heard it. I think she's just pissing lemonade." She watched Kerry's face, seeing nothing but honest, skeptical bewilderment there.

"My life's an open book." Kerry lifted her hands and let them fall. "What secret could I possibly be keeping? That I wash my hands with lavender soap?"

Dar lifted one of her partner's hands and sniffed it delicately. "Smells more like apple to me."

Kerry tweaked her nose. "I'm going to make some lemonade and shove the pits right up her..." She exhaled. "Oo...Dar, sending me to this meeting may not be a good idea," she said. "I could lose us the bid right up front if they tick me off."

"Don't sweat it, Ker. Just go, listen, and blow them off if they come near you." She took another cookie from the rack and split it, handing Kerry her share.

Kerry ate the cookie slowly. "Are you telling me to ignore them? Leave them alone?"

Dar nodded. "Don't let them get to you."

The pale blond brows contracted. "Paladar, do you find it a little ironic that you are saying that to me? After what we just went through with them? Are you going to take your own advice on that too?"

A shrug.

"I tell you what--I'll blow them off if you will. You stop letting what that whore bitch did to you chew you up inside, and I'll treat them like they were old buddies. Deal?" Kerry heard a sharper tone in her voice than she'd really intended, and saw the flicker in Dar's eyes before her partner looked briefly away. "Because I hate her so much on your behalf, it's the only way I could deal with it, Dar," she added, in a gentler tone.

Dar looked back up. "I don't want you hating people on my behalf."

"Tough."

A sigh. "Got milk?"

Kerry leaned over and gave her a chocolate tainted kiss instead. "Want to hear my poem?" she whispered. "Screw them."

Dar sighed again. She lifted one hand and let it drop in a gesture of resignation. "Poem me, and pass the milk. You're right. Screw 'em."

Kerry's face creased into a happy grin, as she reached over to the table for her writing pad. "You got it, partner. You got it." She leaned

over near Dar's ear. "Know what she must have found out about me?" "What?" Kerry whispered something, and nearly ended up with cookies all

over her chest as Dar convulsed with laughter. She chuckled evilly right along with her partner.



Chapter Ten



DAR RESTED HER head on her fist, her eyes scanning the reports in front of her. She ran her index finger over the lists of IP addresses, then picked up a yellow highlighter and swiped it over one of them.

Her intercom buzzed. "Yeah?" Dar reached over and punched the acknowledge button. "What's up Maria?"

"Jefa, you have someone with cameras in the security desk downstairs," Maria said. "They have told them you are expecting them?"

Dar checked her watch. "They're early." She sighed. "Okay, have security escort them up to the presentation center. I'll meet them there."

"Si, I will do that," Maria said. "Also, I have your arrangements for your trip this evening, the confirmation is from your hotel, and I have asked for you to be picked up at the airport."'

Dar gazed at the phone. "Thanks, Maria." She smiled. "I appreciate that."

"Of course," her assistant said warmly. "I will arrange for security." She clicked off, leaving Dar to nibble at the inside of her lip for a quiet moment.

Then she pushed herself upright and slid the reports back into their folder, closing it and putting it away inside her top drawer. "Damn it." She leaned back in her chair. "I should really fire my ass for that stunt."