expected it all along.”

“Hah!” Dar snorted, putting her fingers over the microphone on the cell.

“Good acting job.” She grinned in almost giddy relief, then took a breath.

“Alastair?” A pause. “Done deal.” She held the phone away from her ear as various whooping and squawking noises issued from it, chuckling as she waited for the racket to die down. “Yeah, about fifteen minutes ago … No, I’m on my way to the airport, John has the details.”

“Dar, you are a goddess.” Alastair’s voice crackled through the connection. “I’m sending you something for this, and you better the hell not turn it down, or I’m coming down there personally and making sure you don’t, got me?”

“Wasn’t just me, Alastair,” Dar objected. “The website team, Mark, the docs people, and especially my assistant Kerry, who gave the proposal, had a big part in it.” She caught a blush out of the corner of her eye, and gave the blonde a playful nudge with her elbow.

“You can take care of them, I’m going to take care of you,” the cheerful voice replied. “Let me go. That’s John on the other line, probably needing his pants dry cleaned. Bye Dar, God bless you.”

Dar folded the phone and tucked it into its belt holder, then exhaled.

She’d gotten lucky, all right. Big time. Michelle had made her decision based on business reasons, though Dar suspected it had been a close thing. She also suspected she hadn’t heard the last from Ms. Graver. But for right now, it was done, and she was headed home. “Hope he doesn’t send me caviar again,” she joked wryly.

“I’m glad it all worked out. It was nice of you to say everyone else was involved,” Kerry commented with a smile.

“You were,” Dar said. “I didn’t do a damn thing other than throw a few smart-ass comments around and pick the right people to do the right thing for me.” She pointed at Kerry without taking her eyes off the road. “You did a sharp as hell demo, my friend. You had them in the palm of your hand.”

Now Kerry did blush, blinking with a mildly bemused look on her face.

“Um, thanks,” she stammered softly. “Glad I did all right. But it was your plan, Dar. When everything works, it’s easy to show it off, you know?”

Dar grinned. “I know. So we all did good,” she confided, as she drove past an elaborate water tower. “Hey, there’s MGM.”

“Ooo.” Kerry peeked at it. “Next time, I wanted to do the Tower of Terror.”

Dar checked her watch, then glanced at the park, then glanced at Kerry’s nose-pressed-against-the-glass posture and considered. “Well…” She turned into the left lane, then waited for traffic to slow. “There’s later flights.”

Kerry glanced over her shoulder, startled. “Dar, you don’t….” She saw the sparkle in those blue eyes and stopped. “Promise me something?”

Dar blinked as she completed her turn into the parking area. “Okay, sure.”

“Promise you’ll come back here, when we’ve got more time?” Kerry asked.

After a short pause, Dar said, “All right.” Green eyes met hers. “I promise we’ll come back here. Now, c’mon, grab your shorts. Let’s change and have a 212 Melissa Good little fun. We earned it.”

IT WAS DARK, the lights of the airfield being the only illumination as they finally took off for the short flight back to Miami. Kerry snuggled down into her leather seat, stifling a yawn as she gingerly eased her shirt away from the back of her neck. “Jesus, even with the sunblock, I still got burned.” She stretched out her body, then relaxed. “Ugh.”

“Awww.” Dar had leaned back, folding her hands over her stomach.

“Did I tire you out?” Blue eyes sparkled mischievously. “Maybe you shouldn’t push yourself so hard.”

Kerry looked at her. “I’m being tweaked, aren’t I?” she asked, biting off a grin. “Yes, you did, as a matter of fact. I’m exhausted, and I just remembered I have to go do that global volunteer thing tomorrow.”

Dar closed her eyes. “I’ll bring you some carrot juice.”

A little silence ensued, during which Kerry peered at her. “Are you going to be there?” she asked curiously. “I didn’t know that. I thought it was just for regular workers.“

Dar shrugged nonchalantly. “It rotates. One of the senior execs has to do it every year. Just so happened this was my year.” A blue eye appeared. “Is that okay?”

“Well, yeah, of course,” Kerry stammered. “In fact, that’s great. A bunch of the Associated people are going to be there. I’d…” She paused awkwardly.

“Like them to see I’m not as bad as they think?” Dar inquired with a wry grin.

Kerry blushed a little and ducked her head. “Something like that, yes.”

“Ah, Kerry, it’s too late for my reputation to be salvaged, I’m afraid.” Dar crossed her arms over her chest. “But I appreciate the thought.”

“Any time,” Kerry murmured, suddenly struck by how much she liked the sound of her name on Dar’s lips. The older woman put a gentle, almost imperceptible roll on the R’s that reminded her of a kitten’s purr, and she found herself wanting to hear it more.

She found herself liking the idea of Dar being at the event tomorrow, too.

Despite her words, she was looking forward to proving to her ex co-workers that the person they referred to as El Chupacabra wasn’t nearly as horrible as they thought she was. Susan, her former lead programmer, especially, since she’d taken the time to call Kerry on more than one occasion, to make sure she was “still alive” and pass on rumors she’d heard about her new boss.

“You be careful, Ker,” Susan had warned. “I heard she fired someone just because she didn’t like what they were wearing one day.”

Hmm. “Hey, Dar?”

“Huh?” The dark-haired woman glanced over, sipping at a glass of chocolate milk she’d wangled out of the stewardess.

“Did you ever fire someone because you didn’t like what they were wearing?” Kerry inquired curiously.

Dar considered the question. “Once, yes,” she admitted, watching Kerry’s eyes widen. “A man named Lawrence Matthews. He was an account rep at Florida Power and Light.”


Tropical Storm 213

“Dar, I can’t believe you’d do that!” she spluttered. “W-what was he wearing that was so awful?”

The blue eyes flinched almost imperceptibly. “He wasn’t wearing anything, Kerry. He got angry and stripped naked at a customer site, and went into the president’s office offering her his private parts.”

Kerry’s jaw dropped. “Oh. Well, Jesus, Dar, that doesn’t count. Of course you fired him!” She snorted. “I would have, too!”

Dar nodded quietly. “All right. Well, to get them out of the way: no, I’ve never slept with Alastair; I’ve never fired anyone for not brushing their teeth; I don’t ask my secretary to solicit escort services for me; and I don’t get drunk every night.”

Blonde brows knit. “I knew all that,” Kerry stated. “How silly.”

“Yeah, but I have punched a corporate VP; I have dissolved entire companies to make the numbers; and I have slept with people to win a bid.”

Dar’s voice was quiet and even. “I’m a bastard, and I know it, Kerry.”

Sea green eyes studied her face for a long time, as the drone of the engines blocked out the noise around them. “I’m sorry. I know you’ve done nasty things, and I know what I thought of you when I first met you, but I can’t look at you now and think of you like that.”

Dar exhaled quietly. “That could be very dangerous for you,” she said in an even tone. “I have a lot of enemies.”

Kerry smiled suddenly, her eyes twinkling. “It could be dangerous for you, too,” she warned, lifting her chin. “Hanging around with me could be deadly to your reputation, you know.” She leaned against the arm between their seats and raised her eyebrows in challenge. Dar leaned on her side of the arm, until their noses were inches apart. Green eyes and blue gazed into each other, so close that Kerry could feel Dar’s breathing stir the hair on the side of her face, and see the tiny muscles on the side of Dar’s face twitch as she held back a smile.

“Is that so?” Dar drawled softly.

“Oh yeah,” Kerry replied, reveling in the strength of what she could feel between them. “I’m going to make you into a nice person,” she growled, squinting her eyes menacingly. “Paladar.”

The grin fought its way to the surface, and Dar laughed, shaking her head from side to side gently. Then she leaned a little further forward, and touched her forehead to Kerry’s, so that the smaller woman almost had to cross her eyes to keep her in focus. “Unrealistic expectations, Kerrison.”

It was so hard not to just… Oh Jesus! Kerry finally dropped her gaze and pulled back before she could embarrass herself. She was blushing, and she knew it. She took a moment to compose herself, then glanced back at the quiet, waiting Dar. Her voice was serious. “Not in my eyes.”

Now Dar’s gaze dropped, and as she looked down, a lock of the dark hair fell, obscuring her face. Kerry had to catch herself before she pushed it back, wanting to feel the soft texture against her skin.

A slow exhalation, and then Dar lifted her head and gave Kerry a rakish, playful grin. “I guess we’ll have to see if you can deliver on that.” She winked, then relaxed back in her seat and gazed out of the window, watching the dark land go by underneath the wings of the plane.


214 Melissa Good Oh god, I’m in trouble. Kerry felt her body trying to deal with the avalanche of emotions running through her. All right, calm down. Take a deep breath, Kerry She’s your boss, and she’s just playing with you, okay? She doesn’t mean any of this. It’s just a little bit of fun for her. She likes flirting, that’s all there is to it. Isn’t it?