From the Heart

allow herself to need anyone again. The risks were too great, the punishment too severe.
    “No.” Liv pushed against him in sudden panic. “No,” she said again, and managed to draw back, if not away. His hands stayed firm on her shoulders. She could see the raw desire in his eyes, knew it must be mirrored in her own.
    “No what?” His voice was rough, half-angry, half-aroused. He hadn’t expected the brutal degree of passion she had brought out in him.
    “You have to go.” Liv pulled out of his hold and stood. She needed distance, needed to stand on her feet. Thorpe rose more slowly.
    “I want you.” It was a simple statement, almost flat, as he fought against the throbbing that beat inside him. “You want me.”
    It would have been absurd to deny it. Liv took a deep breath. “Yes, but I don’t want to want you.” She let the breath out again. “I won’t.”
    Thorpe felt his control snap. He grabbed her and pulled heragainst him. He saw her eyes widen as the pupils dilated. “The hell you won’t,” he said quietly. He released her again so quickly that she nearly tumbled back onto the sofa. He stuck his hands in his pockets to keep them off her.
    “This isn’t the end of it, Carmichael,” he warned before he turned for the door. “It’s just the beginning.”
    He let the door swing closed behind him as he headed for the elevator. He needed a drink.

4
    “T he tape on the school board meeting’s still being edited.” Liv glanced briefly at the clock before she sat down to review the script for the evening broadcast. I’d have more time, she thought fleetingly, if I hadn’t had to do those teases.
    “Know what the story count is tonight?” Brian stripped the wrapper from a chocolate bar and sat on Liv’s desk.
    “Hmm?”
    “Eighteen.” He took a generous bite. “We’re packing them in. The general manager’s frantic because we slipped a couple notches in the ratings. I heard he wants to change the tone of the weather forecast. Go for the chuckles. Maybe he’ll hire a comedy writer.”
    “Or put on a ventriloquist and a magic act,” Liv mumbled. Gimmicks annoyed her. Even as she spoke to Brian, she was running over her timing on the stories she would soon read on the air. “The next thing you know, we’ll have the weather being given by a guy in a clown suit standing on one leg and juggling plates.”
    “Maybe we need the comic relief.” Brian balled the candy wrapper and pitched it into Liv’s wastebasket. “Lead story’s the rape in the supermarket parking lot.”
    “So I see.” She was skimming the copy, one eye on it, the other on the clock, with her attention divided between the script and her colleague. It was a skill most reporters developed early.
    “Marilee did a spooky little stand-up out there. I just saw the tape.” He swallowed the last of the chocolate. “My wife shops there. Damn.”
    “Everything in here tonight’s grim.” Liv glanced up, running a hand over the back of her neck. “Wholesale prices are up six percent; unemployment’s following suit. Two robberies in Northeast and an arson in Anne Arundel County to add to the rape. Lovely.”
    “Like I said, maybe we need that comic relief.”
    “I want to see daffodils,” she said suddenly. Weariness settled over her all at once. Was it the tone of the news? she wondered. Surely by now she was immune to it. Was it something else? Something had been nagging inside her for the last few days. Something she couldn’t quite pinpoint. It had kept her awake long after Thorpe had left her apartment the night before.
    Brian studied her a moment. He’d noticed the faint shadows under her eyes that morning. It was past five now, and they were deeper. “Is it something you’d like to talk about?”
    Liv opened her mouth, surprised by the question. She shut it again. There was nothing she could say.
    “I know something’s been eating at you lately.” He leaned a bit closer so other ears wouldn’t overhear his words. “Look, why don’t you come to dinner tonight? I’ll call Kathy and tell her to add a can of water to the soup. Sometimes a few hours with friends helps.”
    Liv smiled and squeezed his hand. “That’s the nicest invitation I’ve had in a long time.”
    “So don’t turn it down.”
    “I have to. I’ve got something lined up tonight.” The offer made her feel better, less isolated. “Can I have a rain check?”
    “Sure.” He rose, but Liv took his hand before he moved