Local Hero

off.
    So he went to her first.
    Mitch strolled into the bank with his ears tingling from the cold. The long walk had given him time to think through everything Skinner had told him, and to feel the first twinges of excitement. Zark, in Technicolor, in stereophonic sound, in Panavision.
    Mitch stopped at Kay’s desk. “She had lunch yet?”
    Kay rolled back from her terminal. “Nope.”
    “Anybody with her now?”
    “Not a soul.”
    “Good. When’s her next appointment?”
    Kay ran her finger down the appointment book. “Two fifteen.”
    “She’ll be back. If Rosen stops by, tell him I took Mrs. Wallace to lunch to discuss some refinancing.”
    “Yes, sir.”
    She was working on a long column of figures when Mitch opened the door. She moved her fingers quickly over the adding machine, which clicked as it spewed out a stream of tape. “Kay, I’m going to need Lorimar’s construction estimate. And would you mind ordering me a sandwich? Anything as long as it’s quick. I’d like to have these figures upstairs by the end of the day. Oh, and I’ll need the barter exchange transactions on the Duberry account. Look up the 1099.”
    Mitch shut the door at his back. “God, all this bank talk excites me.”
    “Mitch.” Hester glanced up with the last of the figures still rolling through her head. “What are you doing here?”
    “Breaking you out, and we have to move fast. Taz’ll distract the guards.” He was already taking her coat from the rack behind the door. “Let’s go. Just keep your head down and look natural.”
    “Mitch, I’ve got—”
    “To eat Chinese takeout and make love with me. In whatever order you like. Here, button up.”
    “I’ve only half finished with these figures.”
    “They won’t run away.” He buttoned her coat, then closed his hands over her collar. “Hester, do you know how long it’s been since we had an hour alone? Four days.”
    “I know. I’m sorry, things have been busy.”
    “Busy.” He nodded toward her desk. “No one’s going to argue with you there, but you’ve also been holding me off.”
    “No, I haven’t.” The truth was she’d been holding herself off, trying to prove to herself that she didn’t need him as badly as it seemed. It hadn’t been working as well as she’d hoped. There was tangible proof of that now as she stood facing him with her heart beating fast. “Mitch, I explained how I felt about . . . being with you with Radley in the apartment.”
    “And I’m not arguing that point, either.” Though he would have liked to. “But Rad’s in school and you have a constitutional right to a lunch hour. Come with me, Hester.” He let his brow rest on hers. “I need you.”
    She couldn’t resist or refuse or pretend she didn’t want to be with him. Knowing she might regret it later, she turned her back on her work. “I’d settle for a peanut butter and jelly. I’m not very hungry.”
    “You got it.”
    Fifteen minutes later, they were walking into Mitch’s apartment. As usual, his curtains were open wide so that the sun poured through. It was warm, Hester thought as she slipped out of her coat. She imagined he kept the thermostat up so that he could be comfortable in his bare feet and short-sleeved sweatshirts. Hester stood with her coat in her hands and wondered what to do next.
    “Here, let me take that.” Mitch tossed her coat carelessly over a chair. “Nice suit, Mrs. Wallace,” he murmured, fingering the lapel of the dark blue pinstripe.
    She put a hand over his, once again afraid that things were moving too fast. “I feel . . .”
    “Decadent?”
    Once again, it was the humor in his eyes that relaxed her. “More like I’ve just climbed out my bedroom window at midnight.”
    “Did you ever?”
    “No. I thought about it a lot, but I could never figure out what I was supposed to do once I climbed down.”
    “That’s why I’m nuts about you.” He kissed her cautious smile and felt her lips soften and give under his. “Climb out the bedroom window to me, Hester. I’ll show you what to do.” Then his hands were in her hair, and her control scattered as quickly as the pins.
    She wanted him. Perhaps it had a great deal to do with madness, but oh, how she wanted him. In the long nights since they’d been together like this, she’d thought of him, of how he touched her, where he touched her, and now his hands were there, just as she remembered. This time she moved faster than he, pulling his sweater up