Lust and Lies 04 - Pretty Maids in a Row

together were not conducive to productivity and he had to get this piece finished in less than two hours.
    Would she ever think to give him a call? Of course not. She was more stubborn than anyone he had ever known. Why couldn't she just have admitted that she wanted him the same way he wanted her? Why did she have to leave him feeling like the big, bad wolf all the time? Why did she have to turn out to be such an innocent?
    He still had the outfit she'd left on the floor of the shower stall, but he could have a runner return her things to her office for him—when he had a free moment to take care of that detail.
    The fact that he couldn't keep her out of his head was a sign that discovering her secrets could be seriously hazardous to his mental health. He might be better off putting the whole story idea aside until he came up with another way to investigate it. Of course, if he found out she was lying about where she went to college, then he'd have an excuse to confront her without desire getting in the way.
    That excuse was taken away when Valerie called him back that afternoon. Rachel Greenley was definitely a freshman at Dominion the same year as Donner, but Holly Kaufman was neither a freshman nor sophomore that year.
    On the one hand David was disappointed that he still didn't have the full picture. On the other hand, he had one puzzle piece more than he had yesterday, which was enough to convince him to keep digging. The only thing to do was follow through on his original plan to seduce Holly into telling him her secrets. His nose told him it was a risk he was going to have to take. His body laughed at his excuse to get inside her again.
    It was too bad Harry had chosen this time to take off around the world. The old guy would have known just the right thing to say to keep him on track.
    The next morning he took a walk by the front of her building, timed to what he assumed should have been her arrival. It would have been an accidental meeting, where neither had to be the one to give in.
    When she didn't show, he went up to her office and visited with Evelyn. He quickly discovered that she was anxious for Holly to "form new friendships, particularly with nice young men." Hinting at a possible romance in the wings, he convinced the normally protective assistant to let him wait in her boss's office as a surprise.
    Once ensconced there, his natural curiosity took control of his better judgment. At first he only leafed through the files on her desk, but the more time passed without her appearing, the more daring he became. Her desk drawers were neat and tidy, no excess clutter, nothing out of control, nothing that could be construed as purely personal.
    Until he opened the bottom left-hand drawer, removed a lined pad, and saw his face. He hadn't realized she had taken his picture that day on the beach. Not only had she taken one, she had kept it... hidden.
    * * *
    Holly rushed breathlessly through the lobby and into the elevator. Why did her car pick today to go on strike? A full day of paperwork and phone calls awaited and Philip was tied up at the Senate. She spoke to Evelyn as she breezed by, knowing from previous experience the woman would follow her into her office for instructions. "Good morning. My car battery died. Were there any calls? I think you'd better—"
    Her voice, and the rest of her body, came to an abrupt halt in the doorway to her office. David was leaning back in the chair behind her desk with his feet propped up. She turned back to ask Evelyn how he got there, but the woman had wisely disappeared.
    "I'd better do what?" he asked in the tone of voice that let her know it didn't matter what she answered, he'd have a wisecrack ready.
    "Get your shoes off my desk." He didn't. He just sat there, or rather, reclined there, watching her with those eyes that said all sorts of things he shouldn't, the sort of things she didn't have time to think about this morning. "How did you get in here?"
    "Evelyn has a romantic soul."
    Her eyes widened apprehensively. "You didn't—"
    "No, I didn't. But it was worth seeing you blush to let you think I did."
    She shook her head and sighed. "You're impossible."
    "Hmmm." He rubbed his chin thoughtfully as he drew himself to his feet. "Let's see, so far you've described me as an inconsiderate womanizer, told me I'm crude, I'm incorrigible, and now I'm impossible. Not much to feed my overblown ego, is it?"
    "What do you do, record our conversations?"
    He tapped his