Private Scandals

his vision. Her heart was chugging like a piston against his, and her skin was soft as water, hot as fire. “Please, please.” He was almost weeping as his mouth covered hers. “Just let me touch you.”
    “No.” Sickened, she turned her head. Control. She grasped onto her only hope. “You’d be no better than Jamie. You’re hurting me, Jeff. You have to stop hurting me.”
    Tears tracked down his cheeks when he lifted his head. “I’m sorry. Deanna, I’m so sorry. It’s just that I’ve waited so long. We won’t make love until you’re ready. I swear it. Don’t be afraid of me.”
    “I am afraid.” He wouldn’t rape her, she realized, and was almost ashamed that she was willing to settle for that. “You have me locked up. You’ve told me no one can find me. What if something happened to you? I could die here.”
    “Nothing’s going to happen. I’ve planned everything, every detail. I love you, Deanna, and I know under it all, you love me too. You’ve shown me in hundreds of ways. The way you smile at me. The way you touch me, or laugh. The way you’ll catch my eye across the room. You made me your director. I can’t begin to explain what that meant to me. You trusted me to guide you. You believed in me. In us.”
    “It’s not love. I don’t love you.”
    “You’re just not ready yet. Now you need to rest.” He braceleted her wrists in one hand, fought the hypo free with the other.
    “No. Don’t.” She twisted, wrenched, begged. “Please don’t. I can’t go anywhere. You’ve said I can’t get away.”
    “You need to rest,” he said quietly, and slid the needle under her skin. “I’ll watch out for you, Deanna.”
    Her head lolled back, and his tears fell to mix with hers. He waited, miserably, until her struggles to fight off the drug ceased. When her body went limp, he clamped down on the urge to stroke his hands over it.
    Not until she’s ready, he reminded himself, content to brush the dampness from her cheeks. Gently, he shifted her onto the pillows and placed a chaste kiss on her brow.
    His princess, he thought, studying her as she slept. He’d built her an ivory tower. They’d live there together. Forever.
    “Isn’t she perfect, Uncle Matthew? Isn’t she beautiful? You’d have loved her too. You’d have known she was the one, the only one.”
    He sighed. Uncle Matthew wasn’t speaking to him. He’d been wrong to allow sex to twist his plans. He’d have to be punished. Bread and water only for two days. That’s what his uncle would have done. Meekly he crouched down to clean up the broken dishes. He tidied the room, turned the lights down. With one last, longing glance at Deanna, he slipped out of the room, shutting the panel silently.
     
    “I think it would be best if you’d take Miss Reynolds home.” Jenner rode up in the elevator with Finn. He still resented Finn’s earlier pressuring but he covered it with quiet dignity. “I’d prefer that she was out of the office when we re-interrogate her staff.”
    “The minute she finds out that’s what you intend to do, she won’t budge.” Pleased that matters seemed to be moving forward, Finn leaned against the wall. “I’ll do what I can to convince her to stay out of the way, but that’s the best I can offer. Deanna’s fiercely loyal. She won’t want to accept that one of her own people is involved.”
    “She may have to.” Jenner headed out of the car the moment the doors opened. “If she kicks up too much of a fuss, we can take her people in to the station. She’ll like that less.”
    “You can try. You don’t know her the way I do, Lieutenant. Cassie,” he said as he walked into the reception area. “She in?”
    “No.” Baffled, she stopped gathering the stacks of mail she’d intended to post on the way home. “What are you doing here?”
    “Cassie Drew?” Jenner inclined his head. “We’d like to ask you some more questions. I wonder if you could get the rest of Miss Reynolds’s staff together?”
    “I—I don’t know who’s still in the building. Finn?”
    “Why don’t you buzz everyone,” he suggested. “And find Deanna for me, will you?” He wanted to get her out, and quickly. Some instinct told him to hurry. He intended to heed it. “Tell her I’m in the mood to cook.”
    “She’s gone home. She left right after you called.”
    “I called?” He felt uneasy. “Did Deanna tell you I called?”
    “No, you left a message about a meeting, and getting home