Private Scandals

making a move back to just that.”
    Deanna looked for a barb, but found nothing but genuine interest as Finn drew Marshall into a discussion on American family culture. It was the reporter in him, she imagined, that made it possible for him to talk to anyone at any time on any subject. At the moment, she was grateful.
    It comforted her to have her hand tucked into Marshall’s, to feel that she could be, if she chose, part of a couple. She preferred, overwhelmingly, Marshall’s gentle romancing to Finn’s direct assault on the nervous system. If she had to compare the two men, which she assured herself she certainly didn’t, she would have given Marshall top points for courtesy, respect and stability.
    She smiled up at him even as her eyes were drawn back to the dramatic and passionate painting.
    When Fran and Richard joined them, Deanna made introductions. A few minutes of small talk, and they said their goodbyes. Deanna tried to pretend she didn’t feel Finn’s eyes on her as they nudged their way to the door.
    “Be still my heart,” Fran muttered in Deanna’s ear. “He’s even sexier in person than he is on the tube.”
    “You think so?”
    “Honey, if I was unmarried and unpregnant, I’d do a lot more than think.” Fran shot one last look over her shoulder. “Yum-yum.”
    Chuckling, Deanna gave her a light shove out the door. “Get a hold of yourself, Myers.”
    “Fantasies are harmless, Dee, I keep telling you. And if he’d been looking at me the way he was looking at you, I’d have been a puddle of hormones at his feet.”
    Deanna combated the jitters in her stomach with a brisk gulp of spring air. “I don’t melt that easily.”
     
    Not melting easily, Deanna thought later, was part of the problem. When Marshall pulled his car to the curb in front of her building, she knew that he would walk her up. And when he walked her up, he would expect to be invited inside. And then . . .
    She simply wasn’t ready for the “and then.”
    The flaw was in her, undoubtedly. She could easily blame her hesitation toward intimacy on the past. And it would be true enough. She didn’t want to admit another part of her hesitation was attributable to Finn.
    “You don’t need to walk me up.”
    He lifted a hand to toy with her hair. “It’s early yet.”
    “I know. But I have an early call in the morning. I appreciate your going by the gallery with me.”
    “I enjoyed it. More than I anticipated.”
    “Good.” Smiling, she touched her lips to his. When he deepened the kiss, drawing her in, she yielded. There was warmth there, passion just restrained. A quiet moan of pleasure sounded in her throat as he changed the angle of the kiss. The thud of his heart raced against hers.
    “Deanna.” He took his mouth on a slow journey of her face. “I want to be with you.”
    “I know.” She turned her lips to his again. Almost, she thought dreamily. She was almost sure. “I need a little more time, Marshall. I’m sorry.”
    “You know how I feel about you?” He cupped her face in his hand, studying her. “But I understand, it has to be right.Why don’t we get away for a few days?”
    “Away?”
    “From Chicago. We could take a weekend.” He tipped her face back and kissed the side of her mouth. “Cancún, St. Thomas, Maui. Wherever you like.” And the other side. “Just the two of us. It would let us see how we are together, away from work, all the pressures.”
    “I’d like that.” Her eyes drifted closed. “I’d like to think about that.”
    “Then think about it.” There was a look of dark triumph in his eyes. “Check your schedule, and leave the rest to me.”

Chapter Seven
    D eanna hadn’t expected the pricks of disloyalty. Television was, after all, a business. And part of the business was to get ahead, to make the best deal. But while the May sweeps consumed the CBC Building, with nightly ratings discussed and analyzed by everyone from top brass to the maintenance crews, she felt like a traitor.
    Next year’s budgets were being forecasted off the sweeps, and the forecasts were being made on faulty assumptions.
    She knew Angela’s would be gone before the start of the fall season. And with the deal Angela had made, she would compete with CBC’s daytime lineup as well as with prime-time specials.
    The more celebratory the mood in the newsroom, the more guilt jabbed at Deanna’s conscience.
    “Got a problem, Kansas?”
    Deanna glanced up as Finn made himself comfortable