Public Secrets

He had to touch her. He couldn’t remember not wanting to. When he stroked a finger down her cheek, she turned her head and smiled. What she saw in his eyes had her heart pounding in her throat, had her lips parting, not so much in surprise as in question.
She didn’t resist as he touched his mouth to hers. On a quiet moan she shifted toward him, inviting something she didn’t completely understand. A gentle nip of his teeth had her lips heating. When he entered her mouth, she heard the low sound of pleasure in his throat, felt his hands tense on her arms.
Without hesitation, she pressed her body to his and absorbed the sensation.
Would he have believed that it was the first time she’d been kissed, like this? The first time she felt like this? Warm, liquid, achingly sweet desire swam into her. Had she been waiting for this? Even as she wondered, her lashes lowered to help her seal the memory.

“You do,” he murmured, and kissed her again, gently, because it seemed the right way.
“Do what?”
“Taste as good as you look. I’ve wondered for a long time.”
She had to swallow, had to draw back. There were feelings growing inside her she didn’t know what to do with. They were too big, and came too fast. “It’s the salt.” Confused, she rose and stepped closer to the sea.
It was easy for a man to mistake confusion for casualness. He sat where he was, giving himself time. He had no casual feelings for her. Stupid as it might have sounded, he was in love. She was beautiful, elegant, and certainly accustomed to being wanted by men. Rich and important men. And he was a rookie cop from a middle-class family. He let out a long breath, rose, and tried to be as offhand as she.
“It’s getting late.”
“Yes.” Was she crazy? Emma wondered. She wanted to cry and laugh and dance and mourn all at once. She wanted to turn to him, but tomorrow she would be three thousand miles away. He was only being kind. She was the poor little rich girl, a tide she detested, and he—he was doing something with his life.
“I should be getting back.” She turned, smiled. “I’m really glad you went with me today, that we had some time.”
“I’ll be around.” He took her hand—a friendly gesture, he told himself. The hell with friendly. “I want to see you again, Emma. I need to.”
“I don’t know—”
“You can give me a call when you come back.”
The way he was looking at her had her skin going hot then cold. “I will. I’d like to—I don’t know when I’ll make it out here again.”
“I thought you might be coming out for the movie.”
“Movie?”

They had started walking to the car, but now he stopped. “Yeah. They’re going to start filming in a couple weeks in London, I think, then here. They’re putting on extra security. The movie,” he continued when she just looked blank. “Devastated , you know, based on your mother’s book. Angie’s starring in it. Angie Parks.” He could see by her face that he’d made a very large and a very stupid mistake. “I’m sorry, Emma, I thought you knew.”
“No,” she said, suddenly tired beyond belief. “I didn’t.”

H E SNATCHED THE phone up before it had completed its first ring he’d been waiting, and sweating, for hours. “yes?”
“I found her.” the voice, and he knew that voice very well, trembled.
“And?”
“She went to see the cop, Kesselring. She was with him for over an hour. Then she went to the house, she went to the goddamn house where it happened. We’ve got to do something, and do it fast. I told you then, and i’m telling you now, i won’t take the fall for this.”
“Pull yourself together.” the tone was brisk, but his hand shook slightly as he reached for a cigarette. “she went to the house. She went inside?”
“The fucking place is for sale. She and the guy she was with strolled right in.”
“What guy? Who was she with?”
“Some guy. The cop’s son, i think.”
“All right.” he noted it down on the pad beside the phone. “where did they go when they left the house?”
“They went to a goddamn hamburger joint.”
The tip of the pencil snapped off. “I beg your pardon?”
“I said they went for burgers, then joyriding on the freeway. I lost them. I know where she’s staying tonight. I can get somebody to take care of it, quick, easy.”
“Don’t be an idiot. There’s no need.”
“I told you she saw the cop, she went to the house.”
“Yes, I understood you.” his hand was rock-steady again. He