Silver Linings

well aware of how temperamental Ariel can be. But that's no excuse for you to come here looking for a place to bed down for the night, Grafton. Nobody is spending the night in Mattie's apartment except me. Clear?”
    “Now, Hugh,” Mattie said, her tone soothing once more, “there's no need to run around beating your chest and defending your territory. Look at the time. It's much too late for Flynn to find somewhere else to stay. There's absolutely no reason he can't spend the night here on my couch.”
    “He's history,” Hugh stated. “Get out of here, Grafton. Now.”
    Flynn nodded, his eyes bleak. “I'll call a cab.”
    “There's no need for that, Flynn,” Mattie said firmly. She shot Hugh a defiant glance and turned back to Flynn. “Where would you go at this hour, Flynn? A hotel? It would cost a fortune, and you don't have any money, remember?”
    “I've got Ariel's credit cards.”
    “Great idea,” Hugh muttered. “Use one of your wife's credit cards to pay for a fancy suite in some big downtown hotel while you hide out from her. There's a certain poetic justice in that.”
    “No, I guess that wouldn't be right, would it?” Flynn straightened, looking very noble and stoic. “I'll think of something, Mattie. Don't worry about me. I'll find somewhere to spend the night. It's too late to get into any of the missions, but I can always find a doorway or something.”
    Mattie was aghast. “But, Flynn, you can't possibly sleep on the streets. I won't allow it.”
    Hugh eyed the pathetic little scene while he dug his wallet out of his jeans. “Tell you what. I'll make this even easier. I'll stake you to a night in a hotel, Grafton. It's worth it just to get you out of here.”
    Mattie sprang up from the couch and came toward Hugh with a determination in her gaze that made him immediately uneasy.
    “Will you stop behaving like a jealous Tarzan? There is no reason Flynn can't stay here. It's past midnight. I am not sending him out at this hour.”
    “Then let him go home and sleep in his own bed.”
    “This is my apartment, he is my brother-in-law, and I say he can sleep here.”
    Hugh sensed defeat in the making, but he braced himself, planted his fists on his hips, and tried his most intimidating glare. “I say he goes.”
    “You don't have any right to make demands around here.”
    “Is that a fact? In case it has escaped your notice, we happen to be engaged. That gives me a few goddamned rights.”
    She eyed him for an icy moment and then switched tactics with dazzling speed. “Hugh, I don't want to quarrel over this. Flynn's had too much to drink, he's very depressed and under a lot of stress, and he has no money of his own. It won't hurt you to let him sleep on the couch just this once. Please?”
    “Damn it, Mattie.” It was not fair that a woman's pleas could break through a man's defenses so easily, Hugh told himself as he started to weaken.
    A gentle snore interrupted the low-voiced argument. Hugh glanced toward the couch and saw that the man he was trying to evict had gone back to sleep. Hugh knew a strategically indefensible position when he saw one. Sometimes the only good option was a carefully orchestrated retreat.
    And revenge, of course. There definitely remained the pleasures to be had in exacting vengeance.

    Half an hour later Hugh stretched out beside Mattie in the loft bed and pulled her into his arms. He had waited patiently while she had found a blanket to throw over Grafton, brushed her teeth, taken her evening ration of vitamins, and changed into her prim little flannel night-gown.
    “Hugh, I want to thank you for backing down on this little matter of letting Flynn sleep on my couch,” Mattie whispered earnestly as she snuggled close. “I know you were annoyed to find him here, and I realize that under the circumstances you had every right to react as you did. It won't happen again, I promise.”
    “You're right. It won't happen again.” He kissed her throat, inhaling the sweet, feminine scent of her body. He was already hard with sexual anticipation, he realized. He let his hand glide down her arm.
    “Hugh?”
    “Yeah, babe?” He slowly pushed her proper little nightgown up over her knees and then edged it higher.
    “Hugh, we can't. Not tonight.” She batted ineffectually at his roving hands. “Flynn might wake up and hear us. It would be horribly embarrassing.”
    “Then you'll just have to try real hard to be very, very quiet, won't you?” He gently