Trust Me

that was the same shade as Desdemona’s eggplant dip. His thinning hair was in a neat ponytail, and the gold ring in his ear glittered.
    “Hey, there, Stark. Good to see you again. Say, did you get a chance to look over that proposal for financing Dissolving? I hand-delivered it to your secretary a few days ago.”
    “I haven’t looked at it.”
    “No problem.” Ian was undaunted. “Tell you what, I’ll schedule a meeting so that we can go over it together.”
    “Don’t bother.”
    “Backing a play is a little different than making other kinds of investments. I’ll explain some of the ins and outs. Trust me, this one’s a winner. Tony’s script is fabulous. It’s gonna rip the guts right out of the audience.”
    “Sounds messy. I’m not interested.”
    Ian fluttered slightly, but he did not lose his smile. “Hey, I know this isn’t a good place to talk. But I’ll schedule something with your secretary.”
    Stark lost his patience. He walked straight past Ian and took Desdemona with him.
    He finally got her outside. They came to a halt on the sidewalk in front of Exotica Erotica. Desdemona leaned back against the brick wall, one knee bent so that her small boot was braced. She looked up at him expectantly.
    Stark tried to think of a subtle way to ask the question he needed to ask. “We’ve agreed that I’m going to look for another suitable suspect.”
    “Yes.”
    “In exchange, you’re going to give me free catering services.”
    “Right.” Her eyes gleamed.
    Now what? Stark wondered. He shoved his hands into the pockets of his jacket and gazed moodily at the bag lady who was investigating the contents of a nearby garbage can. “What about us?”
    “Us?”
    “Our relationship,” he said very carefully.
    “Oh, that,” Desdemona said.
    He turned back to face her. “Well?”
    She pursed her lips and looked down at the book in her hand. “I’ve been thinking about that.”
    “And?”
    “And I’m wondering if we shouldn’t put the personal side of our relationship on hold until we’ve settled our other problems.”
    Stark felt as if the wind had been knocked out of him. “I see.”
    “The thing is,” she continued very earnestly. “We’re in this pickle because we mixed the business and the personal. They’re all tangled up together at the moment.”
    “Yes. They are.” Chaos.
    “It might be simpler if we untangled them for a while.”
    For some reason, perhaps because he did not know where else to look, Stark glanced at the title of the book she clutched. Secrets of the Female Orgasm. The memory of the way she had climaxed beneath him the other night crashed through him. He took a deep breath.
    “You think it might be simpler to get your next one out of a book?” he asked. “Or to use one of those gadgets Kirsten gave you?”
    She frowned. “My next what?”
    “Orgasm.”
    She blinked. Then she turned a lovely shade of pink and glanced hastily down at the book she held. “Good heavens, Stark. What a thing to say in public.”
    “I seem to recall that you made a very public speech on the subject in the hallway of your own apartment building.”
    “Yes, well, I was not myself at the time. I was feeling a little giddy.”
    Something in her voice told him that she might be teasing him, but he could not be certain. He wished he could read her more clearly, but he had never been very good at reading women.
    Stark took one hand out of his pocket and flattened it against the wall beside her head. The bricks felt warm and pleasantly rough beneath his palm. He could smell the faint fragrance of Desdemona’s shampoo and the enticing scent of her body. He wanted her. God, how he wanted her. What was he going to do when he had to tell her that he could not find another suitable suspect?
    “I know it’s messy trying to combine the business and the personal,” he said quietly. “But my specialty is complexity, remember?”
    “This is not a mathematical problem.”
    “I have to know where I stand, Desdemona. Please don’t play games with me.”
    She searched his eyes intently. “You’re telling me that you want us to continue with the personal side of our relationship even though this other thing is going on?”
    “Yes.”
    “Why?”
    He stared at her, uncomprehending. “Why?”
    She nodded and looked expectant again.
    Stark had no idea what he was supposed to say next. “What kind of a question is that? I want you, and I think you want me. We’re attracted to