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half the town."
"Why didn't you come and get me?" Kemp asked. "I'd have settled her hash for her," he added, with a
dangerous look at Jordan.
"Harley Fowler defended me," Libby said with a quiet
smile. "So did several other gentlemen in the crowd," she added deliberately.
"She's not as bad as you think she is," Jordan said grimly.
"The hell she's not," Kemp replied softly. He got up. "I know things about her that you're going to
wish you did and very soon. Libby, don't be long. We've got a case first thing tomorrow. I'l need those
notes," he added, nodding toward the computer screen. He went to his office and closed the door.
"What was Kemp talking about?" Jordan asked Libby curiously.
"I could tell you, but you wouldn't believe me," she said sadly, remembering how warm their
relationship had been before Julie Merrill clouded the horizon.
He drew in a long breath and moved a little closer, pushing his hat back over his dark hair. He looked
down at her with barely contained hunger. Mabel was busy in the back with the photocopier and the
girl who was filling in for Violet had gone to a dental appointment. Mr. Kemp was shut up in his
office. Libby kept hoping the phone would ring, or someone would come in the front door and save
her from Jordan. It was al she could do not to throw herself into his arms, even after the fights they'd
had. She couldn't stop being attracted to him.
"Look," he said quietly, "I'm not trying to make an enemy of you. I like Julie. Her father is a good
man and he's had some hard knocks lately. They really need my help, Libby. They haven't got
anybody else."
She could just imagine Julie crying prettily, lavishing praise on Jordan for being so useful, dressing
up in her best which was considerably better than Libby's best and making a play for him. She
might be snippy and aggressive toward other women, but Julie Merrill was a practiced seducer. She
knew how to wind men around her finger. She was young and beautiful and cultured and rich.
She knew tricks that most men even Jordan wouldn't be able to resist.
"Why are you so attracted to her?" Libby wondered aloud.
Jordan gave her an enigmatic look. "She's mature," he said without thinking. "She knows exactly what
she wants and she goes after it wholeheartedly. Besides that, she's a woman who could have anybody."
"And she wants you," she said for him.
He shrugged. "Yes. She does."
She studied his lean, hard face, surprising a curious rigidity there before he concealed it. "I suppose
you're flattered," she murmured.
"She draws every man's eye when she walks into a room," he said slowly. "She can play the piano like
a professional. She speaks three languages. She's been around the world several times. She's dated
some of the most famous actors in Hollywood. She's even been presented to the queen in England."
He sighed. "Most men would have a hard time turning up their noses at a woman like that."
"In other words, she's like a trophy."
He studied her arrogantly. "You could say that. But there's something more, too. She needs me. She
said everyone in town had turned their backs on her father. Calhoun Ballenger is drawing financial
support from some of the richest families in town, the same people who promised Senator Merrill
their support and then withdrew it.
Julie was in tears when she told me how he'd been sold out by his best friends. Until I came along, he
actual y considered dropping out of the race."
And pigs fly, Libby thought privately, but she didn't say it. The Merrills were dangling their celebrity
in front of Jordan, a man who'd been shut out of high society even though he was now filthy rich.
They were offering him entry into a closed community. Al that and beautiful Julie as well.
"Did you hear what she said to me in Barbara's Cafe?" she wondered aloud.
"What do you mean?" he asked curiously.
"You stood there and let her attack me, without saying a word."
He scowled. "I was talking to Brad Henry while we stood in line, about a bul he wanted to sel . I didn't
realize what was going on until Julie raised her voice. By then, Harley Fowler and several other men
were making catcal s at her. I thought the best thing to do would be to get her outside before things
escalated."
' 'Did you hear her accuse me of chasing you? Did you hear her warn me off you?''
He cocked his head. "I heard that part," he admitted. "She's very possessive and more jealous of me
than I realized. But I didn't like having her insult you, if that's what you mean," he said quietly. "I told
her so later. She said she'd apologize, but I thought it might come easier from me. She's insecure,
Libby. You wouldn't think so, but she really takes things to heart."
A revelation a minute, Libby was thinking. Jordan actually believed what he was saying. Julie had
really done a job on him.
"She said that you wouldn't waste your time on a nobody like me," she persisted.
"Women say things they don't mean all the time." He shrugged it off. "You take things to heart, too,
Libby,"
he added gently. "You're still very young."
"You keep saying that," she replied, exasperated. "How old do I have to be for you to think of me as
an adult?"
He moved closer, one lean hand going to her slender throat, slowly caressing it. "I've thought of you
like that for a long time," he said deeply. "But you're an addiction I can't afford. You said it yourself
you're ambitious.
You won't be satisfied in a small town. Like the old-timers used to say, you want to go and see the
elephant."
She was caught in his dark eyes, spellbound. She'd said
that, yes, because of the way he'd behaved about Julie's insults. She'd wanted to sting him. But she
didn't mean it. She wasn't ambitious. Al she wanted was Jordan. Her eyes were lost in his.
"The elephant?" she parroted, her gaze on his hard mouth.
"You want to see the world," he translated. But he was moving closer as he said it and his head was
bending, even against his will. This was stupid. He couldn't afford to let himself be drawn into this
sweet trap. Libby wanted a career. She was young and ambitious. He'd go in headfirst and she'd take
off and leave him, just as Duke Wright's young wife had left him in search of fame and fortune. He'd
deliberately drawn back from Libby and let himself be vamped by Julie Merrill, to show this little
firecracker that he hadn't been serious about those kisses they'd exchanged. He wasn't going to risk his
heart on a gamble this big. Libby was in love with love. She was attracted to him. But that wasn't love.
She was too young to know the difference. He wasn't. He'd grabbed at Julie the way a drowning man
reaches for a life jacket. Libby didn't know that. He couldn't admit it.
While he was thinking, he was parting her lips with his. He forgot where they were, who they were.
He forgot the arguments and all the reasons he shouldn't do this.
"Libby," he growled against her soft lips.
She barely heard him. Her blood was singing in her veins like a throbbing chorus. Her arms went
around his neck in a stranglehold. She pushed up against him, forcing into his mouth in urgency.
His arms swallowed her up whole. The kiss was slow, deep, hungry. It was invasive. Her whole body
began to throb with delight. It began to swell. Their earlier kisses had been almost chaste. These were
erotic. They were...
narcotic.
A soft little cry of pleasure went from her mouth into
his and managed to penetrate the fog of desire she was drowning him in.
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