Going Too Far. Tori Carrington

Dulcy corrected her.

      Jena shrugged. “Six months, nine. Both too long.”

      Dulcy took Marie’s hand and rested it against her round belly. As she always did when she touched her friend’s stomach, Marie wondered at how hard and solid the mass was. “Do you feel him?”

      Marie did. She gasped and nearly drew her hand away at the force of the kick.

      Barry chuckled as he got up and headed for the door. “I think that’s my cue to leave the room.”

      Dulcy looked at him. “Don’t you dare, Bartholomew. You get over here and feel your honorary grandchild along with everyone else.”

      Marie drew back from the group, watching as if from a distance. Her brother Frankie Jr.’s wife had had their two children while Marie was in L.A. Though she’d flown in for the births and the baptisms, she hadn’t actually experienced the pregnancies with her sister-in-law. To watch one of her best friends go through the experience…well, she felt humbled and awed. And maybe, just maybe, a little envious.

      “It’s a girl,” Jena said confidently after shaking her hand as if she’d just touched a bagful of goo instead of her friend’s stomach. “I don’t know why you don’t want to find out what sex it is, Dulc. You keep calling it a ‘he.’ What if it is a girl?”

      Dulcy gave a long, happy sigh. “I use ‘he’ just to keep things simple. Quinn and I would be very happy if it were a girl.” She tucked her hair behind her ear and went through the maneuvers required for her to stand. “But Ezzie’s adamant about my having a boy.”

      Marie shuddered. “That woman gives me the creeps.”

      “That’s funny,” Dulcy said, waving Barry away when he tried to help her get up. “She reminds me a lot of your grandmother.”

      Marie widened her eyes. So that’s why she felt strange around Ezzie. She realized with a start that her friend was right. Ezzie was exactly like Marie’s Grandmother Maria, after whom she’d been named.

      Yikes.

      “So,” Dulcy said, gathering her things from the table in front of her, “what happens with your father from here?”

      Her father? Oh, her father.

      “Um, he meets with the treasury agents tomorrow.”

      “Are you going?” Jena asked.

      “No. But Ian’s going to fill me in on everything.”

      “Mmm.”

      Marie glared at her friend. “Mmm, what?”

      Jena shared another one of those looks with Dulcy. “Nothing. Did I say anything, Dulcy?”

      “I didn’t hear you say anything.”

      “Oh, piss off, the both of you.”

      All three of her friends and fellow attorneys stared at her as if she’d just dyed her hair bleach blonde. Marie instantly wanted to duck under the table until all of them forgot she had just said what she had—which would probably be never because she never swore. Even if the swear word ranked way over on the conservative side.

      Barry held up his hands. “I’m out of here. See you guys tomorrow.”

      He left the room, leaving Marie behind to stare at her friends.

      Great. Just great. First there was everything going on with her father. Now Jena and Dulcy’s shock had turned to acute interest.

      She sighed and pushed her curly hair back from her face. “Look, guys, I’m really not up for this right now.”

      Jena crossed her arms over her chest. “Funny, because we are.”

      “What’s going on, Marie?” Dulcy asked.

      Marie stepped to the table and scooped her things into her briefcase. “Can we talk about this tomorrow—”

      The sound of raised voices coming from the lobby drew all of their attention.

      First Jena, then Dulcy and Marie stepped toward the open conference room door. Given that she was a good four inches shorter than her friends, Marie had to do some maneuvering to see what was going on.

      Just outside, by Mona’s desk, Barry and Mona were arguing hotly. Marie tried to follow the rapid-fire words.

      “I quit,” Mona said, her voice ringing loud and clear.

      Marie raised her brows. Well, that didn’t take much to understand, did it?

      All four of them watched as the woman who had been Barry Lomax’s secretary for the past thirty years, and theirs for the past year, took her purse out of her desk drawer and strode toward the door. And that’s where they all stayed well after Mona had left.

      “Wow,” Marie said.

      Everyone nodded their agreement.

      HERE THEY WERE TALKING about the U.S. Treasury Department and the questions the agents had asked Frank Bertelli Sr., and all Ian could think about was that he wanted to have some major sex with Marie so badly he hurt. And the fact that they were in public, sitting at a small round table in a very busy coffee shop located near their offices was not hindering his condition in the least.

      It was hard to believe that only a day had passed since he’d last seen her…when he’d nudged her skirt up her remarkable thighs and peeked at her underwear. It seemed more like a week. And the truth of that made his mental state that much worse. He hadn’t wanted anyone this bad since…well, since he’d had Marie eight years ago.

      “My father’s accountant’s missing?” Marie asked after mulling over everything Ian had said.

      Ian forced himself to concentrate on the matter at hand. Not an easy task when Marie had surprised him by showing up at the café in jeans and a T-shirt and a black leather blazer. She’d said she couldn’t concentrate at the firm—something about a missing secretary and a general state of chaos—and had decided to work from home this afternoon. She looked hot. And he wanted to touch her.

      He cleared his throat. “In a word, yes.” He leaned forward and shook his leg in an effort to move his pulsing arousal to a more comfortable position. Thankfully his suit pants were baggy enough to conceal the sad shape he was in. “Your father says he didn’t show up for work yesterday morning. Something I didn’t find out until the questioning was well under way.” He turned his coffee cup around to grasp the handle. “I had to do a bit of damage control when that little bit came out.”

      “Holy cow,” Marie whispered.

      Ian’s gaze dropped to her mouth as she said the words. Damn, but she had a beautiful mouth. The kind of mouth that could take real good care of a guy if she put her mind to it.

      “You can, um, say that again,” he said, unsure if he was talking to himself or her.

      Marie ran her fingers through her wild red hair several times, then sat back and blew a long breath out of those luscious lips. The fact that she was completely unaware of the carnal direction his thoughts had taken made her all the more attractive. Of course, not many people would be able to see beyond what he had just told her. Which was basically that her father was in deep doo-doo.

      Her blue eyes focused on him. “Did they say what the reason was for the suspicion?”

      Ian shrugged and took a long sip of his coffee. “Something about discrepancies on your father’s business returns.”

      She grimaced.

      “And, um, he was also questioned about his connection to someone out of Chicago.”

      “Who?”

      “James Baldacci.”

      “Uncle Jimmy?”

      Ian winced, her father’s position looking dimmer and dimmer all the time. “You