Courting Gossip. Kimberly Dean

to her bare feet as he bumped the garage door closed, and she curled her toes into the woven rug. She wasn’t trying to get personal. She was tired. All she wanted to do was clean up and find some place to lie down and rest.

      ‘Damn,’ he muttered. ‘I thought you had at least closed down that line of inquiry with the police.’

      ‘Morgan? No way. You haven’t had to deal with him. He saw that business card, and he’s not going to forget it.’

      She’d finally found time during the drive over to call Nina and warn her. Her boss needed to know what had happened and, worse yet, who had been assigned the case. The detective would be knocking on Luxxor’s door soon. It had been bad enough when he’d recognised her, but then the senator had dropped the company’s business card. Morgan didn’t have to be a genius to connect the dots.

      Goosebumps rose on Genieve’s skin. She didn’t want to be around when those two titans went at it. The detective would be grilling Nina even harder now, and Nina would be standing up to him in her four-inch heels. Even when getting bad news in the middle of the night, her boss had been sharp and efficient as she’d calculated Luxxor’s response. Once or twice, though, Genieve could have sworn she’d heard a tremble in Nina’s voice. It made her feel guilty, even though she didn’t know what she could have done to prevent what had happened.

      ‘Well, Luxxor’s problem is Nina’s to address,’ Brody said.

      He locked the door and moved by her. When he turned on the light, she saw a kitchen with a centre island, warm wood tones and an expanse of windows facing the darkness outside.

      Yet her concentration was fully on him. She folded her arms over her chest and leaned against the doorframe. ‘I’m Luxxor.’

      ‘You’re not Luxxor, you’re…a hot potato.’

      A potato? Really? That was the best analogy he could come up with? She lifted an eyebrow. ‘So why did you volunteer to hold me?’

      The expansive space of the kitchen shrank as he stared at her, and Genieve could hear the clicking of a clock on the wall. He and Nina had argued on the phone about who would take care of her, and that had put a kink in her nose. She was a grown adult. She could fare for herself just fine. Her thoughts hadn’t mattered, though, because both Nina and Brody were in containment mode. And they had a point…She did her best work under covers; she wasn’t used to being in the spotlight. When they’d left the decision up to her, she’d been caught in the middle. But she’d chosen Brody. The decision hadn’t been difficult. She trusted Nina more, but her boss had enough to deal with right now with Morgan hot on their trail. Besides, Genieve was curious. He’d brought her here, to his home.

      ‘I have bigger oven mitts,’ he said, not cracking a smile. He hefted the suitcase up to carry it instead of letting it roll. ‘The guest bedroom is this way.’

      Genieve followed him, but stopped in her tracks when he flipped on a light that showed a vaulted living room with a two-way fireplace and a spiral staircase to a loft. The place wasn’t what she’d expected: stainless steel, glass and hard edges. Oh, it was sharp, but it was also inviting and…homey.

      ‘Politicians must be getting into a lot of trouble these days,’ she mused. Then again, when weren’t they?

      He looked around impassively. Or was that defensively?

      ‘I like it, Brody,’ she said softly. She had to start figuring out how to read him. She could judge most people with a glance, but he was so closed and contained.

      ‘Thanks.’ He frowned as if he was trying to read her and having just as little luck.

      ‘It’s beautiful,’ she said.

      Too beautiful, in fact.

      She wandered over to look at a blown glass vase filled with iridescent balls. Pretty, useless baubles? The décor didn’t exactly scream Brody Haynes. She bit her lip. She wasn’t quite sure what would, but it wasn’t this. Warning signs went off in her tired head. ‘Do you have a girlfriend?’

      That stopped him in his tracks. He paused at the mouth of the hallway and turned back towards her. ‘What? No. Not…not right now.’

      She ran her finger along the lip of the vase. ‘Your house was decorated with a feminine touch.’

      He rolled a shoulder. ‘I hired a female designer.’

      Genieve cocked her head. ‘And you slept with her.’

      That got a reaction out of him. His eyebrows jumped and his gaze sharpened. ‘How would you know that?’

      She walked towards him, copying the walk she’d picked up from Nina – one foot directly in front of the other. It was a catlike prowl, and Genieve was suddenly on the hunt. So he did have a sex drive. He wasn’t human skin over a robotic core, although for some reason he wanted her to think he was.

      ‘You just told me,’ she said, her lips curling up in a slow smile.

      He looked around his home again, this time with more attention. ‘It was a short-time thing.’

      ‘But she decorated with thoughts of living here.’

      The look he gave her was one of surprise, but he shook it off. ‘Guest bedroom,’ he repeated.

      Interesting. Genieve followed him with that same predatory walk, but the carpet was like clouds underneath her feet. She wasn’t a predator at heart. She was more of a kitten.

      She glanced into darkened rooms as they passed. ‘Were you here when I called?’

      They were in McLean, Virginia. It was right across the Potomac from DC and one of the higher-end real-estate markets in the region. The drive in the middle of the night hadn’t been bad, but commuting in the daytime would be a bear. Although she could see him blending in with commuters on the Metro. He’d pick up all kinds of information as he sat on the trains, quietly watching and analysing the other riders.

      ‘I was at my office.’

      ‘Burning the candle at both ends? You know what they say about all work and no play.’ She put her purse on the dresser beside the door. The guest bedroom was lovely, no doubt due to the dumped decorator. She didn’t like it so much any more. The place needed more colour, more flair.

      ‘I stay there sometimes during the week. Trouble always seems to pop up during the overnight hours.’

      And she counted as trouble. Some of Genieve’s pleasure faded.

      ‘You sleep at your office?’

      ‘It has a sofa and a shower. That’s all I need.’ He put her suitcase on a chair on the far side of the room. ‘Will this do?’

      She’d woken him tonight from an uncomfortable sleep on an office sofa. For some reason, that didn’t sit well with her. ‘It’s fine. Thank you.’

      His hands settled on his hips. ‘The bathroom is across the hallway, and you saw the kitchen. Use whatever you need. We’ll figure out tomorrow what we’re going to do from here on in.’

      Tomorrow. She’d been trying not to think about that. ‘What if that tape got out, Brody?’

      She’d been locked in the bathroom; she didn’t know what had happened with those reporters and their damned camera. Could video be uploaded directly to the internet from those things?

      With only a bedlamp on, Brody’s cheekbones seemed to sharpen in the shadows. ‘I’ll be working that angle tonight. Hopefully, you and Samuel kept them busy enough that they didn’t have time to send it out.’

      He ran a hand through his hair. It was more rumpled than she’d ever seen it, but she liked it. She liked seeing the human cracks in his controlling façade. ‘Believe it or not, right now if we can’t get possession of that video card, it might actually be best for Morgan to have it.’

      Genieve pressed her lips together. She doubted