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Feeling Hunter start to shake beside her, Anne put a hand on his forearm, not wanting him to be arrested for assaulting an officer for the slur on her honour.
‘Now, be polite to the policeman, darling; he’s just doing the job we respectable citizens pay him for,’ Hunter said in a voice that trembled suspiciously, and she twisted to look at him, realising that it hadn’t been anger sending ripples of tension through his body.
His black eyes laughed at her furious chagrin. ‘You should be grateful he stopped to make sure you weren’t in trouble. And you must admit that what we were doing might have been perfect for us—but it wasn’t exactly innocent…’
She blushed fierily. ‘Why, you—’
‘I assure you, Officer, we have no intention of risking an indecent exposure charge.’ Hunter spoke hurriedly over her smouldering tones. ‘If you excuse us I think we’ll just toddle on home to the baby…’
‘That might be a good idea, sir. Safer for both you and your lady.’
‘Not to mention more comfortable,’ Hunter grinned, and they exchanged secret male glances before the policeman turned back to his car.
‘I can’t believe you had the gall to say that!’ muttered Anne, torn between a giggle and a glare as Hunter slid his arm through hers and hustled her up the hill in the wake of the accelerating patrol car.
‘Neither can I,’ he said wryly. ‘Put it down to shock. I’m not used to assisting the police with their enquiries.’
‘And you think I am?’
‘The police, no. The fire department? Possibly. You’re a dangerously inflammable woman.’
Her good humour was restored by the distinct note of admiration in the rueful remark. She began to laugh and hugged herself against his side, partly as a protection from the feathery rainfall and partly for the sheer pleasure of it.
A bubble of happiness caught in her throat. Tonight was a new beginning. She had discovered that Hunter possessed a kindred streak of wicked humour that might enable him to appreciate the lighter side of her reckless deception when, as she conceded must inevitably happen, she told him Katlin’s story.
‘I don’t suppose it would have done your academic reputation any good if he had hauled you in front of a judge for consorting with a prostitute,’ she teased.
‘I don’t think there’s any such crime,’ said Hunter, his arm around her supple back as they leaned into the hill. ‘It’s the soliciting part that’s illegal; the clients get off with a slap on the wrist. You’re the one who would have been up on charges.’
‘Don’t sound so smug. I would have told them you were doing the soliciting,’ Anne told him as they turned into the dim alleyway next to the warehouse and Hunter unlocked the side-door which they used when the docking bay was closed.
‘I bet you would have, too,’ he said with a mock-growl, and chased her squealing up the stairs. She whirled around to jeer triumphantly at him when she reached the top, her hair losing its final battle with the pins, flaring out around her as he caught her by the waist. She steadied herself with her hands on his shoulders, his stance on the step below allowing her to look him directly in the face. What she saw there made her even more breathless.
‘I—I wonder if your mother’s asleep?’ she stammered, glancing towards his door.
He wound his hand around a long skein of hair, tugging her face back towards him. ‘It doesn’t matter whether she is or not.’
‘Doesn’t it?’
‘No.’
She swallowed nervously at his clipped reply. He looked so…broodingly serious. She didn’t know if she was quite ready for this after all. Not yet. Not with the credibility gap yawning between his perception of what she was and what she actually was…
‘Hunter—’ She decided it might be best to approach it from an oblique angle. ‘I—it’s been a long time for me…’
He stilled. ‘How long?’
Now, tell him now!
‘A very long time…’ she forced out.
He drew the most obvious conclusion, his eyes glinting with satisfaction. ‘Before Ivan was born?’
She shook her head, smiling shakily. ‘Way before that—’
‘Good,’ he cut her off before she could formulate the rest of her confession, holding her wide-eyed gaze with dark intensity as he took the final step up and towered over her, increasing her sense of feminine vulnerability. ‘So there’s no danger of complications from former lovers…on either side, because it’s been quite a while for me too.’
His fingers slipped through the satiny strands of her hair, raking it forward over her slim shoulders, the backs of his hands skimming her breasts. ‘You have incredibly beautiful hair…’ He bent and buried his face in a handful of it.
