Asking For It by Alyssa Kress Page A

hours, he estimated, in the company of Griffith's personal assistant, and she'd yet to breathe a word of any funny business.
    This was taking too much time. Griffith was going to send his bulldozers up to Sagebrush Valley any day now. Not to mention, Ricky was getting behind in his real job playing at all this skullduggery. At the rate he was going, he might even get fired.
    But Ricky couldn't let the thing go. He absolutely had to help Kate. Kate was — well, she'd been everything to him. Pulled him out of his useless rut and set him on a high-speed train track. If he had his 'druthers, Ricky would halt Griffith's plans before Kate even found out that her new landlord planned to put her camp out of business.
    "Okay," Deirdre said. Ricky looked up to see her standing in the center of her office, long-legged and just the other side of graceful. She had her bulging briefcase over one shoulder, an armload of folders in her arms, and a worried look on her face. She'd be back in that same spot in less than twelve hours, but she appeared to wonder if she might be forgetting something.
    Ricky felt a lurch in his belly. Pavolovian response. Since meeting Deirdre three weeks ago — or making sure he'd meet Deirdre, he should say — he'd been getting a steady diet of truly first-class sex.
    He had every expectation of receiving another round of the same in about twenty-five minutes, when they'd reached her apartment and locked the door behind themselves.
    Ricky pushed himself off of Deirdre's desk. At the same time, he pushed down any worms of guilt that tried to wriggle to the surface. Deirdre was getting as much out of the situation as he was. No matter what his motivation in sleeping with her, it was clear they were wildly compatible in bed.
    "Why don't you let me carry some of that?" he now told her, and reached for the twelve-inch pile of file folders.
    "What? Oh, thanks. Yeah, that'd be — " Her fair skin reddened as she relinquished the heavy pile of papers to Ricky. She was always knocked off-balance by a gesture of manly consideration, a fact that was oddly endearing.
    He made an up-and-down weighing motion with the file folders. "Anything special going on?"
    She shot him a quick look. A guilty one? "No, nothing special. Just...trying to stay ahead of the game." She started for the glass door of her glass-walled office.
    Behind her, Ricky made a face. Some Mata Hari he was. He could make the woman's eyes cross with pleasure, but she wouldn't tell him anything .
    "Do you really think I'm going to let you get to any of this?" Ricky followed the sway of Deirdre's plaid skirt as they walked through the empty office.
    She twirled, but then, seeing Ricky's smile, smiled back.
    "I won't let you, you know." Ricky, with his hands full, used his body to back her against the wall of elevators.
    She was smiling, those skillful lips of hers curving in a come-hither way. Pressed against her, Ricky could feel his body leap in response. Their eyes met in a playful duel. Ricky's blood sped.
    If they'd been in the deserted office of any other company, he'd have taken her right then.
    But this was Griffith Blaine's office, and Ricky was too cognizant of the fact.
    Smiling at Deirdre, hoping it looked like a promise rather than a grimace, Ricky reached past her to push the elevator button. "But I'm a big boy. I can wait for a...better venue to show you what I mean."
    Deirdre's hazel eyes sparkled in the dim light from the elevator lobby fixtures. "Since I don't want you dropping all of my project folders, I can work with that."
    All of her project folders ? Straightening from her body and glancing down, Ricky wondered if he'd get a chance to look through them. If he'd find what he knew had to exist.
    A man as successful and driven as Griffith Blaine could not be squeaky clean. He already wasn't, as far as Ricky was concerned. The tactics he'd used to buy the property from under Kate had been sneaky and underhanded. She hadn't had a clue.