Fixer: A Bad Boy Romance by Samantha Westlake Page A

straight. If she wanted to exchange volleys of taunts, well, he could return just as well as serve. "I don't believe that a cocktail implies anything about the person."
    Alicia chuckled. "Rich, coming from the man who orders a splash out of a four hundred dollar bottle of scotch. That's not trying to say anything?"
    This time, it was Tanner's turn to raise his eyebrows. "All it implies," he said innocently as the waiter set his drink in front of him, "is that I enjoy a good scotch."
    Round one ends in a draw, Tanner thought to himself as the two of them eyed each other, both taking a moment to nip at the smooth, well-aged liquor. Round two will begin momentarily.
    The silence, however, persisted even after the waiter stopped by and collected their orders (Alicia went for the jambalaya, while Tanner elected to go with the crawfish étouffée). They both just watched each other across the table, waiting for the other to make a move.
    As he sat there, however, Tanner's thoughts started to stray. His eyes drifted over Alicia's outfit, noting that it was quite a bit snugger than her usual work ensembles. She certainly didn't need to worry about anyone mocking her for being out of shape, he noted with a grudging flare of admiration. Those tight clothes revealed an absolute knockout of a body, tight and trim in all the right places, plump and wonderfully soft in others. If she wasn't who she was, he'd already be thinking ahead to peeling that cute little dress-up outfit off of her, bending her over his couch and moving up against her from behind-
    At least, he would have done this if she wasn't who she was, he reminded himself. But who she was - a senator, a Democrat, a target - made her his enemy.
    Still, he couldn't completely fight off those tempting little daydreaming images that flitted through his head, suggesting many better ways that they could spend the end of the evening together.
    Their food arrived, and Alicia finally broke the silence. "We're really getting a lot accomplished here, aren't we?" she remarked, her voice heavy with sarcasm.
    For a moment before answering, Tanner examined this sentence for verbal snares or traps, but his search came up empty. "Yeah, this perhaps won't be as productive as I imagined," he admitted, matching her wry tone.
    Alicia sighed. "Look, I get it. You see me as the enemy, and I don't trust you as far as I could throw you." She flexed her bare arms, revealing trim and fit muscles. "Which is still further than you'd suspect," she added with a little smirk.
    "So what are you suggesting that we do? It seems like we're stuck at an impasse."
    She considered this for a moment while delicately eating a mouthful of dirty rice. "What about a truce?" she finally suggested.
    Tanner frowned. This seemed too straightforward. "A truce?"
    "Sure - I'll stop taunting you, and you'll stop actively plotting to undermine me." Alicia laughed. "Of course, we both know what will happen when the end date of the truce comes along, but we can work together until then. Our end goals might be opposed, but we can still help each other in the short term and both come out ahead."
    Tanner took a bite of his étouffée as he considered the advantages and possible downsides. It was true that, if they kept on keeping their shields up and firing exchanges back and forth, neither of them would make much progress. Instead of killing Alicia's education bill, he'd instead be leaving it up to chance - a coin flip.
    Those odds weren't enough for Tanner to risk his reputation on it.
    "Very well," he finally said, shaking his head a little, surprised that he was agreeing with this unexpected direction. "A truce. And what are the details?"
    Alicia pursed her lips, tapping her fork idly against her bowl as she considered. With her lips pouting like that, Tanner couldn't help but feel another little rush of hunger for her, one that had nothing to do with the delicious food in front of him. He quickly ate another bite of crawfish to