I suddenly didn't want to be apart from him. What if something else happened? I ran my hand over the back of his and rose up onto my tiptoes to kiss him. He groaned silently against my lips, as he drew me into him. I slid my hand under his suit coat, annoyed by the necessity of all these pieces of clothing between us. I wanted to be close to him-as close as humanly possible-and stay there for as long as possible. I wanted to go back to the simplicity of our early relationship-when he whisked me away on his private jet just to see the stars over Hawaii, when we sat outside an Italian restaurant and he fed me strange foods while I sat with a blindfold over my eyes. I wanted to play those trust games, to spend hours getting to know him even better, to lie naked in his arms and do things I never imagined myself capable of months, even weeks ago.

I wanted the danger that began with my kidnapping to be over.

Mellissa "Hey, love," Conrad whispered, a little amusement in his voice. "Wake up."

I reached up and pushed the hair out of my face, focusing on him in the confusion of the first seconds of consciousness. People were moving around the room behind him, trying not to notice the two of us, someone on the phone and someone else delivering a stack of papers tucked into manila file folders. It took a moment, but it finally sank in that I was in Conrad's office and I'd fallen asleep on his couch.

"Oh, sorry," I mumbled, as I quickly sat up and wiped the drool from my chin, wondering if I had snored, too.

"No worries," Conrad said. "We're finishing up. Why don't you let me take you home?"

I got the annoyed glance of his personal assistant, just that look telling me that it was going to be a very long night for Conrad and I was just interrupting it.

"I can get a cab."

"No, you won't. Do you really think I'm going to send you out by yourself after everything that's been going on?"

"Peggy's in jail."

"Yeah, well, Madison doesn't seem to think Peggy was working on her own. And I'm beginning to wonder if she's right."

"Why?"

Conrad shook his head, glancing over his shoulder at the others in the room. "Let's go home."

I let him take my hand and pull me off the couch. Sally, one of his brilliant employees, waved politely as Conrad explained that he'd be back in an hour or so. I liked Sally, and she seemed to like me. She was the only one in the office who spoke to me more than to say hello or goodbye at the end of my frequent visits. Aurora's resignation at Cepheus left me and Russell, her assistant, in limbo for a while...more me than Russell. Russell had the good luck of being the CEO's nephew, so they'd stuck him in another department for the time being. But, apparently, they didn't need another receptionist anywhere. Human resources assured me that my position would be available once they hired a new vice-president of development, but that could take upwards of five to six months. In the meantime, I had a lot of time on my hands, and that had led to Conrad dragging me into the office several times a week. Not that I didn't enjoy it-I actually found it pretty fascinating. I loved listening to Conrad use his charm to convince some reporter or an editor to write what he wanted about the companies he represented instead of the naked truth. He was so good at it that sometimes I couldn't tell what the truth was and what was a spin he'd put on it even when he had just told me the honest truth.

PR was just glass and mirrors, he told me once. But it seemed like it was a heck of a lot of charm, too.

I closed my eyes once I was settled in the front seat of his car. I couldn't shake this sudden exhaustion that seemed to descend over me the moment the sun went down most days. Stress...maybe. I must have dozed off again because when I next opened my eyes, we were parked in front of Conrad's house.

"You could have just taken me home."

"I thought you might sleep a little better here. You've been so restless at your house." He leaned over and kissed my cheek lightly. "You have to stop feeling so guilty about deciding to leave your grandmother in Summer Oaks."

"It's a good place for her. I just...it seems so odd being in that house without her."

"She was never here, so maybe you won't feel so odd about it."

I couldn't really argue with his logic. But I also suspected he had another reason for wanting me to stay here tonight.

He had a state of the art security system in his house.

He led the way upstairs, pushing open the door to his impressive master bedroom with that huge, custom-made bed dominating the center. Was it awful that my first thought when I saw it was how good it would feel to climb between the sheets and go back to sleep?

Conrad moved up behind me and lifted the hair from my neck. He kissed me gently, his breath awakening nerve endings just as quickly as his touch. I moved back into him, my body instantly coming alive, as he slid his arms around me and his hands began to explore my curves.

"I could use a hot shower," he whispered against my ear. "What about you?"

I turned in his arms, sliding my hand over his jaw and into his hair. I kissed him, a lingering touch that made him moan.

"Tell me what's going on, Conrad. No more secrets, remember?"

He groaned. "I'd rather take a shower."

"Me, too. But I want to know what's going on."

With a heavy sigh, he reluctantly drew me to the loveseat situated on the far side of the room in front of his flat screen television. He sat back and ran his hand over his face, suddenly looking more exhausted than I felt.

"I've been talking to these reporters all day, and they know more than they should. It's like..." He shook his head. "Whoever leaked this information was not just a nurse or doctor at the hospital. It was someone who knew exactly what Logan Mitchell was supposed to be doing this morning, who he was doing it for, and what happened. Some of them even seemed to think they knew what drug brought on the seizure. As far as I know, Logan doesn't even know that."

"How could they know all that?"

"That's the question."

I rested my head on his shoulder. "Have you talked to Rawn about it?"

"Not yet. I'm going to call him in the morning."

"Do you think it's someone from Cepheus?"

"The only people from Cepheus at that photoshoot were Rawn and Madison. I'm sure someone else at Cepheus knew about it, but I can't imagine many people knew. Aurora, before she left this last week, and Russell. Maybe someone in financials. But all the details were handled at my firm."

"Do you think Aurora..."

I didn't have to see Conrad's face to know he didn't like that question. I could feel it in the tension that filled his shoulders. But I also knew him well enough to know that he had likely already considered it. Aurora was, after all, his ex-wife. And her Alzheimer's already led her to slip information to Peggy Duprey. Could she have slipped more information to someone else, someone else who still had a reason to hurt Cepheus and its employees?

"I really don't know. But I do know she couldn't have been the one to slip the drug into Logan's water bottle, if that's what really happened. And it's that fact that worries me the most."

"Maybe Rawn will have some ideas tomorrow."

"Maybe." Conrad leaned into me and kissed the tip of my nose. "I've kept you up long enough. You should get some sleep."

"What about that shower?"

A warm smile slipped across his lips before he stood and held his hand out to me. He was like a child with a new toy. But I wasn't really complaining...

Chapter 3.

Annie The door to the bedroom was still closed when I woke the next morning. Logan had insisted I take the bed, but I convinced him I would prefer the couch. I regretted it now, the crick in my neck promising to be stiff by the afternoon. But it didn't seem right to make the guy who'd been in the hospital just that morning sleep on the rock hard couch.

I sat up and drew my fingers through my hair, wishing the bathroom had a door from the hallway-instead of being accessible only from the bedroom. I used the sink in the kitchen to wash my face, pressing wetness into my hair to try to tame some of the tangles. I was thinking about putting on my shoes and going down to the convenience store on the corner when I heard someone turning a key in the front door.

I grabbed a bat Logan had found in the back of the bedroom closet and raised it over my head, ready to clobber whoever happened to walk in.

It was a good thing I recognized Madison before I swung.

"What the hell!" I cried. "You could have texted or something."

"Sorry," she said, kicking a heavy duffle across the floor in front of her, my overnight bag in her hands. "I thought I'd drop off some clothes for the two of you. Everyone kind of forgot about that last night."

"Thanks."

I took the overnight bag and opened it, digging through until I found my favorite gray sweater, a cardigan that I wore so often last winter Madison threatened to burn it.

I sighed contentedly as I pulled it on.

"I thought you'd appreciate that."

"You know me too well."

Madison shrugged nonchalantly, but there was nothing nonchalant about the way she was looking at me. "How did it go last night?"

"We talked," I said. "He's really incredibly intelligent. Did you know he went to Princeton?"

Madison shook her head, but the way she continued to look at me...

"We just talked, Madison. For hours. It was nice."

I knew Madison well enough to know when something was bothering her. I wanted to ask what it was, but I was suddenly afraid I didn't want to know the answer. Was she jealous? Was that it? Did she like Logan now?

"Hey, ladies," Logan said, as though my thoughts had brought him out of the bedroom. "How are you today?"

"How are you?" Madison asked, concern etched in everything about her as she turned to him. "Did you sleep well?"

"Very well." He smiled, his eyes bouncing between the two of us. "Am I interrupting something?"

"No."

I crossed the room and brushed past him to get into the bedroom, then the bathroom. It was a small apartment-with fairly thin walls. I could hear them talking and imagined it had something to do with me. Or maybe that was just my paranoia. Maybe I was just jumping to conclusions because I so wanted things to work out between Logan and I. And we did have such a nice time last night...it was like a first date without all the awkwardness and the interrupting waiters.

I washed my face again in the bathroom sink, searching the drawers and cupboard for a comb or a toothbrush. I found some mouthwash, which I used vigorously just in case Logan happened to get close enough to smell my rancid morning breath. Not that I thought he might. He'd had plenty of opportunities last night, but he never took a single one. He was a perfect gentleman.

Damn it!

I looked at myself in the mirror one more time, twisting the front sections of my hair and tucking them behind my ear so that they didn't hang down in my face. I wasn't bad looking, if I did say so myself. The deep red of my hair set off my pale skin perfectly, better than most redheads. I didn't have the same multitude of freckles that a lot of redheads were cursed with, just a few across the bridge of my nose. And my lashes were thick and long, highlighting my hazel eyes better than the most expensive bottle of mascara could probably do. I was pretty, even, still young enough to have a tight stomach and perky breasts.

So why was he so hands off, so gentlemanly? Any other guy would have taken advantage of a night alone with a pretty girl.

Just my luck Logan Mitchell wasn't like other guys.

I shook my head, turning away from the mirror and my depressing self-assessment.

Madison and Logan were standing face to face next to the kitchen when I came back into the room, too close for their conversation to be anything less than intimate. Madison looked up when I cleared my throat, guilt slipping over her pale features before she turned away to gather her keys from the countertop.

"I should go. Rawn's waiting for me at the office."

"It's Saturday," said Logan She shrugged. "That rarely makes a difference to him."

"Yes, but-"

"Don't try to talk her out of it," I said, moving up beside Logan. "She'd rather be at the office than anywhere else. Especially when it involves Rawn."

Madison shot me a look, even as Logan inclined his head in surrender. "I suppose I can understand that."

"Conrad called this morning. I guess he has something he wants to talk to everyone about, so we'll be meeting here about lunch time." Madison backed away, her eyes moving over my face for a long minute. I again got that feeling she wanted to tell me something, but she just turned away. "I'll see you then. If you need anything, text."

She was gone without another word.

"That was clandestine," I said, brushing past Logan to grab the orange juice from the refrigerator.

"We were just discussing the PR mess Conrad was dealing with last night."

"I'm sure."

"Really, it was just-"

"You don't have to explain to me." I poured the juice into a glass and offered it to him, but he waved it away. I took a small sip. "Madison and I are best friends. If something's going on she thinks I need to know, she'll tell me."

Logan inclined his head slightly. "I'm sure that's true," he said softly.

I glanced at him, a little confused by the dark bent to his tone, but he had already turned away, headed back to the bedroom. "I guess I should get dressed if everyone's going to descend on us in a few hours."

I just nodded, not sure what else there was to say. It seemed the easy companionship we'd achieved the night before was gone.

What was going on between him and Madison?

Conrad and Mellissa were the first to arrive-they sure seemed connected at the hip these days-with bags full of delicious smelling food from a local Mexican place that served the best empanadas. I stole one before Mellissa was done pulling all the food out of the bags, prompting her to slap the back of my hand a little playfully.

"How's it going?" she asked.

I glanced over to where Logan and Conrad were talking by the windows. "I don't know. He's cold and cranky one minute, funny and charming the next."

"Maybe he's still reeling a little from what happened yesterday morning."

"Maybe. I can't imagine it's much fun having a seizure. And there's no telling what was in that water bottle and how it affected him."