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* * *

They made love.

And slept in each other’s arm.

When they woke, Tanner checked in with Chay.

“No changes,” Chay said. “Weather’s still coming in. And we lost the bunch of guys that might have been Bright Star.”

“That’s good.”

“Yeah. Maybe.”

Tanner sighed. Chay was right. Maybe it was good. Maybe it wasn’t.

“Okay,” he said. “Got it. Over.”

“Hang in there, dude. Out.”

Tanner stowed the satphone, turned to Alessandra and drew her into his arms.

“Looks as if we’re gonna be here for a while.”

“Well, we have plenty of food.” She reached out one hand, ran the tip of her index finger lightly down the center of his chest. “We’ll just have to come up with some creative ways to pass the time.” She leaned forward. Kissed his sternum. “Maybe we can find a deck of cards and play gin.”

“You know how to play gin?”

“No,” she said, and grinned. She moved lower. Kissed his belly button. “Or we can play some other game.” She nuzzled the covers down, exposing his penis.

It had just been very, very busy, but that didn’t stop it from giving an impressive twitch.

“For instance,” she said, looking up at Tanner, “just see what’s happening here. What an amazing toy. Changes shape, changes size…

She giggled as he rolled her onto her back.

“You,” he growled, “are a bad girl, Ms. Bellini. And ve haf ways of dealing with bad girls.”

“I hope so,” she whispered.

Tanner moved onto his side and took her with him. He folded one arm beneath his head and held her close in the curve of the other.

“Tell me about yourself. When were your parents divorced? Were you a little girl? Was it hard to see them split?”

She sighed, folded her hands on his chest and propped her chin on her hands.

“They didn’t divorce.”

“But your old man said—”

“He lied.” Her voice took on a bitter edge. “Lying is what my esteemed father does best.”

“Honey. If you don’t want to talk about it…”

“Like I told you, he had two wives. At the same time. One in Texas. The other in Sicily. Neither knew about the other, and none of his children knew, either.”

“Jesus.”

“He says he loved each wife too much to give her up, but the truth is he dug himself so deep into a hole there was no way for him to climb out without ruining his precious career.”