Page 144 of Blood Stone

Kate smiled. “That’s because there’s no such publication. ‘Sue’ was a code. That was Suzette, my issues director. We planned that question and answer, days ago.”

Garrett kissed her. “That’s my smart little director.”

And another barrage of cameras went off.

“Oops,” Roman said and laughed.

Another escort hurried over. “Ms. Lindenstream. I have Erica Johnston from theL.A. TimesEntertainment section over here. She would like three minutes of your time.” The escort indicated with a wave of her hand.

Kate sighed. “Almost over,” she said and followed the escort across the carpet to where a woman in a plain black, unadorned evening gown stood with an electronic recording device and pad and pencil.

Roman and Garrett stepped up alongside her. “Moral support,” Garrett murmured.

“Fuck that,” Roman shot back. “Support of the most immoral kind possible.”

Kate was smiling when she reached the journalist. The smile lingered throughout the interview and Erica Johnston was a ball-breaker of the worst sort. Kate couldn’t remember a single question afterwards, either. All she could remember was Roman’s fingers on her bare back and Garrett’s hip touching hers.

Even Johnston seemed flustered by their presence. She stammered more than once and said ‘sorry’ a lot.

By the time they went into the theatre and were escorted to their seats – tenth row and dead centre where the cameras would catch them constantly – Kate was feeling more than a little removed from the proceedings. Her mind was in a swirl of confused, half-formed hazy ideas.

It was a good thing they had cues telling them when to applaud, because she had trouble paying attention.

She kept flipping back to Roman’s off-hand comment about Garrett slipping back into Gaelic when he was aroused. Of course Roman would know that because they had been lovers once. He had told her that and she had absorbed the fact like something written in an encyclopaedia. A piece of information she had filed away.

But Roman’s comment tonight had given shape to it. Fleshed it out and brought it alive. They had been lovers. They had kissed and touched. Made love. They knew each others’ bodies the way Roman knew hers. The way Garrett touched hers. Of course Roman knew Garrett whispered Gaelic in the deep throes of passion. He had been one to whom Garrett had whispered it.

She couldn’t stop circling that idea like a buzzard over fresh kill. The images swiftly grew more specific and detailed as she wondered what it had been like for them. Why had they parted?

Toward the end of the awards, she realized with a start that she had paid virtually no attention to the last half of the show at all. And she was deeply and powerfully aroused.

She wanted to go home. She wanted to take one of them home and ease this terrible craving. But first, they had to go through the dinner party at Lex & Louis’ that Elizabeth was hosting in Kate’s honour.