Page 62 of Close Pursuit

She pulled it out of her pocket and had a text from a phone number she didn’t recognize. It read, “Buy a dress. D.U. invited us to a cocktail party tonight, and we need to go.”

Alex knew how to text? Surprise, surprise. She texted back, “How sexy?”

“How much more innocence do you want to lose?”

She looked up at the clerk. “Turns out I’m not done shopping. Where to do you keep your LBD’s?”

The saleswoman grinned. “Little Black Dresses are right over here. Are we doing the works?”

“Oh, yeah,” Katie replied, grinning.

By the time Katie emerged from her bedroom, the babysitter had arrived. How Alex had managed to convince a nun to babysit Dawn for them, she had no idea. But she could rest easy knowing the baby was in great hands.

The wimpled woman in the living room introduced herself. “I’m Sister Mary Harris. I teach at the school Alex attended as a child.”

“Really?” Katie responded interested. “I’d love to hear about him as a boy.”

The gray-haired nun smiled secretively. “In my profession, we carry no tales.”

“Can you at least give me a hint? What kind of child was he?”

“Brilliant. Serious. Withdrawn.”

“That sounds a lot like adult Alex.”

“Indeed.”

Alex emerged from his bedroom, looking as magnificent in a tuxedo as she’d suspected he would. Her initial impression of James Bond instead of Rambo had been spot on. He looked born to a tux.

He murmured to the nun, “You have my number if you need anything.”

“Dawn and I will be fine. I’ve been taking care of babies for forty years.”

Alex glanced in her direction. “The nuns run an orphanage along with the boarding school.”

Katie nodded, pleased that he’d gotten Dawn such a highly qualified sitter.

The nun said, “You two relax and have a nice evening.”

Alex glanced at Katie’s raincoat, which was buttoned to her chin and belted at her waist. She caught the faint smirk that crossed his face. He knew full well she was hiding a hot little dress under there. At least, she hoped he thought it was hot. It was hard to know how to impress a man who was such an accomplished womanizer.

She’d opted for simple and classy. The black silk dress was halter-necked in front, its slit front plunging nearly to her waist. Its back was completely open from the halter neck to a plunging scoop that barely covered the curve of her derriere. The flowy wrap skirt was modest until she walked, when the front panels slid aside to show flashes of her legs up to mid-thigh.

She wore impossibly tall stilettos and prayed no one would chase her and Alex tonight. There was no way she could run in these shoes.

She’d spent the afternoon getting her legs waxed and polished, and while she was at it, she’d gotten a Brazilian bikini wax.

“Shall we?” Alex murmured.

She nodded, jumping as his hand came to rest lightly in the small of her back. They said good night to the sister and made their way to the elevator. He paused long enough to do something to a keypad outside his door that looked like he had activated a security system.

They rode the elevator down in silence. He was apparently going to be his taciturn self tonight, and she was too nervous about going out in public in such a sexy dress to make small talk. She supposed she shouldn’t have been surprised by the black town car waiting in front of the building, but it was a shock after the past few weeks of primitive survival.

As they pulled away from the curb, she murmured, “It’s hard to believe I was washing my hair in a bucket of cold water only a few days ago. And now, this.”

He shrugged. “I’ve never set much stock in material things.”

“Why the fancy car then?”

---