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just trying to not drink. The flight left me a little dehydrated.”
    He accepted the explanation and turned the talk to current events. He was a great conversationalist. He read widely, had traveled everywhere—more than she had—and had varied interests.
    And it was fun to talk about things other than work. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been able to do that with someone. But then the banking world was insular, almost incestuous, with everyone knowing everyone and everything.
    Ethan gradually began to narrow the topic of conversation. He was good, and made it seem natural, but she had years of experience parrying this sort of thing.
    “Where did you grow up?” he asked.
    “Here and there. Mostly in the States and Europe.”
    “Military family?”
    She smiled to herself. “Definitely not.” Her mother was too unpredictable, and her grandfather enjoyed his creature comforts too much to go without. “How about you? Where did you grow up?”
    “Mainly Houston, though I spent quite a bit of time in Nebraska.”
    “Where your Italian grandmother lived with the farmer of her dreams.”
    He pointed his fork at her, signaling that she’d guessed right. “Later I attended an out-of-state boarding school until I started college.”
    One boarding school. Singular. Lucky for him he hadn’t been transferred at every whiff of negative news on TV.
    He pierced a piece of sun-dried tomato. “Why did you choose to work in Hong Kong when you grew up in the West? You graduated from Yale and went to Wharton from what Natalie said.”
    Nobody expected me to go there
. “I’d never been to Asia. Thought it might be fun.”
    “Odd choice for a career-minded white woman.”
    “Oh, that part wasn’t too bad. You do your work, you get your promotions.”
    “But then you left. So something must have soured you on the place.”
    “No, I left because it was time to try something else. Hours can get old fast.”
    “Even when you’re a VP?”
    “Even then. Just because I was good at my job doesn’t mean I wanted to do it for the rest of my life.” She tapped the rim of her wine glass. “Your turn. Why are you in Virginia? Global Strategies is headquartered in New York City, right? If you’re filling in for the CEO, shouldn’t you be there?”
    “Don’t have to physically be there to get the work done. Also, I’ve been out of the country for a while, and my mother lives nearby in Maryland.”
    His mother. Who undoubtedly doted on him.
    “How about you,” Ethan asked. “Any family around here?”
    The rest of the dinner went in a similar vein, Ethan gently probing for information about her, and she parrying with polite answers that revealed very little. He was persistent, but forthcoming when she asked him questions, as though daring her to match his frankness. Well, let him wait. A girl needed a secret or two, and Kerri didn’t bow to pressure when it concerned her personal life.
    Still, she couldn’t remember the last time she’d enjoyed herself as much.
    Hours later, he pulled her chair out, helped her stand. “You sure you don’t want me to help you clean up?” Kerri asked.
    “Nah. I’ll just let the plates soak. Housekeeping’s coming tomorrow.”
    A smile lingered on her lips as she gazed up at him. “Thank you for the lovely time, Ethan.”
    One of his hands rested on the back of her chair, the other held hers. He looked directly into her eyes, and just like that the charge in the air altered, electrified.
    Her heart tempo picked up. Their breaths mingled in the small distance between them. Something fluttered in her belly—a hunger for him.
    All she wanted was his body, nothing more. This was lust, pure and simple. Two mature, intelligent adults interested in making each other feel good.
    He slid the hand down to her wrist, his warm thumb resting against the rapid beat of her pulse. “So,” he murmured, his lips tantalizingly close to hers. A millimeter more and they would graze against