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curtly. “I meant what I said. If you back out, Jan doesn’t come, either.”
    She searched his dark eyes, confused, uncertain. “Will you at least listen to me if I come?”
    “Yes,” he said, and she knew he meant it.
    “Then I’ll do it.”
    His lifted his chin slightly. “I won’t promise more than I can deliver, Margie.”
    “I never thought you would,” she said with a smile.
    He studied her again, his gaze lingering on the bodice. “Maybe I was wrong about one thing,” he murmured.
    “What?” she asked.
    “The padded bra,” he whispered.
    She ground her teeth together to keep from slapping him, but the color in her cheeks was unpreventable.
    “You’re outrageous!” she told him.
    “Righteous indignation?” he asked mockingly. “Ruffled modesty? I thought you were a liberated woman.”
    “You make me feel about thirteen,” she slung at him, and then felt like sinking into the floor for admitting such a thing to such a man.
    “Do I really?” he taunted.
    “Good night, Mr. Van Dyne,” she muttered, turning.
    “No parting kiss?” he asked with dark insolence.
    “I’d bite you if you even tried,” she growled.
    One bushy eyebrow went up, along with a corner of his disciplined mouth. “What an intriguing thought. Where would you bite me?”
    She knew when she was defeated. Without another word, she left the three of them on the steps and went straight into the house.

Three
    “A s if I’d want to kiss him,” Margie muttered on her way up the stairs, oblivious to Jan’s amused face behind her.
    “Did he offer?” her sister asked.
    Margie ignored the question. “He’s arrogant and overbearing and simply maddening,” she grumbled. “And I’ve got to be out of my mind for agreeing to this trip.”
    “You’ll have a good time,” came the soft promise. “And you’ll be doing me the biggest favor you ever have.”
    Margie softened, turning at her bedroom door to smile at her sister. “I’m just pure marshmallow, and you know it.” She laughed. “Maybe I can find ways to avoid that big steamroller if I work at it. I’ll pack the typewriter and it will be an incentive for me to stay in my room and work like mad toward the deadline.”
    Jan looked guilty. “You don’t mind keeping your infamous pen name under wraps, do you?” she asked uncertainly. “I wouldn’t have asked you to do it without a good reason, and you must know I’m terribly proud of what you’ve accomplished. You’re talented, you’re famous…it’s just that Cannon is so horribly conservative.”
    “I don’t mind,” Margie said. “It will be kind of nice to just be a person for a change. Back when I was a reporter, I was a camera and a notepad. Now I’m a book jacket. Some people just don’t realize that under the glitter, I’m only an average person, doing a job I love. I’m nothing special.”
    “Oh yes, you are,” Jan said, and hugged her. “Very, very special.”
    Margie muffled a giggle. “Cannon doesn’t think so,” she said dryly. “I thought he was going to banish Andy and me to the washroom at that restaurant.”
    Jan giggled with her. “Andy’s full of fun, himself, and he does love to raise eyebrows. Even Cannon’s.”
    “Speaking of convention,” Margie muttered, “I think you may find that big brother isn’t the stuffed shirt you imagine he is. He told me himself that the conservative image is a deliberate ploy to throw people off the track.”
    “And you believe him?”
    The taller girl looked faintly troubled. “Yes,” she said quietly. “He’s … unpredictable. Tonight I really understood that old saying about having a tiger by the tail.”
    “You’re not afraid of him, are you?” Jan murmured with a smile in her voice.
    “Me?” Margie drew herself up like an insulted princess and tossed her shawl over one shoulder with a flourish. “I’ll have you know that I got top marks in my class for fending men off. When it comes to self-defense, I am almost