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her.
    Or just a very little to do with it.
    â€œYour door was open,” he pointed out and strolled in without invitation. “I figured you weren’t very busy.”
    â€œI like my door open.”
    He flashed that wide, toothy smile and eased a hip onto the corner of her desk. “I just got back from Nevis. A couple of weeks in the West Indies sure clears out the system after the tax crunch.” His gaze roamed over her face. “You should have come with me.”
    â€œRoger, when I won’t even have dinner with you, why would you think I’d spend two weeks frolicking with you in the sand and surf?”
    â€œHope springs eternal?” He took one of the pencils, sharpened like swords, from her Lucite holder, slid it idly through his fingers. Her pencils were always sharpened and always kept in the same place. There was nothing in her office that didn’t have a proper slot. He knew all of them. An ambitious man, Roger made use of what he knew.
    He also made use of charm, keeping his eyes on hers, smiling. “I’d just like us to get to know each other again, outside the office. Hell, Kate, it’s been almost two years.”
    Deliberately, she raised an eyebrow. “Since?”
    â€œOkay, since I messed things up.” He put the pencil down. “I’m sorry. I don’t know how else to say it.”
    â€œSorry?” Voice mild, she rose to refill her coffee, though the third cup wasn’t sitting well. She sat again, watching him as she sipped. “Sorry that you were sleeping with me and one of my clients at the same time? Or that you were sleeping with me in order to get to my client? Or that you seduced said client into moving her account from my hands to yours? Which of those are you apologizing for, Roger?”
    â€œAll of them.” Because it invariably worked with females, he tried the smile again. “Look, I’ve already apologized countless times, but I’m willing to do it again. I had no business seeing Bess, ah, Mrs. Turner, much less sleeping withher, while you and I were involved. There’s no excuse for it.”
    â€œWe agree. Good-bye.”
    â€œKate.” His eyes stayed on hers, his voice flowing, just the way she remembered it had when she had moved under him, climbing toward climax. “I want to make things right with you. At least make peace with you.”
    She cocked her head, considered. There was right and there was wrong. There were ethics and there was the lack of them. “No.”
    â€œDamn it.” With his first sign of temper, he stood up from the desk, the movement jerky and abrupt. “I was a son of a bitch. I let sex and ambition get in the way of what was a good, satisfying relationship.”
    â€œYou’re absolutely right,” she agreed. “And you didn’t know me well the first time around if you have any hope that I’d let you repeat the performance.”
    â€œI stopped seeing Bess months ago, on a personal level.”
    â€œOh, well, then.” Leaning back in her chair, Kate enjoyed a good, rolling laugh. “Jesus Christ, you’re a case, Roger. You think because you’ve cleared the field, I’m going to suit up and jump into the game? We’re associates,” she told him, “and that’s all. I’m never going to make the mistake of getting involved with someone at work again, and I’m never—repeat, never—going to give you another shot.”
    His mouth thinned. “You’re afraid to see me outside the office. Afraid because you’d remember how good we were together.”
    She had to sigh. “Roger, we weren’t that good. My appraisal would put us at adequate. Let’s just close the books on this one.” In the interest of sanity, she rose, held out her hand. “You want to put it behind us, let’s. No hard feelings.”
    Intrigued, he studied her hand, then her face. “No hard