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her Johns. What a racket."
      "What does she want?"
      Eric met Kate’s inquiring gaze. "A lot more than the hundred bucks I left her."
      "How much?"
      "Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars."
      "What?"
      "My feelings exactly. I tried to tell her I didn’t have that kind of money. She didn’t want to hear it. I have one week to get it or she’ll send a copy of the tape to all the major tabloids. I can see the headlines now. Fiance Of Multimillionaire Heiress Beds Hooker." He crushed his cigarette in the saucer and immediately lit another.
      Kate felt sorry for him. He had a way of attracting trouble that was almost uncanny. Somehow he always managed to get out of it, partly because he was resourceful and partly because he was lucky. But this time, Lady Luck was nowhere in sight. And he had good reason to worry. Not about his fiancee, who might even forgive him, but about the girl’s mother, the formidable and very powerful Abigail Hollbrook.
      In a candid interview with the Washington Post a few months ago, the CEO of Hollbrook Industries had not concealed her displeasure at her daughter’s choice of a husband. Like any other loving mother, however, she had bowed to Megan’s wishes, given them both her blessing and promised to make Eric a junior vice president after the wedding.
      Eric was terrified of her. According to Rose, Abigail had warned him that at the slightest infraction on his part,
      he would be out of Megan’s life-and Hollbrook Industries-forever.
      "Well." Kate reached for the coffeepot and topped off both mugs. "Since I assume you came here for advice, I’ll give it to you. Tell Megan everything. She’s your fiancee, and should hear the grisly details from you, not from some rag."
      "What good would that do? Abigail would finally have an excuse to cancel a wedding she never wanted in the first place. That old broad hates me, you know. She thinks I’m nothing but a fortune hunter."
      At that remark, which she let pass, Kate almost smiled. "You’re marrying Megan, not her mother."
      "Megan will do what her mother tells her to. She always does."
      "She stood up to her when you proposed. What makes you think she won’t do it again?"
      "Because she’s going to be devastated. I slept with another woman-a hooker no less." His voice turned whiny, like that of a spoiled child. "I’m going to lose everything, Kate-my fiancee, my job, my future at Hollbrook…"
      Kate’s eyes filled with contempt. How typical of him to think of himself and not the woman he had wronged. "In that case, your only other recourse is to talk to Douglas. Maybe he’ll loan you the money."
      "Douglas?" Eric made a derisive sound. "That bastard wouldn’t raise a finger to help me if I lay in a gutter bleeding to death. After you left me last year, he wanted to throw me out. Did you know that? It took Mom three days to convince him to let me stay." He gave an emphatic shake of his head. "Trust me, my self-righteous stepfather would like nothing better than to see me being crushed like a bug. And Mom doesn’t have any money of her own, so…"
      He took a couple of quick, hard drags on his cigarette. then extinguished it. "’You want to know how desperate I am? I tried to borrow the money from a bank. The loan officer practically laughed in my face. Apparently, without collateral, there isn’t a bank in the world that will lend me that kind of money. And my upcoming marriage to one of the country’s richest women didn’t impress him. either. Unless, of course, I can get Megan to co-sign the loan. Isn’t that a blast?"
      "Well, don’t look at me," Kate said as he gave her a long, intense look. "A quarter of a million dollars is hardly the kind of change I keep tucked in the cookie jar."
      He continued to look at her.
      Kate raised an eyebrow. "What?"
      ‘"You have the money, Kate."
      "What are you talking about? You know perfectly well that the down payment