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didn’t want to see you
being happy with him. I had to leave. Fast. So, I made a deal, and I got
lucky.”
    “What about the paper?”
    “I’m done there. There’s a new intern hot for my job, so he
got it sooner than he expected. I said I needed time to pack. Do you know how
much work it is to take a dungeon apart? I can’t list the townhouse for sale
with it still there.”
    Joanna felt cold. “Are you saying that because we weren’t
together when you made this choice, we’re done too?”
    “No!” Mike’s consternation made her feel better, and so did
the weight of his hand over hers. “I want to talk to you about it. It wasn’t
exactly possible last week.”
    Joanna had to agree with that.
    Mike gave her a rueful grin. “And you kept me pretty well
silenced since your return.” She glanced up, caught the warmth in his eyes, and
smiled. “How’d you like being in charge?”
    “Better than I expected, but I was pretty mad.”
    “It’s going to be tempting to piss you off on a regular
basis,” Mike said. “You were amazing.”
    “I don’t think I’m as good at it as you are.”
    “Don’t kid yourself. It was great. Waking up in the night to
you tying me down.” Mike whistled under his breath. “It was fantastic. Feel
free to do it again, anytime.”
    Joanna had a million questions, so she chose one. “Why
didn’t you tell me you’d been to jail?”
    Mike laughed. “I would have, if I’d known you’d do that when
you found out.”
    “Be serious! It’s not a small thing.”
    “But it was a small thing, Joanna. It happened when I was a
teenager. I just fell in with the wrong crowd and got a sense of entitlement.”
    “What did you do?”
    “Stole things. At first from the houses of other kids I
knew, then from strangers. It was a kind of a thrill to never be certain
whether I’d get caught in the act, and it turned out I had a gift for picking
locks.”
    “Did you ever get caught in the act?”
    “Well, yeah. That’s how I ended up in jail. It wasn’t for
long, but it was long enough to meet Eric.” Mike shrugged. “And to decide that
I never wanted to be there again.”
    “So, they don’t know at the paper?”
    “It’s a juvenile record. They seal them if you behave, so no
one knows.” He cast her an easy smile. “Except you and Eric. Feel better?”
    “I wish you’d told me.”
    “I didn’t think you’d take it very well. I mean, have you
ever made a mistake, Joanna? It seems as if your whole life is one planned step
after another.”
    “Is that a criticism?”
    “No, it’s admiration. I never know what I’m going to do next
year, let alone next week, and I sure as hell didn’t have a clue when I was
fifteen as to where my life would go. We think differently.” He smiled at her
again, as confident as she was not. “Maybe that’s why we get along so well.
Opposites attract and all that.”
    And Joanna realized that it was easy for him to impulsively
decide to move more than a thousand miles. They were so different from each
other. Maybe that was a good thing.
    She chose another question. “What happens next?”
    “We need to talk about this,” Mike said. “I’d like to take
this job, because it’s a good opportunity. What do you think about moving, too?
We could start over again, in a great new place.”
    “But my family is here...”
    “We could visit, Joanna.”
    “And my job is here.”
    “You could get another one. You’re brilliant and totally
under-utilized at that paper. They’ve got you slotted in where you’re useful to
them, not in a job that’s best for you.”
    Joanna started to protest, but Mike shook a finger at her.
“You’re better than five must-have shades of lipstick and you know it. Take a
chance on yourself and come with me.”
    He made it sound so easy, but Joanna wasn’t sure it was.
“Even if I did, I might not get a job quickly.”
    “Well, you can be my sex slave in the short term. I’ll put
you to work rebuilding the