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around her drink to keep them warm.
    A rustle of leaves swept along the sidewalk and pots of mums bloomed in burgundy and yellow batches around the little patio. She loved fall, Bess thought. It was her favorite season, when the harvest peaked and Mother Nature, proud of her accomplishment, settled in and took a much-needed rest. Every wind felt like her sigh, and Bess huddled more snugly into her jacket.
    â€œShe rattled you, didn’t she?” Bess prodded, knowing he more than likely wouldn’t answer, but curious all the same.
    He bit the inside of his cheek. “You mean when she practically slithered across the counter toward me and lowered her voice into that alarmingly breathy purr?”
    She felt her own lips twitch. “Elsie likes younger men.”
    He grinned and quirked a brow. “Do they typically like her?”
    She chuckled again, unable to help herself. “She’s managed to date a few younger men.”
    â€œAnd by younger, you still mean they are senior citizens?”
    â€œYes,” she said, snickering.
    â€œAha,” he said. “I thought so. I’m less than half her age.” He gave a shudder. “I almost feel like I need a bath.”
    Laughing quietly, Bess felt her eyes water. “Oh, come on,” she said. “It can’t have been as bad as that.”
    â€œIt was,” he deadpanned. “Because I thought she was you.”
    Her sides were aching. “Yes, I know,” she wheezed.
    His eyes widened in outrage. “You know? You knew?” He gasped. “You were watching,” he accused. “You saw the whole damned thing, didn’t you?”
    She nodded, unable to respond.
    â€œThat’s… That’s… evil, ” he said, staring at her with a new sort of appreciation in his eyes.
    She merely shrugged. “I saw you when you got out of the car,” she said. “I might have corrected you, but you were in such a hurry and then—” she pressed her lips together to keep from grinning again “—and then it was just too funny not to watch.”
    He shook his head, continued to stare at her, then sketched a makeshift bow. “Glad to provide your entertainment, milady. Let me know when I can do it again.”
    Ooo-la-la, Bess thought as the last words rolled off that incredibly smooth tongue. She had a feeling he could provide her with hours and hours of hot, sweaty, wonderfully wicked entertainment if she’d let him.
    And judging by the heat scorching her veins, she just might before this trip was through.

4
    A FTER AN HOUR IN B ESS’S company, Lex was beginning to wonder if he might have been better off protecting his virtue from Elsie than essentially being trapped in the car with a woman he’d wanted to lick from head to toe the first moment he’d set eyes on her.
    Licking, he was relatively sure, wasn’t in his job description, and considering that he was already feeling like he wasn’t doing the damned thing properly—that she’d beaten him to a plan, as it were—he didn’t need to further complicate matters by making a play for his…partner. He couldn’t think of anything else to call her, really. She wasn’t his client or his target or even his accomplice.
    And more importantly, she was Brian Payne’s friend. Brian had mentioned that he’d known Bess for years, that he’d been buying things from her fora long time and that her case was special. Though he hadn’t said as much, Lex imagined that Bess was either trading him out inventory for services or she was getting a vastly reduced rate. He didn’t have any idea what kind of money she pulled in through her store selling her ju— stuff, he mentally corrected, remembering Payne’s warning about her dislike of the word, but he couldn’t imagine that it was a huge income.
    From the corner of his eye he watched her review her client list again,