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"Interesting. I'll write you a check for the twelve thousand. We'll have a partnership agreement drawn up."
"A partnership agreement."
"Jesus, you do need me." She caught Margo by the shoulders and kissed her dead on the lips. "The three of us love each other, trust each other. But you've got to make a business legal. Right now the stock is all yours, but—"
"Laura's added to it," Margo interrupted, and wicked humor glinted. "We're selling everything in Peter's office."
"Good start. How's she holding up?"
"Pretty well. She's worried about Ali. The kid took it hard when Peter didn't show up for her ballet recital. Word is he's in Aruba."
"I hope he drowns. Nope, I hope he gets eaten by sharks and then drowns. I'll get over to the house this weekend and spend some time with the girls." She took out a check, already written and signed. "There you go, partner. I've got to get back."
"We haven't cleared this with Laura."
"I did," Kate said breezily, as she opened the door and plowed into Josh. "Hi." She kissed him. "Bye."
"Nice to see you too," he called after her, then cautiously closed the door.
Laura had warned him not to expect much. It was a good thing. "Have you and Kate been smoking grass in here?"
"That's all she ever does on her lunch hour. We really have to get her into a program." Thrilled with herself, Margo spread her arms. "So, what do you think?"
"Uh-huh. It's a building, all right."
"Josh."
"Give me a minute." He walked past her into the adjoining room, came back, looked into the bath, gazed up the pretty, and potentially lethal, staircase. He wiggled the banister, winced. "Want a lawyer?"
"We're going to have that fixed."
"I don't suppose it occurred to you that sometimes dipping your toe in is smarter than diving headfirst."
"It's not as much fun."
"Well, duchess, I'm sure you could have done worse." He walked over, lifted her pouting face to his. "Let's just get this out of the way, shall we? I've been thinking about it across two continents."
He pulled her close, covered her mouth greedily with his. After a moment of token disinterest, she let herself melt into a kiss that tasted of frustrated lust. So unexpected. So thrilling, the way his mouth fit on hers, the way all those hard lines and planes of his body met and meshed so perfectly with the curves of hers.
It didn't give her time to think whether it was simply that she had missed that glorious sensation of being held by a man, or if it was Josh. But because it was Josh, she needed to think.
"I don't know how I missed how potent you were all these years." She drew away, flashed a quick, teasing smile.
His system was straining like an engine revved too high.
"That was just a free sample. Come back here and we'll go for the full treatment."
"I think we'll take it in stages." She walked away, opened her bag, and took out a pack of cigarettes. Her elegant case was already boxed into inventory. "I'm learning to be a cautious woman."
"Cautious." He scanned the room again. "Which is how you got from renting a little shop in Milan to clear your debts and make a reasonable living to buying a building on Cannery Row and adding to those debts."
"Well, I can't change overnight, can I?" She eyed him through a haze of smoke. "You're not going to get all lawyerly on me, are you, Josh?"
"Actually I am." He picked up the briefcase he'd set aside, opened it. "I have some papers for you." He looked around for a place to sit and settled on the bottom step of the staircase. "Come here. Come here," he repeated and patted the narrow space beside him. "I can manage to keep my hands off you."
She picked up a little tin ashtray and joined him. "I'm getting good at papers. I'm thinking of buying a file cabinet."
He didn't sigh. It wouldn't have made any difference. "Is your Italian good enough to wade through this?"
