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hair look almost white, marking her as though she were the only blonde in the crowd.
    It was in a simple style that bordered on severity — pulled back into a small knot at the nape of her neck — but it defined the perfect shape of her head and showed off the graceful length of her neck. He was admiring that pale nape when a nondescript woman who’d been blocking his view of the rest of her moved away. He saw her back. All of it. Tantalizing square inches of bare skin from her neck to her waist, even slightly below.
    He didn’t know jewelry could be worn on that part of the body, but there it was, a clasp made of what looked like diamonds winking at him from the small of her back. He imagined the stones would be warm from her skin.
    Just from looking at her, his skin had turned warm.
    Someone moved up behind her, said something. She turned, and Duncan got his first look at her face. Later, he thought that maybe his jaw had actually dropped.
    “Dunk?” Worley nudged his arm. “You okay?”
    “Yeah. Sure.”
    “I asked you how jail was.”
    “Oh, just peachy.”
    The other detective leaned toward him and leered. “You have to fight off any cell mates looking for romance?”
    “No, they were all pining for you, Worley.”
    DeeDee laughed so suddenly, she snorted. “Good one, Duncan.”
    He turned away again, but the blonde had moved from the spot where he’d seen her. Impatiently his gaze scanned the crowd, until he located her again. She was talking to a distinguished-looking older couple and sipping a glass of white wine with seeming uninterest in both it and the conversation. She was smiling politely, but her eyes had a distant quality, like she wasn’t quite connected to what was going on around her.
    “You’re drooling.” DeeDee had moved up beside him and followed his stare to the woman. “Honestly, Duncan,” she said with exasperation. “You’re embarrassing yourself.”
    “Can’t help it. I’ve fallen into instant lust.”
    “Rein it in.”
    “I don’t think I can.”
    “Don’t want to, you mean.”
    “Right, don’t want to. I didn’t know that getting struck by lightning could feel so good.”
    “Lightning?”
    “Oh yeah. And then some.”
    DeeDee critically looked the woman over and shrugged. “She’s okay, I guess. If you’re into tall, thin, perfect hair, and flawless skin.”
    “To say nothing of her face.”
    She took a noisy sip of her Diet Coke. “Yeah, there’s that. I gotta give credit where credit’s due. As usual, your sexual radar homed in on the dishiest babe in the room.”
    He shot her his wicked smile. “It’s this gift I have.”
    The couple moved away from the woman, leaving her standing by herself in the midst of the crowd. “The lady looks lost and lonely,” Duncan said. “Like maybe she needs a big strong cop to come to her rescue. Hold my drink.” He thrust his glass toward DeeDee.
    “Have you lost your mind?” She stepped in front of him to block his path. “That would be the height of stupidity. I will not stand by and watch as you self-destruct.”
    “What are you talking about?”
    DeeDee looked at him with sudden understanding. “Oh. You don’t know.”
    “What?”
    “She’s married, Duncan.”
    “Shit. Are you sure?”
    “To Judge Cato Laird.”
     
     
    “What did he say to you?”
    Elise Laird set her jeweled handbag on the dressing table and stepped out of her sandals. Cato had come upstairs to their bedroom ahead of her. He was already undressed and in his robe, sitting on the side of their bed.
    “Who?” she asked.
    “Duncan Hatcher.”
    She pulled a pin from her hair. “Who?”
    “The man you were talking to in the porte cochere. When I went to pay for the valet parking. Surely you remember. Tall, rugged, in dire need of a haircut, built like a wide receiver. Which he was. At Georgia, I believe.”
    “Oh, right.” She dropped the hairpins next to her handbag and uncoiled the chignon, then combed her fingers through her