The Last White Knight Read Online Free PDF Page B

mother when I was eleven,” she said absently, her concentration on the memory.
    Lovely Gabrielle with her gentleness and patience, taken an excruciating bit at a time by ALS—Lou Gehrig’s disease. A disease named for a baseball player, as if it were his exclusively. Her mother, the only person who had ever really understood her, gone, abandoning her for death, leaving her to a father who demanded perfection even from the mediocre. The emotions she had known nearly two decades ago bubbled up anew, and Lynn tamped them back into their little box and shut the lid.
    When she turned, Erik was looking at her, studyingher again. She wondered how much he had seen, but she was too tired to care. He seemed too close again, his big frame out of place in the narrow confines of the kitchen.
    “You’ve done your duty,” she said, one hand fluttering toward the empty sink. “You’re free to go.”
    “Why do I get the impression you want me out of here?” he asked with a chuckle, her abrupt change in attitude amusing him.
    Lynn shrugged and gave him a phony grin. “Gee, I don’t know. Maybe it’s because I want you out of here. It’s been a long day. I’d like to take my headache and go to bed.”
    Erik made a pained face. “Ouch. Passed over for a headache. I must be losing my touch.”
    “I wouldn’t worry about it if I were you,” Lynn said dryly. “I’m sure there are plenty of women out there ready to cast their votes for you, Senator.”
    “But you’re not one of them, right?”
    “I don’t mix business with my personal life.” She didn’t have a personal life, but that was beside the point. This wasn’t the time to start one—or the man to do it with.
    He took a step closer, closing the distance between them by half. Lynn had to tip her head back to maintain eye contact with him. He tilted his head a little to one side, as if he were studying a modernsculpture and trying to discern whether it was right side up or not. His eyes were narrowed in speculation. Strands of golden hair tumbled across his forehead.
    “That’s a very convenient rule,” he said at last.
    “It’s a very practical rule,” Lynn countered.
    “But you don’t strike me as a very practical woman.”
    “Thanks,” she said with an incredulous laugh. She used affront as an excuse to take a step back from him, to try to escape his scrutiny.
    “You’ve got too much fire, too much spirit,” he said bluntly. “Why do you bottle it up when it comes to your personal life?”
    “That’s my business.”
    “For the moment.”
    Lynn’s heart gave a lurch. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
    He smiled again, warm and friendly in the face of her suspicion. “It means I’d like to get to know you better.”
    She shook her head. “I don’t think that’s a very good idea.”
    “Why not?”
    There were a dozen reasons why not. Because she didn’t allow room in her life for casual relationships with men. Because she wouldn’t allow a transient figure in her life to get close to her. Because she knew he didn’t
really
want to know her, wouldn’t want toknow a woman with a past that might tarnish that shining armor of his, wouldn’t run that kind of risk to his image. Because she had too good an idea of what he was after—a little publicity, with some extracurricular fun thrown in, to make all this trouble worth his while.
    There were a dozen reasons she could have listed, but for once she gave the prudent answer instead of speaking her mind. “There’s too much possibility for conflict of interest.”
    Erik nodded slowly, sagely, all the while thinking
bull hooey
. He knew political rhetoric when he heard it: pat, broad, with enough of the truth to make it difficult for rebuttal. She had put on her mask of cool reserve, subdued her gestures, gone into retreat again. Like a possum playing dead until the predator lost interest and wandered away. Only she was a darn sight prettier than any possum he’d ever encountered. She