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long-time
friends.
    Not only had Cady never had the inclination to have men
friends in her room, she was also sure that her solicitous father would not
have approved. Yet she and Rafe sat on her bed and chatted in the most relaxed
way, and she had felt no discomfort at all.
    Finally,
after she had laughed over a story he had told about his own clumsiness when he
was first a congressman, Rafe leaned over and took her hand. "We've been
up here quite a while, and I'm sure your father is wondering what's keeping
me." He grinned at her. "You're easy to talk to, lady."
    "Thank
you." Cady grinned back, feeling a strange surge of power all at once.
    Rafe
looked down at the small hand almost lost in his long, graceful fingers. Then
he looked up at her, his smile fading. "Your fall break is coming up,
isn't it? Perhaps you and your father would like to join me at my place on
Santo Tomas Island. I have a house there where I intended to unwind after the
election. Do you think you would like to spend your vacation there?"
    "Yes,"
Cady had answered promptly, then took his hand, rose from the bed, and
accompanied him downstairs.
    Dinner had been
fun. She hadn't expected Rafe to be so knowledgeable of campus goings-on, but
every time she told him about some antics she and her friends had participated
in, he would relate some even more outrageous deeds that he and his friends
had tried. Even her absentminded father was soon laughing.
    They
had walked after dinner and had not returned to the house until midnight. Cady
felt as though she had known Congressman Rafe Densmore forever.
    In the darkened
living room of the old house, Cady had reached for the light switch.
    "No,
don't turn it on. There's enough light from the dying fire," Rafe had
whispered, then he had pulled her down onto his lap. "You're fragile and
too young," Rafe had whispered into her neck. "I don't know what's
the matter with me." He muttered as though he were speaking to himself,
but still he didn't release her. His hands were wandering seductively,
caressing her neck, her shoulders, her breasts. "Does Todd touch you like
this?" he said against her mouth as he pushed her back into the cushions.
    "Sometimes."
Cady gasped, not telling him that Todd had never made her body feel as though
it were splintering into white-hot shards.
    "Don't let
him." Rafe's hands tightened on her. "I'm leaving early, before you
get up, Cady, and if you're smart you'll tell me to go to my room now."
His hands pushed under her sweater. "God, you should wear a bra.. .but I'm
glad you don't." When he pushed the sweater up further and his mouth took
hold of her nipple, Cady cried out, her body leaping in response to his.
    "Easy,
darling," Rafe had croaked. "I'm losing control."
    "I don't
care," Cady had moaned, her hands clutching him, wanting to belong to him.
    "Cady." Rafe's mouth crashed into hers. His hands
soothed her, aroused her, set her on fire.
    When Rafe surged
to his feet and set her away from him, Cady could only stand there open-mouthed
as he tugged her sweater down in front, the slight tremor in his hands
surprising her. "Get to bed right now," he said hoarsely. "I'll
call you."
    "Rafe,"
Cady had wailed.
    "Now, Cady.
Go to bed."
    She had set her
alarm so she would be up in time to see him, but he was already gone when she
raced down the stairs at six o'clock the next morning.
    "There's a
crucial vote in the House today," her father had informed her in his
placid way as the housekeeper poured his coffee. "Rafe's a good man. He
was a good student, too." Professor Nesbitt sipped his coffee. "Ahhh.
That's good. Doesn't need to work so hard, either, but he does."
    "Are the
Densmores rich, Father?"
    "Yes.
Rafe's father is in banking. A very shrewd, tough man is old Emmett Densmore.
Runs his family as he does his business, with an iron hand. Rafe has two
sisters and twin brothers. He's the oldest."
    Cady
didn't dare pump her father anymore about Rafe. He was absentminded, but he was
quite bright