For His Little Girl

'Poor little soul.'

'They adore her, and they're very kind people.'

'I believe you. It's just that I can't imagine a worse fate for a kid than having Frank as a father.'

'Josie's very fond of him. But I must admit she finds him a bit slow.'

'Slow, boring, narrow-minded, pompous…'

'All right, all right,' she laughed. 'He admires you, too.'

'Rackety, he said I was, didn't he?'

'Yes, well, he knew one when he saw one.'

'Thanks. You always knew how to give it to me right between the eyes.'

'I saw through you and out the other side.'

'Not always. I pulled a few fast ones that you knew nothing about.'

Something stabbed at her heart. He was going to say he'd been seeing another girl all those years ago. But how? He'd spent every moment with her.

'So tell me about these fast ones you pulled?' she said as casually as she could. 'Had a whole harem I didn't know about, did you? The Romeo of the Ritz we used to call you. Girl on each floor.'

'It's nothing like that. I might be many kinds of a jerk, Pippa, but I wasn't that kind of a jerk.' He added conscientiously, 'Not with you, anyway. While we were together, you were the only one.'

Her heart stilled its unruly beating, but she was shocked at herself for the fierceness of her relief. It shouldn't have mattered. But it had mattered terribly.

He went on. 'But I had other little angles that you knew nothing about.'

'Oh, yeah?' she said in the old way.

'Oh, yeah!'

She leaned toward him. 'Oh, yeah?'

He leaned to her. 'Oh, yeah!'

'OH, YEAH?'

'OH, YEAH!'

They burst out laughing together, and she fell back on the sofa, stretching out luxuriously. It was comfortable, the brandy was good, and she was beginning to relax.

''That was almost the first thing we said to each other,' he said. 'Remember?'

''I remember you turning up in Green Park to find me missing, throwing up your hands to the skies and crying, 'Please, please, no!''

'You imagined that!'

'No way!' she teased. 'You were really desperate at the thought that I might not be there.'

'Yes, I was,' he said unexpectedly. 'It mattered. But then you came back-because of course you found me irresistible-'

'Oh, really?'

'So I took pity on you-' He saw her eyeing him balefully, and his expression became suddenly rueful. 'If you hadn't come back I was going to turn the Ritz inside out looking for you. And then I was going to go on my knees asking forgiveness, offering you a big bunch of roses-now what?'

'I'm sorry, Luke,' she choked. 'But I can't keep a straight face when you talk like that.'

'You fell for it last time,' he said aggrieved.

'You didn't talk like that last time. Roses? You?'

'I'd have bought you roses if I'd had any money. I just never did.'

'No, we didn't have two pennies to rub together, did we?'

'And we didn't care,' he said slowly.

'No, we didn't care.'

She stretched again as luxuriously as a cat. Luke regarded her, marveling that she still had the same figure that he recalled, slender, lithe and flexible. Memories were coming back to him, how pert and saucily elegant she'd been when she was naked, and how filled with acrobatic energy. Exhausting, and how! Why, he remembered-

He wondered self-consciously if she could read his thoughts in his face, but she was lying full-out with her eyes closed and a contented smile on her face. With an effort he clothed the naked vision. Clothes, that was it. Think of clothes quickly. She could always carry off the most outrageous garments.

That's what was different, he realized. She was wearing slacks and sweater that were pleasant enough, even attractive, but not designed to be eyecatching.

He got up suddenly. 'I'll be back.'

He vanished, and a few moments later she heard a 'ping' from the telephone extension on a low table beside her. She could just make out the murmur of Luke's voice from the kitchen. He was gone about ten minutes.

'I had to make some calls to clear the time for you and Josie,' he said. 'The only thing I couldn't cancel was recording the show. You might like to come and see that.'

'Mmm, lovely. Josie will be thrilled to be in a TV studio.'

'But you won't want to sit there for two solid days. Why don't you take a shopping trip on the second day-my treat? Go to Rodeo Drive and buy yourself and Josie some knock-out clothes.''

'Luke, even I've heard of Rodeo Drive and what it costs to shop there.''

''I told you, it's my treat. You take my card and buy anything you want.''

Pippa was silent for a moment, then she sat up. She was looking at him in a way that worried him, although he couldn't think why.

'This wouldn't be your gold card you're offering me, would it Luke?'' And there was no doubt about it, he thought. Her voice was definitely unfriendly.

''Yes, it would, if that matters.''

'The one you gave Dominique, no doubt?'

'Well-yes.'

'Fine. That's what gold cards are for-popsies. Dominique is a popsie. I'm the mother of your child. There's a big difference.'

Silence. Then he drew a long, careful breath. 'Oh, boy! I really screwed up, didn't I?'

She relented. 'Just a little. Sorry, I didn't mean to get heavy, but it just didn't feel right.'

'What about Josie? Can't I buy her some pretty dresses?''

'Josie hates pretty dresses. She thinks they're for wimps. She wears jeans with sweaters, jeans with jackets, jeans with T-shirts. Since it's so hot here she might try shorts, but if you offer her a pretty dress she'll probably put arsenic in your coffee.'

Her joking tone had restored the atmosphere. She'd immediately regretted her little flare of temper, but there was something about being put on Dominique's level that had offended her to the soul. She'd been more to Luke than that, and although those days were over, she would die before letting him rank her with the crowd.

Then it struck her that the idly used cliche wasn't a cliche with her, but perhaps the bitter truth, and suddenly she couldn't stand any more of this conversation.

'I need another good sleep to get rid of my jet lag,' she said hurriedly. 'Good night, Luke.'

'You're not still mad at me, are you?'

'No, I'm not mad at you. How could I be? You've been wonderful today. How many men would have taken it as well as you did? It's meant the world to Josie.'

He wanted to ask, 'And you?' But a rare spurt of wisdom kept him quiet.

She regarded him fondly. 'Good night.'

Luke found himself faced with an unexpected problem of protocol. The lady was charming, it was late, they had talked and smiled, they were mellow with wine. The next stage was to kiss her. Standard procedure.

But for this particular lady the standard procedure wouldn't do. Suddenly he, the most subtly experienced bachelor in L.A.-okay, say the whole world-was in unknown territory. How did you treat the mother of your kid whom you'd just re-met after eleven years? She was lovely, and you felt at ease with her, like parents should be, so it ought to be simple, right?

Wrong!

Wrong because she brought memories of the sexiest time of your life, memories that made you horny just to think of them. Yet now she was like a different woman, with all the mystery of unexplored territory. And the mixture