Breath of Scandal(107)

Dillon was more intrigued than ever. Her volatile reaction to his questions only reinforced his curiosity. This was a small town. People talked. Sooner or later he would know more about her murky past. Judiciously, he chose not to pursue it any further now.

He locked the trailer and followed her to the new pickup, where she was already sitting on the passenger side. He climbed behind the wheel and started the motor. "Pretty fancy," he remarked as he surveyed the interior.

-GSS is a first-class corporation," she said stiffly.

He guided the truck along the rutted path leading to the highway. "You'll have to give me directions to your house." He knew the place she had rented, but he didn't want her to know that.

Following her terse directions, he drove duough town. Shortly, he realized that she wasn't leading him to her leased house. "I'm surprised you wanted to live this far out," he commented conversationally as they left the city limits.

"We're not going directly to my house. I want your opinion on something."



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He shot her a puzzled glance, but she didn't elaborate. He continued driving on the two-lane highway, which, he knew, eventually led to the Atlantic coast.

"Turn right at the next crossroads." As instructed, he took a sharp turn onto a narrow gravel road. "You can pull up anywhere along here." As soon as he brought the truck to a stop, she alighted. "I'd Re you to come with me."

Dillon got out and followed her to a barbed-wire fence. A rusty No TRESPASSING sign was nailed to one of the posts. Ignoring it, she asked him to hold apart two of the wires, wide enough for her to climb through.

He said, "You know this is private property."

"Yes, I know." When she had safety climbed through, she placed her foot on the bottom wire, stretching it down and raising the next one as high as she could. "Come on. I don't think we'll get caught."

Because of his height, Dillon had to exercise more caution than she when he squeezed between the two strands of barbed wire. Once he was inside the fence, he placed is hands on his hips and looked down at her "Now what? What can we see on this side that we couldn't see from the road?"

They were standing in a fallow field. If it was a nice walk in the country she had in mind, he wished she had told him to change his clothes. He had left his tie and jacket behind, but he was still in the dress slacks and shoes he had worn to the town meeting.

"I only want to take a look around. " She struck off across the field on foot. "I didn't want to come alone." "Coming alone can be a real drag, all right," he joked.

As anticipated, she wasn't amused.

For half an hour they tramped across the uncultivated ground. She walked along the fence, then asked him to pace off yardage, which he did without understanding the reason behind her odd request. She took a spiral notebook from her handbag and made several notations.

The wind picked up, but she didn't notice, not even when it whipped her hair across her face and mouth. Dark clouds



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moved in, scuttling low. Dillon heard distant thunder. They continued to walk and pace for no reason apparent to him.

Finally, she gathered her windblown hair into her fist and held it secure at her nape, as she tilted her head back to look up at him. "What do you think?"

In that stance, with her feet widely spaced, her hand behind her head, and her wind-plastered top clearly defining the shape, size, and substance of her breasts, all his thoughts were carnally governed.

"What do I think?" he repeated gruffly. "I think we might get wet."

She glanced at the sky with eyes that were a darker blue than the stormclouds. "I believe you're right. But what do you think about this property?"

Impatiently, he shoved his hand through his own windblown hair. "Is that why we've been stamping around here for the last half-hour-so you could hear my opinion of this miserable piece of land? I could have told you my opinion without having to get mud on my new shoes."

"You don't think it's valuable?"

"Valuable?" he shouted above the wind. "I think it's worthless. Probably half of it is in flood plain."

"I'm thinking about buying it for GSS.-

Having said that, she did an about-face and picked her way over the uneven ground back toward the fence. Befuddled, Dillon followed her. "What the hell for?"

"Future expansion. Please pay close attention to those wires, Dillon. "

They got through the fence without mishap and walked back to the truck. He slammed the passenger door behind her and jogged around the hood. He had barely ducked inside when fat raindrops began spattering the windshield.

He cursed the mess on the bottom of his shoes, then picked up where their previous discussion had left off. "You can't be serious about buying this land."

"I might be. Mr. Stein called today. We discussed several areas of opportunity in and around the county. There's a very good chance that I will acquire property for the cor-



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poration. In fact, his suggestion came more in the form of an executive mandate."

"Before you could build anything larger than an outhouse on this land, it would take millions to get it ready." "We've got millions."