PROLOGUE

	“I believe the lady said she wasn’t interested!”  
	The threat in the voice was clear.  The gangly young man who had been draped
over the young girl sitting alone at her table quickly backed away.  Until now he had
been persistently pawing at her, tugging at her arm and generally getting right in her
face.  She had been doing her best to fend him off, but it was obvious her patience was
wearing thin. At the sound of the deep booming voice, however, the man backed up so
fast he almost fell over the chair that he had been half sitting on.
	“Hey man, I was just talking to her,” he said, raising his hands in self defence. 
“You can’t blame a guy for trying to get a little action can you?”
	Cole McKinley narrowed his eyes and held the man’s gaze with a menacing one
of his own.  “You’re drunk,” he said, his tone dry and pointed.  “The only action you need
to be getting is a cab ride home.”
	The man tried to back away again and stumbled another time, then as he tripped
over his feet, he quickly turned and made a fast exit towards the other side of the room
and disappeared into the crowd.  Cole turned to look at the young man’s victim with a
frown.
	“Are you alright?” he asked, noticing that she looked relieved.
	She sighed.  “I don’t think so, but thank you for your help with that — that —
excuse of a man,” she said, glancing in the direction that her unwanted guest had
disappeared to.  The sudden movement made her sway and she groaned and leaned
toward the table resting her head in her hands.
	“Are you here with someone, or are you alone?” Cole asked her, looking around
to see if he could catch sight of anyone who might be looking as if they were heading her
way.  The crowd was rowdy, and the music was loud, and no one seemed to be paying
any attention to her at all.  His frown deepened. 
	“I came with Jennifer,” she said, and attempted to look around the room.  “But I
think I remember her saying she was leaving.  She was hanging around with a tall red
head guy in a purple shirt.”  She winced, as if the sight of the shirt, even in her mind, was
making her ill.
	“You don’t look like you’re having a good time,” he observed.  Something about
her made her look slightly out of place among the crowd that filled the room, he thought. 
Maybe it was the conservative navy blue dress that, although it was flattering, was not
outstandingly sexy like most of the dresses the women at the party were wearing.  The
straight neckline followed her collar bones and the sleeveless style offered just enough
skin to be safe.  The bodice was form fitting but not overly tight, and it followed her
contour elegantly to the knee.  He looked around him and noticed that the amount of
fabric in her dress could probably clothe two women in the fashions that seemed to be
preferred by the rest of the female guests.  Her hair, a deep chocolate brown, hung
straight to rest on her shoulders.  Another contrast to the rest of the crowd, he thought,
noticing all the fancy hairstyles that floated by on the heads of the scantily clad female 
guests.  The woman groaned, which brought his attention back to her.
	“What are you drinking?” he asked her, glancing at the half empty glass on the
table in front of her.
	“I’ve just been drinking the punch, because I don’t drink,” she said, though she
had some trouble forming her words.
	Cole’s frown deepened, and he picked up the glass and held it to his face, then
wrinkled his nose and put the glass back on the table. “That’s pretty dangerous punch,”
he said,  pushing it out of her reach.  “How many of these have you had tonight?”
	She attempted to shrug, and lifted up another glass that was sitting in front of
her, this one empty but for a trace of liquid in the bottom of it, the same colour as the
punch.  She tipped it from side to side and studied it intently, then set it down again with
a thud. 
	“This glass is empty.  I’m thirsty.”  She looked up at him and smiled, and he
thought she really did have a pretty smile.  Too bad someone had spoiled her evening
by spiking the punch.  
	“Why don’t I take you home?” he offered, although his tone was more a
statement than a question.  He had had too much to drink himself, but not so much that
his judgement was clouded with regards to her well being.  Just enough to drown his
sorrows, he thought to himself, but definitely too much to drive.  But he could easily put
her in a car with a driver, and send her home to safety, away from the piranhas that
preyed on helpless women like her.  Probably the same ones who had spiked the
punch, he thought, looking around to see if he could catch a glimpse of the leech that he
had extracted from her arm earlier.  He saw the guy lounging over a woman dressed in
a tight leather mini-skirt, and chuckled slightly to himself.  She was probably more what
he was looking for than the woman sitting at this table.  When he returned his attention
to her it was to find her peering up at him with narrowed eyes.
	“Do I know you?” she asked, looking up at him with her eyes narrowed,
concentrating hard as if she were trying very hard to figure out who he was.
	“I don’t think so,” he said, and since she was making no attempt to get up and go
home, he pulled out the chair across the table from her and sat down.  He wasn’t there
with anyone, and had nowhere in particular to go, so he might as well sit at her table
than anywhere else. She would be safer if he were there than she would be if he walked
away and left her alone.  “But you have probably heard of me.  I’m Cole McKinley,” he
said.
	She smiled at him again, a much brighter smile than before. “Oh! This is your
party!” she observed, with overly exaggerated cheer that made her sway slightly in her
chair.
	“More or less,” he said, nodding, although he would rather be anywhere but
there. It was customary for him to throw a Christmas party every year, in the ballroom of
the McKinley Holdings Building, and invite everyone in the building.  He hated the whole
ordeal, but it was expected of him.  He didn’t even know half the people who came to the
party, because although it was his building, some of the offices were rented out to other
companies and he didn’t know their staff.  Other than passing them in the lobby he had
never even seen half of these people before, but every year he paid the bill for their
carousing and celebrating. 
	He wasn’t surprised that she knew him by his name, however, because
everyone in the building knew the McKinley name.  Especially the women, he thought
wryly, although most of them were more acquainted with his little brother Ty than with
himself. At that thought he glanced around the room to try to locate said brother, and
found him leaning casually against the bar talking to a woman with bleached blonde hair
piled on the top of her head in a cascade of artificial curls.  He turned his gaze back to
the woman across the table, who in his opinion, was much easier on the eyes, and was
still sitting there studying him intently.
	“You’re not having any fun are you?” she observed, pouting.
	“I don’t throw these parties to have fun. I throw them to give the people in the
building a place to celebrate together once a year.  I would much rather be somewhere
else.”  He hadn’t realised he had spoken the thought out loud until he glanced up at her
and found her almost brooding over him.
	“Then why do you still do it?” she said, point blank.
	“Do what?”
	“Throw this big party,” she said, waving her arms in the air, gesturing to the room
in general.  “If you don’t enjoy it, why do you do it?”
	“Because it is expected of me.”
	She shrugged.  “Well I for one don’t expect it, and I wouldn’t miss it if you didn’t
ever bother to do it again.  I have never come before, and I only came this year because
Jennifer practically dragged me here.”  She looked absently around the room with a
frown. “I came with Jennifer, but I think I remember her saying she was leaving,” she
repeated. “Have you seen Jennifer?  She knows how much I hate parties, and then she
leaves me here and takes off with old Purple Shirt.” She winced again, and sighed, then
turned back to him, straightening her back and looking like she was about to say
something profound.  “So why don’t you just stop.  I’m sure people could find another
place to get drunk.”
	He lifted one side of his mouth into a half grin and looked at her.  No doubt her
candidness was due to the drink, he thought, for she didn’t look the type to normally be
so blatantly outspoken.  But she had a point.  Why did he still throw these Christmas
parties, year after year?  He much preferred the smaller, more personal staff party that
he held for McKinley Contracting every December, where the workers brought their
whole families and Santa Claus came to give out gifts to all the children.  He couldn’t
even remember why he had started throwing this huge building party in the first place.
	Come to think of it, he thought, this party had probably been Ty’s idea.   If the
truth be known, parties were Ty’s thing.  He chuckled to himself as he cast a sideways
glance back towards the bar where Ty and the bleached blonde were huddled a little
closer.  It figured. Ty was much more the partying type than he was.
	“Maybe you’re right,” he said, with a sigh, looking back at the woman across the
table.  Veronica had enjoyed the parties.  That was probably another good reason to
discontinue them, he thought.  As this thought crossed his mind his eyes fell on the half
glass of punch he had taken away from the woman he was sitting with.  Thinking about
Veronica actually made him want to get drunk, which was unusual for him to start with,
and he was already half way there, which was even more unusual for him.  He picked up
the glass and downed the contents in one gulp, then set the glass back on the table in
an almost triumphant gesture.
	“Hey! That was my drink!” she exclaimed, her eyes and mouth both wide open.
	“I’ll get you another one,” he said blandly. “This one wasn’t very good anyway.”
	She settled down, and smiled softly at him, and he got up and headed towards
the bar.  He ordered a stiff drink for himself, got her a glass of ginger ale with no alcohol
in it, and walked back to the table, arriving just as the leech he had pulled off of her
earlier attempted to attach himself to her once again.
	“I thought I told you to leave her alone?” Cole said from close at her side. The
man hadn’t seen him coming and flinched, jumping back a good two steps from the
table. “Better yet, why don’t you just leave?”  Cole stated as an afterthought.
	“OK, cool it. I get the picture. I just thought she was fair game, that’s all,” the guy
said as he backed away.
	“She isn’t any kind of game,” Cole said, through narrowed eyes, and the leech
grumbled under his breath and disappeared back into the crowd.  Cole deposited her
drink in front of her and downed half of his own before he sat down.  The guy reminded
him of Veronica, he thought, and that was enough to make him want to down his drink
and order another one.  Veronica was a leech too, just of the female variety.  He went
ahead and emptied his glass and held it up towards the bartender, who smiled and filled
up another one.  Moments later it arrived at the table, delivered by Ty who was entwined
in the arms of the bleached blonde. 
	“Having a little more than usual tonight,  Big Bro.?” Ty asked, and Cole grunted.
His brother chuckled. “It won’t wash her away, you know,” he said, laughing, yet Cole
knew there was deep concern hidden underneath the barb.
	“It’ll do a hellova job trying though,” he said, and took the drink and placed it
beside his empty glass, sliding his thumb up and down the glass and staring at it as if it
were going to divulge the secret of life to him if he rubbed it like a magic lamp.  Ty
glanced at the woman sitting across the table, who seemed to be intently watching their
conversation.
	“Who’s this?” he asked his brother.
	Cole looked at her long and hard, then lifted his glass.  “I don’t know,” he said,
then took a generous gulp of his drink. “I rescued her from Winchester.”
	“My name’s Hannah,” she said, sounding cheery and polite, but neither brother
seemed to notice her.
	Ty laughed. “Rescuing women from Winchester is a full time job at these parties. 
You gonna stop at just this one?”	
	Cole grunted, and took another drink. “There are no more chairs at this table,” he
said flatly.  “Besides, all the other women here seem to be doing just fine on their own.  I
don’t see any others that look like they want to be rescued,”  he observed.  As he spoke,
he noticed the leech Winchester was headed towards the door with his arm draped
across the shoulders of a red head with half a top on and a skin tight pair of satin pants. 
She couldn’t seem to keep her hands out of Winchester’s pants.  She reminded him of
Veronica, Cole thought, although with Veronica it hadn’t been so much his pants, as his
wallet.  He took another drink.
	“This glass is empty,“ he told his brother, rolling the glass around and looking at it
intently. 
	“Don’t expect me to fill it up again,” Ty said, shaking his head. “You’ve had more
than enough tonight.”
	“You never could take orders very well,” Cole grunted, glaring at him as he
pushed the empty glass half way across the table.  
	Ty glanced towards the bar and caught the bartender’s attention.  He jerked his
head in the direction of his brother and drew his finger across his neck, signalling it was
time to cut off the supply of drinks.  “And you never could hold your liquor very well, Big
Brother,”  he said pointedly.
	Cole twirled the glass in his fingers.  “That’s because I don’t drink,” he
announced with confidence.
	The woman across the table lit up and giggled. “Isn’t that a coincidence! Neither
do I!”  
	Both men looked at her as if they had forgotten she was there, then Ty looked at
his brother with his eyebrows raised and tipped his head in her direction. “I think it’s time
she went home,” he stated.
	Cole nodded. “I already told her that. She hasn’t moved yet.”
	“Are you going to see that she gets there then, or do you want me to do it?” Ty
asked.  As much of a ladies man as he was, and as much as he had had to drink, Ty still
hadn’t lost sight of the fact that they were the hosts of this celebration and it was their
responsibility to make sure that their guests were safe.
	Cole grunted again. “Send an innocent woman into night in your clutches? You
must be kidding!”
	Ty laughed. “Yeah, you’re right. She’s probably much safer with you.  Besides, I
sort of have my hands full right now anyway.” He tugged the blonde closer in to his side,
and she responded by giggling and pawing at his chest with hands with long manicured
nails.
	Cole looked at the blonde and nodded. “I see that,” he drawled, then he looked
across the table at the brunette. “We’re leaving,” he announced.  “ I’m going to make
sure you get home safely.  Let’s go.”
	“Oh you don’t have to, really. I’m quite alright to get myself home.”  With that, she
stood up, a little too quickly and the chair tipped backwards behind her.  She took a step
back and almost tripped over the chair, and Ty reached out to steady her.  “Really, I’m
fine!” she insisted, and shook her arm away from Ty’s grasp, eyeing him as if she wasn’t
sure she could trust him after the things she had just heard his brother say about him
and women in his clutches. 
	“Maybe,” Cole said, narrowing his eyes as he looked at her.  She was not fine at
all, far from it, and for that matter neither was he, but that was a whole other matter.
Right now, she was a guest at his party, and as Ty had reminded him,  it was his
responsibility to make sure she got home safely.  He decided to tackle the issue from a
different direction.  “But you can’t be sure where that guy went. I saw him leave with a
red head a few minutes ago.  She might have ditched him, and he could be hanging
around outside waiting for you. I’d feel better if I made sure that you got home safe.”
	A slightly worried look washed over her face, and she glanced from one brother
to the other. “Oh,” she said blankly. “Well, in that case, maybe it is a good idea afterall.”
	Ty seemed a little relieved, and shifted his feet. “Right then. Everything under
control, Big Bro.? Then I’ll be off.”  And with that, he and the blonde were gone.
	Cole watched them leave, and marvelled at how much the blonde reminded him
of Veronica.  In fact, with a few drinks in him, just about every woman in the room
reminded him of Veronica.  Every one, that is, except the one that was standing across
the table waiting patiently for him to escort her home.
	“Wait here, I’ll be right back,” he said, and marched over to the bar.  After
threatening to fire the bartender he managed to get one more drink, although Cole knew
it was watered down, and glared at him.  He tipped the glass til it was empty, set it down
on the bar, and left.  With any luck, that would drown Veronica once and for all!
	Of course the drinking hadn’t drowned Veronica at all.  She was still right there
where she had been all night, in the back of his mind, smiling her practised smile and
lacing her arms around his neck, strangling him while all the while keeping her eyes on
his bank account — and blinding him to reality.
	“Where do you live?” he asked casually as they waited for the elevator, although
his mind was still distracted.
  	“I’m not sure,” she said, and he looked at her, peering through narrowed eyes.
Was she for real? Was this woman really standing there telling him she wasn’t sure
where she lived?
	“You’re not sure?” he asked her, staring down at her incredulously.
	She shook her head.  “I can’t remember if I moved yet or not.” She looked off into
the distance, a very thoughtful expression on her face, and lay a finger to the side of her
chin. “I am moving very soon you know — that is if I haven’t already.”
	He grunted.  This was useless.  “There is a guest apartment on the next floor
down.   Sometimes I use it when I don’t have time to go home.  I won’t be using it
tonight. You can sleep it off there until morning, when hopefully you will remember where
the end of your nose is,”  he said.  She moved her finger to the tip of her nose, grinned, 
and poked at it.
	“Why, it’s right here, silly!” she giggled, swaying from side to side.
	They stepped into the elevator, and when the doors closed between them and
the party he breathed a sigh of relief.  A sigh followed closely by a muttered curse as she
began to tilt in his direction. The sooner he got this woman settled in and left her alone,
the better, he thought. There was something very unnerving about her.
	By the time the elevator doors opened again Hannah was leaning heavily on
Cole for support.  He wrapped an arm around her and led her across the hall, unlocked
a door, and took her inside.  
	“Are you sure you don’t remember where you live?” he asked her again,
hopefully.
	She turned and looked at him, his face only inches from her own.  “You’re kind of
cute you know,” she said with a smile, ignoring his question.
	“You’re drunk,” he observed flatly, and as he manoeuvred her further into the
room he caught his foot on the rug and almost dropped them both on the floor.
	“I think you are too,” she said, matter-of-factly.
	“You’re probably right,” he said, without arguing the point.  The fact was, he was
not just probably drunk, he was most definitely so.  He wasn’t used to drinking, and he
had done far too much of it tonight, and most of it far too quickly.  He looked around the
room.  “Maybe I will have to stay here tonight afterall.  I’ll sleep out here on the couch,
you can have the bedroom.”
	“You can’t remember where you live either?” she asked, pouting at him.
	“Oh, I can remember alright. I’m just not so sure I can find my way there right
now,” he said.  He had been guiding her toward the bedroom, and as he finished talking
they had just reached the edge of the bed, where he had figured he would deposit her
and then leave to go back out to the sitting room for the night.  As he loosened his grip,
however, she lost her balance and began to fall backwards. She grabbed at him for
support and ended up pulling him down on the bed on top of her.
	“Oh!” she gasped, as she looked up at him.  Neither of them moved, and as they
lay there, his eyes began to move from her eyes to her lips.  “Oh!” she said again, and a
few seconds later he was kissing her.
	He had no idea why he kissed her.  He wasn’t in the habit of kissing strange
women.  He usually didn’t kiss any women until he knew them really well, and was
becoming more serious with them.  In fact, he wasn’t in the habit of kissing any women
at all lately.   It was most likely the alcohol, he assured himself.  That and the fact that
her body felt so warm underneath him, and her eyes were staring up at him looking so
inviting, and her lips — well her lips were even more inviting than her eyes.  The fact
remained, that for whatever reason, he kissed her.
	Get up and go out to the couch he said to himself, as his hand slid along her
bare arm and he noticed how soft her skin was.  Leave her alone!  Her arms draped
themselves around his neck and she kissed him back.  He groaned and slid his other
hand along the contour of her hip and down over her thigh.  You are not Ty, you do not
fall into bed with any willing woman who bats her lashes at you!  he reminded himself. 
He lifted his lips from hers and looked down at her.  She lay there looking up at him, her
dark hair fanned out across the bed beneath her, and her dark eyes looking up at him
like deep pools. Staring at him.  Not batting her lashes at all!
	He kissed her again.
	He rolled away from her, thinking he would get up off the bed and leave her there
for the night, but his hands had not detached themselves from her, and instead of
leaving her, he rolled her up on top of him.  She let out a little gasp, and a soft giggle,
and his hand moved around her back and inched the zipper down the back of her dress. 
When she lifted herself up at arms length, the garment fell freely down off her shoulders,
and he found himself looking at a lacy peach coloured bra. One hand reached to gently
cup the softness of her breast while his thumb stroked absently over where he knew her
nipple would be.
	“Oh!” she said again.  “It’s terribly hot in here!”
	“Yes,” he agreed.  His free hand moved her dress completely off her arms and
slid around to push it towards her hips.  He looked up at her, trying to remember what
she had said her name was, then he looked at her breasts again, and groaned.  It was
terribly hot in here!
	He kissed her again.
	His hand gave up trying to remove the dress and slid it up instead, moving
seductively across the heat between her legs.  She whimpered, and kissed him back
with an amazing fervour, and suddenly she was groping at his shirt.  He helped her with
that, and she returned the favour by finding a better place for her dress — on the floor. 
Soon they were back in each others arms again, kissing madly, while both his hands
explored the soft peach lace of her bra — just before it landed on the floor beside her
dress.
	Damn!  he thought to himself.  Why can’t I remember her name?  This is all
wrong.  This is something Ty would do.  I do NOT sleep with women I am not seriously
involved with, and I am not, nor do I intend to be seriously involved with any woman right
now!
	She whimpered and threaded her fingers through his thick dark hair and the next
thing he knew he was rolling her over again and was laying on top of her looking down
into those dark pools she had for eyes.  Her fingers moved lower, and fumbled with his
belt.  After a few agonizing seconds during which she had no luck at all, he helped her,
and soon his pants lay on the floor with her dress and her bra.  Her body was now
pressed against his with only his shorts and her panties between them.  His hands
roamed over her, as he felt her breasts against his chest and her legs against his thighs. 
Stop now! he warned himself. This is completely out of character!
	He kissed her again.
	Their undergarments fell to the floor and landed on top of his pants and she
wrapped her legs around him and tugged him close to her with eager fingers. His tongue
dipped into her mouth and his hand slid between them as he guided himself into
position.  She melted against him and he grunted as he pressed into her. 
	“Oh!” she said, very softly, and arched herself upward.  He wove his fingers
through her hair and drank in the passion from her lips as they were swept over the
edge.
	Damn! he said to himself later, as he fell asleep in the bed beside her, listening to
her rhythmic breathing, and watching the peaceful look on her face.  I wish I could
remember what she said her name was!