MAT HAD TO tell her the truth. he’d known that last night.

“You don’t have to worry,” she said. “I may be naive about some things, but I understand about last night.”

He frowned as he tried to switch mental gears. His big story had just gotten bigger with the revelation that she was thinking about running for public office, but that made no difference. She needed to hear what he did for a living.

Just thinking about the way she was going to react made his tongue clumsy. “Last night? That wasn’t what I meant. I need to— Exactly what do you think you understand about last night?”

The waiter chose that moment to appear with their entrees. After they were served, Mat leaned back in his chair. “Go on. I want to hear what you have to say about last night.”

“Why don’t you go first?”

“You’re having second thoughts, aren’t you?”

“And third and fourth,” she said. “What about you?”

There was a good reason for him to have second thoughts, but it bothered him to know that she was, too. “My only thought is that Lucy and that baby had better be asleep when we get back so we can head right for the bedroom.”

“Just get to it, is that it?”

“Yes.” He blocked out what he had to tell her. Soon. Before they finished their dinner. “Don’t try to pretend you don’t want the same thing. Remember that I was there last night. Besides, you’ve been looking at me all evening as if I’m dessert.”

“I have not! Well, maybe I have, but it’s only because you’ve been doing that eye thing.”

“What eye thing would that be?”

“You know what eye thing.” A haughty little sniff. “Where you trickled them all over me while I’m talking.”

“Trickling eyes. Nice image.”

“Don’t play dumb. You know what I mean.”

“As a matter of fact, I do.” He smiled and drank in the sight of her. The First Lady of the United States of America had gotten dressed up just for him.

She wore that orange maternity dress as if it were a designer original, and the little beaded necklace thing was the sexiest piece of jewelry he’d ever seen. The tiny heart that dangled from it nestled in the hollow of her throat, one of the many places he’d kissed last night. She was a woman in a class by herself, but, even though he was a writer, he didn’t know how to say everything he was feeling out loud, so he got to the main point.

“Have I told you that you look beautiful and that I can’t wait to make love with you?”

“Not with words you haven’t.”

“The trickling eyes?”

“You bet.”