Sophia snorted. “How about an, I’m-going-to-ravish-you-until-the-walls-crumble-to-dust kiss?”

“If that’s the case, then I’m sorry to have come up short.” She made a show of glancing at the walls. Then stopping to pick something up off the ground she added, “We didn’t manage to disintegrate any stone. We merely knocked some riding crops off the shelves. Shall we try again?”

Vic leaned forward, but Sophia held up a hand quickly. “I’m not saying ‘no,’ but I am saying ‘not right now.’ I have to be on camera any minute, and you weren’t wrong about the possibility of someone leaking to the press if they catch us together.”

That stopped Vic in her tracks. She even went so far as to step back. Interesting.

“Maybe we could take a rain cheque?”

“Tonight? Dinner, my place?” Vic suggested quickly.

She should say no. Two nights in a row could set a pattern, and she needed sleep, but one long look at Vic in those tight breeches and boots and … who was she kidding? She’d never been one to deny herself when it came to women who looked like Vic, or possessed her particular set of skills, and what’s more, she’d rarely found a woman who fit both categories.

“Shall we say eight o’clock?” Vic asked.

“That depends.”

“On?”

“Will you still be wearing that outfit at eight?”

“It could be arranged,” Vic said, a hint of her cocky grin returning. “Will you still be wearing that dress?”

She glanced down at the ridiculous costume. “Absolutely not.”

Vic threw back her head and laughed.

The deep, throaty sound made Sophia’s stomach tighten.

“I’m sure whatever you wear will suffice through dinner, and then I have an ardent hope it’ll become immaterial.”

She shook her head. If she didn’t get out of here now, she feared the clothes might become immaterial well before dinner. As if reading her mind, Vic stepped forward and kissed her quickly and full on the mouth, then turned and unlocked the door.

“Eight o’clock, Ms. LeBlanc. Do you have any request for the menu?”

“Not specifically, but I suspect both protein and carbs may be in order.”

“Duly noted.”

Vic reached up to hang the crop back on a rack as Sophia headed for the doorway, but when she reached it a flash of mischief struck, or perhaps Vic’s case had been contagious, because she couldn’t resist saying, “Oh Vic, you might want to keep the crop with you . . . for tonight.”

Vic’s eyes went wide and her mouth dropped open, giving Sophia her first uninhibited smile of the morning. She walked away knowing she might not have scored as many points as she would’ve liked in that interaction, but she’d certainly scored the last one.

••••

“Kneel,” Sophia commanded smoothly.

“Pardon me?” Vic arched an eyebrow as a little shiver of anticipation worked its way under her skin.