” ‘Screw my constituency,’ ” Pitt repeated solemnly, gesturing as though he were taking notes. “Another entry in the scandalous life of little Loren Smith, congressional representative of Colorado’s graft-ridden seventh district.”

“You’re not funny.” She turned and threatened him with the dishpan. “There is no political hanky-panky in the seventh district, and I am the last one on Capitol Hill who can be accused of being on the take.”

“Ah … but your sexual excesses. Think what journalistic hay the media might make out of that. I may even expose you myself and write a best-selling book.”

“As long as I don’t keep my lovers on office payroll or entertain them on my congressional expense account, I can’t be touched.” ‘

“What about me?”

16 VIXEN 03p>

“You paid your half of the groceries, remember?” She dried the pan and set it in the cupboard.

“How can I build a business out of being kept,” Pitt said sadly, “if I have a cheap screw for a mistress?”

She put her arms around his neck and kissed his chin. “The next time you pick up a horny girl at a Washington cocktail party, I suggest you demand an accounting of her financial assets.”

Good lord, she recalled, that awful party thrown by the Secretary of Environment. She hated the Capital social scene. Unless a function was tied in to Colorado interests or one of her committee assignments, she usually went home after work to a mangy cat named Ichabod and whatever movie was playing on television.

Loren’s eyes had been magnetically drawn to him as he stood in the flickering light of the lawn torches. She had stared brazenly while carrying on a partisan conversation with another Independent Party congressman, Morton Shaw, of Florida.

She felt a strange quickening of her pulse. That seldom happened and she wondered why it was happening now. He was not handsome, not in a ‘ Paul Newman sort of way, and yet there was a virile, no-nonsense aura about him that appealed to her. He was tall, and she preferred tall men.

He was alone, talking to no one, observing the people around him with a look of genuine interest rather than bored aloofness. When he became aware of Loren’s stare, he simply stared back with a frank, appraising expression.

“Who is that wallflower over there in the shadows?” she asked Morton Shaw.

Shaw turned and gazed in the direction Loren indicated with a tilt of her head. His eyes blinked in recognition and he laughed. “Two years in Washington and you don’t know who that is?”

“If I knew, I wouldn’t ask,” she said airily.

“His name is Pitt, Dirk Pitt. He’s special-projects director for the National Underwater and Marine Agency. You know-he’s the guy who headed up the Titanic’s salvage operation.”