She felt stupid for not having made the connection. His picture and the story of the famous liner’s successful resurrection had been headlined everywhere for weeks by the news media. So this was the man who had taken on the impossible and beaten the odds. She excused herself from Shaw and made her way through the crowd to Pitt.

Vixen 03 I 17

“Mr. Pitt,” she said. That was as far as she got. A breeze shifted the flames of the torches just then and the new angle caused a glinting reflection in Pitt’s eyes. Loren felt a fever in her stomach that had come Only once before, when she was very young and had a crush on a professional skier. She was thankful the dim light shaded the flush that must have tinted her cheeks.

“Mr. Pitt,” she said again. She couldn’t seem to get the right words out. He looked down at her, waiting. An introduction, you fool, she yelled inside her mind. Instead she blurted, “Now that you’ve raised the Titanic, what are you planning for your next project?”

“That’s a pretty tough act to follow,” he said, smiling warmly. “My next project, though, will be one with great personal satisfaction; one that I shall savor with great delight.”

“And that is?”

“The seduction of Congresswoman Loren Smith.”

Her eyes widened. “Are you joking?”

“I never regard sex with a ravishing politician lightly.”

“You’re cute. Did the opposition party put you up to this?”

Pitt did not reply. He took her by the hand and led her through the house, which was crammed with Washington’s power elite, and escorted her outside, to his car. She followed without protest, out of curiosity more than obedience.

As he pulled the car into the tree-lined street, she finally asked, “Where are you taking me?”

“Step one”-he flashed a galvanizing smile-“we find an intimate little bar where we can relax and exchange our innermost desires.”

“And step two?” she asked, her voice low.

“I take you for a hundred-mile-an-hour ride down Chesapeake Bay in a hydrofoil racing boat.”

“Not this girl.”

“I have this theory,” Pitt continued. “Adventure and excitement never fail to transform gorgeous congresswomen into mad, insatiable beasts.”

Afterward, as the sun’s morning warmth fingered the drifting boat, Loren would have been the last person on earth to dispute Pitt’s seduction theory. She noted with sensuous satisfaction that his shoulders bore her teeth and claw marks to prove it.

Loren released her hold and pushed Pitt toward the front door of the

18 VIXEN 03p>

cabin. “So much for fun and games. I’ve got a batch of correspondence to clear up before we can drive down to Denver for a shopping spree tomorrow. Why don’t you go on a nature hike or something for a few hours. Later, I’ll fix us a fattening dinner and we’ll spend another perverted evening snuggling by the fire.”