Kate Hoffmann - Brian

"And Liam saved Ellie from a burglar. I saved Lily from a boring evening. It's just not the same."

"But you kind of wish it was, don't you?" Sean asked, raising his eyebrow.

"Right now, Lily and I can't be in the same room without finding something to disagree about. I don't know how the hell that's supposed to lead to eternal love and marriage."

"There must have been something that you liked about her."

"We had very hot sex in the back of a limo. That's a nice little fantasy fulfilled for any guy. And then she told me she never wanted to see me again. Most guys would love that. But I wanted to see her again. I still do."

"Eat some pizza and drink some beer," Sean said. "You'll feel much better. Maybe after we're done we'll head down to the pub and see if we can find you a woman."

Brian nodded. But he didn't want just any woman. The only woman he really wanted was Lily. And though he'd had her once, it just wasn't enough.

Lily slammed the newspaper down on the conference room table and glared at the four people gathered around it. "Who leaked this?"

The four suspects-Derrick, Margaret, John and Allison-all looked at her as if she'd just asked who among them had been born on Pluto.

"One of you must have leaked it." Lily picked up the Boston Herald and waved it in the air. "Page twelve. There are two columns on Brian Quinn in here. Everything in the P.I.'s report is in the article. It's like they had a copy of it. I thought I told you I would decide when to use that information."

"I didn't leak it," Derrick said. He looked at Margaret, his gaze accusatory.

Margaret shook her head. "Me, neither. You took our copy of the report."

"You didn't make any other copies?" Lily asked.

"It just came in day before yesterday," John said. "We barely had time to read it."

"Mr. Patterson had a copy," Allison offered with a weak smile. "He sometimes likes to take things into his own hands."

Lily drew a deep breath and tried to calm herself. She hated to let her temper get the best of her at work. But this was a major mistake. "All right. I'll take care of this. Get back to work. And no contact with the press unless you clear it with me, understand?" She tucked the newspaper under her arm and walked out of the conference room, heading directly for Richard Patterson's office, one story above. When she got to Mrs. Wilburn's desk, she didn't bother stopping. "Is he in?"

"Miss Gallagher, you can't just-"

"Is he in?" Lily asked. "If he is, tell him I need to see him. Immediately."

Mrs. Wilburn snatched up the phone arid whispered something into it, then nodded to Lily. "He can see you now."

Lily knew she should have taken some time to cool down, to figure out why she was really angry. Was she upset because her orders had been ignored? Or was it because she knew that the article would hurt Brian Quinn? She'd made it perfectly clear to Richard Patterson that she was the one who would handle media relations. And trashing Brian Quinn in the press was her call, not his.

"Lily!" Richard cried as she stepped inside the office. "Did you see the Herald?"

"I did," Lily said.

"I would have loved to see it closer to the front page, but page twelve is pretty good. This has got to hurt him."

Lily calmed herself before she spoke. It wouldn't do to shout at him or throw a tantrum. "When I spoke to you last, we made an agreement. I asked you not to interfere, to let me handle things for you and in return I would help you with your little… problem."

Patterson held up in hands in mock innocence. "Hey, I just mentioned what I knew to a friend of mine and he must have gone to the Herald."

"Don't give me excuses," Lily said. "I know what you did. You made a copy of that report and you gave it to a friend who turned it over to someone at the Herald."

Patterson seemed surprised by her insight-and by her apparent lack of respect for his position. But Lily didn't care. Hell, maybe he'd fire her and solve all her problems. Though the job meant big money to DeLay Scoville, if Patterson fired her, she could go back to Chicago without having to admit failure. She could blame everything on a difficult client. "And don't threaten to fire me," Lily added, "because I'll quit before you get a chance."

"Why are you angry? This gives us an advantage."

"If we were going to use this, and I'm not saying we would have, it could have been made public to counteract any report he made. Now, if he airs something damaging to us, I have nothing to use. This is the whole story and in a few days, it's going to be forgotten. They'll have moved on to something new and we'll have nothing."

"I don't think this is nearly as serious as you're making it out to be," Richard said, clearly aware of his mistake now. "So I call the investigator and he digs up more dirt."

"And what if they trace this story back to you?"

"They won't."

"They could. And then, we're going to have to explain why you orchestrated this little personal vendetta against a popular news reporter. It's going to look like retribution and that makes us look petty and vindictive."

Richard sat back down, his jaw tense. "Then do something about it," he muttered angrily. "Just fix it. That's what I hired you for, isn't it?"

Lily nodded, then walked out of the office. She went directly to her own office, grabbed her purse and strode to Marie's desk. "Cancel my appointments for this afternoon," she said. "I'll call in for messages."

"Where are you going?" Marie asked.

"I have to do some damage control."

Lily knew what she had to do and dreaded the prospect. Every time she thought she'd seen the last of Brian Quinn, they got thrown together once again. Maybe, deep inside, she was glad Patterson had leaked the story. Maybe, subconsciously, she wanted to see Brian one last time.

As she rode the elevator down to the lobby, Lily wondered how he had reacted to the article. Had he been angry… or upset? There was no doubt that he was blaming her. She could deal with his anger, but Lily hadn't wanted to hurt him. He was a good man who'd done nothing more than his job. He didn't deserve to have his reputation tainted by his past.

When she got out on the street, she hailed a cab and hopped inside. "WBTN, the television station. It's on Congress. I'm not sure-"

"I know where it is," the driver said. He pulled into traffic and floored the accelerator. Lily held on, trying to focus on what she was going to say once she faced him. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea, she mused. After all, she didn't owe Brian any apologies. Wasn't he the one who said there weren't any rules?

Maybe this was all just an excuse to see him again. Lily couldn't deny that she'd been thinking about him. And not just random thoughts. Instead, she'd indulged in very vivid fantasies that involved a general lack of both clothing and inhibitions.

It was almost as if she'd fallen victim to an addiction, unable to deny herself, yet aware that indulging would become more dangerous over time. She needed his touch, needed to taste his mouth and to run her hands over his body. Being with Brian made her feel wicked and sensual and more alive than she'd ever felt with a man before. And though every instinct warned her off, she was like a moth to the flame.

She tried to brush the fantasies from her mind, but they kept returning, making her heart pound a little faster and her blood warm. When the cab finally screeched to a stop in front of the station, Lily was ready to tell the cabbie to turn around and take her back to her office. But instead, she paid him, then slowly strolled to the front doors of the television studio.

The spacious lobby was full of glass and chrome. A receptionist sat at a circular desk in the middle, a bank of television monitors above her head. Lily pasted a smile on her face. "I need to see Brian Quinn. Is he in?"