Excerpt of The Summit by Kat Martin

"All right, girlfriend--you are dating the hunk! You have got to tell all!"

Autumn and Terri perched on stools at a tall round table in their usual spot at the back of O'Shaunessy's. It was Tuesday, six o'clock. Terri had just gotten off of work, as had most of the patrons chatting noisily in the pub.

"We aren't dating," Autumn told her. "We're working together to find his daughter."

"But you said you went out with him Saturday night. The man took you to the Olympic Hotel, forgodsake."

Autumn had mentioned the evening with Ben, told her friend that she had had agreed to give Ben time to get to know her, hopefully come to trust her and it seemed to have worked.

She hadn't told Terri that Ben had spent the night. Her friend would never believe that nothing had happened...well, almost nothing. There was, after all, that mind-shattering kiss.

"You're blushing. Oh, my God--what happened after the benefit? Don't tell me you slept with him!"

"Don't be ridiculous. You know why Ben and I are spending time together. It was your idea for me to talk to him in the first place."

Terri eyed her shrewdly. "You'd tell me, wouldn't you--if you had s-e-x with him?"

"No. But I didn't. All he did was kiss me good night." There, it was out in the open. She hated to lie to her best friend.

Terri's blue eyes widened. "Well, come on--what was it like? A long, slow, dreamy, kiss, or a hot, burning, tongue-sucking orgy of a kiss?"

The color deepened in Autumn's cheeks. "It was just a kiss, that's all. Nothing out of the ordinary." You liar! It was the hottest, wettest, sexiest kiss you've ever had and you will probably never forget it. "Ben isn't my type and in case you haven't read the society pages lately, I am definitely not his. But right now we need each other. There's a chance his daughter is alive and if she is we need to find her."

"You're getting pretty involved in this," Terri said.

"I know I am. But I think Molly's reaching out to me. I can't turn my back on her. Besides, it wouldn’t be fair to Ben. I dragged him into this. You can't imagine how painful this whole thing is for him. I'm not about to abandon him now."

Terri swirled the swizzle stick through the Cosmo she was drinking. "Just be careful. I have read the papers and we both know the guy is a heartbreaker. You can tell that much just by looking at him."

It was true and something Autumn didn't intend to forget.

Across the table, Terri glanced up as a lanky, familiar figure walked through the front door of the bar. "Look, here comes Josh." Her blue eyes rounded. "Oh, my God, the hunk is with him."

Autumn's head jerked toward the men crossing the bar in their direction, one of whom was Ben. "For heaven's sake, stop calling him that," she whispered to Terri.

Josh smiled as they reached the table. "Hey, Autumn...Terri."

"Hi, Josh," Autumn said. Terri smiled briefly at Josh then her predatory gaze fixed on Ben and a lump of ice settled in Autumn's stomach. She worked to keep the smile on her face. "Ben, this is my friend, Terri Markham."

"Nice to meet you, Terri," Ben said casually.

"You, too," said Terri and to Autumn's utter amazement, she didn't ooze a single drop of her abundant female charm in Ben's direction.

"I tried to call you on your cell," Ben said, "but you didn't pick up. Then I saw Josh coming out of the gym as I was leaving the office. He thought you might be down here with Terri."

Autumn dug into her purse and pulled out her cell phone. "It's so loud in here I guess I didn't hear it ring." She stuck the phone back into her bag, suddenly realizing that if Ben was looking for her, it must have something to do with Molly.

"What is it? Did you find out something?"

He caught her elbow, urging her up off the stool. "Excuse us a minute, will you?"

"Sure," said Josh, who looked over at Terri as if he had just received a gift.

Ben led Autumn out the front door and a little ways down the block. She hadn't realized he was carrying something in his hand until he held out a rolled-up piece of paper.

"My guys got this for me. Take a look and see what you think."

Autumn carefully unrolled the paper. For several long moments, she just stared. It was the computer-aged photo of Molly. "It looks like her, I mean the way she is now, but..."

"But what?"

"But in my dream, her hair's longer, almost to her waist, and her lips don't seem as full, or maybe it's just that in the dream she isn't smiling, the way she is here." She studied the photo. "And there's something different about her eyes... In my dream, they don't seem as sparkly as they look here."

"She was happy the day the photo was taken. Joanne had bought her a pretty new dress and she was excited to have her picture taken in it."

There was something in his tone that made her look up at him. There was an odd glitter in his eyes and she saw that his jaw looked tight.

"You say she looks different," he said, "but this is the girl in your dreams. You still think it's Molly."

"It's her, Ben."

*****

His gaze locked with hers. "You were with me yesterday morning. Did you dream about Molly last night?"

She moistened her lips, a little intimidated by that iron-hard stare. "Yes."

"Did you notice anything new, anything different?"

"It was a long day and I was tired. The dream was kind of fuzzy."

"I want to stay at your house again tonight. If you dream, I want to be there when you wake up." When she opened her mouth to argue, he held up his hand. "It helped the last time. I want to try it again."

Autumn shook her head. "We can't do that, Ben."

He knew she was thinking about the kiss and the edge of his mouth faintly curved. "I promise I won't attack you. I won't even kiss you goodnight...not unless you want me to."

She fought not to tremble. A memory of his mouth moving over hers sent a curl of heat into her belly. Of course she wanted him to kiss her--at least the insane part of her that still thought of s- e-x craved it like a flower craved rain. The rational part of her pea-sized brain was terrified that it would happen.

"I'm not your type, Ben. You know it and so do I. And frankly, you're not my type either."

Ben looked amused. "I didn't know you had a type. The few guys you've dated all seemed pretty different."

Her hackles went up. Was there anything about her private life he hadn't read in his damnable report? "Who I date is none of your business and you can bet that any man I might be interested in would not be one who specializes in cover models and one-night stands."

"Wait a minute! First--you're just as beautiful as any of the women I've dated, whether you see yourself that way or not, and second--I don't specialize in one-night stands."

"Just women who aren't interested in anything remotely resembling a relationship."

"Are you saying you are interested?"

She bit her lip. The last thing she wanted was to get involved with a man and especially not a heartbreaker like Ben. "No, but--"

"I want to stay the night. No strings, no s-e-x, strictly business. You talked me into looking for Molly. Now I'm committed to doing everything in my power to find her. I thought that's the way you felt, too."

"I do, I just..." She took a deep breath. Ben was a man who rarely took no for an answer. It was the reason he was so successful in business--and with women. In this case, he also had right on his side. Molly was his daughter and he would do anything to find her. Autumn could hardly fault him for that.

Still, she was already on dangerously thin ice where Ben was concerned. She would have to be extremely careful.

She released the breath she hadn't realized she had been holding. "All right, you win. But bring something to sleep in this time."

He grinned. "I sleep naked. In deference to you, I left on my boxers last time."

Her face heated up. "I'm trying to forget."

He reached out and touched her cheek. "Are you? Because I'm trying like hell to forget how sexy you looked in that ridiculous over-sized t-shirt. So far it hasn't worked."

Autumn's jaw dropped. "You're scaring me, Ben."

"Yeah, well, you're scaring me, too. Let's just keep focused on Molly.