He glanced toward her window and she stepped back so quickly she almost fell over. “If you want full disclosure, Theresa, I’m not sure if I’m on the market or not. That’s what I’m here to find out. No more questions.”
She peered out the window again in time to see him nod at Brady, who crossed his arms and stood in front of the door, acting as a human barricade while Stephen disappeared inside.
“Shit.” She looked around her apartment. Boxes everywhere. Tape and cartons of takeout and boxes.
She knew she didn’t look much better. Her hair was a mess, she was in her oldest t-shirt and shorts, and anxiety about those pictures hadn’t given her much opportunity for beauty sleep.
He’d come to see her in front of those reporters. Basically admitted that they were in a relationship, without apology or explanation.
And the world was still turning.
It wasn’t. It was spinning. So fast she was dizzy and scared and wanted to cling to the ground so she wouldn’t be thrown into space.
He knocked on her door. “Are you going to open up this time, Natasha, or will you let your neighbor call the police to haul me away in front of all these reporters?”
She opened the door and took several steps back.
He looked good. He always did. Senator Stephen Finn in his wrinkle-free suit, with his perfect hair and his made-for-television good looks.
She’d missed him more than she’d thought possible.
He closed and locked the door behind him, watching her as he reached up to loosen his tie.
“Congratulations,” she offered, when she couldn’t take the silence. “On Burke.”
“It’s time, Natasha.” He tugged the tie through the collar of his shirt and dropped it on the floor.
“For what?” She took another step back. “How’s your father?”
“He’s fine, which you know because you talked to him yesterday. It’s time for that serious talk we were going to have, right before the FBI asked me to start sucking up to Burke.” He took one step closer, unbuttoning his shirt slowly. Methodically. “That’s why, you know.”
“Why what?”
“Why we didn’t talk sooner. You never asked. You just assumed that I changed my mind after it blew over, didn’t you? That or I was never serious to begin with.”
Tasha swallowed. “No, I just—you came here to diffuse this, I know. The blog frenzy. Thank you. I have no idea who did it but—”
“Of course you don’t.” He shook his head, reaching the last button and slipping off his shirt along with his suit jacket. “Because I didn’t tell you.”
“You know?”
“Do you want a written confession?”
She crossed her arms, stepping back until she scraped her heel on the corner of a cardboard box. “Ow! Damn it, Stephen, are you actually trying to say you posted that?”
“I had help.”
“That doesn’t make any sense. Why would you do something like this?”
“I spent the first month after you disappeared from Burke’s house feeling sorry for myself and learning to loathe hangovers. If I ever take a drink again, remind me to tell you about being found under my desk by one of my volunteers. She’s never going to forget it, or get that stain out of her Finn Fighter shirt.”
Oh dear.
His smile at her expression was self-effacing. “Then these last few weeks, I’ve been surrounded by federal agents who are physically incapable of cracking a smile. Those people make me look impulsive and sloppy.”
“Were they there because of—”
“But more interestingly,” he interrupted her again, making her frown. “Do you know how Brady and his new pal Ken Tanaka have spent the last two months?”
She shook her head. “No idea. I’d guess it wasn’t teaching you about letting people finish their sentences.”
“They pooled their not inconsiderable talents and set about resolving the problem. The FBI spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on manpower and resources to go after Burke, and those two did it with a computer and some shady contacts I’ll never ask them about in half the time. Of course, the feds will take credit, since Tanaka was on their payroll. But I understand my cousin’s connections provided some vital intel. I owe him another apology.”
She frowned. “I don’t understand.”
He sighed and used his toes to push off his shoes, stepping out of them and closer to her. “They did this. Made it possible. They dismantled Burke and took away everything he had on me in the process. Tanaka turned off the surveillance equipment at the party—”
“I know.”
“What you didn’t know was that later that evening, he placed a device of his own design into Burke’s office. Realizing it was the only place the man didn’t have wired, he rightly concluded he would feel free to say something incriminating.” He paused, studying her. “Which he did with you the next day.”
Ken had bugged the office? That meant the FBI had heard everything. “Why did it take so long to arrest him?”