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C.J. woke up with a start, feeling damp beneath the heaviness of the comforter which someone had placed over her probably after she fell asleep.

Or after she had passed out judging by the king-sized headache she had this morning along with more than just a touch of spinning when she had first opened her eyes not to mention more than a touch of nausea. She still wore her clothes from the previous day and she had broken out in a bit of a sweat sometime during the night but then wine usually did that to her. That and when she experienced dreams like the ones that she had during the night, so vivid down to the tactile sensations of skin against skin, of honeysuckle and sandalwood intertwining with cinnamon and spice.

When she had awaken and found herself alone on the couch, she had been disoriented for a moment before she remembered the previous night. Her dreams had felt that real to her that the headiness that had filled her before she realized it was daylight had been followed by a sense of loss when reality hit her instead.

Oh no, she didn't…no she had spent her night dreaming about her best friend who no doubt was still sound asleep in his own bedroom, blissfully unaware of what had just transpired inside her own head. Her mind felt fuzzy now, her senses just returning back to the present, that she wasn't in her own bed in her own home but that she had slept on the couch in the living room of Matt's beach house.

What had happened last night, she tried to remember but the answers eluded her. They had gone to one of their favorite restaurants in Malibu. They had eaten their favorite meals and they…she anyway had drank wine…lots of wine. Just the thought of how much made her stomach feel queasy.

And they had discussed her novel…the one he didn't know she had written and…what happened after that? There were definitely some holes in her memory this morning. Wait a minute…had she…oh no…

Her face flushed when another rush of memories came back to her, when she had been…had she really thrown herself at her best friend? She vaguely remembered tossing him some really weak lines even before they had reached his house last night…Something about wanting him to join her on the couch and him, saying no that he didn't take advantage of women when they had been drinking too much.

That had been her of course at the restaurant. She couldn't remember exactly why she had been hitting glass after glass of the wine they had ordered with their dinner but it had gone down nicely and had tasted splendid. And it gave her something to do while she figured out how to avoid Matt's rather pointed if somewhat embarrassing questions. Not to mention his observations about her characters. She narrowed her eyes as she recalled some things that Matt had said about Royal…for him to take the lead…for him to be handled gently at first…for him to let Carly let think she was in charge.

Had Matt really been describing her male character or had be been…no of course not. She had to shake her head at that because it had never been like that between them and it never would be. Even if it had felt wonderful when he…he kissed her at some point didn't he?

Oh yes he did when he had given her those lovely flowers…which she saw in a vase on the table next to her, where he had carefully put them in water. Damn they looked so beautiful and it had been so nice for him to buy them for her and…her eyes began to moisten. She really had to get herself together here and think of how she was going to slip on out of here out of his hair and go off to find where she had parked her car last night.

"Well good morning…."

The timbre of the voice matched that of a certain investigator and best friend of hers and she looked at the man who wore the blue bathrobe who now stood at the end of the couch where she had been sleeping.

"Why am I…?"

The corner of his mouth quirked as he looked at her sitting there bewildered. He had been in that position a time or two himself including one time when she had taken him home to her house and he had woken up in her living room.

"You really liked the wine at dinner last night," he said, "A lot."

"Oh yeah I think I remember that."

"I brought you home because you weren't in any condition to drive," he said, "and this way you don't have to figure out a way to get from your house to Malibu to pick up your car."

She nodded at his rationale.

"That's very thoughtful of you Houston."

Damn he looked fine this morning, his hair tousled from sleep but his eyes alert and his smile quick and warm. She wouldn't mind waking up to that at all…feeling the stubble on his jaw in the mornings…then she thought she really had to park these kinds of thoughts because they weren't getting her anywhere.

"Would you like some coffee?"

She looked up at him and nodded.

"I'm making some breakfast and then we can head out to get your car."

She nodded again.

"Thanks…I'll do that and be out of your hair."

He sighed.

"You're not in it C.J. it's perfectly fine for you to be here," he said, "Nice actually."

She didn't look at him but focused on her hands instead.

"Houston…I'm sorry about last night."

She could feel his eyes on her then.

"I'm not."

He walked off into the kitchen and she just thought about last night again. Where had that come from, it's not like she had never been intoxicated before and had she thrown herself at him then? It had to be this damn novel that she had been writing that had unleashed all these strange sentiments in her that hadn't been there before…because they had always just been really good friends. But then so had Carly and Royal before they had taken their relationship further to the next level again and again until the boundaries between them that they had erected became meaningless.

After eating breakfast together, he took her to retrieve her car and it still sat in the parking lot waiting to be driven home. She held onto her flowers that he had given to her and thanked him again.

"No problem…I had a great time last night."

So did she…at least the part she could remember and she embraced him, taking in the firmness of his body and the soft scent of his aftershave.

"I'll be in the office later," she promised before getting into her car.


She had delivered on that promise after running home and showering before picking out some more appropriate business attire, which today turned out to be a pair of worn jeans and her favorite "Authors do it by the book" tee-shirt that she had won at a raffle sponsored by her writing group. She put on a light denim jacket over and headed off to the office. She wasn't attending any formal meetings or appearing in court, so if she were just going to spend the day catching up on paperwork and warding off Murray, she wanted to do so in comfort.

At least some aspirin had taken care of her hangover.

Chris just shot a look at her from her desk as she walked off the elevator. The other secretaries had rushed towards the opening doors out of habit but backed away when they realized she wasn't the boss.

"He's not in yet?"

Chris shook her head.

"He's at a meeting then he'll be coming in," she said, "Roy's in his office and Serena…"

C.J. looked dubiously towards the lounge.

"She was already in the office this morning," Chris explained, "Some guard downstairs thought she was one of the secretaries since Matt has so many of them."

Yes he did, but all of them had come to him with hard luck stories and in response, he had given them jobs. He was just that kind of guy, the most generous man she had ever known.

"Pam told me all about how she seduced him on the couch that night and everyone walked to find Matt sitting in the Jacuzzi in the altogether…wearing only his hat."

C.J. smiled at the memory having been one of those folks when she and Slim had just landed the helicopter on the roof. Serena of course hadn't been pleased to see them but Matt had just ducked his head beneath the swirling waters, already embarrassed over what too much hard liquor had pushed him to do the previous night.

"How was last night?"

C.J. sighed, thinking about to define it in just a few carefully chosen words.

"We had fun, the food was great and I spent the night on his couch."

Chris looked at her quizzically.

"Long story…The wine was fantastic and Houston, he couldn't get his mind off of that novel."

Chris shrugged.

"You can't blame him for that," she said, "He was trying hard to find the author in the beginning. Tried to recruit us to help him and then he just stopped."

"Well he wouldn't stop talking about it last night," C.J. said, "He even tried to give me advice on how to write the male lead."

"You mean Royal," Chris asked, "That's only natural seen as how it's based on him."

C.J. sighed, why did everyone think that? Royal was a fictional creation who existed only inside the imaginative side of her head.

She heard something break from the other end of the suite.

"That must be Serena…I'll be right back."

C.J. sauntered into the lounge and saw Serena standing there with one of Roy's prized Faberge eggs in her hand.

"Don't you dare…."

Serena gazed over at C.J. with the kind of contempt that one reserved for bugs perhaps that just existed to be stepped on. She had never liked Serena…not at all considering her a hideously tempered, terribly spoiled heiress who would have killed her own father if someone else hadn't beaten her to it. Just to get her hands on his multi-billion dollar fortune. Serena just reminded her of that clique of girls in high school who had tried to make her life miserable because she had been more of a bookworm than a party girl and because she had attracted the attention of the school's top jock.

Not that she wanted to remember very much about high school because she had opted to just pack those memories away along with her yearbooks but the pouting woman in front of her would have fit nicely in that crowd.

Serena just kept looking at her but at least she stopped throwing things. Seriously you just had to treat Daddy's little princess like she were a toddler having a meltdown.

"I said put that down," C.J. ordered, "Don't make me order you out of the suite."

Serena just scoffed at her.

"You poor little thing…you're just jealous because mi amore prefers a woman like me over a commoner like yourself…"

No, that had nothing to do with C.J.'s intense dislike for the brat in front of her dressed in a custom designed suit and wearing a smug expression.

"Serena…just leave before this commoner forgets her manners and forces you to do so."

Serena just looked even smugger, folding her arms.

"You can't do that…I have an appointment with him…he must see me…where is he?"

"He's out conducting business," C.J. said, "He'll be back soon and you better be gone."

Serena didn't budge her expression even more haughty.

"No one, let alone a shrimp like you is going to make me leave before I see him."

"Put the Faberge egg down…now…"

Serena glared at her but this time she replaced the fragile object back on the shelf. Gently in fact, before she went and sat on the couch, staking out her territory. C.J. just looked at her and headed towards Roy's office.

Inside, he had been on the computer running a list of some items that had shown up at a recent art auction. A client had hired the investigative firm to track down a missing Van Gogh and Roy had methodically checked out the list of auctions that had taken place all over the western part of the United States in the weeks afterward but hadn't struck any hits. Right now, she knew that he would settle for uncovering any clues of where to look next.

"Serena broke some things," she told him, "but I made her put your Faberge egg back."

He nodded.

"She's been quite upset all morning," he said, "but then that's not unusual for her."

"She's waiting for Houston to arrive," she said, "I don't think he's expecting her."

Roy sighed.

"I don't think Serena's ever done what's expected of her…which I think is a major part of her problem."

He nodded.

"You're right…she's a product of poor parenting, an absent mother and an overindulging father."

C.J. figured that Roy had pegged her just about right.

"I could call the police again…"

Roy shook his head.

"Matt needs to handle his own complicated social roster…it shouldn't be put on you."

She shrugged.

"I don't feel put upon," she said, "I just want her out of the suite before she decides to throw another tantrum and starts in on the Ming vase collection."

As she said that, she had been reminded once again that Matt had shared a few memorable kisses with the heiress and had slept with her at least once at the office. If his relationship had gone any deeper than that, she really didn't care to know about it. Because then she would once again be reminded that her best friend always seemed to be drawn towards beautifully, temperamental women who were usually demanding on his spare time and very high maintenance. Women who could dress up like ornaments to be displayed on his arm, who always did and said the right thing and who could obviously keep him very happy in the bedroom at least for a little while. None of them not even the relationships that had resulted in engagements had lasted very long. When it came to romantic relationships, Matt appeared to be like a candle that burned on both ends, twice as bright but burning only half as long.

She hadn't injected that same quality into Royal…the man who wasn't supposed to be modeled after Matt because she had written about 275 pages so far and he still had the hots for his own best friend and business partner and she…well she still believed that he lit her fire as well.

"C.J. is anything wrong?"

She just looked at Matt's uncle and shook her head.

"No…except for the diva once again showing up out of the woodwork, everything's just fine."

And with that, she turned and walked out of Roy's office leaving him shaking his head in bemusement. Then he picked up several pages of her novel that had made their way to his office and started reading them.


Matt tooled down the Wilshire Blvd in his favorite Porsche, the one that he had flown in his favorite mechanic Slim in to recharge before he drove it in the charity road rally at the Fontana Raceway not too long ago. And after she had finished fixing up his car in nothing flat, he had apologized for interrupting her wedding planning and offered his daddy's Houston estate to host the wedding and his favorite yacht for her honeymoon with the Indy car driver that she had met at a party after the Indy 500.

He got stuck in the traffic snarl as the traffic approached the downtown area and while he sat waiting for it to clear, he pulled out the newest pages of C.J.'s novel that he had been faxed to his house by some mysterious party. No identifying information had been on the documents when he found them there.

He had earnestly hoped that he might finally find out what happened after Carly had gone off crying into the tack room after her fight with Royal but…what he saw instead was just as interesting.

The candles that she had lit for him glowed in the darkness, casting off tiny halos of lamination surrounding the claw footed tub inside the cabin as she dipped the sponge into the warm water and squeezed it over his chest where little droplets clung to the patches of hair, glistening in the candlelight. He sighed with his eyes closed as she began to caress his body gently with the sponge…

Wow…he thought. At some point, somehow Carly had roped her man into joining her in a bath for two while a thunderstorm raged outside the window. Matt put aside all thoughts that it might not be all that wise to be sitting in any body of water while lightning tore through the night sky a mile or so away but he dropped that thought quickly as the tactile sensations the prose elicited seized control and kicked his more logical side to the curb.

He knew that C.J. had a gentle touch to her, from all the times her hands had been on him patching him up after he had been injured on the job, usually while he sat there complaining about her torturing him with her ministrations. What had he been thinking, if all he had really done was complain about it, then he really didn't have the sense that God gave a mule. Even while he carried on about being treated like a piece of meat while she applied medicine all over his upper body, she cajoled him lightly but ignored his protests beyond that. He wondered how many times he had treated her like that or taken her for granted when she had silently tended to him without any complaint.

But seriously he had never known or even thought to care whether C.J. preferred long warm soaks in bathtubs surrounded by candles…he hadn't even known she was into candles. Then again, he didn't know that about himself before he had picked up the latest installment and started reading it.

The traffic started to inch forward again and Matt put the papers down on the seat beside him. His mind returning to what he had just been reading. Royal certainly didn't seem to mind the attention that Carly had been giving him, in fact he appeared to have been enjoying it very much.

The traffic stopped again and he continued reading, and once again the world began to fade around him.