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As they drove towards the marina in his Mustang, she kept her focus outside the window as the objects outside the window flew on past them. She had been waiting outside the front entrance of Houston Inc. when he pulled up in front of her in one of his favorite cars. She hadn't said anything but had raised a brow at him before stepping inside it to sit next to him.

Okay, it was only natural that a man like him who was all cowboy would be drawn to a car named after his favorite creature and she knew that the words horse power had more than one meaning to Matt. Still, she didn't quite know why he had picked this car out for the stakeout and she didn't feel like asking.

Not that she had to because he appeared to read her mind.

"It will fit in better than the Porsche or the Mercedes," he explained, "We do want to blend in with the scenery here."

Yes, that had always been the tantamount rule behind every surveillance operation, so they wouldn't be seen by their quarry. C.J never had any problem with that part of the job but what she didn't understand was his assistance that they pretend to well, be parking while they were parked. Still, she enjoyed stakeouts and had missed not doing them for a while since Matt had been teamed with his uncle, Roy on most of them. She didn't mind the hours spent shooting the breeze with her best friend while they kept an eye on whatever it was that needed watching. And if there was a nice eatery nearby that sold delicious takeout, so much the better which was definitely the case with the marina. Just a hundred feet from where they would be parking stood a kiosk that sold tasty fish and chips. She could sit inside a car with comfortable seats all day feasting on them while keeping an eye out for any changes in the scenery. She just glanced over at where he sat attired in his comfortable jeans and Rice University shirt thinking he just looked too damn good right now.

"That makes sense Houston but if the marina is quiet, then won't we be noticed?"

He smiled over at her.

"That's why I picked the cover that I did," he said, "We're just going to be a man and a woman spending our rather late lunch break together, doing other things beside eating lunch."

She sighed, running her hand through her hair as he watched. There were some obvious problems here she noted, like what would happen if they were too busy acting out their cover, they took their eyes off of their mark for too long or even worse, a police officer showed up and lectured them on the laws of public indecency. Roy would get quite a chuckle out of that if he had to go down to the police station to bail them out of jail.

He figured she might give him some resistance to his choice of covers but figured she didn't need much convincing. Just a string of well chosen words to convince her that this was what was needed to get this operation done.

But as it turned out, she wanted an entire back story.

"Okay so are we married then, and if so are we married to each other?"

He looked at her puzzled.

"What?"

She rolled her eyes at his befuddlement.

"I just want to know if I'm a wife stealing a few moments with my husband," she said, "or if I'm cheating on my husband with you."

"Why does it matter, if we're just going to be carrying on to keep anyone from suspecting our true purpose here?"

She looked at him impatiently.

"Houston, you know as well as I do that the key to a good cover is to truly believe in the role that you're playing and that means knowing the back story."

Matt turned off of the street into the parking lot of the marina and navigated his way through to find a spot to park which would give them a perfect vantage point of their client's yacht.

"I know that C.J. but what's also important for a good cover is to not make it too complicated."

She rolled her eyes at him while he parked underneath a tree.

"What's so complicated about knowing whether or not I have a husband and if I'm cheating on him," she said, "although if I were going to break that commandment I would think I'd have better sense than to do so in a public place."

"What the…"

"I mean aren't there motels for this kind of thing?"

"C.J…how do you…"

She turned to look at him.

"Oh come on Houston, we've both seen the darker sides of human nature since we've decided to do this line of work. It's not like I'd ever done it, which makes one of us."

Ouch, okay that hurt, he thought, not that it wasn't true. In his younger days, he had more than a few husbands come after him but for the most part it had been over some harmless flirtation.

"That's not fair C.J."

She sighed again.

"Okay I'm sorry but I just think it's good if we discuss the parameters before the stakeout begins, you know establish some rules."

He couldn't argue with that nor did he want to get into it with her because after all, she had spent seven years including three in the Ivy Leagues learning how to be a good arguer. But then again, the spark in her eyes and the slight flush in her cheeks, maybe it would be worthwhile to rile her up just a little bit and watch what happened.

"What rules…we don't need them…we're just going to sit here and keep an eye on the boat and if we need to…just engage in a little affectionate interplay."

She just looked at him, her brows furrowed.

"Houston, did I just hear you right?"

He smiled and leaned back in his seat, the leather squeaking beneath him.

"Of course you did," he said, "It's all part of blending in with the scenery so we don't attract too much attention."

She looked at him, and that carefree smile on his face that crept over his face. She just thought the whole situation more than a little odd. Because they had done many stakeouts together over the past several years they had been in business and not once had they chosen this cover.

"But…"

He held up his hand.

"Wait a minute; I think I see something moving on the boat…"

She peered over at the nice looking yacht with the blue trim but didn't see anyone.

"I think it's just something hanging from the rail," she said, "so we were saying…"

"How important it is to blend in with the scenery…"

She snorted at him.

"Houston, if I didn't know you any better…"

He just folded his arms.

"I can't hear you since you're sitting all the way over there…you're going to have to come a little closer."

She mirrored him with her own arms.

"I don't think so," she said, "I can hear you perfectly fine here if you don't lower your voice."

She thought he might look a little chagrined at that point but he just shrugged a bit and got his binoculars to look out the window towards the boat.

"See anything?"

He shook his head and put them down on his lap.

"It's pretty quiet over there," he said, "I don't know if anything's going to happen. We might need to come out here more than once."

"Well that might really have the tongues wagging," she said, "Unless we come up with a better cover."

He reached into his bag for a soda and tossed her one which she took gratefully.

"Better than two people hanging out together trying to escape the rest of the world and pretend it doesn't exist for a little while?"

She sipped her cola thoughtfully.

"That's not what we're doing," she said, "That's what we're pretending to be and there's a difference."

He couldn't deny that was the case but hadn't that been what she had been doing when she took up this hobby of novel writing? Trying to create an alternative world for herself when she, through Carly could explore a relationship with Royal who clearly was a stand in for him. A side of her he had clearly never seen until now. Speaking of which…

He picked up some papers he kept under his seat and started looking through them, which naturally as he had hoped aroused her curiosity.

"What do you have there," she asked.

He smiled and started thumbing through them.

"Pages of that novel written by the mysterious Pearl Starr," he said, "She's got quite an imagination."

C.J. looked distracted.

"I guess so…"

He eyed her carefully, as he caught what she said, she didn't sound nearly as disinterested as she thought she did.

"This chapter showed up on the printer this morning…"

That caught C.J.'s attention, how had that happened? She knew that she hadn't been sending copies of her chapters to the printer but if she hadn't been doing so, then who had done that? She tried to think about who had access to her novel but drew a blank. Only people in her writing group and Chris…but none of them would be forwarding them on, would they and if so why? She almost asked Matt if there had been any identifying information on the copies he had found but then she remembered he wasn't supposed to know who had been writing it. She bit her tongue instead, watching as he carefully scanned the first several pages of prose.

Then she saw him frown.

"It's taking him three pages just to try to undo that blouse she's wearing with all those tiny buttons," he said, "He's either very patient or very slow."

She raised her brows and he took it as an invitation to continue.

"They're very tiny buttons too," he noted, "Difficult for his hands to maneuver…but patient or slow…he's not making any headway."

"Houston, he's neither really, it's just written that way to draw out the tension between them…I'm just guessing of course."

He shook his head.

"I don't know why he bothers," he said, "It's got that elastic in it so he could just work his hands up where it fits over her body and pull it over her head if she helps him out…"

C.J.'s mouth went dry so she reached for her soda. That had put way too many visions inside her head that didn't belong there certainly not right now. The last thing she needed was to imagine his hands running over her trying to remove her clothing…wait a minute where had that come from? They were supposed to be focusing on the boat in front of them.

"You have a blouse just like that don't you?"

That startled her.

"I….what does it matter if I do or not?"

He smiled in that way that told her he was trying to disarm her.

"No reason…It makes no sense, if he's wanting her so bad, why's he wasting his time undoing those damn buttons and why is she just sitting there not helping him?"

C.J. just shrugged, playing innocent.

"Maybe she's busy enough trying to get his shirt off Houston…"

He read further and then glanced up at her.

"You're right…I hadn't gotten that far," he said, "Still…when a man really wants a woman, he doesn't sit around fiddling with all those buttons…why did she wear it when she knew dam well what they were going to do after they got home from that party?"

C.J. sighed. That was a fair enough question considering what Royal and Carly had spent most of the novel doing so far. But she really didn't feel like discussing the finer points of the love scenes in her novel right now and why was he so interested anyway considering she hadn't mentioned anything about horses in 20 pages.

He looked at her for an answer a little too intently for her comfort almost as if he…no he couldn't possibly know the truth but she needed to play along anyway.

"I don't know Houston…maybe she just wanted him to slow the pace down a bit," she said, "Sometimes that's what a woman wants…as you should know from your wealth of experience."

Which of course he did, but he loved seeing the color in her face right now, flushed a nice shade of rosy pink, in contrast to her tanned skin.

"I do…but if she wants him to slow it down, there are other ways to tell Royal."

Oh C.J. felt so sure that he knew all about those ways because face it, he had built quite a reputation for himself with the ladies and when she interrupted him saying goodbye to one of his girlfriends at the office, they all left with a smile.

Except for Serena that last time but she was an anomaly in so many different ways.

"Okay…I will…I'm sure the author's keeping that in mind," she said, "It's just a fictional story after all, not based on real life."

"She really should be wearing that nice blue dress, the one with the thin little straps…"

"Oh you mean spaghetti straps," she said, "I'm not sure she has one of those in her closet."

He nodded, continuing onward.

"Much easier for her to slip out of than a shirt with hundreds of buttons…"

Oh, it was getting a little bit warm in here, she thought.

"Houston, it's not that many buttons."

He looked up at her again, and her face had gone one shade behind the rosy pink that it had been a moment ago, and he knew that she had just realized who had the dress that he had just described. He had loved how it had shaped her body so nicely when she wore it at the charity gala at the L.A. Country Club a month ago. A nice shade of royal blue against her creamy skin, and accentuating her toned arms from spending some time at the gym at the office.

"Plus it has a zipper in the back doesn't it," he said, "You think Carly would have realized what a useful invention that is for dressing up…much more utilitarian than buttons. "

C.J. rolled her eyes at him, knowing he was just trying to get a rise out of her right now.

"Houston…I think I see some movement by the boat…"

He looked out the window and then looked back at her and she just shrugged at him.

"It must have been the sunlight…"

Hours later, they had still been sitting inside the Mustang while the sun began to sink towards the horizon of the ocean. He had gotten out to get them some of that tasty takeout and had brought it back to the car. C.J. had been ravenous at that point and had eaten most of it, licking her fingers when she had finished.

Matt had still been focused on that damn novel. Royal had finally navigated his way through the buttons but not long after that Lamont the ranch hand had rushed where he had been with Carly and had told him the barn had caught fire. He had shaken his head at that plot development realizing just how much C.J. had been putting her characters through the ringer. In between passionate interludes of course.

C.J. had called up Sophia from her writing club to tell her that she might be running late to the meeting tonight. The older woman had expressed some disappointment saying she had been looking forward to hearing C.J. read the latest chapter of her book.

"I'll try to make it but I'm a bit tied up right now."

Sophia chuckled.

"Who's got you tied up?"

C.J. sighed.

"Not like that…I'm on a stakeout right now with my business partner."

"Ah…that one you work with, the eccentric millionaire who walked away from his company to go play cops and robbers."

"That's not quite how it happened," C.J. said, "We're both putting time into the investigative firm, on the cases we've been getting. It's been really busy."

"I've seen pictures of him," Sophia noted, "He's really what do you youngsters call it a hunk?"

"He's very handsome but it's not like that between us…we're just friends."

Sophia harrumphed.

"Bull crap, that's just another way of saying that you're not taking matters into your own hands and letting him get away."

"What did you just say?"

"You heard me," Sophia said, "You've been bringing our group this novel with two characters who spend most of it scorching the sheets and don't tell me that Royal's not your business partner."

"He's…"

"No, when I was a young sprig I did just what you did, I sat around writing inane romances about the guy next door who I pined for and kept my more salacious feelings to myself…All this time went by and he never knew the truth…until it was too late…he died in the war."

"I'm sorry…but that's not me and Houston…Royal's a fictitious character until it was too late…he died in the war."

"I'm sorry…but that's not me and Houston…Royal's a fictitious character not based on anyone in real life. How many times do I have to keep telling people that?"

"Keep telling people what C.J.?"

She looked over to where Matt had stopped reading the novel and had been watching her…had he been listening?

"Houston, I'm on the phone…Sophia like I said, sometimes a novel is just a novel."

"Oh horse pucks," Sophia said, "You know if you need some advice on how to rope that cowboy of yours, I'm willing to help you out?"

"Help me out," C.J. said, "I don't need help."

Sophia seemed to disagree rather strongly judging by the clucking sound she made.

"I can see I'll have my work cut out for me with you," she said, "Now listen I have bingo later tonight and lawn bowling tomorrow but after lunch I'll be free."

"What…."

Sophia just continued on as if C.J. hadn't been protesting.

"We'll have to start out with something simple," she said, "Say I have some mail order catalogs we can look through to find some helpful aids…"

C.J. just sighed deeply and Matt noticed that her face had flushed again. Whoever she had on the phone must be quite stimulating, he thought.

"C.J. listen…"

"In a minute Houston…"

One crisis at a time, C.J. thought as she still had Sophia on the phone rambling about some items with exotic names.

"I've got to go now to get ready for the group tonight," Sophia said, "but let's get together for some lunch tomorrow…at the Farmer's Market…there's a lovely little café there and we can talk some more about your…problem."

Problem what problem, C.J thought, why did everyone think she had a problem? All she had done was to put her creative energies to good use and start doing some writing of her novel and if it pleased her to exercise her more imaginative side, then why couldn't those around her support that? But then that led to the question of why she hadn't told Matt about her latest hobby and she really didn't want to go there right now. She just knew if he found out…he'd treat it and her as one big joke like the time he had kissed her after Rupert won the frog jumping contest.

"C.J…"

She just sighed as she mumbled something about meeting Sophia for lunch and clicked off her phone, putting it back in her purse with a sigh of relief.

"What is it Houston?"

But the seat beside her was now empty.

Matt had left the car because he thought he had seen some suspicious activity around the boat but upon further examination, he had seen that it had been a small dog wandering around the moored boats. He had headed back to the car and saw that she had gotten off the phone. The conversation obviously had worked her up more than a little bit and he wondered who had been on the other end. But he had caught enough words in passing that it had to do with her novel, the one which she penned under a pen name of a childhood heroine.

He had been relieved to leave the Mustang actually to get some fresh air because it had gotten warm in there while reading the latest chapter of her book. C.J. had actually written in finite detail every step that Royal had taken to disrobe his girlfriend including his fumbling over the buttons on that damn blouse Carly wore and he had been blown away by the overwhelming passion woven into the language that she chose to express that between her two main characters. But at the time he had felt a bit exposed himself because it hadn't been Carly disrobing Royal, it had been…oh damn he wasn't even going to think about that. If he did, then how the hell was he going to get back into that car with her?

Life had suddenly got too damn complicated for him as he stood outside the car trying to figure out what to do.