Hey everyone. Sorry that this has taken so long but I haven't been able to upload for days now. It looks like finally it is working again. Keep your fingers crossed that it stays that way.

I know that this isn't very long but it's sort of the end of Las Vegas and then Paris will come in the next part so it seemed logical. I'll try to make tomorrow's much longer.

Keith's Idea

They had returned from Las Vegas late Sunday … and to say that things on the flight were awkward would be seriously under stating the situation. Annabel behaved as if nothing untoward had happened at all. She even tried to sit beside Keith and talk to him. Keith instantly got up and moved and refused to have anything to do with her. A couple of times he had looked at Ryan as if trying to apologise for his behaviour but Ryan just shrugged it off. He thought that she probably deserved a lot more and he knew that Keith was trying to be civil just to avoid any major confrontation in public. Ryan had his hands full with Marissa. Left to her own devices he knew that Marissa would have liked nothing better than to be able to tell Annabel exactly what she thought of her.

The Las Vegas newspaper had carried a large photo of Ryan and Marissa at the conference dinner on the front page. The article that accompanied it suggested that their attendance at the dinner together, had finally confirmed the wide held suspicions that they were in fact a couple. Thankfully as yet, no one had noticed the existence of the rings now firmly in place on their right hands. They were sure that Summer would probably ask about them but they weren't likely to see her until they retuned from Paris and hopefully by then she would not think to make any connection between them and the trip to Las Vegas. The paparazzi had been no worse than usual when they had left the hotel and for that they were truly grateful.

After leaving Annabel at the airport, Ryan, Marissa and Keith were in the car on the way back to their apartment block when Marissa decided that she didn't need to hold her tongue any longer. "I can't believe that woman. I know that you said … that you need her around for the next few weeks, while we are away, but I hope that by the time we return that we can come up with some way of getting rid of her once and for all."

"I can't think of how we can do it." Ryan replied.

Marissa sat beside him trying to think of something … anything that they could do to get rid of her. "There must be something? Maybe you can just pay her off or something?"

"I doubt it." Ryan shook his head. "She's already well paid. I don't think that offering her money would help. Unfortunately I think she likes her job too much to consider leaving for money."

Keith went to say something and then hesitated. "Maybe …"

Marissa looked back at him sitting in the rear seat. "What? Do you have an idea?"

"I'm not sure what you'll think of it." Keith replied.

"Try us. Even if it doesn't work, at this point, anything that might help us get rid of her from our lives is worth trying." Marissa stated. "Plus you probably know her as well, if not better, than anybody … except maybe Skip."

"I only met her 2 days ago." Keith replied, not wanting to be too closely associated with Annabel.

"Well I meant in the biblical sense." Marissa explained.

Keith rolled his eyes. "Thanks for reminding me."

"Sorry." Marissa replied. "But it's true." She laughed. "You have to look on the bright side of things."

"Yeah. I know. But what I was just thinking was that Ryan is probably right … as far as trying to bribe her. I don't think that money would do the trick."

"Are you saying that there is something else?" Ryan asked.

"Well … I think so. I think that there is something else that she would do almost anything for. But I'm not sure if you will like it." Keith replied.

"What?" Ryan asked.

"You." Keith stated.

"What?" Ryan exclaimed while Marissa just stared at him totally dumbstruck.

Keith hastily tried to explain. "Well it was pretty obvious this morning that even though we'd just been … " he searched for a nice way of putting it.

"Fcking." Marissa supplied the word.

"Thanks for that. I was trying to find a nicer word." He replied.

"I don't think that nice and that woman should be used in the same sentence." Marissa suggested.

"You're probably right. Anyhow, as I was saying ... Even though we'd just been …" he started again.

"Fcking." Marissa inserted.

"Yeah. That." He smiled sheepishly. "Annabel was still offering herself to you. That little effort with walking out of the bathroom naked and not bothering to cover up, and then the comments that she made, surely proved that she is still interested in you."

Ryan could feel Marissa about to explode beside him.

"What are you talking about?" She looked from Keith to Ryan and back again.

"Oops. Sorry boss." Keith commented. "I thought that you would have said something."

"It's okay. I just didn't bother to mention it to Marissa because I didn't think that there was anything to be gained. But how do you think that we can use it to our advantage?" Ryan asked.

"Excuse me. Would some one like to explain just exactly what went on?" Marissa asked then turned her attention to Keith. Since Ryan was driving she thought she'd do better to get the information from him.

Keith squirmed in his seat. "I don't remember exactly. She'd just come out of the shower and was drying her hair and hadn't bothered to get dressed. She had on one of the hotel gowns with no tie belt. It was completely open. And it was fairly obvious that she was quite happy about giving Ryan a good look and from the comments she made, I suspect that she would be even happier to show him a good time. You know, put him on her dance card along with Skip and I. And I'm talking about bedroom dancing not ballroom."

"I know what you are talking about. "Marissa interjected. "But surely not. She is one of the few people in the world who actually knows that we're married." Marissa stated.

"I don't think the fact that the two of you are married makes any difference to her. If anything it probably makes Ryan even more appealing. Sort of forbidden fruit if you know what I mean. I can see that appealing to her." Keith replied.

"I still don't see how that can help us. You know that I'm not about to have anything to do with her." Ryan stated.

"I'm not sure exactly either. But I just thought that we may be able to use her attraction to you to our advantage. Maybe after you get back, you could tell her that things aren't going too well with Marissa or something. I could get out the trusty video camera again and we could get her making some suggestive moves on you. We could then use it to threaten her with sexual harassment. You now it's a two way street these days. You could sue her just as easily as she could sue you." Keith suggested.

"Hmmm. I'll think about it." Ryan said the idea not really appealing. He could just imagine the headlines if he ended up taking her to court.

"No. No way. Not a chance." Marissa stated firmly. "You are not going anywhere near that woman if I have my way."

Ryan smiled as Marissa's jealousy came to the fore. "Ris. She's my secretary. How do you imagine that I'm going to avoid seeing her?"

"We'll think of something …or you can telecommute … or you can sign me up as your personal assistant. I'm not letting her anywhere near you." She stated clearly; making sure that Ryan knew that this was non-negotiable.

"Don't you trust me?" Ryan asked smiling at the intensity of Marissa's reaction. Thinking to himself that the idea of her as his personal assistant held some merit. He'd love to have her beside him at all times.

"Of course. It's her that I don't trust. We'll just have to think of something else. You are not going to be offered up as bait. Not this time. Charlotte was one thing but Annabel is something altogether different. We've got three weeks to think about this. Surely we can come up with something by then."