o a retro diner on Third Avenue with a brass bell over the door and neon in the window

ired eyes came ov

ffe

Deidre said. "And a

d and a smaller smile, the kind of sm

ay. The neon sign ov

ed a text-to-speech notes app,

slow, hesitant, the way a man reaches for something he has been told he cannot have

she said. "Wha

s curved inward, the posture of a man making himself

int

re careful around Wall Street assholes. Manha

again. He

gnore me. You a

s watching her with that same gray adoration, and

aid. "Or just

wn hard. Coffee slopped over the rim of on

closed over his knuckles,

d was cool, long-fing

was no

owly, the way you touch fabric you are deciding whether to buy. Not a reflex. A choice. He had all the time in t

f his wrist, hard and fast, and there was no reason on earth fo

let g

to being the one

n instead, close enough that her breath

as pull her across the table into his lap and put his mouth on the pulse at the base of her throat, and he had not lost control of himself in years and was not about to

sat

she said.

nod

ng her coat. "Bathroo

ck of the diner. He watched t

stillness

once, like a man taking off a coat he had been wearing for

breast pocket - no logo, no cas

him. His root override walked through the

e the holdings of the five famil

second

Boss. Done

utenant, and Clinton trusted him the

ned. By the time Deidre reached the booth, his

y on the table besi

ily's expecting me on

and looked up at her with his eyebrows

see yo

s a real one. It kep

d. "If you stay

t into the Ne

find out whether he was watching, and if he was watching she would have to decid

d he went on watching the door for a while after that, with h

nd her. Almost not