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her tight against him.

"Oh God, yes…" Her fingers filtered through the long locks of his hair as she

kissed him back.

When Zanita was getting ready to leave, Blooey purposely walked by the kitchen

door and discreetly gave Tyber the thumbs-up. Aye, the Captain was a pirate

after his own heart. Blooey beamed. Always sets his course and steers true to

it.

Blooey sauntered away singing a ribald sailor's ditty comparing the sleek lines

of a clipper ship to those of the female form.

"I thought you said you were through with men?"

Mills picked up one of Zanita's paperbacks, read the title, and plopped it back

onto the coffee table.

"I am. Kind of." Zanita scurried around the room throwing some clothes,

books—whatever she happened to spot—into some cartons.

"Oh?" Mills looked unconvinced. She shook her head, muttered something under her

breath, then plopped herself onto the coffee table.

"Really. Tyber is… different."

"How so?"

Zanita blushed.

Mills sat up straighten "You didn't!"

Zanita nonchalantly held one of her sweaters up to her in front of the mirror,

trying to decide whether to take it with her.

"He did?"

Zanita looked at her friend through the mirror and raised her eyebrows.

Mills grinned slyly. "When can I meet him?"

"Mills! Behave yourself."

"That good, huh?"

Zanita fell on the couch in a mock swoon, draping a hand across her forehead.

"Incredible."

"Hmm. So, are you two going away for an intimate little trip?" She gestured to

the cartons piled haphazardly over the living room.

"Oh. No, I'm moving in with him."

Mills started choking.

Zanita patted her on the back.

"Are you nuts? What do you mean, you're moving in with him?"

"It's not what you think. Tyber has agreed to work with me on the LaLeche story.

We both thought it would be more… expedient this way. Believe me, Tyber

understands how I feel about getting involved again. It's strictly temporary.

We'll only be together for the duration of the investigation. Think of it as a

professional relationship with personal overtones."

Mills gave Zanita The Look. "Is that what he said?"

Zanita thought a minute. Tyber hadn't exactly said it that way, but the general

gist had been along those lines. "In a manner of speaking."

"Whose manner of speaking?"

"Will you lighten up? It's not as if he—" The doorbell rang. "That must be him;

he said he was going to stop by to help me with this stuff."

Mills raised an eyebrow but wisely refrained from making any comments. She would

reserve her judgment of this Dr. Evans until she met him.

Zanita opened the door to let Tyber in. He was wearing washed-out jeans, boots,

and a brown leather bomber jacket.

His hair hung loose about his shoulders. "Hi, Tyber."

"Hi, baby." He wrapped his arm around her neck, bringing her to him for a quick

kiss.

Flustered as usual by his touch, Zanita turned to Mills, performing a one-way

introduction. "This is my friend, Mills."

Tyber smiled to himself before greeting her friend and completing the

introduction. "Hi." He jerked his thumb in Zanita's direction. "I'm her special

aberration."

Mills did something Zanita had never seen her composed friend do in all the

years she had known her. She gaped, momentarily speechless. When she found her

voice, it was slightly shaky. "Nice to meet you, Tyber. Zanita has said a lot

of—" here she faltered—"interesting things about you."

Tyber's glance flicked to Zanita. His eyes sparkled in amusement. "Mmm, did

she?"

Zanita rushed in to stop this line of conversation from going anywhere else.

"Um… I'm taking all this stuff here, okay?"

Tyber eyed the collection of cartons piled pell-mell with God-knew-what inside.

Anyone else would have packed a suitcase, but not his Zanita. He couldn't help

the brief smile that crossed his face.

"Okay." He bent to retrieve the first carton.

Zanita eyed him with some trepidation. She knew she had overpiled the cartons.

They must weigh a ton. He didn't seem to be having any trouble, though.

Mills went to stand next to her. They both silently eyed Tyber as he knelt down,

jeans pulling taut against his muscular thighs.

Mills spoke softly so her voice wouldn't carry. "I could kill you."

A dimple popped into Zanita's cheek. "Meow."

"Unfortunately, I'm your friend, so I'll have to sheath my claws. You must have

had one hell of a horoscope this month."

They smiled identical smiles at Tyber as he passed them effortlessly carrying

the box.

"I think you turn right here."

"I think you said that an hour ago."

"Do you think we'll be late?"

"Only if the truck doesn't make warp 10," Tyber responded wryly.

"Damn! If we enter the seminar late, we'll stand out too much."

Tyber glanced over at the yellow-and-turquoise polka-dot pant suit she was

wearing and wisely held his tongue.

"Maybe we'll sneak in." Zanita fished in her bag for a nail file.

"Maybe we won't." She stopped rummaging around in her purse to look at him,

surprised. "I think that action is just as likely to cause suspicion as to

alleviate it. What are you looking for, the directions?"

"No, my nail file—I'm hungry and I thought I'd have an apple."

He took his eyes off the road for an instant to stare speechlessly at her.

Non-linear.

"Ah, here it is!" She proceeded to bisect an apple she produced from the depths

of the same bag by spearing it with a metal file. "Here you go." She handed him

the sawed-off half.

Tyber eyed the gritty edge dubiously. "Ah, no thanks— maybe later."

"Aren't you hungry?" She blithely crunched away at the fruit. "Blooey said he'd

leave some sandwiches on the table for us before he goes to bed, or as he put

it, 'before I hit me bunk fer the night'."

"Zanita, do you have any idea where we're going?"

She paled, staring at him wide-eyed. "In—in what sense?"

He rolled his eyes. "In the sense of do you know where Kingston Hall is?"

"Oh." She fidgeted in her seat. "I do and I don't."

"It's a fixed point in space. I don't understand your statement."

"Well… I've been there once before, so I know where it is; only right now I

don't really know where it is."

Tyber shook his head. "Somehow, there was an interesting quantum aspect to your

answer."

"If you say so."

"Wait a minute; here's that corner again. This time I'm turning left."

"There it is! To think we've been going right by it for the past hour and

fifteen minutes because you've been turning right all this time."

Tyber narrowed his eyes