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Introduction

I work for a firm of K-street lobbyists. I don't like it much, but I'm good at my job and I need one. They send me out to placate, smoothen, sweeten up, whatever you want to call it, some bunch of clients who are not getting what they want from Washington. They never get what they think they deserve and they blame the lobbyists, not the politicians. So there is no shortage of business for me. Naturally, women are preferred for this kind of work, young women who look good and can whistle a good tune. That's me, if I do say it as I shouldn't. Honey blonde, 31, slim and pretty.

Hey, you use what you've got, and the money's good. It's keeping your job is the problem. Washington is flooded with good-looking women who can string a few sentences together, and a lot of them are willing to go much further than I am when it comes to 'soothing' angry clients, if you get my meaning. I don't do that. First, because if you do it once, you have to do it the next time, and the next. Word gets around. In no time, you're spending more time on your back than in the hotel lobby, where you're supposed to be. Seen it happen. Isn't pretty.

The second reason I don't do it is because I just don't. I'm not like that.

I'm not a prude, mind you. My sex-life with Herman was, well let's call it fulfilling and leave it at that. If anything it was too fulfilling. One of those love-hate relationships that end with things being thrown and words being said that can't be taken back. I don't blame Herman. There was this chemistry between us that I have never seen adequately described in any novel, and probably can't be. You know it when you encounter it.

But could we live together? No way! When we weren't having sex we were fighting, about nothing and everything. The opposite way round from my first relationship, which lasted six years -- of utter boredom. We lived together harmoniously, no lows, no highs. Then Herman came along and my life changed.

It's been two years since we split and I have not met a man in the interim who did anything for me. I had lots of 'dates', but I had not 'dated', if you get my meaning. If you had asked me did I miss sex, I'd probably say 'Yes!' but add the caveat 'in a solid relationship'.

That's more than you wanted to know about me, I'm sure. I'll get on with the story.

Chapter 1

It happened in San Diego, a popular venue for company conventions and meetings, so I knew the city well. I always stayed at a hotel in Old Town because this was a good taxi ride from Downtown, where most conventioneers stayed, where the action was. (No! I'm not going to reveal which hotel because I still use it, even after all these years.)

It had been a rough day. (If I can give you a spot of advice, don't go anywhere near Big Oil. It's a nightmare.) I was sitting in the bar sipping on a g