The Black Sheep and the English Rose by Donna Kauffman Page A

were made. By noting the time of the car rental return, you could guess the flight times. The drop-off location is a private field just outside the city.”
    â€œSo, maybe we’ll get two for the price of one,” Felicity said.
    â€œThe big question is, do they still have the stone?”
    Â 
    The driver pulled in past a small discreet sign announcing the private field. They passed a small restaurant and gift shop, then a gas station. A few minutes later, they were pulling up at a small building with a car rental sign on the front. Just beyond, he could see the shadows of the larger plane hangars. The tarmac was just to their left, and the runways just beyond that.
    When the town car came to a stop, Felicity didn’t wait for someone to come open her door. Finn barely caught up to her at the rental agency door. There was a woman in a red blazer behind the counter inside. “I’d prefer it if you let me handle this one.”
    Felicity smiled sweetly at him. “You think I can only make things happen when there are men involved?”
    He pushed open the agency door for her. “No. I just think I can make things happen better when women are involved.”
    She opened her mouth, then closed it again.
    â€œWhat? No smart retort?”
    She brushed by him, leaving a brief whiff of lavender in her wake. “No.”
    When had she put that on, anyway? It was incredibly…lingering. Not to mention arousing. “Because?”
    She glanced over her shoulder. “Because you might be right. This time.”
    He laughed, and they shared a smile that was both knowing and intimate and made him desperately wish they were anywhere but where they were. They approached the desk together. “Excuse me,” Finn began, before Felicity could start in. “We’d like to rent a white Lexus. Two door, if you have it. Would you happen to have one available?”
    The young woman smiled rather mildly at Finn. “I’d have to look, sir.”
    â€œThank you, Andrea,” he said, catching the tag on her blazer pocket. “Much appreciated.”
    Clearly not impressed with his attention to detail, much less charmed by it, she gave a rather short glance Felicity’s way, then began tapping on the monitor screen in front of her.
    Another clerk stepped out of an office door behind the counter. His name tag read BRIAN , and he was younger than Finn’s new friend, Andrea, enough that he didn’t appear to be shaving yet. But not so young that he didn’t get hung up, at least briefly, when he caught a glimpse of Felicity Jane. Maybe they should take turns, he thought, depending on gender.
    â€œWhatcha need?” he asked, all willing to provide the cheerful customer service Andrea was not.
    â€œI have it,” she said, at the same time Felicity smiled at Brian and said, “Lexus, white, two-door?”
    â€œI—I do have one,” Brian said, all but beaming with pride. He stepped over to another terminal and began tapping on a keyboard.
    Felicity followed him, after casting a brief, smug smile Finn’s way.
    He was pretty sure his responding smirk rivaled Andrea’s. Or was a close second.
    â€œIt was just turned in, but it’s not done being cleaned,” Brian continued, looking a bit more tentative now.
    â€œDammit,” Felicity murmured, but not so low that it didn’t carry to the young rental agent.
    â€œI’m really sorry, ma’am,” the agent rushed to add. “But regulations state that we have to go through a check list of items before we can release it for rental again.”
    She looked up at Finn, all plaintive and uncertain. Damn, she really was good. “What do we do now?” she asked, as if their only other choice might be life-threatening. Given the barely suppressed level of hostility Andrea was aiming at Felicity Jane, that might not be an exaggeration.
    â€œIt won’t take that long,