He went back to work undressing Charlotte but he discovered she had gone very still beneath him. Her fingers wrapped around his wrists. She stared at him with wide, unfocused eyes.
“No,” she said. “No, that’s enough. Please.”
A flicker of raw panic shot through him. Had he hurt her?
“Are you all right?” he said.
“Yes, I’m okay. I’m sorry. It’s just that things are moving too fast here. I mean, we haven’t seen each other for fifteen years and now here we are in bed together.”
“I got the feeling a few minutes ago that you didn’t think that was a problem.”
“I’m really sorry. This is my fault. I know that.”
She sounded miserable. He leaned over her, resting on his elbows so that he could frame her face with his hands. “I’m not trying to assign blame here. I just want to know what’s going on. You went cold on me like a de- rezzed light. Something I did?”
“No, of course not. It’s me. My problem. I’m sorry.”
“Stop apologizing and tell me what the hell went wrong with the two-talents-stranded-together-on-an-island concept?”
“I thought that logic would work,” she admitted sadly. “I should have known better. I made a mistake. You’re not an easy man to read.”
“Care to explain?”
“Think about it, Slade,” she said earnestly. “This is a small community and you are the chief of police. That makes you a very high-profile person in town. For the next six months or however long you’re here, we’ll be running into each other at the post office, the grocery store, the coffee shop, the bookstore. You know how it is.”
“No. Explain.”
“It would be extremely awkward for both of us if we sleep together tonight and then in the morning one of us concludes that it was all a mistake,” she said.
“You suddenly decided that one of us would regret it tomorrow?”
She cleared her throat. “I’m not one hundred percent certain, but yes, I think there is a strong likelihood of that.”
“And you went with the worst-case scenario?”
She sighed. “Better to be safe than sorry. I think.”
“Which one of us did you decide was going to regret having sex tonight?”
“Does it matter?” She sounded anxious.
“It matters.”
She drew a deep breath. “Okay, then. You. You’re the one who would have regretted it. I think. Like I said, it’s a little unclear.”
For an instant he was too shocked to speak. After a couple of seconds he pulled himself together, pushed away from her, and sat up on the edge of the bed. He looked down at her.
“How the hell do you know that?” he asked.
She levered herself up on her elbows. “You’re sure you want to go into this?”
“Yes, damn it,” he said through his teeth. “Not like the mood hasn’t already been ruined.”
She took a deep breath. “Okay. I guess I owe you an explanation.”
“Yes.”
“A few minutes ago when you were running hot?”
“What about it?” he said. “You were pretty damn hot yourself, as I recall.”
“I saw your aura rainbow,” she said quietly, apologetically. “Sex always produces a lot of psi, you see, and I was jacked myself and—”
“I don’t want a lecture on para-physics. What did you see in my rainbow that made you freeze up on me?”
“It was obvious that you felt deeply conflicted about what was happening. You wanted the sex, all right, but I got the distinct impression that there was something about our encounter that you were dreading. I assumed that it was the thought of having to face me in the morning. Or maybe you were worried that I’d get too emotionally involved and you didn’t want to hurt me. I don’t know. Sorry.”
“Stop saying that.”
She sat up and slipped off the opposite side of the bed. “I don’t know what else to say.” She found her panties and hastily stepped into them. “If it’s any consolation, I run into this problem a lot.”
“You do?”
She pulled her crumpled top over her head and snatched her glasses off the nightstand. She plunked the glasses on her nose. “It’s probably the reason Arcanematch was never able to match me successfully.”
“No kidding.”
“Every time they sent me out on what was supposed to be a serious date I ended up viewing the man’s rainbow. Once I saw it, I just knew things weren’t going to work out. Things always fizzled after that.”
He pulled on his boots, got to his feet, and faced her across the bed. “What is it with the rainbow reading?”
She struggled into her jeans. “Look, you’ve been very fair about this. I knew going in tonight that whatever we had together wasn’t going to be long-term. You made that perfectly clear. I was okay with that. Going with the flow. Rezzing with the frequency, as they say. But then I saw your rainbow and realized that you were anticipating a full-scale disaster.”
He shoved his fingers through his hair. “You misread the situation. Or my rainbow.”
“I could live with the commitment-free scenario but I don’t like the idea of you regretting things afterward.” She drew herself up. “A woman has her pride.”
He tried hard to follow her logic. It wasn’t easy. After a few seconds he abandoned the attempt.
He circled the bed, closing in on her. She retreated quickly until she came up hard against the wall. He stopped inches away and planted his palms on either side of her head.
“You are not nearly as good at reading rainbows as you think you are,” he said.
Her mouth fell open. “But I am. I’m the best. Just ask anyone at the Arcane lab where I was tested.”
“Your talent may be as good as it gets but I am here to tell you that it is not infallible, not by a long shot.”
“What do you mean?”
“I may have some concerns about my personal future but I can guarantee you that I would not have regretted sleeping with you tonight. Not in a million years. Not ever. Regardless of the outcome.”
“But I saw the tension in your rainbow,” she said. “I could tell that you were deeply conflicted about the consequences of a physical relationship with me.”
“You sound like a para-shrink. Personally, I have had enough of para-shrinks.”
She winced. “Men hate it when I start talking like this.”
“No shit.”
“The history of my social life is filled with disastrous first dates. Well, sometimes I make it to two or three. Once in a while I get all the way to five.”
“If you start talking like this on every date, I can see where there might have been a few problems,” he said.
“In fairness to myself, I have to say that I’ve tried keeping my mouth shut in hopes that I’m wrong.”
“Must have been hard for you.”
“I gave all my Arcanematch dates at least three chances,” she assured him.
“How very broad-minded of you.”
“The point is, I gave the professional matchmakers a chance. But in the end it always turned out that my rainbow-reading intuition was accurate the first time. More accurate than their parapsych profiles. If I tried to override my intuition I invariably had a panic attack.”
“Are you having a panic attack now?”
“No.” She frowned, as though somewhat confused. “Probably because we stopped in time.”
“Your intuition told you that I was the one who would have regrets so you pulled the plug before you found out whether or not that would actually happen. And before you found out if you would have a panic attack.”
