offer. “Sure. I’d appreciate that.”
At the front door, he held out his hand for her keys. She passed them over, her fingers brushing his. A now familiar jolt of energy darted up her arm.
He unlocked the dead bolt and opened the door, keeping her behind him until he’d turned on the lights, setting the foyer awash with warm gold light from the overhead chandelier. He locked the door behind them and moved from the narrow foyer into the living room, turning on the lamps and giving the room a thorough walk-through.
They moved from room to room, repeating the ritual, then climbed the polished stairs to the second floor and started the process all over again. They ended their tour in the bedroom at the end of the hall, the one Rose had chosen for herself because of the tall windows offering a stunning view of the Birmingham city skyline.
Daniel paused in front of the windows, moving aside the curtain panels to get a better look at the view. On impulse, Rose reached for the light switch, plunging them into darkness alleviated only by the city lights. Daniel turned his head, his profile visible only in silhouette.
“The view’s easier to see with the lights off,” she said.
“I’d forgotten what a pretty sight Birmingham can be at night,” Daniel murmured as she joined him by the window.
“I love it on a rainy night, when the water fractures all the lights into a thousand little diamonds.” Without planning to, Rose moved close enough to Daniel that his arm brushed hers. She breathed deeply, taking in his clean, masculine scent, the tug of attraction setting her nerve endings on fire.
He turned toward her, his head dipping closer. “Why did you really turn off the lights?”
She took a shaky breath, her heart hammering. Why
She wasn’t sure who moved first, but before she could take another breath, his lips were touching hers. The kiss radiated warmth through her, igniting a slow burn that started deep in her belly and began to spread. The kiss grew fiercer, more demanding, pouring kerosene on the flames licking at her belly and down to her core.
Rising on tiptoe, she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him closer, urging him to fan the fire he’d started inside her. His tongue brushed her mouth, demanding entry, and she could do nothing but part her lips and let him inside.
He tasted like coffee and sweet cream, dark and rich with a bittersweet edge. He enclosed her in his arms, pulled her flush against him, until she felt every angle and plane of his lean, muscular body. She parted her thighs, welcomed the hard heat of his pelvis against hers, wondering at the little sparks shooting through her body from her hips to her breasts.
When he suddenly set her away from him, her body buzzed with shock. “What-”
“This can’t happen.” His raw voice sent another shiver down her spine. “Not a good idea.”
She stepped back on wobbly legs, sinking to the edge of the bed when the backs of her knees hit the mattress. Embarrassment washed over her, burning her cheeks. “I’m sorry.”
He moved away and turned on the light. Rose squinted against the sudden illumination, the glow from the fixture over the bed overwhelming her dilated pupils. It took a second for her eyes to adjust enough to see him standing in her doorway, his gaze wary. Silence stretched between them, unbearable.
“Lock the front door behind me,” he said, snapping the band of tension. He headed for the staircase without giving her a chance to respond.
She caught up with him at the landing, forcing herself not to reach out and touch him, pulling him back with her to the bedroom. How humiliating would that be?
Her sudden craving for closeness, for the feel of someone else’s skin against hers, knocked her off balance. Was she reacting to the fear, the knowledge that, somewhere out there, hidden by the shelter of night, a killer stalked the streets around her, looking for his next prey? Was she reaching out for warmth, for a connection to someone else, someone who could protect her from the monster in the night?
She’d always been resolute in her determination to wait for her one true love. But losing that certainty had left her vulnerable to the unpredictable world around her, at the mercy of her own frantic fears and needs.
Vulnerable enough to make a fool of herself in front of a virtual stranger.
Daniel turned at the door, gazing at her with storm-dark eyes. “Lock the dead bolt and the knob lock,” he said.
She nodded, rubbing her damp palms against her skirt.
He hesitated before reaching for the doorknob, his head cocking slightly to one side as if he was thinking about saying something else. But he must have thought better of it, for he turned quickly and opened the door, slipping out into the night without saying another word.
Rose engaged the dead bolt and the lock on the doorknob, shutting off the foyer lights so that Daniel wouldn’t see her watching him as he exited her driveway and drove back toward Dunbar.
ROSE’S CELL PHONE rang Wednesday morning as she was walking outside to check her mailbox. “Browning Wedding Services.”
“I thought the meeting last night was great. Didn’t you?” Melissa said without preamble, her voice tinny and faraway through the cell phone.
Rose tucked the phone between her chin and shoulder, opening the mailbox. “I think it went well,” she answered, heat rising in her cheeks as she remembered how her night had gone after the meeting.
“Listen, I’ve changed my appointment at Bella to this afternoon instead of tomorrow. Mark’s taking me out for our three-year dating anniversary tomorrow night, so I’m taking the afternoon off to make myself gorgeous for it. I’m supposed to be at Bella this afternoon at two o’clock-she has several veils she wants me to see. Can you make it?”
“Yeah, sure. I can be there.” Not that she’d have much to do; Melissa always had a pretty good idea of exactly what she wanted, which meant there was little for Rose to do but sit back and let her client haggle with the dress- shop owner.
“Great! Listen, I’ve got to run. See you at two.” Melissa rang off.
Rose shut off the phone and flipped through the mail on her way back inside. She paused, puzzled, at finding a small, white envelope with nothing on it. No address, no stamp-nothing. Weird.
Frowning, she took a letter opener from the utility drawer in the kitchen and slit open the envelope. Inside she found a small card embossed on edges with silver butterflies. Plain, block letters in black ink sprawled across the center of the card. “Thanks for setting up the meeting. It was a big help.”
There was no signature on the note, nothing but those two brief sentences in black ink on the white card.
Rose dropped the card on the counter, her hands trembling. Why hadn’t the sender signed the card? Why was there no return address on the envelope?
She closed her eyes, trying to calm the sudden jangle of her nerves. It was just a thank-you note, probably sent by someone too shy to sign her name. Except the writing didn’t look feminine, at all. The bold, black letters seemed masculine. Forceful. Threatening.
A picture of the note flashed through her mind, stained with crimson slashes. She opened her eyes quickly, her pulse ratcheting up to a gallop.
It was a threat. A sneer from a killer who wanted her to know there was nothing she could do to stop him.
Heart pounding, she reached for the phone.
THE BIRMINGHAM Motor Lodge didn’t offer much in the way of amenities, but incongruently, it had free wireless Internet connection, and Daniel took full advantage of it Wednesday morning.
Anything to get his mind off kissing Rose Browning.
Unfortunately, Rose was the focus of his Internet search. She obviously had no intention of spilling her secrets to him, not even after a mind-blowing kiss, and he hadn’t quite sunk to the level of using seduction as an interrogation tool.
But he needed to know more about her. Because she knew something about Orion, something she wasn’t telling. Maybe something she didn’t even realize.
If she had some sort of connection with the killer, Daniel needed to know about it.
He started with something she’d told him last night. Before the kiss. She’d moved to Birmingham only a few months earlier from the town where she’d grown up.
