my e-mail and take care of a few things at that Internet place in the airport
before my ? ight.”
“Good luck in Detroit. They won’t know what hit them.”
Rachel grinned, looking relaxed and con? dent, and Leslie knew it was only
partly Rachel’s exhilaration about the upcoming legal challenge. Rachel had
awakened Leslie at ? rst light, caressing her into awareness and fondling her to
a shattering orgasm just as Leslie had come fully awake. While Leslie was still
reeling with aftershocks, Rachel had urgently guided Leslie’s ? ngers into her,
coming hard before rising hurriedly to shower. Rachel made love like she did
everything else, expertly and ef? ciently.
“It will be quick, but not necessarily painless.” Rachel’s eyes gleamed as she
checked her watch. “I’ve got to run, but this little side trip was just what I
needed. You were wonderful.” She started the car and Leslie stepped back.
“I’ll call you later this week and let you know my schedule. Bye, darling.”
“Goodbye,” Leslie said softly.
Rachel wheeled rapidly out of the parking lot, and Leslie slowly climbed the
path back to the lodge. Through the screen door, she heard her mother setting
out the buffet in the dining room, but she didn’t go inside. Eileen had offered her
breakfast earlier when she and Rachel had stopped by the kitchen for coffee,
but she wasn’t hungry then. She still wasn’t. Instead, she sat down in the same
wicker chair where she’d
• 204 •
WHEN DREAMS TREMBLE
waited for Rachel the evening before. It didn’t seem possible that it had only
been twelve hours ago. Her mind was on overload trying to process everything
that had happened.
It didn’t seem possible that it had taken her all this time to discover that sex and
work were the only two things that connected her to Rachel. She searched her
memory for the last time she and Rachel had talked about anything that wasn’t a
legal case, or an evening they’d spent together that had been more than a few
hours of intense sex and exhausted sleep. She couldn’t come up with one.
“I noticed you like quite a bit of cream in your coffee,” Eileen said, sliding a mug
onto the table next to Leslie before sitting down in the other chair. “Hope I got
that right.”
“Thanks.” Leslie smiled wanly. “I’ve been trying to cut down on my caffeine. I’ll
probably get clogged arteries instead.”
“Rachel’s gone?”
Leslie nodded, her throat tight.
“I didn’t see Dev last night at the party.”
“She didn’t stay long,” Leslie said softly.
“I’m sure there’s a better way to go about this, but I don’t know what it is.”
Eileen sighed. “You look terribly unhappy. What’s wrong?”
Leslie drew one leg up onto the chair and bent forward to rest her chin on her
knee. The sun had crested the trees and bathed the porch in warm morning
sunlight. “I think I’ve really screwed up my relationship with Rachel.”
There was a beat of silence, then Eileen said, “How so?”
Leslie shook her head. She wasn’t about to say that she’d had sex with Rachel
when a big part of her hadn’t really wanted to and that when she’d opened her
eyes that morning in the middle of a screaming orgasm, she’d wanted it to be
Dev who was making her come. “Never mind. God, I can’t talk about it with
you.”
“Something you think a mother couldn’t possibly understand?”
“Something like that.”
“Maybe you should talk to Dev about it.”
“Why?” Leslie said sharply.
Eileen rose and stroked Leslie’s hair. “Because now I’ve seen you with both of
them, and I haven’t changed my mind about which one you’re in love with.”
Leslie said nothing, but she feared her mother was right.
• 205 •
RADCLY fFE
v
Dev turned into the parking lot and saw Leslie piling luggage into the Jeep. The
sight made her feel as if she’d swallowed a ball of lead.
Twenty minutes ago she’d had such an intense sense of foreboding surge up out
of nowhere that she’d dropped everything at the lab and rushed back to the
lodge. The entire trip back she’d been sick thinking that Leslie had already left.
Now she wasn’t sure it was such a good idea she’d come back.
Nevertheless, she climbed out of the truck and crossed the steaming blacktop to
Leslie’s side. Leslie looked fresh in an out? t similar to the one she’d worn the
night before. Dev ? gured she must look like shit because she’d slept in her
clothes. “When are you leaving?”
Leslie regarded her steadily, absurdly happy to see her, even if she had no idea
what she was going to do about anything. “In about an hour.”
“Can you take a walk with me?”
“All right.”
Silently, Dev led the way down a narrow, pine-needle-strewn footpath that led
to the lake on the opposite side of the lodge from the cabins. No one ever came
down there. On the shore, she stopped at the foot of a huge outcropping of
rocks as big as Volkswagens. She held out her hand. “The footing’s going to be
tricky in what you’ve got on.”
Wordlessly, Leslie took Dev’s hand and carefully climbed to the top. The rocks
were pitted from years of weather and strewn with patches of moss. She’d
sunbathed on these rocks when she’d been a child. She sat down next to Dev
and watched a sailboat glide by on the lake.
After a moment, Dev shifted to look into Leslie’s face. “I’m sorry about last
night, Les.”
“I was afraid it would be just like the last time,” Leslie said, feeling so weary. So
very nearly empty. “You were so angry. I was afraid you’d go off half-crazy and
get careless and hurt yourself.”
“I did.” One corner of Dev’s mouth lifted in a tired grin. “I slept on a couch that
had the consistency of a slab of granite.”
Leslie laughed softly. “You look terrible.”
“I feel terrible.” Dev lifted a hand to stroke Leslie’s cheek, then stopped a
breath away. “I…Jesus. I’m so sorry I lost my temper. Did I hurt you?”
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WHEN DREAMS TREMBLE
“No.” There were ? ngerprint bruises on the crest of both of Leslie’s shoulders.
She’d seen them in the mirror when she’d showered that morning. It was funny.
Rachel never noticed.
