Desire After Dark. Amanda Ashley

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СКАЧАТЬ looked around the diner, then shook her head. She couldn’t believe that any of the people she knew, people she had grown up with, could have committed such a horrendous crime not once, but twice.

      A little voice in the back of her head reminded her that there was a man in town whom she didn’t know anything about, a man who had been seen with both of the murdered women.

      She shook the thought from her mind and then, for the third time in thirty minutes, she looked at the clock and the empty booth in the back. It was obvious that he wasn’t coming in tonight. She should have been relieved, so why wasn’t she?

      “Vicki? Hey, Vicki!” Bobbie Sue shook her arm. “Gus has been calling you for the last five minutes. Your order for table two is up.”

      “Oh, thanks.”

      Gus frowned at her when she picked up the tray. “You okay?” he asked. “You seem a little distracted tonight.”

      “Stop worrying, I’m fine.”

      “Funeral got you down, didn’t it? Well, that’s understandable. She was a nice girl.”

      Vicki nodded, but didn’t say anything. No need to tell Gus it wasn’t Sharlene she was thinking about, but the man who might have killed her.

      When another hour passed with no sign of the stranger, she put him out of her mind. No doubt he’d been just passing through, like everyone else. And it was probably just a coincidence that he had left the diner with Sharlene and the other woman.

      When her shift was over, she grabbed her jacket and her handbag, gave Gus a quick hug good night, and went out the back door, only then remembering that she had left her car at home and walked to work that evening.

      Slinging her handbag over her shoulder, she pulled the rubber band from her ponytail and shook out her hair, then crossed the parking lot toward the sidewalk.

      Her steps slowed when she reached the corner. The night seemed quieter than usual, ominous, somehow. A slight breeze rattled through the leaves in the trees along the sidewalk.

      Resisting the urge to glance over her shoulder, she quickened her steps, gasping when a dark shape materialized out of the shadows to her right and a deep voice said,

      “Good evening, Victoria Cavendish.”

      She pressed a hand to her pounding heart. “Lord, you scared me! What are you doing lurking out here in the bushes at this time of night?”

      “Waiting for you, of course.”

      His words pleased her, but only for a moment. Pleasure quickly turned to fright when she remembered that, as far as she knew, this stranger had been the last man to see Sharlene and the Lewis woman alive.

      She came to an abrupt halt under a streetlight, grateful for the illumination, weak as it was. “Why…why were you waiting for…for me?”

      “I thought I would walk you home. There is a killer on the loose and in spite of what you think, it is not me.”

      “How did you know I walked to work?”

      He shrugged. “Does it matter?”

      “Yes. I think it does.” She glanced up and down the sidewalk, dismayed to see that the streets were deserted. Would anyone hear her if she screamed? She did a quick mental search of her handbag, wondering if there was anything in there that she could use as a weapon.

      He shoved his hands into his pants pockets. “I was watching your house.”

      “Watching? My house?”

      He nodded.

      “Why?”

      Taking his hand out of his pocket, he wrapped a lock of her hair around his forefinger. “Because you have red hair.”

      She stared up at him, puzzled, and then felt a sliver of ice slide down her spine. Sharlene had had red hair. So had the other woman who had been killed.

      She swallowed past the lump in her throat. “You don’t think he’ll…?”

      “That is exactly what I think.”

      Feeling suddenly light-headed, she swayed on her feet. “It is a serial killer, then, isn’t it?” She had overheard Ned and Arnie discussing the possibility earlier that night.

      “In a manner of speaking.”

      “You sound like you know him.”

      “Indeed.”

      “You do know him? Why haven’t you told someone? You’ve got to go to the police, right away, tonight.”

      “I doubt if they would believe me.”

      “Why not?”

      He took her arm, gently urging her along. “Let us not talk about that now.”

      “But…It’s important.”

      “The police will never catch him.”

      “You sound very sure of that.”

      He nodded. “Surer than you can imagine.” His hand slid down her arm, his fingers entwining with hers. His skin was cool, yet at the touch of his hand, frissons of sexual awareness sizzled up her arm.

      Nothing like that had ever happened to her before. Feeling suddenly breathless, she looked up at him. Had she imagined that unexpected jolt of sensual heat, or had he felt it, too?

      He was watching her in return, his eyes dark and hot.

      It took her a moment to realize they had stopped walking, and another moment to realize that he was going to kiss her. Before she could decide whether she wanted him to or not, his mouth was on hers. His skin might have been cool, but there was nothing cool about his kiss! At the first touch of his lips on hers, heat engulfed her, a conflagration that threatened to consume her. His arms imprisoned her, drawing her body up against his. She shivered as she felt his hand slide up the back of her neck to delve into her hair.

      He deepened the kiss, his tongue plundering her mouth, his arms tightening around her until she could scarcely move, scarcely breathe. Her heart was beating rapidly, pounding in her ears so loudly she wondered that he didn’t hear it, too.

      Or perhaps he did. He drew back, his gaze lingering on the pulse beating in the hollow of her throat. He placed his forefinger there, ever so lightly, and her heart beat even faster.

      He lowered his head to her neck and took a deep breath, giving her the oddest impression that he was inhaling the scent of her blood.

      The thought, though far-fetched, made her uncomfortable and she stepped away from him. “I think we’d better go.”

      “Yes,” he said quietly. “I think that would be wise.”

      He took her by the hand and they resumed walking. She had to hurry to keep up with him, making her wonder if he was suddenly anxious to get her home and be rid of her.

      They СКАЧАТЬ