By Request Collection April-June 2016. Оливия Гейтс

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       11

      DUNCAN HAD SPENT MOST OF HIS adult career getting into other people’s heads. He was good at it. He enjoyed it. But he didn’t think he’d ever looked forward to doing it quite this much. The metal box had been right where Cam had said it would be—a couple of feet into the stone arch on the right. No CIA or FBI skills involved. The stones were loose, as if they’d been recently replaced in a hurry.

      Had Piper dug out the box? Was that why she’d paid that early morning visit to the stone arch?

      It was the size of a cigar box, but sturdy. The small padlock hadn’t even been fully closed. The compartments inside were filled with scraps of paper in three colors, just as Cam had said, and they all seemed to be folded. That argued that, in spite of the fact the sisters had shared the box, they’d valued each other’s privacy.

      A pang of guilt assaulted him, but it wasn’t enough to make him close the box. If Piper had a fantasy that she’d buried in the stones, he wanted to know what it was. More, he wanted to fulfill it.

      He took Cam’s word that the yellow paper was Adair’s. And pink seemed to fit Nell with her blond curls and blue eyes. She’d even worn a pink dress on the day that their parents had wed.

      And Piper was the middle sister; logically, she would choose or be assigned the middle section of the box. He assumed the fantasies the girls had penned were on the larger sheets of paper that lay on the top of the compartments. To test his theory, he lifted the blue one and selected one of the smaller scraps of folded paper beneath it.

      I want to win the spelling bee on Friday.

      A noble ambition, but not telling. He could imagine any one of the MacPherson girls being that competitive. Digging deeper, he selected another one.

      One day I want to clerk on the Supreme Court.

      Bingo, he thought. That could only be Piper. Then because he couldn’t help himself, he opened a few more. The wish to master long division made him smile. The wish that she would one day become a black belt fascinated him. Had she achieved it? And how many other things didn’t he know about her dreams and ambitions?

      A lot, he thought as he stared at how crammed her compartment was. Not that her sisters were slackers. His admiration for the MacPherson sisters grew. There was a lot of academic research to support the fact that simply writing down one’s goals dramatically increased the odds of achieving them. Kudos to the girls for tapping into that power, as well as whatever extra power the stone arch possessed because of the legend.

      Inspired, he pulled out a pen, and using the back of Piper’s wish to win a spelling bee, he wrote: “Keep Piper and the other MacPhersons safe.” Then he folded it and buried the slip of paper beneath the others.

      Only then did he pick up the folded blue sheets of paper on the top of the center compartment. “My Sexual Fantasy: Sex on Demand.”

      He skimmed the first page. It presented various settings and scenarios for making love, each one spur of the moment. On a deserted beach with the waves pounding on the shore, in a limo, on a coffee table, on a bathroom counter. There were more on the second page—some of which went beyond his own experience. He had to admit, he’d never made love to a woman in a phone booth—but then seven years had passed since this had been written and phone booths were hard to find. By the time he’d finished the last one, he’d had to use the sheets of paper to fan himself.

      Each scene illustrated the excitement and convenience of sex on demand with someone you trusted. A buddy. At least one could even have been “monkey sex,” he supposed. But the writer hadn’t used those specific words. Still, they all fit the description she’d given him when she’d made her argument in the library.

      Besides making him want to go back to the library and wake her up, reading the pages had also left a bitter coppery taste in his mouth. Who had she imagined doing all these things with?

      As he’d read them, he’d thought only of her. And he wanted her again. Right now.

      “You … you jerk.”

      He turned and found himself staring at Piper. Her image was blurred because of his reading glasses. And it wasn’t Diana he thought of as he removed the glasses and set them aside. She looked like one of the Furies from one of those Greek tragedies that always ended badly.

      The flash of lightning over the lake strengthened the illusion.

      “You broke into our box.”

      He was surprised that more lightning didn’t shoot out from the accusing finger she pointed at him. “And you read them?”

      Not only read them, but he’d been too caught up in them to hear her approach.

      “You read them.” It wasn’t a question this time. And the tone was enough to have him getting to his feet. Growing up with three brothers, he’d learned there were serious disadvantages to being a sitting target.

      “How did you know about them? Who told you?”

      “Cam.” He hated to betray a brother, but Cam was an ocean away and desperate situations called for desperate measures. He took a cautious step forward.

      “Not so fast,” she said. “You … you just put them all back where you found them. Right now.”

      Without another word, Duncan did as she asked. Keeping quiet had gotten him out of plenty of scrapes as a child. Letting Reid and Cam do all the talking had focused his mother’s attention on them. Not that he’d gotten off scot-free—but a strategic silence had often lessened the punishment his mother had meted out.

      He took his time, sliding the metal box back into its niche, then shoving the stones back in place. He figured that with each passing second her temper had to be cooling. That was what had happened with his mother.

      “Now, step out here and fight like a man.”

      One look told him her temper hadn’t cooled one degree. She was crouched, arms bent, hands flexed in a stance that he knew all too well. As she stood there waiting, several things flashed into his mind—I don’t want to hurt you being the first. He rejected it. Being condescending and sexist was only going to dig him deeper into the hole he’d dug.

      Besides, he always liked to err on the side of caution. “What degree of black belt?” he asked.

      “Fourth.” The fact that she smiled when she said it sent a shaft of fire straight to his loins.

      Still, his rational side kept him standing where he was. Now was the time to offer excuses, explanations. Except that he had none.

      “I’d apologize,” he said. “But it would be a lie.” The temptation to read her fantasy had been irresistible. Every bit as irresistible as the outrageous temptation to take her on in a fight.

      He sprang out of the arch to land lightly on his feet in a stance that matched hers. Clouds had rolled in overhead, darkening the sky, but he saw the excitement in her eyes—not fear or panic but an excitement that fueled СКАЧАТЬ