Stranger in the Moonlight

by Jude Deveraux

  As she pulled into her driveway she remembered that he’d asked for her help, and she vowed to give it.

  Travis parked beside her and got out. “You don’t use your garage?”

  “I have it set up as a workroom.” She fumbled for her house key on the ring.

  “So when it snows or rains or gets really hot, your car is outside?” He took the keys from her and unlocked the door.

  “Yes,” she said as she went inside. She switched on the lamps by the couch she and Jecca had chosen. The room was done in shades of blue and white. One wall was bookcases and a TV, a fireplace below. The ceiling went up to the roof, with big white exposed rafters.

  “Nice,” Travis said. “It looks like a home.” He was wondering why his expensive decorator couldn’t have done something like this. But then, he’d not given the woman any help by telling her what he liked.

  “Thanks,” Kim said and turned away so he wouldn’t see her grin. “Kitchen’s this way.”

  “Kim, you don’t need to feed me,” he said. “That you’re giving me a place to sleep is enough. I can—” He stopped talking at the sight of her kitchen. It opened into the dining area, and all of it was warm and cozy. There was a big pink granite island, with copper pots hung along one wall. The dining table was big and old, with cut marks from hundreds of meals.

  “I like this,” he said. “Have you had this house long?” He knew the answer to that because he’d followed the sale every inch of the way. He’d even had Penny make a couple of calls to the bank where Kim was applying for a mortgage. He wanted to make sure everything went through smoothly.

  “Less than a year,” she said.

  “And you made it look like this in that time?”

  “Jecca and I did it all. We . . .” She shrugged.

  “You two are artists, so you knew what you were doing. What can I do to help with dinner?”

  “Nothing,” Kim said, but she wondered how he knew that Jecca was an artist. Had she told him? “Just sit down and I’ll get you something to eat.”

  He took a seat on a stool on the far side of the counter and watched her.

  Kim could feel his eyes on her as she started going through the refrigerator. She felt guilty that everything in there had been made by Dave and his catering crew, but there didn’t seem to be any need to tell Travis that. To say that she had a fairly regular boyfriend would be to assume that something could possibly happen between her and Travis. Foot massage aside, he didn’t seem to be interested in anything besides friendship. And he was looking at her as though she were still eight years old.

  She put a place mat on the counter in front of him, then a plate and the matching knife and fork. Her mother had tried to get Kim to save money by using her grandmother’s dishes, but Kim had refused. “You just want to get rid of the old things,” Kim had said, and her father had suppressed a laugh. In the end, her mother gave the whole set to Colin and Gemma Frazier for a wedding gift, and they’d loved them.

  “What’s that look for?” Travis asked, and Kim told him.

  “Gemma is a historian and she knew the history of the company that made the dishes. She treated them like they were treasure.”

  “But not you?” Travis asked.

  “I like new. What would you like to eat?”

  “Anything,” he said. “I’m a pure omnivore.”

  She put spoons in each of the nearly dozen plastic bowls she’d taken from the fridge and let him help himself. She couldn’t help sitting on the stool next to him and watching him. He ate European style, with his fork turned over in his left hand, his knife in his right. His manners were those of a prince.

  Without the sharp contrast between shadows and harsh white light on him, she could now see some of the angelic look that he’d had as a boy. In adulthood, his hair was midnight black, his eyes were as dark as obsidian, his cheekbones angular, and his jaw strong. It looked like he hadn’t shaved in a day or so, and the whiskers further darkened the look of him. All in all, she thought she’d never seen a better looking man in her life.

  Travis saw the way she was leaning on her elbow and looking at him. If he didn’t distract her he was going to put his hand on the back of her neck and kiss her. “Aren’t you afraid of getting something on that dress?”

  “What? Oh yeah, sure.” She broke her trance of staring at him. “I guess I should put on something more comfortable.”

  Travis gave a little cough, as though he nearly choked on his food.

  “You okay?”

  “Yes,” he said. “I’ll just finish here while you . . .”

  Reluctantly, she got off the stool. “Sure, of course.” She hurried down the hall to her bedroom and closed the door. “I am making a fool of myself,” she whispered aloud.

  It wasn’t easy to reach the zipper in the back of her dress, and for a moment she thought of asking Travis to unzip her. That thought made her giggle—which disgusted her. “You are eight years old,” she said aloud and began to undress.

  In the kitchen, Travis breathed a sigh of relief. Kim, so beautiful in her low-cut dress and sitting there watching him, had been too much for him. Had he been in a normal situation, he would have given her looks to let her know how interested he was in her. He knew from experience that girls who looked at him as Kim did were an easy make.

  But then what would happen? he thought. Would she start talking of their wedding?

  The truth was that Travis didn’t think he’d mind that. So far, everything around Kim had felt like he was coming home. Her, her house, even what he’d seen of her friends, had been pleasant and welcoming.

  But what happened when she found out more about him, about his past, about who his father was? He’d see the stars fall out of her eyes—and he couldn’t bear that. No, it was better that he let her keep her ideas that he was noble, someone who had done only good deeds in his life. Better to never let her find out the truth.

  He’d finished eating by the time Kim returned wearing jeans and an old T-shirt. Unfortunately, Travis thought she looked even more desirable than before. It hit him that it had been a mistake to accept her invitation to stay at her house. He stood up.

  “Ready to go to bed?” she asked.

  Travis didn’t dare answer that question. He just nodded, but when Kim started toward the back door, he halted. He wasn’t going to be in the same room with her and a bed. “Why don’t you give me the key and point me in the right direction?”

  “But I need to show you where things are.”

  “I’m sure I can find everything.” He smiled at her in a way that said he wouldn’t take no for an answer.

  Kim handed him her key ring.

  There was an awkward moment at the back door when they parted. Kim bent forward, as though she meant to kiss him on the cheek, but he pulled back. For a moment she thought he was going to shake her hand, but then he gave her a brotherly pat on the shoulder and left the house.

  As Kim put away the leftovers, she couldn’t help grimacing. She was the one who’d said they were friends, so she had no right to complain when Travis stuck to that.

  The next morning she awoke to the smell of cooking, and her only thought was Travis! She rapidly dressed and put on a bit too much eye makeup, but then her brows and lashes had always been too pale. She cursed herself for not having them dyed before the wedding. But then, she had an idea that Travis liked women who could pull off the no-makeup look. It took three shades of brown to achieve that look.

  She had on nice black slacks and a crisp linen shirt when she went into the kitchen. Pausing in the doorway, she saw Travis with his back to her as he cooked something on her new Wolf range. He had on jeans and a denim shirt. She wasn’t sure, but he looked to have a truly magnificent body under his clothes.

  “Good morning,” she said.

  Travis turned, skillet in hand, and smiled at her. She so badly wanted to put her arms around him. For a moment he seemed amenable to that idea, but then he broke eye contact.

 
“It’s my turn to feed you,” he said and nodded toward the island that had one place setting.

  “You aren’t eating?”

  “I got up a couple of hours ago and ate then. I hope you don’t mind that I did laps in your pool.”

  Kim was very, very sorry that she’d missed seeing him in swim trunks. “I’m glad someone is using the pool. That was my only hesitation about buying this house. I liked the layout and I loved the three-car garage for my work, but I don’t know how to take care of a swimming pool.”

  He slid an omelet onto her plate. “I thought maybe that was the case, so I did a little cleaning for you and checked the pH. There were some chemicals in a closet, so I used some of them. I hope I wasn’t being presumptuous.”

  “Presume all you want,” Kim said as she looked at her plate. There was an omelet with peppers and onions in it and two pieces of whole wheat toast. “I’ll put on weight eating like this,” she said, then waited for him to say something nice.

  But there was no way Travis was going to comment on the state of Kim’s body. She looked great! She’d grown taller than he’d expected; she was the perfect height for him. Her white blouse clung to her, and the black pants curved around her bottom half.

  His silence at her hint made her tell herself that Travis really didn’t know how to act around a woman. “So what are you planning to do today?” she asked.

  This morning, Travis’s first thought had been to call his mother and tell her he was in Edilean. He should arrange to meet with her somewhere private where they could talk about the divorce, the man she wanted to marry, and what she planned to do with her life. He should then spend the next three weeks getting ready for the divorce case that would, no doubt, make all the newspapers.

  But as he looked at Kim, he tried to think of a reason to take as long as he could to postpone all the bad that was coming. “What were you going to do today?”

  “Church if I got out of bed early enough.” She looked at the clock. She still had time to get ready and go, but that would mean leaving Travis behind. She thought it was entirely possible that when she returned, he’d be gone. He’d probably talk to his mother, be reassured that Joe Layton was a good man, then Travis would go back to . . . to wherever he lived. To whomever he lived with but wasn’t married to.

  She searched her mind for a reason to make him stay—and for her to be with him. “I’m sure you want to see your mother, but maybe you should see Mr. Layton’s new hardware store before you do.”

  Travis smiled as though she’d said something brilliant. “I think that’s a great idea. You can tell a lot about a man when you see where he works.” Which is why Travis’s office had no personal items in it, he thought but didn’t say. “Would you mind going with me? If you’re too busy to go, you could draw a map. I could—”

  “I would love to!” she said. “We’ll take my car. Could you excuse me for a little bit? I have to make a phone call first, then I’ll be ready to go.”

  The minute Kim closed her bedroom door, she called Carla, her assistant.

  “Hello?” Carla asked, obviously half-asleep.

  “It’s me,” Kim whispered as loudly as she could. “I need you to finish the Johnson rings today.”

  “What? I can’t hear you.”

  Kim went into her closet and shut the door. “Carla, please wake up. I need you to finish a couple of rings for me today.”

  “Kim, it’s Sunday. I was at the wedding until after midnight. I drank too much.”

  “I did too,” Kim said, “but those rings need to be done today. The wedding is tomorrow.”

  “But you were going to do those and—”

  “I know,” Kim said. “I’m a rotten, lazy boss, but something’s come up. An emergency. I need for you to come over here to do them. They’ve been cast. They just need sanding and polishing.”

  Carla groaned. “That’s hours of work, and it’s Sunday.”

  “Time and a half.”

  Carla was silent.

  “Okay,” Kim said. “Double time. I just need them done today. All right?”

  “Sure. Fine,” Carla said. “But I want Friday the eighteenth off and double time for today.”

  Kim glared at the phone. Oh how she used to dream of being the boss, of setting her own hours, and having employees to follow her orders! “All right,” Kim said. “You know where the key to the garage is, so come over here and get it done.”

  “Do you have a hot date?” Carla asked. “Dave planning to pop the question? You design your own ring yet?”

  Kim wasn’t about to tell Carla about Travis. “I have to go. And remind me to order more rouge tomorrow.”

  “For your face or the jewelry?”

  Kim grimaced. Carla’s humor often left people groaning. “See you tomorrow,” she said, then hung up. Minutes later, she was in the living room. Travis was in the big navy blue chair with the matching ottoman and reading the Sunday paper. Jecca had chosen that chair. “It’s for the man in your life,” she’d said.

  “Which one?” Kim had asked sarcastically.

  “The one that’s going to come along and sweep you off your feet.”

  “Like Tris did to you at Reede’s Welcome Home party?”

  “Yes,” Jecca had said with a dreamy sigh, and Kim knew she had managed to get the conversation away from her.

  Kim quietly sat down on the couch and picked up the Sunday magazine.

  Minutes later, he asked, “Ready?” without looking up.

  “Any time,” she answered, but she wasn’t in a rush to leave. Usually on Sunday morning she was hurrying to get ready for church, answering the phone to her mother’s calls, and thinking about the work that needed to be done that week. Sunday afternoons were quiet for her. Her past boyfriends, the ones with the normal jobs, would sometimes come over to visit, but Dave was always busy on weekends. Since she’d met him, her weekends had been solitary.

  “You look like you’re miles away,” Travis said.

  She smiled at him. “I was thinking how I usually work on Sundays.”

  “That doesn’t sound like fun,” he said.

  He was repeating her words of long ago. “I can attest that it is no fun whatever,” she said, quoting his response, and they laughed together.

  “Shall we go see what my mother is getting herself into?”

  “Since you don’t want to be seen, how about if we take a back way? There’s an old forest road, but I don’t know what shape it’s in. I’ll try not to lose us in any potholes.”

  Travis still had her keys from last night. “In that case, how about if I drive? And we’ll take my old car so we don’t hurt your pretty new one.”

  “All right,” she said, but there was caution in her voice. The area around Edilean was rough. It was a wilderness preserve, maintained by the state of Virginia, but she knew that her cousins often took care of the trails. The question was whether anyone had looked at that particular road in the last few years.

  A few minutes later, she and Travis were in his old Bimmer and sitting at the head of a trail that looked like it hadn’t seen any traffic in years. There were holes, ridges, fallen rocks, and a dead tree was taking up half the roadway.

  “Looks like we should turn around and go by the road,” Kim said. “I’ll tell Colin about this and he’ll get it fixed.”

  “Colin?”

  “The sheriff. You may have seen him at the wedding. He’s big, dark hair.”

  “Pregnant wife?”

  “That’s him. Did you two meet?”

  “Sort of,” Travis said, and he thought about the risks of what Kim was saying. The sheriff would ask why she wanted the road cleared, and how she’d discovered it was a mess. And then there was what would happen if they didn’t go in this way. A ride through town with Kim seated beside a stranger was bound to cause comment—and he’d be damned if he’d hide in the back!

  “We could walk,” Kim said. “It’s only about two miles to the building.”

  “
Those are awfully pretty sandals you have on,” he said.

  “Thank you. I just bought them. They’re made by Børn and I love the soles. They’re—” She broke off. “Oh right. They’d be destroyed walking through that.”

  “Kim . . .” he said slowly as he looked into her eyes.

  She could almost read his mind. He wanted to drive down that old road. If they went slowly and carefully, they might be able to do it. If it got to be too much for him to drive, they could walk—and maybe Travis would give her a piggyback ride. She checked her seat belt to see if it was securely fastened.

  “Once I get going, I can’t stop,” he said in warning. “This car isn’t four-wheel drive, so if I slow down we’ll get stuck.”

  “Then you’d have to call a Frazier to get you out.”

  “A Frazier?”

  “The sheriff’s family. They know about cars.”

  “Do they?” From Travis’s perspective, the road was easy. It would do some damage to the undercarriage of the car, but he might be able to avoid that. The question was whether or not a girl like Kim could stand it. “The sheriff would drive over that?”

  “Colin? Are you kidding? He’d drive up the mountainside. He’s nearly always the first person to arrive if someone needs rescuing. I keep telling him what a great team he and Reede would be. My brother goes down on helicopter cables to save people. He—”

  Travis was looking at her in such an odd way that she stopped talking.

  “This is like the bicycle, isn’t it? You need to do it even if you fall on your face.”

  He smiled at her because she understood so completely. On the other hand, her talk of what other men could do was crushing his ego.

  “I’m game if you are,” she said.

  “If we do this, you have to trust me,” he said, his face serious.

  “Didn’t I ride on your handlebars when you rode up that dirt hill?”

  He smiled at her in such a way that Kim wanted to kiss him. There was gratitude as well as pleasure in his eyes.

  “All right,” he said as he glanced out the windshield, his hand on the gearshift. “Put one hand on the armrest and one here and hold on. And don’t scream. Screaming distracts me.”