It shouldn’t surprise him that the stalker knew he was living here, but the confirmation disturbed Dirk. While they were fruitlessly sorting through clues, this man had been watching them.
“Did you call MacDougall?”
“Yes, but the computer it came from had been left unattended, and there weren’t any suspicious fingerprints.”
“It was interoffice? The message was sent from within the hospital?”
She nodded grimly. “There’s more. Whoever did it came into my office while I was in another part of the building. He—or she—left a couple of strands from a pom-pom in my lunch bag. I gave those to the police, too.”
Mentally, Dirk turned over this infornnation. The fact that the stalker had physically invaded Joni’s workplace was disturbing.
Could it be a co-worker? A patient? “You didn’t notice anyone in the building who seemed out of place?”
She frowned. “I did see Mrs. Wright. It turns out she’s a dialysis patient. That must be where she’s been going several times a week.”
No wonder the housekeeper had been so touchy. With her reticent nature, she’d resented even innocent questions about her whereabouts.
“I hope she’s all right,” Dirk said. “You don’t think she’s responsible for the e-mail, do you?”
“I checked, and she was hooked up to a machine at the time it was sent,” Joni said. “Kim could have written it, but she’s still missing. Besides, I keep getting the feeling it’s a man.”
“Why? Because of the footprint in the blind?”
“And that comment you made about the killer trying to punish me for making friends with Lowell. That sounds like a jealous man.” Without warning, a tear slipped down her cheek.
Reaching out with the tip of his thumb, Dirk gently wiped away the drop. “What is it?”
“I wish I’d given Lowell the benefit of the doubt,” she said miserably. “He was trying to protect me, and I accused him of being the stalker.”
“I can’t blame you, not when he’d done the same thing before. The tragedy is that he died just as he was learning some important lessons.”
Dirk wished, more than ever, that he’d had a chance to talk to his brother one more time, heart to heart. To know him as the human being he’d finally become.
“I should’ve seen that he’d changed.”
“You’re the one who made him grow up,” Dirk said. “He was lucky he found you, and in the end I think he was smart enough to realize it.”
The expression on her face was so wistful that, without stopping to consider, he leaned forward and brushed his lips across hers. When he drew back, her gaze smoldered at him.
“Do that again,” she said.
“I’m not sure we should—”
One slim, wet arm reached out and pulled him forward. When his mouth met hers, Dirk lost track of where he was, of everything but the increasing pressure of their lips.
His tongue traced her teeth and probed deeper. A sudden intake of breath told him she was responding with an intensity that matched his own.
When she came up for air, Joni said, “Take your shirt off.”
“Why?”
She gave a low chuckle. “Because I’m dripping all over you.”
He felt a surge of recklessness. “I like wet clothes.” Without stopping to consider, he slid into the tub beside her, blue jeans, polo shirt, socks and all.
It was a strange feeling, squishy and naughty. Joni’s laughter tickled across his nerve endings. “I can’t believe you did that!”
“Neither can I.” Dirk started to laugh, too. Beneath his good humor, however, he could feel himself responding to Joni’s half-naked presence. Eve must have been like this, he thought. Ripe and tempting, and scarcely aware of it.
He knew he ought to drag himself away while he still could. Then he realized that he couldn’t. Maybe he was selfish, or maybe crazy, but an exquisite hunger raged inside him that only Joni could satisfy.
“I thought I was modest, but this is ridiculous,” she teased. “Taking a bath with your clothes on!”
“As long as it doesn’t get in the way,” he said, and gathered her in his arms.
In the water, she seemed to float onto his lap. Her legs tangled with his, and suddenly Dirk could no longer bear the confinement of clothes separating them.
Chapter Twelve
Joni’s self-consciousness yielded to a languorous delight. Being held by Dirk, so close and yet protected by their clothing, allowed her to luxuriate in the sensations tingling through her body.
The barriers between them blurred. Even through the fabric, she could feel his reactions almost as if they were hers.
His hard muscles made her keenly aware of her own softness. Of the fiery need to be touched, on her face and breasts and hips. To be filled by him.
Curling against Dirk, Joni inhaled his musky fragrance, enhanced by the effect of water. When his mouth sought hers again, she danced her tongue along the edge of his lips, relishing the way his grip tightened around her.
She had never before experienced this combination of desire and comfort, of complete trust. If only it could last forever, the passion rising but never requiring fulfillment. Perhaps, tonight, anything was possible.
As Dirk explored her mouth, his hand slipped the strap from her shoulder. Warm water caressed her bare breast, and his mouth followed. Once, in some other life, she had felt clumsy and boyish. Now, beneath his kisses, her natural voluptuousness blossomed.
When he caught the erect nipple, a profound yearning lashed Joni. Her breasts swelled with desire as he slid down her other strap.
Avidly, she feathered her hands across Dirk’s shoulders, prizing their sculpted firmness. She wanted to touch him freely, to cherish his masculine beauty, to be some wild, sensual creature with no fear of consequences.
Hungrily, she helped him pull the wet shirt upward. As he lifted it over his head, she angled forward and brushed her nipples across his bronzed skin.
With a moan, Dirk caught her hips to his. His masculine hardness indented her, a warning and a promise.
Joni wanted this moment, this treasure. No other reality existed.
Dirk’s breathing rasped as she unsnapped his soaked, clinging jeans and lowered the zipper. The other night, he had stopped her at this point. This time, the prospect would be unendurable.
She tugged the denim down his thighs. He was hard, all right, but acquiescent, leaning back in the tub so she could wrest the jeans free.
As she tossed them aside, powerful hands caught her swimsuit and worked it down her rib cage. Stripping her, Dirk found the sensitive inlets of her waist and navel, then the crease between her thighs.
Joni craved everything at once, all of him touching all of her. Yet she remained kneeling, motionless, as he found her most sensitive point and stroked it.
“Dirk,” she whispered. “I want...”
“I know.” His voice vibrated close to her ear.
He knelt before her in the water, and now they were in contact at every point. Merging seamlessly, yet still not one.
His hands caught her derriere and lifted her. For one moment, Joni felt weightless and suspended before he shifted her against his groin and eased himself inside her. His vibrant masculinity extended her. A joy as pure as flame shot through Joni.
His movements began slowly, subtly, and then the rhythm intensified. She augmented his fluid music with a seductive counterpoint that spurred him on until his eyes narrowed in pleasure.
As his mouth probed hers, his movements speeded into an erotic dance. Why had she never realized she was capable of such sweet sensations?
Tightly, she pressed into Dirk, teasing and summoning him. He rocketed into her, lifting her, thrilling her. Passion exploded into ecstasy as the last shreds of control burst.
Joni soared with him, scarcely aware of the water around them. The world filled with colored lights, playing across her skin and glowing within her.
A wave of pure
satisfaction made her so buoyant that Joni clutched his shoulders to anchor herself. She had the impression that they hovered above the pool, snatched from ordinary time and space into a realm of their own.
At last they subsided together, spent but luminous. She nestled against Dirk, not wanting to talk, just to feel his rapid breathing and know that he, too, had experienced something special.
It occurred to her, too late, that they should have been more careful. She’d already had one child by this man; she knew he was potent. But then, with a twinge that might almost be disappointment, she realized it was the wrong time of the month.
It didn’t matter. The experience they had just shared was something she would always treasure no matter how empty the future might be.
DIRK STRUGGLED to understand this mad joy soaring through him. What had happened between him and Joni had elevated him to a new level of awareness.
The physical pleasure might be extreme, but even stronger was the profound sense of connection. They had forged a link whose implications he couldn’t yet grasp.
Still, he couldn’t afford to indulge in romanticism. The world would not stay on hold. In fact, he suspected that reality was due for a crash landing any minute.
Slowly Dirk drew into himself. When he did, he realized he was sitting in a tub of cooling water, with his wet clothes slopped onto the floor and Joni half-asleep against his shoulder.
From experience, he knew all too well how easily what began with loving spontaneity could end with disappointment and bitterness. He should have been more careful. He should have controlled himself.
“Time for bed,” he murmured. She nodded vaguely.
As he helped her dry off, Dirk hoped that what had happened wouldn’t damage their friendship. How could he have risked their closeness by yielding to impulse no matter how much gratification it gave him? Jeff needed them both, as parents, not as lovers in a volatile relationship.
After tucking Joni under the covers, he wrung out his clothes, wrapped himself in a towel and carried the wet garments to the utility room. Then he returned to the master bedroom.
It might be more prudent to spend the rest of the night in the sofa bed, but he couldn’t bear to leave that much space between them. As he lay down beside Joni, her warmth flooded him, bringing back tingling memories.
Tomorrow, he would find a way to persuade her that they must go back to behaving as they had before. To being merely friends, for their son’s sake.
BY THE TIME JONI AWAKENED on Wednesday morning, Dirk had left the room. but she could tell he’d slept there. The spare pillow retained a trace of his aftershave lotion, and there was an indentation where he’d lain. She wished he hadn’t gone. But, for Jeff’s sake, they needed to be discreet.
Not only for Jeff. What if the stalker realized they were sleeping together?
A chill crept down her spine. Could someone have been watching the house last night? She kept the blinds closed, but the stalker appeared to be both bold and intuitive.
If he suspected anything, she had no doubt there would be repercussions. Joni’s throat clenched as she pictured someone attacking Dirk. He needed to be careful, and so did she.
She dressed and went out. Jeff was still asleep. In the utility room, she found Dirk removing his jeans from the dryer. He looked starchily remote in a business suit.
“Hello,” she said
When he glanced up, his face had an opaque tightness. “Good morning.”
“I’ve been thinking,” she said.
“So have I.”
She pressed on. “It’s about the killer. If he suspects what happened between us last night, he might act today .”
Dirk straightened. He looked ill at ease in the cramped room. “There are a lot of reasons why we need to be cautious,” he said quietly. “Last night—I don’t want to call it a mistake, but we were careless.”
“I don’t think I’m pregnant,” she said. “Wrong timing.”
From his startled look, she gathered that hadn’t been what he meant. “I never...well, that’s fortunate. Because even though you mean a great deal to me, I don’t want to raise false expectations.”
Expectations? Certainly she didn’t expect Dirk to change his life to suit her, but she had hoped for something more than this studied coolness. “Do you want to pretend it didn’t happen?”
“We can hardly do that.” Warmth flickered in his eyes. “My first concern is for your safety, yours and Jeff’s. MacDougall already believes I lack objectivity. We don’t want to give him any further reason to discredit whatever clues we turn up. For that and other reasons, we need to back off.”
A tight band of disappointment squeezed her chest, but she supposed he was right. “They’re installing the alarm system this afternoon. You could move out if you think it’s necessary.”
“There’s no need to make a decision yet,” he said. “Right now, I want to get an early start at the office. I keep feeling there’s some detail eluding me. Something I should be able to find in the computer or in Lowell’s papers.”
Joni made a quick mental review of her plans for the day. She would be leaving her job early to let the workmen into the house and then she would pick up her son for soccer practice.
Kathryn had offered to take him since she got off early from her shift as a supermarket cashier. But Jeff needed as much support as possible right now, and Joni wanted to be with him.
“Jeff has soccer practice at four, in Del Mar Park,” she said. “You’re welcome to join us.”
“I’ll try.” He gave her a distracted half smile. “Don’t ever think that last night didn’t mean a great deal to me, because it did.”
“Me, too,” she said, but when they tried to hug each other goodbye, they seemed to have too many arms and noses.
After Dirk left, Joni awakened her son and fixed breakfast. Unsettled emotions flickered through her, embryonic happiness dampened by an incipient sense of dread.
She was mature enough to understand that not every fierce attraction could grow into a long-lasting love. Dirk cared about her, but last night might remain forever a unique and isolated memory.
It had been worth it.
As USUAL, DIRK CHECKED his car before getting in. There were no signs of tampering.
Criminals generally stuck to one method of dispatching their victims, and the stalker had shown a preference for knives. That didn’t mean, however, that he might not be clever enough to employ whatever weapon suited his purpose.
Today, more than ever, Dirk ached to watch over Joni. But if danger threatened, it was more likely to target him. At least, he hoped so.
He checked the rearview mirror more often than usual in case he was being followed. Even the slightest anomaly, such as the rattle of a truck hitting a pothole or an odor that took a moment to identify as eau de skunk, set his adrenaline pumping.
Halloween witches and skeletons adorned the neighborhood windows along the way, some of them startlingly realistic. Beside the read, a figure swung from a tree. Dirk’s grip tightened on the steering wheel until he registered the shape as a life-size scarecrow.
Still on edge, he turned into the parking lot of Peterson Printing. The copy shop in front wouldn’t open for several hours, and he cut through an empty lot toward the main plant. Near a side entrance clustered a dozen cars belonging to night-shift workers. Beyond them, delivery trucks waited beside the closed loading dock.
Dirk’s reserved space was located around back, next to the administrative offices. He would almost certainly be the first to arrive. He steered toward his space, then braked abruptly. Something dark lay crumpled in the middle of it.
It flashed into his mind that someone had dumped trash on the pavement. Then, as he stared at the shape, he remembered the scarecrow in the tree. But this sprawled, plastic-shrouded figure looked too solid to be stuffed with rags.
Dirk backed up and cut off the engine. The lot was secluded, with a small industrial park on one side and a warehouse on t
he other, although he could hear the swish of traffic from San Bernardo Road.
Holding his cellular phone in one hand, he got out and walked toward the parking space. He kept hoping his impression would prove wrong.
A few more steps, and he made out the contours of a human figure draped in a plastic sheet. Long dark hair pooled like blood around the head.
His gut clenching, Dirk dialed 911.
JONI HAD DROPPED JEFF at school and was en route to the hospital when she glimpsed flashing lights and police cars at the printing company.
Dirk. What if he’d been attacked?
Without hesitation, she spun into the lot. She couldn’t bear to lose him, not this way, not now.
An ambulance jounced by her, going in the other direction. No lights, no siren. Either it was empty or the person inside must be dead.
A glaze came over her eyes. It took all Joni’s presence of mind to steer through the maze of parked emergency vehicles toward the administrative office in back.
As she rounded the building, she recognized the lank form of Detective MacDougall, standing to one side, wearing what appeared to be the same rumpled jacket as always. He was talking to a tall man in a business suit who faced away from Joni.
She knew those broad shoulders, that short dark hair. Relief tingled through her, but her hands still felt slippery on the wheel.
Dirk was safe. What had happened, then, to bring out half the town’s police force?
Leaving the car in the first available space, Joni hurried over. MacDougall spotted her first, and Dirk pivoted.
“What’s going on?” To her surprise, she was nearly breathless. “I was going to work and I saw all the patrol cars.”
“Come with me.” The detective moved her away from Dirk and out of earshot. “Where were you last night?”
“At home.” She regarded him quizzically.
“Where was Mr. Peterson?”
“At my house, too.”
“All night?” When she nodded, the detective pressed, “Can you swear to that? Was he in the same room with you? Don’t look at Mr. Peterson! I want your honest answer.”
His Secret Son Page 14
