Canyons of Night

by Jayne Castle

  Energy heightened in the atmosphere. Slade realized that Charlotte had jacked up her talent a few degrees in order to savor the full effects of the aurora. His own senses responded, not to the rippling, glowing lights in the sky but to Charlotte’s energy.

  He knew then that he had miscalculated badly. He had told himself that sex with Charlotte did not have to be complicated, just a simple case of two adults who were attracted to each other acting on that attraction. But he had been wrong. Sex was going to be very complicated. In that moment, however, entranced by Charlotte’s upturned face and the air of wonder and fascination that shimmered around her, he did not give a damn about the potential complications.

  He put his arm around her shoulders, acutely conscious of the delicate, feminine body beneath the light sweater she wore. Her scent stirred the banked fires deep inside. He turned her toward him. She did not resist.

  “Charlotte,” he said. And stopped because he could not think of what to say next.

  “I know, I know,” she said, her voice a little husky now. “You’re not long for this island. You’ve got plans for the future that don’t involve hanging around here. We’re just two talents passing in the night, blah, blah, blah.”

  “I may have said blah, blah, blah, but don’t think I actually said that we’re just two talents passing in the night.”

  She put her hands on his shoulders and smiled up at him. Her eyes were luminous pools of mystery.

  “How about two talents who happen to find themselves stranded together on an island,” she said.

  He pulled her closer. “I don’t think I said that, either.”

  “No, I did.”

  “That works.”

  He brought his mouth down on hers and kissed her beneath the radiant green night skies. Heat and energy flashed in the atmosphere. Charlotte made a small sighing sound and melted against his chest. Slowly, he reminded himself. You don’t want to screw this up by running too hot.

  But the fires of passion were already flaring and getting hotter by the heartbeat. Against his better judgment he deepened the kiss. It was okay. He could handle this. He was in control. It was just a kiss.

  Charlotte’s mouth softened and opened under his. He felt her fingers tighten on his shoulders. A shiver swept through her. The knowledge that she was responding to him was making him reckless.

  He eased his hands down her sleek back until his palms rested on the enticing curve of her hips. He cradled her snugly against his thighs. He heard Charlotte’s sharp breath when she felt his erection through the fabric of his jeans.

  “What’s the matter?” he asked into her ear. “Didn’t you realize how much I want you?”

  Her fingers clenched tighter around his shoulders. “It’s not that,” she said tightly. “It’s just . . . never mind.”

  She kissed his throat and then he felt her teeth on his earlobe. There was a sense of urgency about her now, as if she was suddenly desperate to leap off an unseen cliff. He almost laughed.

  “It’s okay,” he said. “We’ve got all night.”

  “No,” she said. “We don’t. We need to do this now. Before I—Never mind.”

  “Before you what?”

  “It’s not important now.”

  “Whatever you say. Maybe we should find a bed, first?”

  “There’s one in my cottage.”

  He scooped her into his arms and carried her up the front porch steps. She managed to find the key where she’d dropped it, fumbled, got the lock opened, and then they were inside.

  “The lights,” she whispered. “On the wall.”

  “Don’t need them,” he said.

  “Oh, yeah, right, the night-vision thing. Wow, that’s handy.”

  “Oh, yeah.”

  He got her up the stairs to the second floor and down a short hall to a bedroom. There he fell with her onto the bed. He managed to sit up long enough to get her shoes and his boots off and then they were locked in sensual combat on the quilt.

  She twisted into his body. He found the sweet, vulnerable skin of her throat. He was playing with fire but he was satisfied that he was still in control.

  He removed her glasses and set them carefully on the nightstand. Without the crystalline armor of the lenses, she suddenly looked more innocent and vulnerable. It brought back a vivid memory of how she had looked that night fifteen years earlier. He leaned down and kissed her forehead.

  “Ack.” She turned her head aside, batting at his shoulders with both hands. “Don’t do that. I promised myself you wouldn’t kiss me like that.”

  “Like what?”

  “Like you did that night. As if I were your kid sister.”

  He grinned. “Trust me, I never thought of you as a sister, not fifteen years ago, not tonight.”

  “You’re sure?”

  “There are some things a man knows with absolute certainty.”

  “Okay, then. If you’re sure.”

  He kissed her on the mouth, letting the heat rebuild. When she groaned and shuddered beneath him he unfastened her sweater and peeled it off. He slid his hands under her blue pullover. The fine bones of her rib cage felt bird-light and bird-delicate under his big hands. Her breasts were small, full, firm, and ripe, the nipples like berries between his fingers. He squeezed gently and Charlotte seemed to levitate off the bed.

  “Ah,” she gasped. “Yes.”

  She got his shirt open, got her hands inside. When he felt her palms on his bare skin another wave of heat rolled through him.

  He raised his head to look down at her. Charlotte’s eyes burned with passion. He knew that his own eyes were equally hot. The scent of her body acted like a drug on his senses, threatening to suppress what remained of his control.

  He’d thought he could handle this, but things were getting out of control fast.

  He could not resist moving one palm down to the crotch of her pants. He could feel her heat even through the fabric. He cupped her and pressed hard.

  “Yes.” She clutched at him.

  There was more than urgency in her hoarse voice now, he thought. There was an element of desperation. He did not understand it but the desire to sink into her was so strong now that he did not want to take the time to ask questions.

  It wasn’t until he started to undo the fastenings of her jeans that he realized that his fingers were trembling and his mind was clouded with need. Shock slammed through him. The atmosphere in the small, shadowed room was too hot, way too hot.

  His senses flared higher and suddenly he was far out on the spectrum, heading into the red zone, staring into the dark storm of psychic oblivion that awaited him.

  He had to crank it down a few notches, he told himself. He could do that. Grimly he reached for and found his control. He was still rock hard, still ready to explode, but he was able to partially close down his senses. The dark storm receded.

  He went back to work undressing Charlotte but he discovered she had gone very still beneath him. Her fingers wrapped around his wrists. She stared at him with wide, unfocused eyes.

  “No,” she said. “No, that’s enough. Please.”

  A flicker of raw panic shot through him. Had he hurt her?

  “Are you all right?” he said.

  “Yes, I’m okay. I’m sorry. It’s just that things are moving too fast here. I mean, we haven’t seen each other for fifteen years and now here we are in bed together.”

  “I got the feeling a few minutes ago that you didn’t think that was a problem.”

  “I’m really sorry. This is my fault. I know that.”

  She sounded miserable. He leaned over her, resting on his elbows so that he could frame her face with his hands. “I’m not trying to assign blame here. I just want to know what’s going on. You went cold on me like a de-rezzed light. Something I did?”

  “No, of course not. It’s me. My problem. I’m sorry.”

  “Stop apologizing and tell me what the hell went wrong with the two-talents-stranded-together-on-an-island con
cept?”

  “I thought that logic would work,” she admitted sadly. “I should have known better. I made a mistake. You’re not an easy man to read.”

  “Care to explain?”

  “Think about it, Slade,” she said earnestly. “This is a small community and you are the chief of police. That makes you a very high-profile person in town. For the next six months or however long you’re here, we’ll be running into each other at the post office, the grocery store, the coffee shop, the bookstore. You know how it is.”

  “No. Explain.”

  “It would be extremely awkward for both of us if we sleep together tonight and then in the morning one of us concludes that it was all a mistake,” she said.

  “You suddenly decided that one of us would regret it tomorrow?”

  She cleared her throat. “I’m not one hundred percent certain, but yes, I think there is a strong likelihood of that.”

  “And you went with the worst-case scenario?”

  She sighed. “Better to be safe than sorry. I think.”

  “Which one of us did you decide was going to regret having sex tonight?”

  “Does it matter?” She sounded anxious.

  “It matters.”

  She drew a deep breath. “Okay, then. You. You’re the one who would have regretted it. I think. Like I said, it’s a little unclear.”

  For an instant he was too shocked to speak. After a couple of seconds he pulled himself together, pushed away from her, and sat up on the edge of the bed. He looked down at her.

  “How the hell do you know that?” he asked.

  She levered herself up on her elbows. “You’re sure you want to go into this?”

  “Yes, damn it,” he said through his teeth. “Not like the mood hasn’t already been ruined.”

  She took a deep breath. “Okay. I guess I owe you an explanation.”

  “Yes.”

  “A few minutes ago when you were running hot?”

  “What about it?” he said. “You were pretty damn hot yourself, as I recall.”

  “I saw your aura rainbow,” she said quietly, apologetically. “Sex always produces a lot of psi, you see, and I was jacked myself and—”

  “I don’t want a lecture on para-physics. What did you see in my rainbow that made you freeze up on me?”

  “It was obvious that you felt deeply conflicted about what was happening. You wanted the sex, all right, but I got the distinct impression that there was something about our encounter that you were dreading. I assumed that it was the thought of having to face me in the morning. Or maybe you were worried that I’d get too emotionally involved and you didn’t want to hurt me. I don’t know. Sorry.”

  “Stop saying that.”

  She sat up and slipped off the opposite side of the bed. “I don’t know what else to say.” She found her panties and hastily stepped into them. “If it’s any consolation, I run into this problem a lot.”

  “You do?”

  She pulled her crumpled top over her head and snatched her glasses off the nightstand. She plunked the glasses on her nose. “It’s probably the reason Arcanematch was never able to match me successfully.”

  “No kidding.”

  “Every time they sent me out on what was supposed to be a serious date I ended up viewing the man’s rainbow. Once I saw it, I just knew things weren’t going to work out. Things always fizzled after that.”

  He pulled on his boots, got to his feet, and faced her across the bed. “What is it with the rainbow reading?”

  She struggled into her jeans. “Look, you’ve been very fair about this. I knew going in tonight that whatever we had together wasn’t going to be long-term. You made that perfectly clear. I was okay with that. Going with the flow. Rezzing with the frequency, as they say. But then I saw your rainbow and realized that you were anticipating a full-scale disaster.”

  He shoved his fingers through his hair. “You misread the situation. Or my rainbow.”

  “I could live with the commitment-free scenario but I don’t like the idea of you regretting things afterward.” She drew herself up. “A woman has her pride.”

  He tried hard to follow her logic. It wasn’t easy. After a few seconds he abandoned the attempt.

  He circled the bed, closing in on her. She retreated quickly until she came up hard against the wall. He stopped inches away and planted his palms on either side of her head.

  “You are not nearly as good at reading rainbows as you think you are,” he said.

  Her mouth fell open. “But I am. I’m the best. Just ask anyone at the Arcane lab where I was tested.”

  “Your talent may be as good as it gets but I am here to tell you that it is not infallible, not by a long shot.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I may have some concerns about my personal future but I can guarantee you that I would not have regretted sleeping with you tonight. Not in a million years. Not ever. Regardless of the outcome.”

  “But I saw the tension in your rainbow,” she said. “I could tell that you were deeply conflicted about the consequences of a physical relationship with me.”

  “You sound like a para-shrink. Personally, I have had enough of para-shrinks.”

  She winced. “Men hate it when I start talking like this.”

  “No shit.”

  “The history of my social life is filled with disastrous first dates. Well, sometimes I make it to two or three. Once in a while I get all the way to five.”

  “If you start talking like this on every date, I can see where there might have been a few problems,” he said.

  “In fairness to myself, I have to say that I’ve tried keeping my mouth shut in hopes that I’m wrong.”

  “Must have been hard for you.”

  “I gave all my Arcanematch dates at least three chances,” she assured him.

  “How very broad-minded of you.”

  “The point is, I gave the professional matchmakers a chance. But in the end it always turned out that my rainbow-reading intuition was accurate the first time. More accurate than their para-psych profiles. If I tried to override my intuition I invariably had a panic attack.”

  “Are you having a panic attack now?”

  “No.” She frowned, as though somewhat confused. “Probably because we stopped in time.”

  “Your intuition told you that I was the one who would have regrets so you pulled the plug before you found out whether or not that would actually happen. And before you found out if you would have a panic attack.”

  “Like I said, a woman has her pride. Besides, I thought it would be easier, socially, for both of us that way. We have the next six months to get through together here on this island.”

  “You make it sound like we’re doing time in a prison cell together. Do you really think it’s going to be easier to deal with me at the post office and the grocery store now after what just happened between us?”

  She exhaled slowly. “I didn’t handle this very well, did I?”

  “Let’s just say that I feel like banging my head against this wall.” He pushed himself away from her. “I think I’d better go back to my place now.”

  “Okay, but one question before you leave,” she said quickly.

  “Now this I’m pretty sure I will regret. What?”

  “Were you by any chance conflicted about having sex with me tonight because you’re on the rebound from that Marriage of Convenience that you told me about?”

  “No. That was easy.” He turned to go. “I’m leaving now before this conversation deteriorates any further.”

  “Maybe it’s a physical problem that worries you?” she said very earnestly. “Have you seen a doctor?”

  “Forget hitting my head against the nearest wall.” He kept walking. “I think I’ll go back to my place and pour myself a real big glass of Hot Ruins Whiskey.”

  There was a lengthy pause behind him.

  “Good night, Slade. I’m sorry I screwed this up.”

  Th
e sad wistfulness in her voice stopped him in the doorway. He turned around and walked deliberately back toward her.

  “Did you forget something?” she asked.

  He clamped both hands around her shoulders and hauled her close.

  “Promise me something,” he said.

  “What?”

  “Promise me that you will not say another word until I am back out there on the road and too far away to hear you.”

  “Okay.”

  He took one hand off her shoulder and put it across her lips. “Hush. Not a single word.”

  She nodded once but said nothing. Her eyes were wide and deep and full of an expression of bewilderment that he found very gratifying.

  “For the record,” he said, “there is no physical problem involved.”

  She blinked but she did not try to speak.

  He took his finger off her mouth and tightened his grip on her shoulders. He kicked up his senses a few notches, not trying to focus, not going into the danger zone, but hot enough so that Charlotte would be aware of the energy. He kissed her before she could think twice about speaking.

  He did not kiss her the way he had earlier. He did not ask for a response. He was not trying to seduce her now. His only goal was to leave an indelible impression.

  She did not go up in flames when his mouth came down on hers. She froze, shocked or stunned or maybe simply dumbfounded. He held the kiss for a short time, letting her feel the heat.

  He raised his head. “There will be a second date.”

  She blinked several times. “What?”

  He touched her full lips with his forefinger. “No talking, remember?”

  She looked at him with a dazed expression. “Huh?”

  “Forget it. There’s really no point in trying to make you stop talking, is there?”

  “Probably not.”

  “Just remember.” He brushed his mouth against hers once more. “There’s a second date coming up.”

  He walked out of the bedroom before she could think of anything else to say.

  He went out onto the porch and into the night. The green waves of the aurora still flooded across the sky. He realized his senses were still a little heightened. He walked down the driveway to the road and started back toward his cabin.

  Rex materialized out of the woods, chortling a greeting.