“Such as?“
“Such as moving in with me for the rest of the summer. Being the generous man that I am, I’m even willing to take your stupid dog.“
4
He hadn’t liked her answer but he’d handled it with his customary cool. Probably because he was convinced it wouldn
’t take him long to change her mind.
Suit yourself, he’d said. No need to make a decision this minute. We’ll talk about it some other time.
Diana thought about Colby’s implicit assumption for a long time after he’d left that night. He was probably right.
She was already sleeping with him. Why not move in with him?
For the summer.
Deep inside, Diana knew that was the part that grated. Colby Savagar wasn’t looking any further ahead than the end of the summer. He was certainly honest enough about that.
Restlessly, Diana pushed back the covers and left the bed. Specter got to his feet as she put on a robe and found her slippers. He looked up at her questioning.
“Want a midnight snack?“ Diana asked.
Specter’s large, floppy ears snapped forward with eager attention, and he crowded close as Diana went down the hall.
“No need to ask you twice, is there? You and Colby both respond well to the stimulus of food.“
Specter probably didn’t care to be lumped together with his archrival but he kept quiet about it. He watched alertly as Diana dug out a dog biscuit and handed it to him. Specter took it from her fingers with great delicacy and then proceeded to swallow the snack in one chomp and a gulp.
“My, what big teeth you have,“ Diana said as she found a cracker for herself. “Colby’s right. Those teeth do make a person wonder what you did for a living before you got this cushy job as my pal.“
Specter grinned in what he probably felt was an engaging manner. Unfortunately the canine smile only succeeded in showing more teeth.
“Don’t do that,“ Diana instructed firmly. “You remind me of Colby.“
She sat down at the kitchen table to munch her cracker. The copy of Shock Value Colby had given her a few weeks earlier lay nearby. She was still trying to get the last paragraph of chapter ten out of her mind from yesterday’s reading.
She hesitated a minute and then, unable to help herself, flipped the book open to find out what had happened to the main character, a man named Donnelly.
All he could think in those last seconds was that it wasn’t right for a creature of such evil to appear in such innocent guise. A monster should look like a monster. A man should be able to tell the difference between good and evil at a glance.
But he had been too blind to see the truth and now the truth would kill him. Slowly, horribly, unmercifully, it would kill him.
Diana shuddered a little and quickly closed the book. She knew better than to read more of Shock Value at this time of night. She looked down at Specter.
“I think Donnelly’s going to make it,“ she told the dog. “But we’re all going to get our socks scared off in the process. Where do you suppose a writer of horror novels gets his ideas? I don’t think I would want to dream Colby’s dreams.“
She got up and started to turn out the hall light. Aaron Crown’s letter still lay on the small table near the door.
Diana remembered Colby’s reaction to it.
“The man spends one afternoon making love to me and he figures he’s got a right to read my mail. Specter.
Something tells me Colby’s the possessive type. He’s also arrogant, proud and capable of carrying a grudge against an entire town. I wonder why he came back to Fulbrook Corners this summer.“
Specter gave her a look that clearly said, who cares? Then he yawned and padded down the hall to the bedroom.
Colby looked up from the screen of the word processor and watched the morning sunlight fill the valley. In the distance Chained Lady Falls poured silver down the cliffs and Colby’s body tightened as he remembered the events of the previous afternoon.
Making love to Diana had resulted in exactly the effect he’d half feared. It had deepened his need for her rather than slaked his thirst.
Why had she said no when he’d asked her to move in with him? They were already sleeping together. It seemed ridiculous not to share one house for the summer. He didn’t think she was the type who would care what a townful of strangers thought about her living arrangements, but then, maybe she was.
There was a lot he didn’t know about her yet. Colby was just beginning to realize how badly he wanted to know more, now that he had established the physical bond.
The compelling curiosity he was experiencing bothered him. In the first place, it wasn’t like him. In the second place, she wasn’t even his type. Diana was too self-contained, too confident of her own ability to take care of herself, too focused on her career. A regular twentieth-century amazon.
All in all, there was something about her that let him know she didn’t really need a man in her life. A man had to work damned hard at convincing her he had his uses, even if only in bed. Diana was certainly different from every other woman he had ever known.
But in some ways he couldn’t quite define, Colby sensed she was also a little like him – self-reliant, accustomed to making her own rules in life, opinionated. She would never expect anyone else to step in and clean up any mess in which she happened to find herself. She had obviously been taking care of herself for a long time.
There was an underlying feminine pride in her that he knew was ultimately bound to clash with his own masculine confidence.
But he had discovered to his profound satisfaction that he could make her shiver in his arms.
“Damn it to hell.“
He was going to drive himself crazy if he kept thinking about her. He had a chapter to finish today. Colby punched the key that would save the paragraphs on the screen and then got to his feet. He’d been working since six. It was almost time to get the mail. If he got to the post office around ten-fifteen, he would probably run into Diana and they could have coffee together. Then they could make plans for the evening.
Twenty minutes later he grinned briefly to himself as he pulled into the small post office parking lot. Diana was already there. His smile faded as he remembered the letter she had collected yesterday. He hoped there wouldn’t be another one from her boss. Colby had read enough in Crown’s letter to know he didn’t like the guy.
He didn’t like any man who thought he could write to Diana in such friendly, familiar terms. The jerk had been pleading for Diana to come back to her old job, and there had been something in the tone of that plea that had really annoyed Colby. Aaron Crown had made it sound as if he had a claim on Diana, as if he had rights over her.