She had just turned the key in the lock when she sensed she was no longer alone. Still a little on edge from seeing those yellow eyes staring at her, she whirled around.
"Forgive me," Battista said. "I did not mean to startle you."
"Oh," she breathed, one hand covering her pounding heart. "It's you."
"You were expecting someone else?"
"No, it's just that… Oh, never mind." She felt foolish enough. She didn't need to have him laughing at her for her inane behavior.
She pushed the door open and stepped inside, then glanced at Antonio over her shoulder. "Would you like to come in?" It was rather late to be entertaining company, but at the moment she didn't feel like being alone.
With a nod, he followed her into the house.
Vicki closed and locked the door. She dropped her handbag on a chair in the living room, shrugged out of her coat, and tossed it over her bag.
"You left in a hurry again tonight," she remarked. She waited for him to answer, but he didn't seem inclined to offer any explanation. Okay, so it was none of her business. "Do you want something to drink? Iced tea? Coffee?"
"No, thank you."
"Well, I need some." She went into the kitchen and put on a fresh pot of coffee.
When she turned around, Antonio was standing in the doorway regarding her through fathomless blue eyes.
"What are you doing here so late?" she asked.
"I wanted to be sure you made it safely home."
"So, you've just been waiting around outside?"
"No. I followed you here from the diner."
She frowned. "How did you do that? There wasn't anyone behind me."
A faint smile tugged at his lips. "Are you certain of that?"
"I am unless you were driving with your headlights off."
His smile widened. "There are other forms of transportation, my sweet one."
"Like what? A bicycle?"
He laughed softly. She had never heard him laugh before. It was a surprisingly sensual sound. It did odd things in the pit of her stomach.
She stood frozen in place as he moved toward her, felt her heart skip a beat as he stroked her hair, then cupped her cheek in his palm.
"You are beautiful, my sweet. Your hair is like a silken flame, your skin as soft as that of a newborn babe. And your eyes… Ah, they are as green as the meadows I played in as a child."
She stared up him, lost in the heat of his eyes, the husky resonance of his voice. He was beautiful, too, she thought, from his finely chiseled lips and patrician nose to his fine straight brows and sculpted jaw. She tried to visualize him as a child and couldn't. It was impossible to imagine that he had ever been young or vulnerable, or that he had once played childish games.
" Victoria … "
The hunger in his voice aroused an answering hunger deep within her. Without conscious thought, she swayed toward him, went up on her tiptoes as he lowered his head. She closed her eyes as his lips found hers, their touch burning away every other thought, every other need, but the need to be in his arms, to feel the hardness of his body pressed intimately against her own. It was a most remarkable kiss, infusing her with warmth and a heretofore unknown sense of belonging.
Her arms slid around his waist and she clung to him, certain she would expire if he took his mouth from hers, if he deprived her of the touch of his hand, the nearness of his body.
She moaned softly when he lifted his head. "Don't stop." She looked up at him, then stared in disbelief at what she saw. Yet even as she told herself she could not be seeing what she was seeing, the faint red glow faded from his eyes and they were again a deep dark blue.
"Ah, Victoria," he murmured, his voice ragged. "I knew you would be sweet, but… " He shook his head as if to clear it and then took a deep breath. "I think perhaps I should go."
She was still too astonished by what she thought she had seen in his eyes to argue.
He gazed down at her a moment more, then turned and left the room.
Only after he was gone did she realize his footsteps had made no sound on the tile floor.
Vicki woke in the morning after a restless night. Her dreams had been filled with mysterious visions of figures swathed in black cloaks moving through dark shadows, of wolves howling beneath a bloodred moon, of a hooded man, his fangs glistening as he bent over her throat, of a blue-eyed cat and a yellow-eyed cat engaged in a brutal, bloody fight to the death.
She tried to shake off the disturbing images while she showered but to no avail, until she thought of Antonio's kiss the night before. That memory drove everything else from her mind. Where on earth had the man learned to kiss like that? It was like no kiss she had ever known before, dark and wild and filled with a deep hunger that had frightened and aroused her at the same time. Just thinking about it now sent a rush of heat through her, made her yearn to be in his arms again, to feel his mouth moving over hers…
Jerking her thoughts away from where they were headed, she turned off the water and stepped out of the shower.
It was Friday and she had things to do before she went to work. She dressed quickly in a pair of jeans and a T-shirt. Going into the kitchen, she whipped up some French toast and ate it while she read the morning paper, relieved to see that there had been no killings the night before, at least not in this part of the county.
After breakfast, she brushed her teeth, then slipped on a pair of sandals, grabbed her handbag and her keys, and drove into town. She had always loved Pear Blossom Creek, with its wide, tree-lined streets. She loved it that she knew just about everyone in town. She waved at Ned, who was coming out of 31 Flavors with his sons. Vicki smiled, looking forward to the day when she would have kids of her own. Of course, she needed to find a husband first. Maybe she needed to put an ad in the paper. She laughed at that as she imagined what people would say.
She picked up her cleaning, filled the car with gas, returned her books to the library, and then stopped to chat with old Mrs. Heath, who was outside watering her garden.
Ramona Heath was ninety if she was a day and as spry as a teenager. She lived alone in a small red brick house on the corner of Fifth andMain. Gardening was her hobby and her passion and her gardens were the talk not only of Pear Blossom Creek but also of all the surrounding counties. Aside from a veritable jungle of flowers, Mrs. Heath grew the largest squash and pumpkins in the county. She also grew enough garlic to stock every store in the state. She had the plants growing under all her windows and in pots on either side of the front and back doors of the house.