Charon's Crossing

She smiled. "I really did do that, didn't I?"

"Yup, you did." His voice took on a good-humored gruffness. "And I'm telling you right now, lady, it's too late to change your mind."

Kathryn drew back and looked at him, taking in the handsome, almost boyish face with its open, pleasant expression. She gave a little shake of her head and sighed.

"I really am glad you came by this morning. Just seeing you makes me feel better. I had such an awful night. One bad dream after another."

His arms tightened around her. "It's this rotten trip. I wish you'd put it off and wait until I can go to Elizabeth Island with you."

Kathryn burrowed closer to him. He smelled of cold air, of New York traffic, even faintly of male sweat, but She didn't mind. They were good smells, down to earth and real, and reality was what she needed right now.

"We've been all through this," she said gently. "I have to go now. You understand."

"Yeah." He puffed out his breath and rested his chin on the top of Kathryn's head. "Well," he said with a little laugh, "I guess there's something to be said for marrying a woman whose father leaves her a Caribbean estate."

Kathryn leaned back in his arms. "We'd better hope it's an estate and not a shanty on the beach or it'll cost me more to get rid of it than it's worth."

"He must have been quite a character, your old man. I mean, who leaves anybody an estate?"

"Don't exaggerate," she said with a teasing grin. "It's only a mansion, remember?"

"Inherited from the British side of the family."

"Veddy, veddy British."

Jason laughed. "Think how much easier it would be if he'd left you a string of pearls."

They smiled at each other.

"I really wish I could go with you," Jason said softly.

"I know. But I'll be back before you know it."

He sighed. "Yeah."

"I'm so glad you decided to come by this morning. This really was such a nice surprise."

"I thought so, too," he said smugly. "Do I get a kiss as a reward?"

"Well, I don't know. A gold star, maybe..."

Smiling, he lifted her face to his. "A kiss," he whispered, and his mouth closed on hers.

His kiss was warm and tender. Kathryn sighed and her arms crept around his neck. It was nice to be kissed this way. No, it was better than nice. It was sweet. It was gentle...

It was nothing like the way the man in the dream had kissed her. His kisses had demanded surrender. Give yourself to me, they'd said. And she'd wanted to, oh yes, she'd wanted to...

Kathryn twisted her face away from Jason's.

"Kathryn?" He clasped her chin in his hand, gently urged her to look at him. His brown eyes were dark with concern. "There's something wrong, isn't there?"

Tell him, she thought. Tell him about the dream. Bring it out of the darkness and into the open so you can laugh about it together.

Laugh? How could they laugh at something that would embarrass them both? How could she ever tell him that a man in a dream had turned her on more than the man in her arms ever had?

The thought was so shabby, so disloyal, that she hated herself for even thinking it. She reached up, clasped Jason's face between her palms, and dragged his mouth to hers for another kiss. Then she slid her hands down his shoulders to his forearms.

"It's the shower. I just remembered that I left it running all this time."