Stranger in the Moonlight (Edilean 7)

“Of course,” she said. “I mean it is now, but . . .”

“But what?”

“Nothing.”

Kim got out her credit card but the girl wouldn’t take it.

“Everything has been taken care of,” she said. “Meals, extras, it’s all been paid for in advance.”

Luke, Kim thought. Her rich writer-cousin, Joce’s husband, was footing the bill. “All right,” Kim said and did her best to smile but she couldn’t quite make it.

“You’re on the top floor,” the girl said, then picked up Kim’s bag and went up the stairs.

The room was lovely. Large and airy and done in peach and green florals, with striped curtains at the tall windows. Had Kim been in a better mood, she would have been more appreciative.

Kim started to tip the girl but she refused and minutes later Kim was alone.

She flopped down in a chair. Now what? she wondered. Unpack then go look at cemeteries?

“What a fun life I lead,” she muttered.

She knew she was indulging in self-pity. Every self-help book said she needed to look at the positive, not the negative. But at the moment all she could think was that she had lost two men in one day.

Jewelry! she thought. Think about jewelry. But then she remembered the necklace she’d made for Travis so long ago. He’d said he still had it.

That thought made her realize that she’d never see him again. Why was it that when you asked a man to do something like stop driving so fast that he paid no attention to you? You could tell him a hundred times and he’d still “forget.” But tell him one time to go away and never come back and he obeyed absolutely. No second chances. No reminders needed.

Kim told herself to get a grip. The two men she’d lost weren’t worth all this angst. Dave was . . . She didn’t know how to describe him. In fact, she could hardly remember him. In less than a week, Travis had taken over her mind.

“But not my body,” she said as she heaved herself up out of the chair. What she needed to do was to “bury herself in work,” that phrase she read so often in books.

That was easy to do when you worked in an office. The other people, the noise, would distract a person. But Kim’s job was creating. She did it alone, just her and a piece of clay or wax, or paper and pen. There were no other people to help put her mind on something other than what she’d lost. No boss telling her he wanted the report done now so she was forced to think of something else.

Kim looked at the wall in front of her and saw three big white doors. She assumed one was a closet and one led to a bathroom, but what was the other one?

“Lady or the tiger?” she murmured as she reached for the middle door and turned the knob.

It was a door into an adjoining room that was just as big and beautiful as her room. Standing there, at the end of a four-poster bed, was Travis. He had on a pair of sweatpants that hung down low on his hips, his beautiful upper body nude. Muscles played under his golden skin, richly tanned and glowing with warmth.

Kim stood there, frozen in place, staring at him. In some deep recess inside her she still had a mind, could still think rationally. If Travis was here it meant he had again manipulated her and her life to suit himself.

But those thoughts were at the bottom of a very deep well. Right now all Kim could do was feel. Every molecule in her body was alive, vibrating, pulsating with her want, her need of this man.

Travis didn’t say a word, just turned toward her and opened his arms.

Kim ran to him, her arms going around his neck, her mouth on his. His kiss was hungry, as ravenous as she was for him. His lips were on hers, hard, searching, first on her mouth, then her cheeks, her neck.

Kim put her head back and let his hands and lips take what they wanted.

Her clothes came off. She didn’t know how. She didn’t feel buttons being undone, heard no fabric tearing. One minute she was dressed and the next she wasn’t.

She laughed as Travis picked her up and flung her on the end of the bed. Covers and pillows billowed out around her and she laughed again. This wasn’t polite, respectful sex but pure, raw passion.

Travis stood over her, looking down at her nude form for a moment, then he gave a grin that was so devilish, so wicked, that Kim fell back on the bed and opened her arms to him.

He picked her up with one arm around her shoulders, the other entwined in her hair, and pulled her head back to give him access to her face.

When he put his mouth on hers it was with all the passion he felt.