Moonlight Masquerade (Edilean 8)

It was three hours later when they stopped. Exhausted, fatigued beyond imagining, they snuggled together, sweaty and sated, and drifted in and out of sleep.

“Find us a house,” Reede murmured into her ear.

“I’ll look for one for you,” she said, her eyes closed. She’d never felt so good in her life. This man whose face she’d never seen made her feel as though she could conquer the earth, as though anything was possible. She wanted to stay in his arms forever.

“For us. You and me together.”

“Mmmm,” was all Sophie could say. Her bottom was snuggled against the bare maleness of him. She wasn’t a virgin, but in this she was. She’d never spent a whole night with a man. There’d always been other people waiting for her or she’d had responsibilities elsewhere.

Reede kissed her neck and pulled her even closer. “Roommates if you want.”

She was finally beginning to understand what he was saying. “I would like to get out of Kim’s house. I feel that I’m encroaching. But us together? No, it’s too soon.”

“I know it’s too soon, but I also know my own mind. When something is right, I know it. There’s been a lot of . . . Well, more than my share of women, but I’ve always held something back.”

He didn’t have to give his reason, but she knew it. One time he’d given his all to a woman and she’d thrown it back in his face. It wasn’t easy to recover from rejection like that—as she well knew from her own life experience.

“Sophie, you bring out the best in me. You make me want to . . . to be nice to people.”

She couldn’t help laughing at what he’d said. “But you are nice.”

“Not really, but that’s not the point. I want you to get to know me better. The real me.”

“This isn’t the real you?” Her voice was teasing as she ran her hand over his bare chest.

“No,” he said, and he was serious. “You’re going to find out things about me that you don’t like.”

“I stole a cookbook,” Sophie blurted, then put her hand over her mouth.

Reede chuckled. “I don’t think shoplifting is a cause—”

“No!” She turned in his arms to face him. It was too dark to see his face but she could feel him looking at her. “Earl’s real name is Lewis Carter Treeborne the Third. He’s heir to the Treeborne fortune and I stole their cookbook.”

It took Reede a moment to understand. “You mean the Treeborne cookbook that the ads say is the basis for all their foods?”

“Yes,” Sophie said. Her body had gone rigid and it suddenly seemed too intimate to be so close together. But when she tried to pull away, Reede wouldn’t let her. She didn’t kn

ow why she’d told him and now he probably thought she was a horrible person.

“I guess this was the package you wanted sent back?”

Sophie nodded.

To her disbelief, Reede began to laugh.

“It’s not funny!” she said. “I’m a thief!”

He tried to get himself under control as he snuggled her down against him. “You told me he said you were . . . What was it?”

“A summer romance.”

“I guess that means he had someone else all along.”

“Oh yeah. A girl named Traci, and her father and Mr. Treeborne are friends.”

Reede lost his humor as he began to see exactly what had been done to Sophie. She’d been used by some rich kid, then discarded when it was time for more serious matters. “I’m sorry,” he said. “That shouldn’t have happened to you. To anyone, for that matter. Did you make a copy of the cookbook?”

“Of course not!” she said, sounding indignant, then lowered her voice. “Besides, it’s written in code.”