Crescent Moon - By Lori Handeland Page 0,34

you talk about it?"

"Lover I blurted.

This hadn't been love, at least not for me. Not for him, either, I was certain. He didn't seem like the kind of man who fell in love.

"Figure of speech," he murmured, his voice trilling down my body, leaving goose bumps in its wake.

"Find another," I snapped, unreasonably annoyed at his cavalier attitude. Though why, I had no idea. I wanted him to be that way. I couldn't bear anything else.

"You'd rather I say 'you fuck like a wild thing'? How about 'screw'? 'Bang'? 'Boink'? None of them seemed de right word at de time."

My lips trembled, and he stared at me, horrified. Then I burst out laughing. I couldn't help myself. " 'Boink'?"

He smiled, too, then shrugged, the movement making his slick chest rub against mine in new and enticing ways. "See what I mean? Not de right word."

The laughter had been good, had made me feel almost closer to him than the sex had.

Almost.

Rain dotted my cheeks, sparkled in his hair. Suddenly my hands were free, and I drew a finger down his face. "There's so much about you I don't know."

Amusement fled as wariness took its place. "There are things you don't wanna know."

He rolled off me and to his feet in a quick feline movement. Leaning over, he dug his cigarettes out of his pants, then glanced at the still-dripping sky.

"Did you kill someone?"

I hadn't meant to ask that, wasn't sure why I had. Like he was going to tell me.

The pack of cigarettes crunched as his hand clenched, then he took a deep breath, and as he let it out, his muscles relaxed, his fingers unfurled, and the shiny crumpled paper thudded to the ground.

"You know I have."

I blinked. "Wh-what?"

"Why you ask if you don't want to hear? I was in de army. I did what I had to do."

"I wasn't talking about the army."

Slowly he turned, his eyes eerily light in the encroaching night. "What were you talkin' about?"

Adam might feel comfortable standing in the swamp buck naked, but I didn't I reached for my shirt, drew it over my head, and started hunting for my underwear.

"A detective came to see me." Had it only been this morning? "There was a man killed in the swamp."

"Another animal attack," Adam murmured.

I found the white scrap of cotton and shoved my legs inside. My jeans were soaked. I debated trying to put them on and decided against it

"Not an animal this time." I looked up. "Guy was strangled."

Adam's face revealed nothing; however, he didn't seem surprised. "You think I did that?"

"Did you?"

"Who was this man? Why would I kill him?"

I didn't know the answer to either question. "The detective wants to talk to you."

"He can want all he likes."

"You aren't going to talk to him?" I asked.

"When I get around to it."

"He seemed pretty determined."

"He'll have to be a lot more than determined to find me out here."

He had a point.

I jerked my head toward the shack. "This is where you live?"

"Yeah."

"Why?"

He lifted his brows. "Why not?"

"You've got a perfectly good house, if you'd only take care of it."

Adam's face became shuttered. "I hate that place. I wish it would rot, but de damn thing never will."

His vehemence surprised and confused me. "You moved out here because you hate the house, not because you - ?"

I stopped abruptly.

His mouth quirked. "You heard I lost my mind, huh? Why you come here if you think I'm nuts?"

I hadn't come here - actually I had, but not the way he meant; I'd followed him. Or at least I thought I had. "Why were you watching me at the mansion?"

He'd been leaning over, reaching for his clothes, giving me an eyeful of his terrific backside. At my question, he stilled for just an instant. If I hadn't been admiring the view, I wouldn't have noticed.

"Watching?" He straightened, but he didn't face me. Instead, he seemed to be scanning the swamp.

"By the cypress trees. When I called out, you left, so I followed you. Didn't I?"

"Mmm," he murmured, then scooped up his clothes, my jeans, and grabbed me by the arm. "I've had enough of de rain. Let's go inside."

I hung back, uneasy, uncertain. "Why did you lead me here?"

He stared at me from behind the tangled curtain of his hair. "I'm a man. Why you think?"

For some reason the idea that he'd led me into the swamp for sex annoyed me, which was stupid. I hadn't followed him for a tour of the area.