Crescent Moon - By Lori Handeland Page 0,61

what he wanted. He stopped moving - a little too late.

The release began so small, so far away and yet so large, so near, I wasn't sure if the spasms were him at first or me. Didn't matter, because both of us were rocking together, coming apart.

I collapsed on his chest; he ran his hand up my back. The world returned, and he was still inside me. I was draped all over him. Uncertain, almost childlike, he began to play with the fleur-de-lis chain at my waist.

"What did you want me to say?" I asked.

"My name. That's all."

I lifted my head, shifted my body, but kept our legs tangled together. "Why?"

"You said 'Simon' de last time you were in my bed."

I flinched at the sound of my husband's name while my body still tingled from another man. I didn't want to talk about Simon. Not now, not ever, and definitely not here and not with him.

"I was asleep," I snapped. "It isn't as if I called you Simon while you were doing me."

This time be flinched, and I got worried. Was he expecting more than I could ever give? He didn't seem the type. Then again, what type was he?

"I'm sorry, Adam." I rolled onto my back so we were no longer touching. "I wouldn't like it if you said another woman's name, either. Even though..."

I paused, uncertain what to say.

"Even though there's nothing between us but tins?" he finished.

I turned my head; our noses nearly brushed. "Yes."

For just an instant I wondered if it could be more. If I could love another man the way I'd loved Simon. If I could love this man.

"I wish I could love you," he whispered.

Was he reading my thoughts? Mirroring them? And speaking of mirrors...

"You don't have any," I blurted.

Confusion flickered over his face. "Love?"

"Mirrors."

The confusion fled, replaced by wariness, just before the stoic mask returned. He'd shut me out as if he had something to hide.

"I don't like mirrors, cher."

"Because ...?"

He sat up, presented me with his back. "What you want me to say? That I can't see my reflection? Or that I don't want to?"

I sat up, too, but turned toward him. Something was going on here; I just couldn't figure out what

"There are things I've done," he said softly. "Things you couldn't imagine."

Was he talking about the army? Or something else?

"What did you do?"

He stood, muscles rippling in his back, his legs, his arms. "More than I can ever say."

"I meant, what was your job in the army? Detective Sullivan couldn't access your file."

"My life then is dead. I'm here now, and I'll never be free."

He spun around, putting his hands on the bed, leaning over me, crowding into my space. "I'm not de man for you."

"I know."

"I can't love you."

"I can't love you."

"Don't ask me to."

"I didn't." My voice was clipped, my back tense to the point of aching.

"Just so we're clear."

"Crystal."

His lips twitched. "What you so mad about, cher? I'm just gettin' things out in de open. No hard feelings later that way."

"Fine with me," I said, but my back was stiffer than a scrub brush bristle.

He sank onto the bed, rubbed a big hand over my shoulders.

"Shh," he whispered, pulling me into his arms. "We both want de same thing. While you're here, we'll be together. When you go, we won't be."

"OK."

"Because you will go."

"Yes."

Especially since he hadn't asked me to stay.
Chapter 27
Deesse de la lune.

The words whispered through my mind. I'd heard them before. Now I heard them in Adam's voice.

I fought the heavy veil of sleep, tried to surface, to see. Who was speaking? What had they said and why?

Bursting awake as if coming from the depths of a rolling ocean and into a silent night, I found myself alone. I glanced toward the window, but nothing was there.

"A dream," I murmured.

I was so sick of dreams.

The room was dark; the moon had disappeared and the sun hadn't yet arisen. A secret, lonely hour, which wasn't night or day or even dawn.

The front door closed. Before I even knew what I was doing, I jumped out of bed and pulled on my clothes. Or what was left of them. My tank top was shredded, so I helped myself to one of Adam's, but my breasts tumbled out the armholes, since he'd shredded my bra while he was at it.

What had been incredibly sexy last night was merely an annoyance now. I mumbled curses as I found a T-shirt that might have been white once but