Blue Dawn (4 page)

She picked up the closest photo. It was all there in Maggie Rankin’s face as she gazed down at her young daughter. The pride, the relief, the love, and the answering glow in the five-year-old’s chubby face.

Allie picked up the next photo. Erik had shot it from a different angle, with a resulting shift in nuance, but it was every bit as moving as the first one.

“Hey, whatcha doing?” Coffee in hand, Kate stopped at the desk to peer over her shoulder.

“Wow! Is that the mother and daughter you were talking about? Who took the photo? It’s terrific.”

As usual, Kate rattled out question after question. Allie waited for her to stop, then wrinkled her nose. “Erik. Can you believe it?”

Kate raised one finely-plucked eyebrow. “Well, why not? He
is
a photographer. And experienced too. He didn’t spend all those years with the Aussies for nothing.”

“No. That’s not what I meant.” Allie frowned as she struggled to find the right words.
What did
she mean?
Was she surprised because a man who’d shown so little emotion had managed to capture someone else’s perfectly? Or was it something else? An image of Erik, his eerie gray eyes watching her, filled her head. A faint hum started up in her ears.

She shook her head and shrugged to shake the hum and the fleeting sense of uneasiness that accompanied it. “It’s just, well, you should have seen him this afternoon. He’s so quiet it’s unnerving. I’ve never seen anyone take so few pictures, so fast. And with no expression on his face, no attempt to put the subjects at ease, nothing. I was furious. I was convinced he’d screwed up.”

“Hardly.” Kate looked at the photos again and whistled. “If that’s a screw-up, I want him working on my next feature. I don’t care if he ever opens his mouth.”

She licked her lips and smiled lasciviously.

“Besides, what’s that they say about ’tall, dark and silent’? Think of the challenge of finding out what’s behind that pretty face.”

Allie groaned. “Why don’t you just sharpen your teeth and go after him then?”

Kate pouted, but Allie didn’t miss the sparkle in her eyes. She shook her head. Despite her friend’s vamp act, Allie knew Kate was a one-man woman, and had decided
The Streeter’s
photo editor Doug Long was that man a long time ago.

Still, Kate could rarely resist the opportunity to flirt with an appealing male. Lucky for Doug he understood her so well.

Allie gathered the photos together and stood up.

“Where y’ going?”

“To the photo department. Like it or not, I should tell Erik how great his photos are.” She sighed. “And apologize too. I was in a foul mood this afternoon.”

Kate chuckled. “That bad, huh? I guess it didn’t improve your mood any when Nate asked you to check on Cody?”

“No.” Allie frowned again. Talking about Erik made her edgy and tense. Throwing in her ex-fiancé just made it worse, bringing back all the hurt and anger she wanted to forget. Not to mention the germ of worry that had been gnawing at her ever since she’d left his empty apartment.

Where
was
he?

She bit her lip and commanded herself to forget about Cody. “Maybe I’d better ask Erik if he’d like to go out for a drink after work. He
is
new to Chicago. And between snapping at him and then wavering on the verge of tears this afternoon, he didn’t have much of an introduction.”

“Oh, yeah. It’s terrible the things a woman has to do.”

“Stop it, Kate. You know I’m only asking him because I was so rotten this afternoon.”

“I’m sure it has nothing to do with his rugged jaw, or stunning build, or—”

“You know I’m not interested, Kate. Not after Cody.” The flush Allie could feel rushing up her neck undermined the words she was determined to make true. Her breaking voice and the tears starting to brim in her eyes didn’t help either.

She took a deep breath, swallowed and then continued as evenly as she could. “Not now, and not for a long time. I’m not ready to trust any man. Or myself, either. So cut it out. I’m only being polite.”

“If you say so.”

Kate grinned slyly, but Allie saw the unspoken sympathy in her best friend’s eyes, a sympathy far more threatening to her composure than any amount of friendly teasing.

She swallowed again and forced herself to wrinkle her nose at Kate. For good measure, she stuck out her tongue.

Then, with a careless flourish, she picked up the photos and stomped off to the photo department.

A bearded man in khakis and an open-necked shirt hunched over a light table in the photo department, squinting at several strips of negatives. Doug Long had an eye for art that belied his solid build and dependable nature. Not only that, he was fun, thought Allie. It was easy to see why Kate was crazy about him.

“Oh, hi Allie.” Doug looked up from the light table. “What can I do for you?”

She waved the prints. “Where’s your new photographer?”

“Erik?” Doug straightened and nodded at the prints. “Great, aren’t they? Especially when you figure this guy just showed up on our doorstep the day George retired. Perfect timing. Perfect credentials.”

“Really?” Allie paused. That was odd.

Fortunate, she supposed, but odd all the same.

“So where is this paragon of photography now?”

She glanced at her watch. It was almost five thirty. “Has he left yet?”

Doug chuckled, then turned back to the light table. “He’s in the darkroom. The second one down the hall.”

“Thanks.” Allie headed for the hall. She found the right door, knocked once, and waited. A moment later she heard a low ”come in”.

In the darkroom’s dim lighting, she blinked several times as her eyes adjusted to the light. At first she didn’t see Erik.

Then she found him standing beside a tray of developing fluid. The light shone off his broad cheekbones and straight nose. His eyes remained cloaked in shadow, and the blond streaks in his hair glowed silver in the strange darkroom light.

Like the unearthly silver of the lunatic who’d shown up at her door last night, Allie thought.

She shoved the ridiculous idea out of her head and held up the photos.

“Uh . . .Erik.” Suddenly the simple words didn’t want to come out. She cleared her throat and tried again. “Your photos are . . . just wonderful.”

He nodded. What she could see of his face remained expressionless.

Exasperation flashed through Allie. She stomped it down and forced herself to carry on.

“I wanted to apologize . . . uh . . . for being so impatient this afternoon. For my attitude. You really do know your business.”

“Yes.”

Yes?
Was that all the man could say? She bit her lip and debated whether to leave now. But no.

She should do what was right. “I wondered if I could buy you a drink after work tonight. Just down the street there’s a—”

“Dinner.”

“Pardon?”

Erik straightened. His broad face remained expressionless. “I said let’s have dinner instead.

I’m hungry. You must know a good place.”

“Yes, but . . .” Prepared to protest his counter-offer, Allie scrambled for an excuse. Then her gaze fell to his mouth. A broad, generous mouth with unexpectedly full lips. Lips she could easily imagine trailing kisses along her neck, across her collarbone, and lower still.

Distracted, she licked her bottom lip. The tip of her tongue awakened a tingle of anticipation, an electric current of curiosity about the man standing before her.

Suddenly she realized where her thoughts were heading. She gritted her teeth.
What was wrong
with her?
She didn’t want a man, not any man.

And particularly not this sinfully good-looking man who was likely a smooth and heartless operator behind his detached demeanor. “Ahem, I—”

“Good. I’m just about finished. I’ll come by your desk at six.”

Without another word, Erik turned back to his work. Startled, Allie stared at his broad back. Then she shook her head and left, the photos forgotten in her hand.

Outside she leaned against the wall and blinked in confusion. Dinner? How had Mr. Tall, Dark and Mute managed to change a simple drink invitation into dinner?

She shook her head again and looked at the photos clutched in her hand. More to the point,
why
had she let him?

The silo-shaped brick building in the middle of Lincoln Park appeared to grow out of the side of a hill. Erik narrowed his eyes. Except for the formidable glass doors marking the entrance, the structure was similar to many a Zalian building.

The contrast to the Earth buildings he was quickly coming to accept was jarring.

He stopped abruptly. Allie bumped into him.

“What’s that?” he asked.

Allie jumped away from him as if she’d been shocked. Erik turned around and observed her with care. Since their standup dinner of what Earthlings disingenuously called a ”hot dog” and

”soda”, Allie had bumped into him several times.

And, except for the few moments when they’d been eating, she’d talked nonstop.

“Sorry,” Allie mumbled, backing away farther still. She cleared her throat. “That’s the Great Ape House. When they built Lincoln Park Zoo . . .”

Erik listened as she launched into a dissertation on yet another aspect of Chicago. His destined one certainly could talk, he thought. And much to his surprise, he found he didn’t mind.

He’d always disliked Zalians who talked too much, considering it a waste of time and a sign of weakness.

But now he was spellbound. He’d never seen such rapid-fire change of expression on any face.

He’d never heard anyone speak so quickly, or careen at such dizzying speed from subject to subject. In less than two hours, he’d heard about her family, her childhood, Chicago’s great fire, the political leaders, intrigue in the newsroom, the best places to live, all of it delivered without a pause for breath. Perhaps humans, in this respect at least, weren’t inferior to Zalians after all.

Allie concluded. A second later she began tugging him towards the building. Erik closed his much larger hand around the slim smoothness of hers. With satisfaction he noted the tingle of pleasure that rippled outwards from the place where their two hands joined. Good. The physical sensations he was beginning to experience towards her confirmed the correctness of the seer’s predictions so long ago. He suspected her constant bumping into him was the first sign of the same sensations building in her for him. It was only a matter of time before destiny took its course, and he could take his mate back to Zura.

As they approached the imposing glass doors, Allie started to talk about the animals they would see inside. Erik listened, but concentrated on watching her. He was fascinated by the changing hue of her green eyes, the lifting of her eyebrows, the pursing and pouting and lilting of her soft full lips, the ever-changing dance of emotions across the fine structure of her face. Coming from a planet where emotions were scorned and suppressed, it was like watching a forbidden delight.

Finally he couldn’t help it. “Do you always talk so much?” he blurted.

“Do I always—
what?”
Allie stopped in mid-sentence. Her eyes darkened with irritation and she exhaled sharply. “And what about you?” she demanded. “Don’t you ever say
anything?”

“About what?”

“About
anything!
” Allie ripped her hand from his and whirled about to face him. “About your family, about you, about your job, your life.

Anything. The only reason I’m talking so much is because you never open your mouth.” She glared at him. “And you keep looking at me. Like . . . like I’m an insect or something and you’re thinking of dissecting me.”

“An insect?” The description, accompanied by her frustration, puzzled Erik. He had a quick vision of Allie as an indignant but chatty insect buzzing around his head. He bit his bottom lip to suppress an odd sort of gasp that bubbled up inside.

“Yes, a—” Allie stopped. “I don’t believe it. You smiled. You actually smiled.” With one of the lightning changes of emotion that he found so bewitching, her lips curved upwards and her eyes sparkled. “Good. I was beginning to think you weren’t human.”

The humor that had started to fill his soul with unexpected lightness was extinguished.
Did she
know? But that was impossible.
He cleared his throat. “What do you mean, I’m not human?”

She shrugged. “You don’t smile. You don’t talk.

You barely respond to anything I say or do. It’s like you’re shell-shocked or something. There’s quiet, and then there’s quiet. I’ve never met anyone as silent as you before. You make me nervous.”

Erik exhaled slowly. Her statement had been just a figure of speech. But perhaps he should take it as a warning. Sooner or later he would tell her the truth again, but only after proper preparation. He couldn’t risk ruining his plans by spilling a truth he knew she wasn’t yet ready to hear.

He clenched one fist at his side.
Act human,
he told himself. After all, he was a Zalian from the far superior planet of Zura. How hard could it be to imitate an Earthling?

“So,” he started, ”what do you want to know?”

Allie cocked her head to one side and regarded him. “Well, for instance, why did you come to Chicago?”

“I’d never been here. It sounded interesting.

You know, all that gangster history. Two baseball teams. And at least one world-famous newspaper.”

Allie smiled. “T
he Streeter
is hardly
The
Tribune
. Why’d you come to us?”

“You needed a photographer. The Trib didn’t.”

“Where are you from?”

“Sydney.”

“No. That’s not what I meant. Where in the States? Where’d you grow up?”

“Seattle,” Erik said carefully. Intergalactic Research had assured him Allie had never been to the west coast, nor did she have family and friends there. “But it’s been a long time since I’ve been there.”

“Do you still have family in Seattle?”

“A brother. My sister’s in New Mexico.” As much as possible, Erik stuck with the truth. He did have a sister and a brother. He’d learned that was the easiest way to keep a story straight. “My parents are dead.”