One Night With You (6 page)

“Seems that way to me, too. I think we ought to start back. It'll be after midnight when we get home.”

They didn't talk on the way home. Normally, she loved silence, because it allowed her to think. But not this mocking quiet, so intense that it spoke with the power of thunder. At last, they reached her house, and he parked and handed her the keys.

“I want to spend the night with you, Kendra, but I know this isn't the time. My body feels as if it's in a prison, locked behind bars and rearing to get out, but in a way, it's a good feeling. I'm alive, and I couldn't have said that before I met you. Come on, I'll see you into your house.”

“Wait here,” he said when they entered her foyer, issuing orders as usual. “I'll take a look around.” As if she didn't walk into that house alone almost every time she entered it. He came back to her. “All clear. I'll see you tomorrow at eleven, and we'll walk down to the Sound, that is if you still want to.”

“I want to. I had a wonderful time tonight, Reid, and I…Thanks for sharing your good news with me.”

“Being able to tell you about it means more to me than you can imagine. See you in the morning.”

“Wait a minute here,” she said. “You give me an evening like this one and you aren't going to kiss me goodnight? Not even a peck on the cheek?”

He stared down at her until she wondered if she should have kept the thought to herself. “You want me to kiss you?” he said.

She didn't plan it, but her fingers worked at the buttons on her coat, releasing them one by one. “Yes.” It came out as a whisper.

His hands slid beneath her coat, bringing her body to his, and his mouth came down on hers, fierce and hungry. His ravenous lips and his hands on her body, more possessive now and more familiar, sent darts zinging through her. But as quickly, he softened the kiss, and she parted her lips, shamelessly asking for more of him. He stopped kissing her and hugged her to him as if she were precious.

“Something happened to us back there in that restaurant, Kendra, and if I don't get out of here, I'll louse it up.”

She stroked his cheek with the back of her hand. “I don't want that to happen. I'm a judge, but you're far more sophisticated, more worldly and more accomplished than I am. Right now, I feel like a schoolgirl on her first big date, and I'm reluctant to end it. See you at eleven.”

“I've seen more of the world and I've done more, perhaps, but I am not more accomplished than you are. I'm proud of you.” He kissed her forehead and left.

At least now she knew why he never bothered to say goodbye.

What an evening! She wouldn't lie if she said she'd never had such a good time and certainly not such an elegant date in her whole life. And with that handsome man dressed to the nines. Tripping up the stairs to her bedroom, she stopped midway, sobered by the thought that hit her like a bolt of lightning. She was on the verge of falling for Reid Maguire, a man she barely knew. And yet, it seemed that she'd known him all of her life.

Reid jogged across Albemarle Heights to the building in which he lived, wishing that he was dressed to run miles. He needed to vent, to expel the emotion, the sexual energy coiled inside him like a fanged serpent, energy that had been dormant for years, but which sprang to life the minute he saw her. What a relief it would be if he could open his arms wide and let the wind take him wherever it would.

All that had happened to him that day, beginning with Marcus Hickson in Caution Point, had raised his hopes for his future. But when Kendra had cried for joy at his good news and then opened her arms to him, something had happened to him, something that he had never experienced before, not with Myrna or any other woman. Standing with Kendra in her foyer, he'd felt as if he belonged to her, and it was a strange feeling, indeed, for, even as a child, he had been his own person.

He opened his door, went inside and headed for the kitchen where he got a can of beer from the refrigerator and took it to the living room. After kicking off his shoes and getting rid of his jacket and tie, he popped the can of beer, flipped on the television set, leaned back and prepared to straighten out his head. In the past, that hadn't been difficult, but the only image he saw on the screen was a sexy red dress and a woman whose allure had the power to shackle him.

He flipped off the television, drained the can of beer and went to his bedroom. “If I'm in love with her, I'm sunk,” he said aloud. He knew the danger of deep involvement with her, yet he couldn't seem to stay away from her. But he would have to. It would hurt, probably both of them, but he had to settle the score with Brown and Worley.

He slept fitfully, rose early and began drafting the details of his design for the Caution Point air terminal. He didn't know when he'd ever felt so good. At nine o'clock, he telephoned Marcus Hickson in Caution Point.

“The news is good,” he said after he and Marcus greeted each other. “And I'm surprised. My boss said I can do the job independent of the company, and he's promised to send me a letter to that effect. I'll be over the first weekend after I get that letter, and you can tell me what you need and show me the space.”

“Great. I'll expect your call.”

“I can't advertise that I'm doing this, because Jack—he's my boss—said he'll have problems with his other architects if they know about it.”

“I can appreciate that, and I'll keep it to myself.”

At a few minutes before eleven, he dressed in warm clothing, put on his hooded storm jacket and dashed across the street to Kendra's house. She opened the door at once.

“Hi.” She reached up and kissed him quickly on the mouth, then licked her lips, as if savoring a sweet and wicked thing.

“Hi,” he said. “Do I smell coffee?”

“You do, and I made it for you, because I know you've had nothing but instant.”

He followed her to the kitchen, pulled off his jacket and threw it across the back of a chair. She took a mug from one of the cabinets, put a small amount of milk in it, poured the coffee, handed it to him and turned back to pour one for herself.

“Kendra, you're precious. Are you aware that if we continue this way, we're liable to be stuck with each other for life?”

She didn't turn around to look at him when she said, “Worse things could happen to me.”

He should stay where he was, and he should let that pass, but he got up and walked to her and, standing behind her, gripped her shoulders. “Does that mean you could love me?”

“Of course I could love you,” she said, her voice low and without inflection. “Now go back over there and finish your coffee.”

“What's wrong?”

“What's wrong is I'm scared. This is moving so fast. I want to be with you every minute, but I don't even know who you are, and you don't know who I am. I don't know what hurts you, makes you sad, angry, happy. I wouldn't know how to comfort you if you were down and depressed. Do you play jokes on people, Reid.? What games do you like to play? Oh, Reid. Hold me!”

He turned her to face him, wrapped her in his arms and stroked the back of her head as she rested it against his shoulder. “We
are
moving fast, and I tell myself to slow down, but I don't really want to. When I'm not with you, I'm thinking about you. Do you want us to…to see less of each other?”

“We ought to, for your sake. I want you to win that case, and a liaison with me could prove to be an impediment. I'm not willing to sacrifice that, no matter how we feel about each other.”

“I know what you're saying, and I've thought about it, too. And then, we're together, and our being together, like now, is so natural and so fulfilling,” he said to her. “How am I going to give up the pleasure of being with you?” He released her and lifted the mug of coffee. “Could you top this off, please?”

She poured some of the coffee out and refilled the cup. “Let's go down to the Sound. I'll get my jacket while you drink that.”

They strolled down Albemarle Heights to Washington Avenue, the road that led them to the Sound. Although flowers bloomed, the wind from the ocean still chilled, and she folded her arms to warm herself against it. As they reached the bottom—as the locals called it—of Washington Street, Reid's arm went around her, pulling her to his side.

“It irks me that I can't even hold your hand when we're walking the streets.”

“Let's give it a try, Reid. We can talk on the phone, have an occasional dinner together at your house or mine, or maybe not. I don't know. Anyhow, I'll always be there for you if you need me. So, let's not see each other, Reid. I'm afraid that if we get closer, it may hurt you. I won't be happy with that arrangement, but it's best.”

Reid faced the wind and turned her so that she had her back to it. “What do you feel for me, Kendra? I care for you. It's deep, and I know it isn't going away. Tell me.”

“I care deeply for you. This isn't a brush-off, and you know it.”

He looked into the distance. “I'm going to hire a lawyer and get started on that suit. I'm going to try to keep my distance, but I don't promise not to call you, and I want you to promise to let me know whenever you need me. Will you do that?”

“If I need you, I'll let you know.” Her voice broke.

“To hell with it, baby,” he said and put his arms around her. “Come on, let's go back.”

After the first court session Monday morning, Kendra asked Carl, her clerk, to come into her chambers. “Carl, I want to get involved in the community, but I don't quite know how to go about it. If I'm going to live here, I have to have a stake in the place.”

“We have a great little theater group, Judge. I used to belong to it, but after the babies started coming, I dropped out. What free time I had, I use to relieve my wife and look after the children. They'll be glad to have you, and especially if you can act.”

“Do they put on real plays?”

“Yes, ma'am. I played Joey in
On the Waterfront,
and I'm just a so-so actor.”

“Are those people going to treat me the way that guard did?”

“No, ma'am. Theater people are more broadminded. Anyhow, if I remember, at least three of them will probably ask you if you knew about the problem when you bought the house. You'll have a chance to tell your side. I'd go for it if I were you.”

She thought for a minute. “I think I will, Carl. Who do I telephone?”

He wrote the information on a piece of paper and handed it to her. “Mike Reinar will be glad to see you, ma'am. The locals love that theater, but not many of them join.”

“Thank you, Carl. I'll call him now.”

Carl left the office in his usual fashion, so quietly that she wouldn't have known she was alone if she hadn't seen him go out of the door and close it.

“Mr. Reinar, this is Judge Kendra Rutherford. I'd like to join the theater group, and Carl Running Moon Howard told me that you are the person to call.”

“What a pleasure, Judge Rutherford. I heard that we were getting a lady judge. We certainly will welcome you. I'm just casting for a play written by a very good local playwright. Would you be interested in reading for the part of the mother of a teenaged girl who's a problem? We won't always have roles suitable for you, but this one is.”

“Thank you. I haven't acted since my university days, but I wasn't bad at it back then. When and where should I go?”

He gave her the information. “May I look forward to seeing you here?”

“Yes, indeed. Till then.”

Deciding to look as much as possible like the average forty-year-old woman, she dressed in a straight black skirt that barely skimmed her knees, a red turtleneck sweater and black loafers, put on her storm coat and headed for what she hoped would be the beginning of fun and friends.

As she read, she warmed up to the part until, by the end, she felt as if she
were
the mother of a sixteen-year-old girl hell-bent on ruining her life. She handed the script back to Mike Reinar and asked him, “Well, what do you think?”

“I can't believe it,” he said. “It's plain damned eerie. You read it as if it were written for you. The part is yours. Do you think you can look a little more harassed? I mean no makeup, no earrings and straggly hair?”

“I'm not wearing any makeup, Mr. Reinar, and please, call me Kendra.”

“I'm afraid we'll have to take a vote on that. For now, I'll call you Miss Kendra.”

Later, at home, it required all of her willpower to resist calling Reid to tell him what she'd done. She studied the part with the theme music of
Peter Gunn
in the background, for it helped her to concentrate. When she went to bed, she wasn't happy, but at least she was doing something other than sitting at home morose and longing for a man she shouldn't have.

The following afternoon, she had no afternoon cases, so she went to the theater, and Reinar guided her in projecting her voice. “You're a natural,” he told her after reading with her.