Page 8 (1/2)

Chris ers up to unfasten the buttons on his shirt one by one She didn’t expect to see the thin green lines wrapping around his throat, and ran her finger across an inch of them They felt hard, almost like calluses "Someone messed up the tattoo on your neck"

"For which I aers trailed down across the bare, smooth skin of his chest "I see You’ve couided his hand to the pearl buttons hidden under the lace of her blouse "I came here for you"

As Rob opened her blouse, Chris pushed his shirt back from his shoulders and drew it down his ariht, streaertips couldn’t dent theht lent a little color to his pale skin, and shadowed a small depression on his chest, just above his left nipple

She saw no surgical mark to explain the absence of muscle, and idly wondered what sort of injury healed without scarring As his fingers tugged free the co her hair in place, she tilted her head and kissed the old wound

Without warning Rob used the hair in his fist to pull her face away froht you wanted to dance"

Harsh words fro an erection that felt like a tire iron wedged between the his old injury or whatever it was; that much was plain

She understood She had her own scars to hide

"I do" Chris shrugged out of her blouse and took hold of the ends of her scarf around his neck, using it to bring his head down to hers "But is this"--she punctuated her words with little nips on his jaw, chin, and lower lip--"the only dance you know?"

Rob’s ainst hers "I think not"

She expected him to kiss her, but instead felt his hands shift and heard the hiss of her skirt’s zipper Cool air whispered against the stretch of skin between the bottoarter belt She stepped out of the puddle of her skirt and h to watch his expression

She would never be as beautiful as he was, but she kne she looked alined" He traced his fingertips across the slippery shell of her satin lingerie, circling with his thumb her nipple, her navel, and the curve of her hip bone "What else do you hide fro, wholly uncharacteristic iht then and there Chris, who had never confided anything to anyone outside her immediate family Her parents were the sahter so that no one would know the truth about her real mother, and how cruelly she had abandoned Chris

She should have asked, "What do you want to know?" but the words seemed locked in her throat

"Look at me, love" Rob cradled her face between his hands "Look" When she did, he stared into her eyes,under his breath, and covered her ive her a brief, hard kiss "I would trade all ht not have to say this, but you must leave me"

"Leave you" Chris wasn’t sure she’d heard hiht "Leave you now?"

"Aye" He turned his back on her, showing her a stretch of ht ’round to take you home"

After a fewa cordless telephone "Where is your bedrooestured to the left as he lifted the phone to his ear

Chris removed the receiver froing station "I’ed him toward his bedrooh thousands of international air travelers as they streah his customs station at Heathrow’s terminal two every day He enjoyed his job as well, in a surly and soht 103 had exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, only thirty-eight minutes after it had left Heathrow The bo that had not been properly checked, had taken a round to a fiery death only four days before Christht, Gordon had distrusted every passenger who caate

His suspicious nature had earned him three special citations ofplaster vases that turned out to be molded from pure cocaine; an HVAC mechanic from the US with a case filled with unclaimed specialty co grand