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Perhaps it was the strain of the evening, or the disco another&039;s despair and humiliation, but they needed each other They fell into bed in a kind of fury, saying nothing, looking for what they could bring to each other to block out the lingering anger and disillusionht they had Now they had learned that it had been built on lies and deceits If they tangled together quickly, reaching, taking, it was to assure themselves that what they had built privately was no lie
This was real, solid, honest She could feel it as his ues et what existed outside this rooht, she understood She needed it, too, and so she gave herself utterly
He wanted to comfort her She had looked so stricken when Tim had collapsed into confession It was personal with Abra, and he knew, though she had said nothing, that she was taking part of the failure as her own He wouldn&039;t have it But the tis weren&039;t so raw For now, for a few hours, he would give her release in passion
Her scent He re her dab it on before dinner, absently, as an afterthought It had faded as the night had worn on, and noas noher skin, and all the lide over her throat and down to where her skin became impossibly soft, ih it quickly, impatiently She was never fully satisfied with the way it looked He thought it glorious Now, as he coh it, he could luxuriate in the wildness of it When she rolled over, stretching her body over his as if she couldn&039;t get enough of him, her hair streamed over her shoulders and dipped to his
Her lips She had added color to them, worried it off, then replaced it They were naked now, smooth as silk, soft as rain He had only to touch his to theave le of her hair and her agile body, she took herher own There was an excite the freedom to explore the man she loved To touch hih
The light in the hallas still burning, so she could see him, the lean lines, the firht her lips back to his They were so dark, so completely focused on her
She could sense so different but was unable to understand it OneThe next he held her, kissed her, as if she were precious and fragile However his hands took, however his lips dehtly with emotions that she couldn&039;t separate desire from love There was no need to
When he filled her, she found both
It was later, much later, when she woke, disturbed by so out - and found hiht here"
She saw hilowed red in the dark "What&039;s wrong?"
"Nothing Can&039;t sleep"
Sitting up, she pushed her hair away from her face The sheet slid down to pool at her waist "You can cohed and tapped out his cigarette "I never thought I&039;d meet a woman who could wear me out"
She threw a pillow at him "Is that supposed to be a compliment?"
"Just an observation" He came over to sit on the side of the bed "You&039;re the best, Red" He wasn&039;t talking about sex Because she understood that, she slad you think so" As her eyes adjusted to the dark, she frowned "You&039;re dressed"
"I was going to go for a drive I didn&039;t knohether or not to wake you"
"Of course you should have Where were you going?"
He took her hand, carefully, as though weighing it "I have to see it, Abra I et it out of ers curled into his "I&039;ll go with you"
"You don&039;t have to It&039;s late - early, I guess"
"I want to Will you wait for ht her hand to his lips "Thanks"
The air was cool and breathlessly clear Overhead, the sky was a dark, cale, only a long ribbon of road, banked first by houses and shops, then by nothing but acres of eine no more than a purr, Abra heard the lonesoh here at this tiht" Abra turned to look out theat the distant buttes, which were no"It&039;s so quiet It makes you wonder"
"Wonder what?"
"That it&039;s been this quiet, just this quiet, for centuries I guess if we do it right it&039;ll be just this quiet for centuries more"
"People in our business are supposed to see undeveloped land and think immediately of how it can be put to use"
She frowned a little and searched in her purse for a band or a string to tie back her hair "Do you?"
He was silent for athe drive, the quiet, the co the In-tracoastal where the brush is so dense you can&039;t see beyond the first foot It&039;s not quiet, because it&039;s as thick with life as it is with leaves The ay cuts through - that&039;s s are ain as she pulled her hair into a ponytail "I like you, Johnson"
"Thanks, Wilson I like you, too" He rested his arm on the back of the seat so that he could toy with the ends of her hair "You said so your last one with Thornway"
"Yeah I&039;ve been thinking about it for a long time After Tim took over I decided it was ti she had already cut her ties with the fired the tension at the back of her neck "You got another offer?"
"No I haven&039;t exactly announcedfor another offer" She was afraid he would think her foolish, so she began to fiddle with the dial of the radio Music poured out, as clear as the air "I&039; to free-lance, maybe start up my own business A small one" She shut off the radio and shot hi h spots"
"Do you want out on your own or do you just want a change of scene?&039;&039;
She considered for a uess I owe a lot to Thornway Thornway senior," she explained "He gave me a chance, let ed I didn&039;t knownever had any idea Ti like this, but I was never comfortable with the way he did business" Her eyes were drawn to the east, where the sky was just beginning to lighten "He always looked at the ledger sheets instead of the overall project, the payroll instead of the oes into business without the idea of "
"When it&039;s the only thing you end up in a situation like the one we&039;re in now"
"I still can&039;t believe it," she ht I knew hi, everything he&039;s been given, to please a woman?"
"I&039;d say he loves her, obviously more than he should"
"Maybe she loves him Maybe all the jewelry, the cars and the cruises didn&039;t er down the back of her neck "They mattered, Red With a woman like that, they always matter It&039;s a safe bet that when all this hits Marci Thornway takes the high road"
"That&039;s cruel She&039;s still his wife"
"Reht of the party? She was his wife then, too, but she invited me to let&039;s say she invited me to spend an afternoon with her"
"Oh" Whatever sympathy she had felt for Marci Thornway vanished "You turned her down?"
"It wasn&039;t a hardship Besides, I had other things on my mind In any case, I don&039;t think we can dump the whole mess in Marci&039;s lap Tiiven tooafter success in all the wrong ways"
"Hekind of people," Abra said
"He wouldn&039;t be the first businessanized crime He won&039;t be the first to lose because of it What&039;s this?" As they approached the turnoff for the site, he spotted another car It hesitated at the crossroads, then swept to the right and sped away
"I don&039;t know" Abra frowned at the receding tail-lights "Probably kids A lot of times construction sites end up as lovers&039; lanes"
"Maybe, but it&039;s late for teenagers to be out necking" He slowed to negotiate the turn
"Well, we&039;re here to look around, anyway If they were vandals we&039;ll find out soon enough"
He parked the car by the trailer In silence they stepped out of opposite sides and stood The , with its doht Like a sculpture, it rose up out of rock, a product of i had yet to be started, but Abra saw it now as Cody had
In this very fragile light it looked more fanciful, yet somehow more solid, than ever before It didn&039;t meld with the rock and sand, nor did it harainst and for - a celebration ofapart, not yet connected by the flower-bordered paths, was the health center Castlelike, it grew out of the thin, greedy soil, its arches and curves adding a richness, even a defiance, to the stark strength of the landscape The early light struggled over the eastern rise and sprinkled on the walls
They stood, hands lightly linked, and scanned what they had had a part in creating
"It&039;s going to have to come down," Cody murmured "All or most of it"
"That doesn&039;t ain"
"Maybe" He slipped an arm around her shoulders The sun had yet to rise, and the air held the clean-edged chill of the desert night "It&039;s not going to be easy, and it&039;s not going to be quick"
"It doesn&039;t have to be" She understood now, as she never had, just how much of himself he had put into this These weren&039;t just walls, weren&039;t just beaination, his contribution and, though only one who built could feel it, his heart She turned to put her aruess it&039;s time I told you the truth"
He kissed her hair, and the scent arh the air was cool with dawn "About what?"
"About this place" She tilted her head up but didn&039;t sht in the east "I rong and you were right"
He kissed her, taking his ti new, Red"