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After another minute, he shut his phone and clipped it onto his belt, beaeous, feel-it-all-the-way-down-to-your-toes sray eyes sparkle froht of their own I smiled back He picked up his briefcase, then came over and kissed me on the cheek I inhaled the woodsy, musky scent of his aftershave

"Hi," I said "What are you doing out so early?" Most Deadtown residents were night creatures, but Kane, whose office was near Government Center, kept human hours

"Early day at the office But on my way out the door I realized it’s been, what, over a week since I’d seen you" Actually, it had been teeks, three days, and fifteen hours, but as counting? "I hopedon a pot of coffee" He nuzzled, stopped thinking, al

"What do you say?" he whispered "Can I come up?"

For soed except heavy breathing So I nodded, then grabbed Kane’s arm and pulled hi to rope each other at the sah the lust-filled haze "Good hn Mr Kane" Clyde, the zoallons of prim disapproval into his voice

"Oh, um, hi, Clyde" I put so like a cheerleader who’d been caught ot frazzled, merely nodded at Clyde, then winked at h for a poker tournalare his reproach frolasses Clyde had been a minister while alive--Presbyterian, I think, or maybe Lutheran--and he frowned on public displays of affection At the -time

I pressed the button for the elevator, and Kane and I waited side by side, not speaking and not quite touching After a second, I forgot about Clyde’s gaze burning holes in my back Kane stood to my left; my body was so aware of his closeness that sparks of electricity skittered up and down my side

The elevator door had barely closed e pounced on each other, cory for each other’s flesh My hands sought the warmth inside his coat, inside his suit jacket, the syptian cotton shirt By the tied at the fifth floor, I was half out of my leather jacket and Kane’s necktie was on the floor

As the doors opened, we came up for air "I hope your roommate’s asleep," Kane’s voice, at once husky and breathy, sent tingles to places I didn’t even know could tingle

"Juliet hardly ever stays up past six"

"But I hear voices in there--don’t you?"

"She probably left the TV on again" I don’t think he understood what I said It’s hard to talk, nibble someone’s ear, and turn the key in a lock all at the sae television blared PNN, the Paranormal News Network Kane’s eyes locked onto the screen, his hands dropped away froet a better view Da promise of our ride up in the elevator I walked to the coffee table and picked up the reaze, I was te off; instead I lowered the voluhtly beloake the dead"--which is pretty dahborhood Juliet was nowhere to be seen

Kane glanced at me "Sorry, Vicky I’ll turn it off in awith this story" The reporter was talking about the zoroup permit to march in Boston’s Halloween parade Mayor Milliken had denied it "This is why I’ an appeal as soon as City Hall opens I was up half the night working on it" He flashed a half-apologetic smile and turned back to the screen

So There I stood, all revved up like an idling sports car with no one to slide intoJuliet’s TV froave et this ers itched to do it

But I know a lost cause when I see one I abandoned Kane to the news and went into the kitchen, where Ito hear the blades pulverize theiant, sixty-three-inch plas room like a yeti at a pixie convention Juliet was fascinated by television and had insisted on buying the biggest, flattest, highest-definition set she could find Even though she loved her TV, like most vampires, she couldn’t maintain much of an interest in as on it After a few hundred years, the current pop culture trend or "crime of the century" news story just doesn’t have the sa on the TV and then wandering off to do so habit Today, I’d pro