But he was glad he hadnt. Leaving South America for his sisters wedding, hed been tired and exhausted, having just handled a particularly grisly story of murder and mayhem among two feuding drug lords. On the way to the airport, along the side of the road, hed come across a group of children playing. Not as they played here in the States, with toys and gadgets and electronics. Not these kids, whod probably never had a single possession to call their own in their entire lives.
Theyd been playing at a game of stones, and their sheer pleasure at being alive and free to play had grabbed him by the throat.
The picture was of a boy no more than six, half-naked with his ribs and stomach protruding. He held his treasured pile of stones, grinning a toothless grin, which made Nick smile, too.
I appreciate your working me in like this, came the womans voice again, just on the other side of the door now, removing his thoughts entirely from that world and placing them firmly in the present.
She still sounded soft and sweet, and more than a little harried. No problem. He wondered if she had a face and body to go with that sensuous voice. Wondered if she was lush and curvy, or lean and petite. Wondered if she dressed as hot as she sounded. Wondered-
Sadie is very cooperative.
Oh, yeah. She had a way of speaking that brought to mind sweaty, wild, against-the-wall sex. Sadie?
My dog. Shell be no trouble at all.
Hell, hed nearly forgotten. But how hard could it be to snap a photo of a dog? If he couldnt do that, then he ought to just pack it in and call it a day. Be right with you.
Suddenly he was looking forward to this doggie gig. Sure, hed had a nice, leisurely afternoon planned out, but Nick was nothing if not a man willing to make the most out of every opportunity. Spending time in the company of an incredible-sounding female seemed nice and leisurely, too, so he hung up the last picture from his roll, wiped off his hands and opened the darkroom door.
And was greeted by a sight that made him grin.
His pretty-sounding client had her back to him. Specifically her butt, as she was bent over a mass of something he assumed was a dog. Not a canine-lover, Nick ignored the animal and let his gaze soak up the very nice view its owner provided.
She wore khaki shorts that were riding up at the moment because of her bent-over position, and since he happened to be somewhat of a lingerie connoisseur, he could tell she wore thong panties, as nothing marred the clean lines of the shorts over the twin curves of her cheeks.
Very nice, he thought on an appreciative sigh. Her legs were nice, too, long and bare and toned. As for the rest of her, he caught a blur of equally nice long, toned arms in a white sleeveless blouse, and a flash of shoulder-length, wavy, russet hair as she whirled around with a half smile already in place.
On her hauntingly familiar face. He knew that face, knew that body. Knew those misty gray eyes. And one night, a lifetime ago, hed known more than that. Danielle?
Her smile faded, replaced with an expression of shock. My God. Nick. I havent seen you since
High school graduation. Never taking his eyes off her, Nick shook his head at the vision of all his adolescent fantasies, standing in the flesh before him. Theyd gone through four years of school together, and though theyd never spoken except for that one fateful night, hed had enough imagination even then that it hadnt mattered.
How many nights as a horny teenager had he lay in his bed, staring at the ceiling, thinking of the hottest girl in the school, knowing he wouldnt get a chance to be with her? He would have sworn that that girl had never, not once, noticed the tall, skinny nerd hed been.
And yet shed known his name.
Thats when he heard the odd rumble, and realized there was a huge mass of teeth and muscle standing behind Danielle.
Growling. Not a friendly, how-do-you-do growl, either, but a should-I-eat-your-face-or-your-heart-first sort of growl.
Nick had faced guerrilla warfare, crash landings in unfriendly territories, typhoid fever and countless other emergencies, but hed never quite imagined himself going like this.
He took a better look at the dog, or what he hoped was a dog, as it was past hip height to Danielle. Its short muzzle was black, and at the top of this inky mask, two mahogany-brown eyes peered out below a thick, simian brow. The shorthaired coat was a riot of brown-and-black tiger stripes.
Yep, just a dog.
The next thing Nick knew, hed been hit in the chest with what felt like a bowling ball. No, make that a wrecking ball. Staggering back, he hit the wall, but was saved from sliding gracelessly to the floor by the two huge, massive paws on his chest, pinning him in place.
Nick stared into the brown, bloodshot eyes and realized the dog was about as tall as he was. There was a huge tongue, lots of drool and really bad breath. Thats about all he caught before Danielle lugged the thing off him.
Sadie, she admonished. Youve got to stop greeting people like that.
Nick straightened and ran a hand down his shirt, grimacing when he encountered great globs ofslobber. Greeting?
Well, shes a bit nearsighted. She likes to get close to see your face.
Uh-huh. Nick glanced down at the biggest, beefiest dog hed ever seen. I thought she was interested in eating me.
Oh, no! Sadie is the sweetest thing, shed never hurt anyone. Proving so, she bent and cupped Sadies huge jowls in her palms, smiling a smile that seemed both indulgent and infinitely sad. Shes had a rough time of late, thats all.
And so had Danielle, Nick guessed. He knew little about her other than shed headlined his every wet dream for several happy years, but his instincts were never off. Something was wrong, he could see it in the exhaustion in her eyes, in the way she carried her lithe body. Hell, he could practically smell it on her.
And everything within him wanted to ask her about it. Could he help? Hed done so once, though hed always wondered how things might have been different if shed let him do more. It did startle him how easily and instantly he fell back into that pattern of wanting to save her.
But damn it, he was on vacation. No rescuing fair maidens in distress required. He was going to just hang out, take some pictures, get some recreational sex if he could, and do whatever came to him that didnt demand much thought.
And yet it was utterly beyond him to ignore anyones problems. Just as he opened his mouth to ask her about it, she closed off her expression to his questing gaze. So, she said. Whos taking the pictures of Sadie?
Youre looking at him.
Oh. Can we get started? Im a bitstrapped for time.
2
NICK EYED SADIE with a wariness that might have amused Danielle under any other circumstances, but this wasnt just a whim. And she really was strapped for time, even if she wanted to stop time and just stare.
Nick Cooper. God, shed always wondered about him, wondered if No. She couldnt go back. What was done was done.
I dont suppose I can talk you into waiting, he said. As I mentioned on the phone, my sisters-
No. As she half expected the cops to come haul her away, and as she hadnt yet proved ownership of Sadie, she had to press on. I cant wait.
His eyes had always been amazing, almost hypnotic in their fathomless green, and now they landed on her, slowly assessing. Certainly kind, certainly compassionate, but she didnt need kind and compassionate, she needed those pictures.
So why dont you tell me whats wrong? he said after a long beat.
So he was still intuitive, still willing to put aside everything else and come to her aid. But she was no longer a lost, frightened, desperate seventeen-year-old. She didnt need his help, she needed his camera. Nothings wrong. To go along with her denial, she forced a smile.
He looked her over for another long, unsettling moment. As before, taking his sweet time. And as before, leaving her squirming because she had no idea what he saw when he looked at her like that.
But he simply nodded. Okay, then.
Danielle followed him down the hall toward one of the studios, still oddly unnerved at the sight of him. Whatever he did with himself, it involved his tall, leanly muscular body, which looked like one fully honed muscle. He wore jeans, faded and soft-looking, though there didnt appear to be one single soft thing about him. They clung snugly to his backside and thighs, the fabric of his shirt stretched across his broad shoulders. She couldnt seem to tear her eyes off him.
While she was staring stupidly, wondering how the boy shed known had grown up into this picture-perfect man, he happened to glance back, and caught her.
He smiled, a friendly, no-secret-meaning-attached-to-it smile, and it was so simple, so contagious, she almost smiled back.
Ridiculous as it seemed, this man wasnt just a blast from her past, but something else, something deeper, something she didnt want to face after everything else. He was dangerous to her mental well-being, and she instinctively knew it.
Ive wondered about you, he said. About where youd be, what youd be doing.
While that made her tingle in even more awareness, she shrugged it off. Nothing special, really.
You had special written all over you, he said. Still do.
Shed been on her own forwell, forever. She needed no one. Especially now, after Ted. So she couldnt possibly be looking into his timber-green eyes, suddenly yearning to throw herself against him and beg for help.
Just because her life had gone to hell in a hand-basket was no reason to fall apart at a familiar face. No reason at all. I havent thought about high school in a long time, she said.
I try not to think about it at all.
She could believe it. By some grace of God, shed been popular in those days. It had always baffled her. Shed been born on the wrong side of the tracks and had worked at a fast-food joint until all hours of the night helping her mother keep a roof over their heads. As a result, she hadnt had the best of grades, and yet shed hung with the in crowd-at least on the days shed been coherent enough to socialize and not falling over in exhaustion.