Dream Man Read online

  He was breathing roughly, audibly, as he stripped her panties off and in the same movement rolled on top of her, kneeing her thighs apart. He drove into her with savage need, and she cried out at the rough penetration even as she coiled her legs around him.

  Supper was forgotten in the long, heated hours that followed. The heat of sunset dimmed into twilight. At first, Dane made love to her with a furious intensity that held anger and resentment at the tension he had been under. Marlie was as fierce, biting him, digging her nails into him, slamming her hips upward to take him.

  They didn’t talk. That first wild lovemaking didn’t allow room, or thought, for words. Afterward they lay together in silent exhaustion, their bodies still linked. The bond they had just reforged felt too new, too fragile, to allow for separation just yet. They dozed, and Marlie awoke some undetermined time later when he began making love to her again.

  This time he was tender, lingering over her. He kissed the bruises his fierce grip had left on her silky skin, silently apologizing. She licked the crescents her nails had made on him. He rode her for a long time, slowing down whenever he felt his climax approaching, not yet ready to release the pleasure.

  Both of them were acutely aware that he wasn’t wearing a condom. He supported his weight on his forearms as he moved in and out of her, their gazes locked, and the knowledge was in their eyes. When he couldn’t hold off his climax any longer, when she had already convulsed twice, she gripped his buttocks and pulled him deeper into her as he let it overtake him. He shuddered and bucked with the force of his pleasure as he jetted his semen into her.

  Again, it wasn’t time for words. Not yet. They slept again, entwined together, and twilight became dark.

  Marlie woke first. Her body ached deliciously, and she felt the hunger growing for more of what had caused the ache. Dane still slept, but when she began caressing his shaft, both he and it stirred immediately. He rolled over onto his back and closed his arms around her as she slid on top of him.

  “Stay with me,” he whispered, and closed his eyes in delight at the way the hot silk of her body so snugly enveloped him.

  She hesitated, then felt him throb within her. “All right,” she whispered in return, and gently began to move. It wasn’t much, but after the ferocity of their lovemaking, she didn’t doubt his sincerity. He hadn’t been a cop, trying to catch a killer; he had been simply a man, wild with need for his woman. He hadn’t committed himself yet, at least not with words, but the bond of the flesh had reassured her. She could wait for the rest of it.

  Carroll Janes had thought it over very carefully. He had to get the bitch alone, so that meant he had to get Detective Hollister to leave.

  He didn’t call 911, which would give the dispatcher the telephone number he’d called from. He called police headquarters directly.

  He knew himself to be a very good actor. He was proud of the frantic tone of his voice when he said, “There’s been a woman killed! There’s been another—it’s him! I swear to God it had to be him. Blood—she’s cut everywhere! Butchered! I saw him leaving, bald head just like in that sketch!”

  “Slow down, slow down,” the authoritative voice said. “I can’t understand you. Repeat that, please.”

  Janes drew in deep, audible breaths. “Another woman’s been killed. I saw a bald man run. She’s cut all to pieces, there’s blood—” He made gagging noises in the phone.

  “Calm down, sir. Where are you? Can you give me an address?”

  Janes rattled off an address he had looked up, on the opposite side of town. He stumbled over the street and numbers a couple of times to make it realistic. Then he hung up and waited.

  He was at a phone booth two blocks from Detective Hollister’s house.

  The telephone rang. Dane snatched it up. After listening a minute, he said, “I’m on my way.” He rolled out of bed and began pulling on his clothes.

  Marlie raised herself on her elbow. “What?” “Another murder,” he said tersely. “They think it was him.”

  She shook her head. “No.”

  He paused, remembering. “That’s right. You didn’t feel anything, did you?”

  “Not a thing. It wasn’t him.” She got out of bed and began dressing, too.

  He sighed. “It’s probably another copycat, damn it. I’m sorry, baby.”

  “It isn’t your fault,” she said. “You’re on the task force; you have to go.”

  He pulled her into his arms, holding her tight against him. “I don’t know how long I’ll be gone.”

  She rubbed her face against his chest, enjoying the heated scent of him. “I’ll watch television and wait up for you.”

  He tilted her face up and leaned down to kiss her. “If you happen to go to sleep, I’ll wake you up.”

  “It’s a deal.”

  “We have a lot to talk about,” he said, determination in his voice.

  “I know. Go!”

  He started toward the door, then turned back. He pulled open the top drawer of the bedside table and took out a pistol. He checked it, made certain the chamber was full and that the safety was on. “Keep this handy. Do you know how to use it?”

  She nodded. She wasn’t exactly experienced, but she knew how a pistol worked. After all, she had lived alone in the mountains; it had seemed only smart to teach herself the basics.

  He kissed her again. “Okay. Be careful, keep the pistol with you, and don’t open the door to strangers. I’ll radio in and have a patrolman over to watch the house; one should be outside within five minutes. I’ll call you when I’m on the way home, so you won’t shoot me by mistake.”

  “I said I’ll wait up for you,” she said, smiling.

  “A man can’t be too careful. Or a woman,” he added sternly.

  “Gotcha.”

  He left, and she turned on the television, settling down on the couch to run through the channels and look for something interesting.

  Dane had been gone for less than five minutes when she sat bolt upright, her heart pounding. A cold chill chased over her skin, roughening it. A powerful sense of alarm filled her.

  She felt the blow of recognition as an image flashed through her mind, blotting out her own thought: blackgloved hands, one of them holding wire cutters, tugging at a group of wires.

  She panted, trying to draw in enough oxygen from air that suddenly seemed to suffocate. Dear God, so he was striking after all! And Dane had left. Had the call been a false alarm, to draw them away, so the killer could get at Beverly? The policewoman would be all alone.

  Marlie stumbled toward the phone. A vision flashed, halting her. In her mind, she saw the wire cutters biting through plastic and wire.

  And the lights went out.

  24

  MARLIE FROZE, BLINDED BY THE SUDDEN DARKNESS, PARALYZED by terror and the crashing knowledge. He wasn’t after Beverly, he was after her—and he was right outside.

  She closed her eyes, squeezing them tight, trying to hurry her night vision. She should try to get out, but by which door, front or back? Or was he at a window? Which one? Which one?

  —Gently he cut a screen, snipping the tiny strands one by one—

  Desperately she fought off the vision. Oh, God, she wouldn’t let herself be swamped by the vision. She would be helpless. But she had never been able to resist one for long, never been able to block it, or control it. They rolled over her like tidal waves.

  —He knew she was in there. He could feel her, the bitch. He could already taste the triumph, the power—

  “No,” Marlie moaned in a whisper. Desperately she summoned up an image of the mental door she had learned how to open and close. All she had to do was close it, and keep him on the other side.

  —He’d see how smart she was when she felt the blade biting into her—

  It was washing over her in black waves. The evil was so strong, she couldn’t breathe. He was so close, the power of it was crushing her. She couldn’t fight him off.

  —The damn lock on the window