Free Barbie & The Beast by Linda Thomas-Sundstrom Page B

could still communicate, while he maintained some control and she her interest. He had to
     reach her before his transformation began. And, damn!—he had to reach her before he went out of town on that police gig he’d
     accepted. That would postpone his time with Barbie for a couple weeks more. If she would just answer her phone. If she would
     only give him a chance. He had a very short window of opportunity in which to make her see reason.
    “Damned bloody moon!” he snarled. “Damned bad timing!”
    He sagged against the warm brick of a building. “Don’t think about that,” he told himself. “Think positively. If this is meant
     to be, Barbie will answer.”
    What he had to do was concentrate real hard, see if he could sniff her out. He could actually knock on her door. Either that,
     or else he could call his buddy at the police department for a favor. Her address? The police were always happy to oblige
     someone they trusted. And if the police trusted him, so could Barbie—at least for a few hours more.
    This isn’t presumptuous, Darin assured himself. Barbie was interested; he had felt the spark. There remained a very good possibility
     their meeting in the cemetery had been pre-ordained, even. Destined. Somebody up there in the big sky and endless universe
     was smiling upon him at last, and though he’d never believed in that before, hell, if there were such things as beasts and
     other darker beings that went bump in the night, why not divine intervention of some kind? Why not believe that Barbie was
     the one to accept what he was? Fate was perhaps more than wishful thinking. Maybe there were such things as miracles. Maybe
     dreams could come true.
    Not one peep. Barbie hadn’t uttered one peep when he’d temporarily abducted her. This suggested an inner confidencein her ability to perceive and separate danger from adventure, he guessed. Unafraid. She’d joked about cemeteries, with no
     odor of fear emanating from her, only those crazy female pheromones. She was perfect.
    Stop, he told himself. He couldn’t really know her for sure, could he? Other than this strangely powerful attraction between
     them, he had no idea what Barbie was made of. Hopefully she wasn’t just sugar and spice and everything nice. With luck she
     was a bit more. . .. Well, he wasn’t so keen on slime or snails, himself. But puppy dog tails were mandatory.
    He eyed the street, blew out a sigh. Good thing he hadn’t lost his sense of humor over all this.
    Good thing Barbie Bradley had one.

Chapter Ten
    Barbie’s face was plastered to her pillow in a major sugar hangover. Too tired to move, other than to glance briefly at the
     dial on the clock radio, she muttered, “It’s midnight. I’m not going to answer this phone, so you can stop calling.”
    Riiinnngggg.
    She covered her ears with the pillow.
    Riiinnnggggg.
    “Hey! Wake up the neighbors, why don’t you?”
Riiinnngggg!
    Barbie picked up the receiver, dropped it, then managed to retrieve it again and place it to her ear.
    “Your new message is quite funny,” said the voice on the other end of the line.
    Bolting upright, Barbie fumbled with the pink princess phone again, then put one hand over her heart to make sure it didn’t
     leap out of her chest.
    “ ‘Hello. Barbie doesn’t know you and has thought better of this, so please stop calling.’ That’s not a proper message,” her
     mystery man chided in his sexy bedroom voice.
    Barbie cleared her throat. “Then what is it?”
    “A challenge.”
    “It wasn’t meant to be a challenge.” Or maybe it was, Barbie admitted silently. Could it have been, without her knowing?
    “Why did you leave your number, if I wasn’t to call?” the stranger asked.
    “Moment of weakness. Women have them. I’m a woman.”
    “I know.”
    Gulp.
Of course he did. He’d done all that feeling around in the graveyard.
    “It’s midnight,” Barbie said.
    “Not my fault. You had the phone off the hook for a