Free Outlaw Derek by Kay Hooper Page B

in the light.
    “I think you really are a magician,” she said suddenly in a surprised tone.
    “Well, legerdemain is a nice, masculine talent,” he allowed seriously. “I won’t object to that.”
    She chuckled and said, “I feel better now. Thank you, Derek.”
    He didn’t want to leave her, even though it was costing him to remain there. Common sense and caution won out over the demands of his body, and he squeezed her hand briefly before rising to his feet. “Good. Now get a good night’s sleep, honey.” He was at the steps when she spoke again.
    “Derek?”
    He paused and looked back at her.
    “What did you mean—a woman like me?”
    He didn’t need the question clarified. “You’re beautiful, Shannon,” he said quietly. “Someday I’ll teach you to believe that.”
    After a moment, she whispered, “Good night.”
    “Good night, honey.” Derek returned to the lower level and sat down on the couch, trying consciously to relax taut muscles in an effort he knew to be worthless.
    How much more easily she responded to himin the darkness. As if darkness were the only wall she needed then, and light brought her self-made walls rising instantly. Only in the darkness had he heard her laugh; only in the darkness had he heard the intriguing note in her voice that was so vividly alive it made his heart stop.
    That was the real Shannon, he thought, coming alive in the darkness like some rare and fragile flower that showed its blooms only to the night. Was it because of her leg? Partly, he thought; the core of that characteristic could probably be found in her constant awareness of her flaw. In the darkness she couldn’t be seen, and her self-consciousness vanished.
    He could reach her then, in the darkness. Closer one step at a time, unthreatening and undemanding. And the cost to him would be well worth the result if he managed to reach her fully. But he didn’t deceive himself that it would be easy. No, it wouldn’t be easy.
    Derek lit a cigarette and broodingly watchedhis hands tremble. Not easy at all. Grown man or not, he was finding it more and more difficult to control the desire he felt for her. He had never felt anything like this, and the strength of it had caught him off guard. Those big brown eyes—or that dress. Who knew what had done it?
    She had come to him out of desperate need for his help and, with the worst timing possible, he had fallen in love.
    There was probably, he thought, nothing on earth as fundamentally impatient as a man in love. It was entirely natural at such a mad turning point in one’s life to be intolerant of any delay, to be wholly resistant to the idea of cautious equanimity, and to be possessed by a primitive physical desire that had to be beaten into some semblance of submission. Or satisfied.
    Entirely natural.
    And to force patience at such a moment went totally against the nature of the beast. So much so, at least in his own case, that Derek wasn’t sure he could do it. Love made desire more thanitself, made it a hungry need just barely under control. But for how long?
    Could he manage to control his own need long enough to reach Shannon and build that vital trust? And, even then … could he get close enough to touch her heart?
    Raven hung up the phone and leaned back against the desk in their suite. “Damn,” she said softly.
    Josh, standing a few feet away and gazing out a window at a sunny morning, turned toward her. “I didn’t like the sound of your end of the conversation,” he noted. “Bad?”
    “It isn’t good. You remember I asked a friend of mine in the police department here to let me know if anything happened near Derek’s apartment?”
    “I remember.” Josh came to her, his rather hard blue eyes softening as always when they rested on his wife. “What’s happened?”
    “The alarm Derek had rigged in his apartment woke the neighborhood around two this morning. Witnesses reported two men running from the building. When the police got