Free Secrets in the Stone by Radclyffe Page A

with a black hooded sweatshirt. “Would you ask Rooke to come up when she has a minute?”
    “Sure thing.” He hesitated, looking out from under long lashes with a hopeful expression. “See you later, then.”
    “Thanks, Dominic.”
    Adrian stepped back inside and closed the door to keep out the cold. She watched Rooke approach through the wavy panes of the leaded glass window. Her face was blurred, but her body looked solid and somehow familiar as she strode up the path with strong, sure strides. Adrian opened the door just as Rooke stepped onto the porch.
    “Good morning,” Adrian said quietly.
    “Hi.”
    “How’s your hand?”
    Rooke kept her bandaged hand in the pocket of her sweatshirt. “Doing fine.”
    “You’ll be all right up there?”
    “Shouldn’t be a problem.”
    “Okay then.” Adrian started to close the door, then stopped. “I was about to put on a pot of coffee. When you’re done, why don’t you and Dominic come in and have some and you can tell me how things look.”
    “All right. I should check the fireplace too.”
    “That sounds like a good idea,” Adrian said, unable to look away from Rooke’s face. As she felt herself slipping into the endless dark depths of Rooke’s eyes, she had the impression of being sheltered, held, kept safe. She didn’t resist the pull, even though she should.
    “Are you sure?” Rooke murmured, sounding far away.
    “Yes,” Adrian said hastily, blinking as the odd sensation disappeared as quickly as it had arisen. Ordinarily she’d never seek protection or even simple comfort from anyone. She didn’t trust the demand for control that would surely follow. Trust us, Adrian, we know what’s best for you. Don’t be foolish, Adrian, you don’t know what you really want. Do as we say, Adrian…
    “You look tired,” Rooke said. “I can call you with an estimate tomor—”
    “I’m fine. I didn’t sleep much, but then, I imagine you didn’t either.”
    “I’m used to it.” Rooke shrugged. “Sometimes I forget.”
    Adrian laughed. “You forget?”
    Rooke looked uncertain, and then she laughed, her quick grin highlighting a deep dimple in her right cheek. “There are better things to do at night than sleep.”
    Adrian sucked in a breath as a swift kick of arousal caught her unawares. They weren’t touching and she wasn’t riding an adrenaline high today, so she had no explanation for her physical reaction other than the fact that Rooke was gorgeous and sexy and, unlike her handsome friend Dominic, didn’t seem to have a clue. Or perhaps it was just that she hadn’t had sex in months and now that she wasn’t sleeping in a tent on the ground, alternately worried about poisonous bugs and stray bombs, her libido had returned with a vengeance.
    “Better things like what?” Adrian wanted to know. Suddenly she wanted to know everything about Rooke with a fierceness that alarmed her.
    “Work,” Rooke said uncomfortably. Adrian had the strangest expression on her face, as if Rooke were speaking a foreign language. Adrian probably really thought she was crazy now. “I should probably get—”
    “You do the gravestone carvings at night?” When Rooke nodded, Adrian said, “What do you do during the day?”
    “The same thing.”
    “You work all the time.”
    “Pretty much.”
    Adrian smiled. “You must love it.”
    Heat rushed through Rooke’s chest, and her stomach was suddenly all over the place again. She’d never tried to talk about her work with anyone because she was afraid they wouldn’t understand. But Adrian seemed to. “Yes.”
    “Can I come see, sometime? I’ve always been fascinated by cemeteries.”
    “That’s strange.”
    “Maybe.” Adrian grinned. “So what do you say?”
    “Okay.” Rooke was too stunned to say anything else. And she didn’t want to. She wanted very much for Adrian to see what she did. Some of it, at least. She backed up a step, then another, until she was standing on the snow-packed path