Free Nocturnal Urges (Nocturnal Urges, Book One) by Elizabeth Donald

deduced from our varied physiology. But why light reflections from us do not appear in mirrors… That science cannot explain.”
    Isabel cocked an eyebrow skeptically. “You really don’t show up in a mirror?”
    Ryan glanced around, and stood up. He crossed over to her fireplace, and stood before the beveled mirror above it. Isabel rose and stood next to him. She saw only herself. Still, she was suddenly very conscious of his presence beside her, and she felt a surging in her blood that she quelled with a physical effort.
    “Fascinating,” she breathed, and turned to see Ryan moving back to the couch. “It’s so strange that no one can figure it out.”
    Ryan shrugged. “They also don’t know why a duck’s quack doesn’t echo,” he said.
    That did it for Isabel. She giggled again, like a young girl, and suddenly she felt young, nervous as a virgin, with the same heat beneath her skin that she first felt as a teenager. Ryan hid his smile behind his hand again, and she wished he wouldn’t. She could tell he had a nice smile.
    “It is my turn,” Ryan said softly. “Why did you come to me that night?”
    Isabel stared at him for a moment, but the honesty in his gaze was too much. She dropped her eyes. “I was alone for the night and I wanted to try it again,” she said.
    Ryan was silent a moment. “Both true and not true,” he said. “You are a complicated people.”
    “Americans? Humans?” Isabel asked.
    “Women.”
    Isabel giggled again. “Duane would agree with you,” she said.
    Ryan was silent again, as though he were waiting. She sipped her soda, avoiding his eyes. “Is it so unusual to have repeat customers?” she asked.
    “Not at all,” Ryan said. “Without regulars, the trade would quickly dry up.”
    Isabel shrugged. “Then why am I so unusual?”
    “You know why,” he said, and his voice was more intense, not the soothing warm-flannel voice but a penetrating deep heat that was nearly physical.
    “No, I don’t,” Isabel said. “I wanted it again, I could do it again, why not?”
    “Because that’s not all it was.”
    Isabel shook her head, willfully avoiding his eyes. “Yes it was,” she said. “It was great, don’t get me wrong. But it was…”
    “It was more,” Ryan insisted. “Something I haven’t…”
    Isabel stood up quickly. “No, it was just an orgasm, a good come, that’s it,” she said rapidly. “That’s all. I’m sorry if you thought it was something different, truly I am, because you seem very nice and you’re very kind to worry about me, but it was just another bite, that’s all.”
    Ryan was standing behind her, she sensed him, and somehow she sensed uncertainty and turmoil as well, as though she were feeling his emotions. Or were those her own?
    “I’m Duane’s girl,” she said desperately.
    Ryan’s hand was on her arm, not pulling, just touching with that light electricity that sank through her skin. “No woman belongs to a man,” he said softly.
    “That’s not what I meant,” she said.
    Ryan was standing too close.
    “Please go,” she said, her voice low.
    Ryan hesitated. “Do you want me to go?”
    She dipped her head. “No,” she said frankly. “I don’t, and that’s why you should go.”
    Ryan stood there for another moment, and then his hand was gone. “Forgive me if I overstepped my bounds,” he said, and a few agonizing seconds later, she heard her front door close gently.
    Only then did she turn back to the empty living room, suddenly devoid of whatever had filled it a few moments ago. Only then did she let herself relax, and realized her hands were shaking.
    What is this power he has over me?
    She suddenly scrambled to take the soda cans into the kitchen, empty the soda down the sink drain and put the cans in the recycling bin. She looked around for any signs of Ryan’s visit, a pillow out of place, a blood smear on the wall… Oh, very funny, Isabel, you’re completely losing it.
    Still, the fact that she was so