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"Listen to er the way you did tonight"

"I don’t go walking into danger," she protested

"I told you to tell et would have You can’t let this happen again You ht have been killed If I’d known… "

"If you’d knohat? Tom Garfield probably would have disappeared a whole lot faster," she responded She pulled away fro half an alley"

He let her go instantly His head was lowered, and she couldn’t see his eyes, couldn’t ascertain what he was thinking But his body language was still tense

She walked up the stairs and felt the distance escalating between the back She could go downstairs, of course, and ask hiht about the fact that the victi had been certain she had seen Tom Garfield just before the crime

But that would just be an excuse She didn’t want to play ga at the top of the stairs and called down to him

"Hey!"

"Hey what?" Startled, he looked up at her

"Uain, do I?"

"Pardon?"

She let out a soft sigh of aggravation

"I don’t have to screaet you to come up here, do I?" she asked softly

His sh his hair, pushing a dark lock back from his forehead

"I’m on my way," he told her

"I really do need a shower"

"Nothing wrong with cleanliness," he agreed, taking the stairs two at a tiot everything that had haunted her during the day

Contessa saying she was surrounded by a dangerous purple aura

The cehost of To the streets…

A very realher…

In his arood The hold he had on her was powerful, the touch of his lips electric and coh her veins

There on the stairway just his kiss… the feel of his arether, theyaway the clothing they stripped from each other as they went

His lips were still locked with hers as she fuues were entwined as they stepped beneath the cascading water

Then there was the feel of his lips and tongue sliding down her naked flesh, along with the fall of the stea water There was thea sheer physical eroticis carnal feel of his hands, fingers, tongue… delving

Here a brush, a touch, an invasion…

She very nearly collapsed atop hireater, and her hands were suddenly wild as they played against the flesh and reater abandon, tored that simple soap could become such a stimulant, that bubbles could beco and liroping to turn the water off

They left a double trail of daan all over again In those blissfulwas real but the blatant sexuality that rippled and pulsed with the strength of his every er They twisted, they , breath rasping

And then he pulled her close, and she felt as if all was right with the world when she lay there with hiht fell from the bathroom, but the bedroom itself was in darkness Nikki basked in the sense of safety that ca that had happened, she found herself drifting to sleep

It lad of the feel and warainst his own, relieved that she had drifted off

He couldn’t sleep hihost of Tos?

It iven Officer Robinson the description hadhat the officer had drawn, and reat

He adjusted his position, loath to get up and leave Nikki, aware that he was restless and afraid that he would wake her

He needed to lie still, to rest, to find the sense of serenity he could usually suo back to the police station, find out more about the wole a name and address from Massey so he could talk to her hiht find out what the connection was, or decide there wasn’t really a connection at all

He slammed his pillow and tried to sleep

Purple…

It was surrounding her, just as it had surrounded Andy

No, she didn’t believe that colors could surround people She didn’t believe in palhosts

No, she one by…