Blue Twilight_[11]

by Maggie Shayne

  What hurt more was the uncertainty in her mind. She knew Lou far too well to think he was going to take this easily. He would be a basket case by now. The man thought too much. Well, he could deny it all he wanted, but she knew damn well he’d been as into her last night as she had been into him, and he couldn’t take back what had happened between them.

  Hell, that would drive him crazier than anything else.

  She sat up in the bed and looked around. The bathroom door was open. She smelled fresh soap, shampoo scents lingering on the air, and got to her feet to pad across the floor, stark naked, to take a look. The mirror was still coated with steam and moisture. She ran a palm across it. A damp towel was slung crookedly on the rack.

  He’d gotten up early. Must have been damn quiet about it, too. Showered while she slept and then slipped away. Hell, he was probably halfway back to White Plains by now.

  Pressing her lips tight, she corrected herself. He wouldn’t leave her—not while she was in danger, at least. He would stick around until the case was solved. No longer, though. She had probably sealed her fate by pushing him into something he wasn’t ready for last night. No way would he stay with her now. No way.

  Tipping her head to one side and rubbing the back of her neck, she walked to the front of the motel room to take a look out the window. Her car wasn’t in the parking lot. But Lou would be back. She had no doubt about that. Besides, it wasn’t even six-thirty yet. Might as well shower and be ready for the blow he would no doubt deliver when he came back.

  She stepped into the tub, yanked the curtain closed but left the door open, and turned the faucets. When the water was flowing just right, she flipped the control lever, switching the flow to the showerhead. Then she let the hot spray massage and soothe her achy muscles.

  “Hello? Maxie, you in there?” Stormy’s voice came just as Max was wrist deep in shampoo.

  “Yep. You bring breakfast?”

  “No, Lou’s getting it. I saw him on his way out. Thought I’d come get the dirt. So what happened last night?”

  Max finished rinsing the suds from her hair, peeked around the curtain and said, “We did it.”

  “You…” Stormy blinked, then grinned ear to ear. “Son of a gun! About time you nailed that hide to your wall, girl. Good for you.”

  “Not really.” Max ducked under the spray again to finish up.

  “You mean it wasn’t…?”

  “Oh, hell no. The sex part was great. Earth-shatteringly great. It’s the repercussions I’m thinking aren’t going to be so hot.”

  “Oh. There are gonna be repercussions?”

  Max turned off the water, snatched a towel from the nearby stack and wrapped it around her as she stepped out of the shower. “Oh, yeah. Any minute now he’ll be back here. I imagine he’s been awake all night figuring out how to explain to me what a huge mistake this was and why it can never happen again.”

  “If he thought it was a mistake, he wouldn’t have done it.”

  Max was bent over, briskly rubbing her head with a towel. But she looked up long enough to say, “I didn’t exactly give him much choice.”

  Stormy’s brows went up. “What did you do, take him at gunpoint?”

  “Not exactly.” She slung the towel from her head onto the counter, finger-combed her hair and then strode back into the bedroom. Stormy sat on a comfy chair with her feet propped on the foot of the unmade bed. “I might as well have, though,” Max said. She was reaching for Lou’s drawer but decided not to keep wearing all his clean T-shirts. “I have to go to my room for some clothes.”

  “I’ll go for you, if you’ll do something for me first,” Stormy said.

  “Name it.” She turned from the dresser, but when she saw Stormy’s eyes she knew she had more problems to worry about than just Lou’s reaction to their night of passion. Stormy was staring at Max’s legs, and when Max looked down she saw the bruises that had formed overnight. Her arms didn’t look much better, and she knew there were scratch marks on her neck and face.

  “Tell me what went on last night, Max. I know damn good and well Lou didn’t put those marks there. What the hell happened to you?”

  Max rolled her eyes and tried for a casual attitude. “I thought I saw someone lurking around outside. Went wandering out there like a moron. All alone. Wound up walking right over a drop and rolling all the way to the bottom.” She held out her arms, looking from one to the other, shaking her head as if at her own stupidity. “It looks a lot worse than it is.”

  “If it didn’t, you’d be dead.”

  “It was stupid. Fortunately, Lou saw me slipping away and came out after me. Got me back here and doctored me up.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “That’s how we ended up—”

  “Max, knock it off.”

  Max stopped talking. She bit her lip and knew where she’d screwed up her story.

  “I woke up bruised to hell and gone, too. And not wearing the same nightie I wore to bed,” Stormy said. “Why is that?”

  “Okay. Okay, I’ll be honest.”

  “I attacked you.”

  “No. No. You were actually the one I saw wandering around. I followed you. You fell, same as I did. It was dark, and the drop came up on you kind of suddenly. Lou would have fallen, too, if he hadn’t seen me go over first.”

  Stormy stared at her, as if willing her to reveal the whole truth.

  “You were sleepwalking, I think,” Max said.

  She didn’t mention the dark vampire who’d been out there by the shore, maybe waiting for Stormy. She didn’t mention wondering if he’d somehow used his powers to lure Stormy out there to him. And above all else, she didn’t tell Stormy that she had pummeled her best friend silly last night in what looked a hell of a lot like defense of the vampire.

  No way would she tell her that. Not ever.

  “You’re not telling me everything.”

  “I am. I mean it, Storm, that’s all of it.”

  Stormy squinted at her, and Max knew she was angry—not so much at her as at the situation. “I hate not being able to remember. I hate that my body seems so willing to walk around doing things without my knowledge or consent. God, it’s frustrating.”

  “I know. But we’re gonna get to the bottom of it, hon. Maybe even today.” She pointed at the window. “Look, no clouds. Clear skies.”

  Stormy started to reply but just then Lou came in. He had his arms full. Coffee, pastries. He’d been to the bakery again. He saw Max standing there still wearing a towel, and his eyes slid lower over her body and got all dark with passion again before they leveled on hers.

  “I, uh, was just gonna run over to Max’s room to get her some clothes,” Stormy said. “It’ll take me…ten minutes.” She looked at her watch. “Good enough? ’Cause it could take me twenty if you—”

  “You don’t need to—” Max began.

  “Make it fifteen,” Lou said.

  “In that case, I’ll take this with me.” Stormy grabbed a cup of coffee from Lou, dug into one of the bags he held for a doughnut and hurried from the room.

  Here it comes, Max thought. Here comes the big rationalization as to why what happened, happened, and why it must never, ever happen again.

  She was nervous and not looking forward to the conversation. “The weather’s not bad this morning, is it?”

  “No. Clear as a bell.”

  She nodded. “I wonder if it will turn bad the minute we start for the boat.”

  “I still have my doubts there’s a vamp alive who could control the weather even while he sleeps by day.”

  “I don’t. Last night he all but admitted he caused yesterday’s storm.”

  Lou set the bags down on the table. He faced her, then moved closer, ran a hand through her slightly crazy, still-damp hair and shook his head slowly. “You’re looking at me as if you think I’m about to drive a stake through your heart, kid.”

  “Aren’t you?”

  “Nope. I give up. You win.”

&nbs
p; She blinked three times in quick succession. “I win?”

  He nodded. “I think we should get married.”

  Closing her eyes tight, bending her brows, she let that translate in her brain, then focused on him again and said, “What?”

  “I said I think we shoul—”

  “I heard what you said. I’m just not clear on why you said it. Jesus, Lou, how did we get from ‘let’s just be friends’ to ‘let’s get married’?”

  “Well…it’s pretty obvious, isn’t it?”

  “We had sex. I told you, it doesn’t have to mean anything.”

  “But you want it to. And hell, Max, I’m tired of fighting about it. Besides, it’s done. The damage is done now, there’s no going back. So this is the only solution.”

  “What planet are you living on?”

  He shrugged. “I’m not being old-fashioned, I’m being practical.” He pushed a hand through his hair and paced away from her. “We’ve gone too far to go back now. The friendship is already ruined, Max. We can’t go back to being platonic—not after that.”

  She tipped her head to one side. “So why can’t we just be lovers for a while? What’s wrong with that?”

  He lifted his brows. “I don’t do the ‘lovers’ thing. I’m too old to be worrying about dating and romance and courtship. And that’s where you’re going with all this shit, anyway, isn’t it? So why not just skip the middle and get on with it? We’ll find out soon enough if we can make this work or not.”

  She could not believe the words were coming from his mouth. Yeah, he was babbling, but damn, he was hurting her with it.

  “Besides, I know you pretty well. Well enough to know you’re not on any sort of birth control. Suppose last night’s idiocy results in—”

  She smacked him. Hard. It shocked her as much as it did him, she thought. His head rocked to one side, and her palm stung. A hot, red imprint darkened his cheek.

  “Jesus, Maxie, what the hell?”

  “Fuck you, Lou.”

  “I don’t—”

  “No, you don’t, and I guess you never will. But I’ll tell you one thing, when you decide what a colossal mistake you’ve just made, it’s gonna be your move. I’m done. I wouldn’t come on to you again if you begged me. I’m tired, too—tired of being the only one interested. Tired of being the only one wanting. Tired of being the one rejected, even after the fact. So fuck you. Fuck you to hell and gone.”

  She stomped to the door and yanked it open. Stormy was standing there with Max’s clothes in her hand. Max grabbed them even as she shouldered past her and a second later was slamming her own motel room door so hard the glass in the window rattled.

  “Ho-ly shit,” Stormy said. She looked at Lou, who stood there as if he were suffering from battle fatigue. “She was expecting you to tell her it would never happen again, Lou, so I can’t imagine why she reacted that strongly.”

  He swallowed. “I didn’t tell her it would never happen again. I asked her to marry me.”

  Stormy frowned. “No way did that reaction come from a woman who finally won the heart of the man she’s been nuts about since the tender age of seventeen. How, exactly, did you…uh…pop the question?”

  He frowned at her. “I just said it seemed like the logical thing to do, that’s all.”

  “Logical? Logic isn’t a real key selling point where matters of the heart are concerned, Lou. Did you tell her you loved her? Couldn’t live without her? That you’d been wrong to fight it so hard for so long?”

  He was looking at her as if she were speaking Swahili.

  “None of the above, huh? So I take it you based your entire proposal on the fact that you’d finally had sex?”

  His eyes widened. Clearly it was finally sinking in that Max had told her what had happened between them last night.

  “Kind of like a grudging surrender now that the enemy has taken your stronghold?” Stormy asked.

  “Jesus, Storm. You know this is private stuff.”

  She shrugged. “Hey, if you don’t want my opinion—”

  “I don’t.”

  She sighed, leaning back in her chair, not the least bit inclined to leave now that the conversation was getting interesting. Besides, she had information she needed to wheedle out of Lou, and she thought he was just shaken enough to let a few things slip.

  “I hope that doesn’t hurt your feelings,” he said, after a moment of what looked like reflection. “I mean, I love you like a kid sister, Storm, but this is personal.”

  “I totally understand.”

  He nodded.

  “But I’d be derelict in my duty as your friend—and Maxie’s—if I didn’t tell you, Lou, you probably hurt her pretty bad just now.”

  “I realize that.”

  “She’s reading it just like I did. You felt she’d defeated you, so you might as well stop fighting.”

  He lifted his eyebrows, as if maybe he was interested in what she had to say now that she was saying something he didn’t know. “You think I wounded her pride?”

  She nodded. “You annihilated it. But that’s the least of it. You probably also broke her heart.”

  “Hell.”

  “If I know Max—and I do, you know—she won’t touch you again with a ten-foot pole. Not after this.”

  He drew a breath, opened his mouth.

  “Don’t even bother telling me maybe that’s for the best. Jesus, Lou, are you really this dense or just clinging to the act out of habit?”

  “What?”

  She closed her eyes. “When you finally figure out what you want, you’re going to have to be the one to go get it. You’ll have to go to her—on your knees, I imagine. Possibly with a burnt offering.”

  He was back to looking confused again.

  She rolled her eyes. “Poor Max, after what happened last night, out on the beach—and then this. She must be a basket case.”

  He frowned at her. “I hadn’t even thought of that. It was a rough night.”

  “She’s bruised to hell and gone.” She lowered her eyes, pressed a hand to her forehead. “God, when I saw her this morning, I couldn’t believe…”

  “You can’t go blaming yourself for that, Storm.”

  “Of course I can. I’m the one who led her out there.”

  “But you’re not responsible for what you do when you—you know—lose it.”

  She lifted her head, met his eyes. “If not me, then who?”

  He shrugged. “Maybe no one.”

  Stormy got out of her chair and paced away from him, to keep her face hidden so she wouldn’t reveal anything. “Bad enough I led her out there,” she said. “I might be able to forgive myself for that. But the rest…”

  “Come on, Storm. Max is tough. If you’d been anywhere close to really doing her harm, she’d have fought back.”

  Oh, God, it was true. Max had lied—she’d thought as much. Read it in her eyes, plain as day. She just hadn’t wanted to believe. “She wouldn’t fight back—not against me, Lou. She treats me as if I’m made of bone china. She probably just lay there and let me pound her.”

  “She’s fine, Storm. It looks worse than it is.”

  “That’s what she said.” She pursed her lips. “Only she said she got that way from a fall. I figured it was me. I just had to know for sure.”

  Lou swore under his breath.

  “Sorry, Lou. I wasn’t trying to trick you but…you understand, don’t you?”

  He sighed, then stomped around for a minute. Finally he found his rapidly cooling coffee. “I guess so,” he said at last.

  “We have to do something about this. Take some kind of precautions to make sure I can’t hurt her again. God, if I did any real damage, I’d never be able to forgive myself.”

  He nodded. “I’ll just have to keep her with me. Make sure she’s not out of my sight again.”

  “Oh, yeah, and you’ve made that a real possibility.”

  He shot her a look.

  “Come on, Lou, you gotta admit, y
ou fucked up. At least when I tear into her I’m out of my mind. You manage to do it in your normal waking state.”

  “I didn’t tear into her.”

  “You cut her heart right out of her chest. Don’t even pretend you don’t realize that at this point.”

  He closed his eyes, and she saw real pain in his face. “I’ll fix it.”

  “You’d better.”

  18

  The knock on her door came as Max was tossing her stuff into a suitcase. She never broke her pace, just called, “Go away.”

  “Max, it’s me,” Stormy said. “I’m alone. Let me in.”

  She stopped packing long enough to turn to the mirror, knuckle her eyes dry. Then she went to the door and checked through the peephole. Not that she thought Stormy would try to trick her, but it didn’t hurt to make sure. Then she flipped the lock and unfastened the chain.

  Stormy came inside, met her eyes, then hugged her hard. “I’m sorry, honey.”

  “Hell, don’t be. This has been a long time coming.”

  “I wasn’t talking about you and Lou. That game is far from over, anyway.” She nodded at the suitcase on the bed. “What are you, forfeiting and going home?”

  Max rolled her eyes and sat on the bed. “If you weren’t talking about me and Lou, then what are you apologizing for?”

  “For beating the hell out of you last night.”

  “You didn’t—”

  “Don’t bother denying it, Max. I figured out what had happened all by myself, then tricked Lou into confirming it for me. And don’t blame him for that. You’ve got his head spinning so bad he doesn’t know which way is up.”

  Max sighed, hardly knowing which part of that little speech to address first.

  “I’m really sorry I hurt you, Max,” Stormy said, choosing for her.

  “You didn’t hurt me. That wasn’t you last night. It was someone else.”

  “Or something else.” She shrugged. “Either way—”

  “Don’t torture yourself over this, Stormy. It wasn’t you. We both know it.”

  Stormy closed her eyes, lowered her head. When she brought it up again and looked at Max, she said, “So you’re leaving?”