Seeing Is Believing (9 page)

This time, when he pressed his tongue
against her lips she opened them, welcoming him inside, flicking her tongue
against his as his hands caressed her back and sides. She clasped his shirt as
they
kissed,
coming up for air several times before
diving back together.

Leslie felt fireworks explode inside
her, setting off little tinges of electricity that shot through her body,
making her hard nipples tingle and her wet core shudder with need. If they
didn't stop now she would go against her word and allow herself to be taken in
the back of his pickup truck, something she'd never done before.

As if knowing exactly what she was
thinking he released her slowly, keeping his hands on her shoulder in a gentle,
possessive move that made her heart quake.

"I want you," she said, her voice almost
a whisper. "But..."

"I know. I won't push it again until we
get to your house."

They both laughed, and he stepped back.
"Give me the grand tour."

Leslie's laughter increased. "I hate to
tell you this, but this is it. This is the whole shebang, except for a metal
building located not far from here. That's where they have parties sometimes,
like the one they're having on Halloween."

"Where is it?" He suddenly turned all
business, and Leslie let go of his shirt.

"Do you think that's where the guys will
make the sale?"

Once again an unreadable look passed
over his face. Leslie wondered if it was the darkness this time, that in the
moonlight she just couldn't read him that well. But then she realized she'd
read him just fine earlier. She put her hands on her hips and swallowed hard.

"What aren't you telling me?"

"Not a thing." He took a step closer and
she ducked under his arm, coming up behind him. He turned and tried to grab her
and she stepped out of his reach again.

"Baloney.
You're up to
something, and it's something you don't want me to know about. I can tell by
the look on your face. What gives?"

"You're adorable when you get riled, you
know that? Your eyes flash and your cheeks get a little redder."

Leslie shook her head. "You can't tell
that in the dark. If you can't trust me enough to tell me what's going on, I'm
not sure we have any chance of a relationship, long distance or not."

She could tell she'd hit a cord. He
stayed right where he was, but even in the moonlight she could tell he was
frowning. "A professional relationship and a personal relationship have nothing
in common. It's always best to keep them separate, and you know it as well as I
do
."

His words made sense, but that didn't
mean she liked it. She shook her head, then turned and walked toward the far
end of the long bank of old buildings.

"Come on, the gathering hall is down
here. They've already started setting it up for the party, setting out tables
and chairs. They didn't want to put up streamers or set out pumpkins in case
bored kids came down and helped themselves."

"Not a bad idea." He caught up to her
and clasped her hand firmly in his, her hand feeling very much at home in his
grasp. "Don't be angry with me."

"Why not?"
She slowed her
pace but didn't turn her gaze on him. "Think about it from my perspective, if
you will. Two guys I know, and thought of as friendly acquaintances, use my
store to receive their drug shipments. A man shows up out of the blue, a
private investigator no less, and tells me about it and sure enough he's right.
Then he wants to stick around, to see what else appears. Now, as the case is
about to draw to a close, he wants to shut me out."

"I don't want to shut you out, Leslie. I
told you they were selling their drugs here Tuesday night."

"What time? Where exactly? And how did
you come by this information?" When he didn't answer she skidded to a stop and
turned to him. "Let me guess, that's classified information and if you told me,
you'd have to kill me."

"You have to trust me."

"Why, because
it's for my own good?"
She knew she sounded whiny but she didn't care.
This whole situation was really pissing her off.

"Exactly."

"And here I was just starting to like
you."

His laugh made her body tingle, again.
"Bull, you've liked me for a while now. You just didn't want to admit it."

She pulled her hand from his and
continued to the building hoping she didn't trip over a rock, glad that it was
October, and most snakes would already be deep in their holes, trying to stay
warm.

When she reached the building she pulled
a set of keys from her pocket, glad when he held the flashlight up so she could
see to put the key in the lock. She pushed the door open and stepped inside the
cold building.

"There's a generator for the lights, but
it's out back and I'd rather not turn them on. Suffice it to say the building
is large enough to accommodate a party, and we've had quite a few of them out
here. We make sure to have vans ready to transport people back to town, in case
they've had a little too much to drink."

"Good plan."

She didn't answer him, and when he
stepped up and put his hands on her waist, pulling her back into his chest she
didn't fight him, or try to push him away.

"Please don't be mad at me. There's only
so much I can tell you about things that have to do with the law enforcement
part of it. Truthfully, I don't think they're telling me everything. Honestly."

She nodded,
then
turned to him. He put the flashlight under his chin flashed it on and off, the
glow illuminating his face.

"Boo."

"Told you there
were no ghosts."

"You're right, no ghosts. What you do
have on your hands is a hungry private investigator. And if I can't have the
main thing I'm hungry for, which
is you
, I'll settle
for the fried chicken that's in the truck."

"Do you want to eat here, or do you want
to go back into town?"

"Here. It's a little romantic, don't you
think?"

"As long as we're not out in the cold
then yeah, I think so."

Once they were back in the truck, Leslie
unpacked the basket Nancy had fixed for them. There was fried chicken,
cole
slaw and biscuits. There
was
also a few wedges of pumpkin pie, which came from Leslie's own shop.

"She's feeding me my own food," she said
with a laugh. "I bet she got a kick out of it."

They stated to eat their chicken, a
comfortable silence broken only by chewing and swallowing. Finally, when she'd
polished off a chicken breast and a thigh, Leslie put the bones into the bag
Nancy had provided just for that purpose and sighed.

"I'm too full for pie. I don't know
about you."

Reed's heavy sigh let her know he felt
the same way. "We'll let it sit for a little while, then dig in for the sweet
stuff. Unless..." He leaned toward her and made kissy noises.

"You want to kiss me, chicken breath and
all?"

"I've got it too, remember?" He leaned
closer and she gave him a soft peck on the lips, pulling back when he tried to
deepen the kiss.

"I remember the rules," he said softly.
"Just a little kissing, maybe some
petting?"

"Shush."

"Okay, I can get the hint." He leaned
back into his chair.

"No! Out there, look." She pointed to
the corner of the old buildings, right in front of the party hut. A soft light
glowed that hadn't been there before.

"Kids?"
He leaned
closer to the windshield and she did the same thing.

"We would have heard a
car,
you know it as well as I do. There's nobody out here
but me and you."

"They could have gotten here before us,
parked out back instead of out front. Maybe they were out there making out when
we walked by and they were scared stiff we would catch them."

"Maybe."
She
squinted
her eyes closer together, as if that might make her
see something better. "Or maybe I was wrong. Maybe there is a ghost out here,
and that's the light from it."

"Right."
He drew the
word out, and Leslie could hear the derision in his voice. "Hate to break it to
you, sweetie, but I don't believe in ghosts."

The light started to move, creeping just
a little ways away from the building before darting back. Both of them stared,
not saying a word. Finally, Reed cleared his throat.

"Kids.
They just saw
the truck and ran back to the building."

"Well, if it's not ghosts, maybe it's
aliens. We're not far from Roswell, you know."

"It's kids." He took the keys from the
ignition and opened the door, grabbing his flashlight. "I'm going to
investigate. Are you going with me, or are you staying here?"

"I'm going with you." She jumped down,
shutting the door quietly behind her, almost laughing out loud when she
realized Reed had done the same thing.

The met at the front of the truck and he
grabbed her hand, squeezing it gently. They moved as one, their feet in perfect
step as they walked toward the newest building in town, were the light still
shone,
it's
stillness almost creepy.

"Reed."

"Shush." He flicked the flashlight at
the light, which disappeared quickly between the buildings. Reed dropped her
hand and took off at a run.

Stay here!"

"No!" She took off after him, praying
neither of them would trip. When he got to the corner of the building he
disappeared, and when she got to the spot he'd been, he was gone. She could see
the distant glow of his flashlight from behind the building, and she hurried to
him, clasping his arm.

"Look." His voice was soft, and full of
disbelief. She looked to where he pointed, where the light was now bouncing
around in a copse of trees.

"Kids?"

"Too fast," he replied.
"Whatever it was darted across that field like it was on fire.
It bounded into the trees, and now it's darting back and forth, as if it's
running from one thing to another."

"You don't think...?"

"No, I told you, I don't believe in
ghosts," he said. "But that was weird, I'll give you that much."

*****

"I'm telling you, it was a ghost."
Leslie set the picnic basket on her table. Tomorrow she would clean it up, wash
out the containers and return everything to Nancy, thank her for the wonderful
food. She turned to look at Reed, who now sat at the kitchen table, his legs
stretched out before him.

"It was kids. They saw us coming, and
they took off for the trees."

"You're the one who said it was too fast
to be kids. Now you're changing your mind? Remember we didn't hear any car
engines, any motorcycles, anything else they could have made a getaway on. Just
admit that it was something you can't explain."

"I don't believe in things that can't be
explained." He was fiddling with a napkin holder that was on the table, turning
it round and round in his fingers, his eyes trained on it. Leslie could tell
the dancing light bothered him, and that despite his words, he knew it was
something supernatural, something that couldn't be explained away so easily.

She crossed the room and sat down on his
lap, wrapping one arm around his neck. "Admit it, there's a chance it could be
something you can't explain, something that not a lot of people see in their
lifetime."

"Sorry, but I find that hard to
believe." He gently worked his hand inside her sweater, stroking his fingers
across the small of her back. Leslie shivered in delight, her nipples peaking
under his touch. "Maybe it was something scientific."

"Like what?" She moaned softly as a finger
snaked up her spine.

"I don't know
,
I'm not a scientist."

"Really?"
She looked down
at him. "What are you?"

"A man who likes
concrete proof of things."

Leslie sucked in a huge breath of air as
his free hand moved under the front of her blouse, his deft fingers clicking
the back hook of her bra as he gently pulled on the front, releasing her
breasts into his hands.

"Don't worry, I remember the rules. But
I still want to make you come, watch your face, hold you close as you wiggle in
pleasure." He'd captured a hard nipple as he spoke, rolling it around in his
fingers, teasing it until, much to Leslie's amazement it grew harder, tingling
with need.

"You're just trying to change the
conversation because you know I'm right."

For an answer he stood quickly, then
turned and laid her across the table. Her feet were still on the floor. When he
lifted her shirt to reveal her breasts, then lowered his lips to capture a
nipple she sighed, wrapping her fingers into his hair and pulling him close.