“Seems that way to me, too. I think we ought to start back. It’ll be after midnight when we get home.”

They didn’t talk on the way home. Normally, she loved silence, because it allowed her to think. But not this mocking quiet, so intense that it spoke with the power of thunder. At last, they reached her house, and he parked and handed her the keys.

“I want to spend the night with you, Kendra, but I know this isn’t the time. My body feels as if it’s in a prison, locked behind bars and rearing to get out, but in a way, it’s a good feeling. I’m alive, and I couldn’t have said that before I met you. Come on, I’ll see you into your house.”

“Wait here,” he said when they entered her foyer, issuing orders as usual. “I’ll take a look around.” As if she didn’t walk into that house alone almost every time she entered it. He came back to her. “All clear. I’ll see you tomorrow at eleven, and we’ll walk down to the Sound, that is if you still want to.”

“I want to. I had a wonderful time tonight, Reid, and I…Thanks for sharing your good news with me.”

“Being able to tell you about it means more to me than you can imagine. See you in the morning.”

“Wait a minute here,” she said. “You give me an evening like this one and you aren’t going to kiss me goodnight? Not even a peck on the cheek?”

He stared down at her until she wondered if she should have kept the thought to herself. “You want me to kiss you?” he said.

She didn’t plan it, but her fingers worked at the buttons on her coat, releasing them one by one. “Yes.” It came out as a whisper.

His hands slid beneath her coat, bringing her body to his, and his mouth came down on hers, fierce and hungry. His ravenous lips and his hands on her body, more possessive now and more familiar, sent darts zinging through her. But as quickly, he softened the kiss, and she parted her lips, shamelessly asking for more of him. He stopped kissing her and hugged her to him as if she were precious.

“Something happened to us back there in that restaurant, Kendra, and if I don’t get out of here, I’ll louse it up.”

She stroked his cheek with the back of her hand. “I don’t want that to happen. I’m a judge, but you’re far more sophisticated, more worldly and more accomplished than I am. Right now, I feel like a schoolgirl on her first big date, and I’m reluctant to end it. See you at eleven.”

“I’ve seen more of the world and I’ve done more, perhaps, but I am not more accomplished than you are. I’m proud of you.” He kissed her forehead and left.

At least now she knew why he never bothered to say goodbye.

What an evening! She wouldn’t lie if she said she’d never had such a good time and certainly not such an elegant date in her whole life. And with that handsome man dressed to the nines. Tripping up the stairs to her bedroom, she stopped midway, sobered by the thought that hit her like a bolt of lightning. She was on the verge of falling for Reid Maguire, a man she barely knew. And yet, it seemed that she’d known him all of her life.

Reid jogged across Albemarle Heights to the building in which he lived, wishing that he was dressed to run miles. He needed to vent, to expel the emotion, the sexual energy coiled inside him like a fanged serpent, energy that had been dormant for years, but which sprang to life the minute he saw her. What a relief it would be if he could open his arms wide and let the wind take him wherever it would.

All that had happened to him that day, beginning with Marcus Hickson in Caution Point, had raised his hopes for his future. But when Kendra had cried for joy at his good news and then opened her arms to him, something had happened to him, something that he had never experienced before, not with Myrna or any other woman. Standing with Kendra in her foyer, he’d felt as if he belonged to her, and it was a strange feeling, indeed, for, even as a child, he had been his own person.

He opened his door, went inside and headed for the kitchen where he got a can of beer from the refrigerator and took it to the living room. After kicking off his shoes and getting rid of his jacket and tie, he popped the can of beer, flipped on the television set, leaned back and prepared to straighten out his head. In the past, that hadn’t been difficult, but the only image he saw on the screen was a sexy red dress and a woman whose allure had the power to shackle him.

He flipped off the television, drained the can of beer and went to his bedroom. “If I’m in love with her, I’m sunk,” he said aloud. He knew the danger of deep involvement with her, yet he couldn’t seem to stay away from her. But he would have to. It would hurt, probably both of them, but he had to settle the score with Brown and Worley.

He slept fitfully, rose early and began drafting the details of his design for the Caution Point air terminal. He didn’t know when he’d ever felt so good. At nine o’clock, he telephoned Marcus Hickson in Caution Point.

“The news is good,” he said after he and Marcus greeted each other. “And I’m surprised. My boss said I can do the job independent of the company, and he’s promised to send me a letter to that effect. I’ll be over the first weekend after I get that letter, and you can tell me what you need and show me the space.”

“Great. I’ll expect your call.”

“I can’t advertise that I’m doing this, because Jack—he’s my boss—said he’ll have problems with his other architects if they know about it.”

“I can appreciate that, and I’ll keep it to myself.”

At a few minutes before eleven, he dressed in warm clothing, put on his hooded storm jacket and dashed across the street to Kendra’s house. She opened the door at once.

“Hi.” She reached up and kissed him quickly on the mouth, then licked her lips, as if savoring a sweet and wicked thing.

“Hi,” he said. “Do I smell coffee?”

“You do, and I made it for you, because I know you’ve had nothing but instant.”

He followed her to the kitchen, pulled off his jacket and threw it across the back of a chair. She took a mug from one of the cabinets, put a small amount of milk in it, poured the coffee, handed it to him and turned back to pour one for herself.

“Kendra, you’re precious. Are you aware that if we continue this way, we’re liable to be stuck with each other for life?”

She didn’t turn around to look at him when she said, “Worse things could happen to me.”

He should stay where he was, and he should let that pass, but he got up and walked to her and, standing behind her, gripped her shoulders. “Does that mean you could love me?”

“Of course I could love you,” she said, her voice low and without inflection. “Now go back over there and finish your coffee.”

“What’s wrong?”

“What’s wrong is I’m scared. This is moving so fast. I want to be with you every minute, but I don’t even know who you are, and you don’t know who I am. I don’t know what hurts you, makes you sad, angry, happy. I wouldn’t know how to comfort you if you were down and depressed. Do you play jokes on people, Reid.? What games do you like to play? Oh, Reid. Hold me!”

He turned her to face him, wrapped her in his arms and stroked the back of her head as she rested it against his shoulder. “We are moving fast, and I tell myself to slow down, but I don’t really want to. When I’m not with you, I’m thinking about you. Do you want us to…to see less of each other?”

“We ought to, for your sake. I want you to win that case, and a liaison with me could prove to be an impediment. I’m not willing to sacrifice that, no matter how we feel about each other.”

“I know what you’re saying, and I’ve thought about it, too. And then, we’re together, and our being together, like now, is so natural and so fulfilling,” he said to her. “How am I going to give up the pleasure of being with you?” He released her and lifted the mug of coffee. “Could you top this off, please?”