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badly she needed companionship. She felt Gregory s absence like a blade.
Another tear slipped down her cheek. Exasperated with herself, she wiped it away and glanced at the
clock. Her alarm would go off in about fifteen minutes, anyway. She may as well start getting ready for
work.
She tugged a comb through her tangled dark hair and winced as the comb s teeth hit a snarl. Once she d
gotten her hair more or less tamed, she showered and put on a white blouse and a pair of dark slacks.
She applied a bit of pink lipstick in the bathroom and paused, looking around. She thought she d heard a
voice say her name. Gregory? she called.
At first she felt nothing. Then a tingling sensation spread over her skin and through her body. Something
warm moved through her, brushed against her very heart. She gasped as the now-familiar heat of
Gregory s presence filled her body. Her nipples tightened to hard, puckered buds, and goose-bumps
rose on her arms and legs.
You called me? The deep voice seemed to echo inside her head.
Oh God, she murmured. It was real. It was all real.
Pardon?
I thought I might have dreamt you. She wet her lips. I didn t invite you in that time. But I can feel you
inside my head& in my body. I thought I had to invite you in.
Only the first time.
So you can go in and out at will now? I wish you d told me that before.
Would it have changed your mind? Would you have denied me entrance, if you d known?
She paused. I don t know, she admitted. She toyed with her tube of lipstick, turning it over nervously
in her fingers. But you can probably understand why the idea makes me a little nervous. Will you
promise not to come inside my mind unless I call you?
Very well.
He d made that promise a little too easily. She wondered if she could trust it -- but then, what choice did
she have? It wasn t like she could stop him. The thought made her heartbeat quicken.
Are you afraid of me? asked that deep voice. It rumbled in the center of her head, the marrow of her
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bones.
A little, she murmured.
Believe me, I would not harm you, Linda. His voice caressed her name. The sound sent a rush of heat
to her sex, made parts of her tighten and tingle.
She wondered about her own reaction to him. It wasn t like her to get so hot and bothered over a man
she barely knew. Was it just that she hadn t had sex in so long? Or was it the strange intimacy of having
his mind inside hers that heightened every sensation, made the connection so much more intense?
She paused. It seemed there was something she ought to tell him, something she d dreamt about, but she
could no longer remember the details. A hazy image of a mist-covered field and white gates flitted
through her mind, then was gone. The more she concentrated, the further away it slipped. She sighed and
gave up. How important could it be, anyway? It was only a dream. Anyway, I have to go to work
now, she said.
When will you return?
Around five.
I will be waiting.
The way he said it made her shiver. She felt him moving through her body and mind, winding around and
through her. And then he was gone.
Chapter Four
She rode the subway to work, as usual. The seats were hard and uncomfortable and the car was
crowded with commuters talking loudly on cell phones and jostling each other, reminding her why she
disliked public transportation& but she couldn t afford a car, and in the city, where parking spaces were
more precious than gold, it just made more sense to use the subway.
She got off at her stop and walked down the sidewalk to the blocky, brick building on the corner. The
words SMITH & BLEEKER were stenciled on the glass doors in front. As she approached the doors,
her pace slowed, and each step seemed to take more effort than the one before it. It seemed as though
the very air had thickened, resisting her, though she knew it was just her own reluctance.
Every day at Smith & Bleeker s accounting firm seemed longer than the one before it. Every day, she
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