One Night With You. Gwynne Forster

it. I loved physics.”

      They talked of their likes and dislikes in music, art, dance, literature and hobbies, and they shared their dreams. By the time they reached Elizabeth City, nearly an hour had elapsed, but neither noticed. He drove into a gas station and asked the attendant if he knew where a man could take a lady dancing.

      “This lady is a judge,” he told the man, “so it has to be a clean and classy place.” He held a ten-dollar bill in his hand where the attendant could see it.

      The guy peeped in the car. “Man, she don’t look like no judge to me. Uh, sorry, sir. No problem, sir. Check out the Skylight Roof on top of the Wright Hotel. You won’t find any riffraff there. Go straight till you get to a circle, turn left, drive four blocks. You’ll be there.”

      She laid her left hand on his forearm. “Thanks for thinking of the quality of the place, Reid. It’s been so long since I went anywhere special that I didn’t think of it.”

      “When you’re with me, Kendra, I’ll do everything I can to take care of you, and I know you’d do the same for me.”

      When they reached the hotel, Reid said to the doorman, “Do you have a band tonight?”

      “Yes, sir. Every night, sir.”

      He looked the man in the eye. “My date is a judge. Is it all right for me to take her in there?”

      “Yes, sir. We cater to only the most discriminating guests.”

      She loved the room. Pink chandeliers cast a soft glow over the white tables, each of which held three white calla lilies in a slender vase. “I don’t want anything to drink,” he said, “but I’ll order something for you if you’d like.”

      “Thanks. I’d like a ginger ale on crushed ice.”

      “I think I’ll have the same,” he said and beckoned for the waiter.

      “What kind of music do you prefer to dance to?” he asked her.

      “I love jazz saxophone, but it doesn’t matter. I’ll enjoy it no matter what they play.”

      Why was he looking at her that way? She wished she knew him well enough to read him. The band leader announced a fox-trot, and Reid stood. Just before his arms went around her, he kissed her with his eyes, warmed her with his repressed desire and a riot of sensation sent tremors throughout her body.

      “Easy, sweetheart,” he whispered. “I’m already drowning in your aura, so don’t pour it on too heavily.”

      He was drowning? “If we get into trouble, we’ll save each other.”

      He missed a step. “Honesty and straightforwardness are among the things I like about you, but I’d appreciate it if you would choose your times to be candid.”

      The piece ended, and the orchestra leader announced “Solitude,” a Duke Ellington song from the 1930s. She moved into him then. She couldn’t help it, for the alto saxophone moaned and cried, haunting, harnessing the blues for posterity. She gripped his shoulders and swung to his rhythm as if she had danced with him from the moment of her birth. Soon, she didn’t hear the orchestra, only the music of his body moving with hers. When at last the music stopped, she looked up at him.

      “If I didn’t know better,” he said, “I’d swear we’ve danced together for years. It’s uncanny. I’ve known you a little over a month, and I feel as if I’ve known you for years and years.”

      “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