the stars. The evening was still comfortable although cooling, and the moon

nearly full, so she didn’t need the ß ashlight she’d picked up from her truck

when she and Natalie had returned.

As with every other time they’d spent together, it had been easy.

Natalie was easy to talk to. Easy to laugh with. Very easy to look at.

Very easy to kiss, Dev thought as Natalie stopped her with a tug on her hand,

then leaned into her and slid both arms around her neck.

Natalie’s mouth was soft and warm, her tongue a delicate tease along the edge

of Dev’s lips. Her breath was sweet, her body Þ rm in the way of a well-toned

athlete, yielding in the way of a woman. Natalie hummed an appreciative sound

in the back of her throat and tightened her Þ ngers in Dev’s hair. The kiss

ratcheted up a notch and Dev felt a trickle of warning. She eased her head

back.

“We’ll attract bears if we keep this up out here. Come up to the cabin and let

me give you that nightcap I promised.”

Natalie laughed. “We’ll attract something, I suppose. Yes, let’s get more

comfortable.”

Once inside, Dev went to the tiny kitchen and reached into the cabinet over the

sink for the brandy she’d stored there. Natalie’s arms came around her from

behind and she felt the Þ rm press of Natalie’s breasts against her back. For just

a second, she was back on the motorcycle with Leslie behind her. The

memories were coming so hard and so fast in the last few days; she couldn’t

seem to stop them from streaming through her mind. Things she hadn’t thought

of in years felt as if they’d happened yesterday. She shivered.

“Dev?” Natalie stepped back and waited for Dev to turn. She regarded Dev

quizzically. “You just went somewhere, didn’t you?”

“How did you know?”

“I felt it.”

“Sorry.”

• 84 •

WHEN DREAMS TREMBLE

“Like I said. Dinner. And after that we’ll see.” Natalie held out her hand for the

brandy. “Let’s go outside and toast the moon.”

“Yeah,” Dev said. “Let’s do that.”

“I probably should’ve asked this before now,” Natalie said as they sat side by

side on the top step of Dev’s porch, “but are you involved with someone?”

“No.”

“On the serious rebound?”

Dev laughed. “Not that either. I don’t get…seriously involved.”

Natalie shifted sideways to look at Dev’s face. “Never?”

“Nope. Just not my thing, I guess. I probably should’ve told you that before

now.”

“I don’t see why,” Natalie said, laughing. “We just had dinner.

That’s not exactly grounds for posting the banns.”

“Still, you should know.”

“What I know,” Natalie said, setting her glass aside, “is that I like you and I like

kissing you. That’s quite a lot for a week.”

“I suppose it is,” Dev murmured as Natalie moved closer. Part of Dev’s mind

yielded to the pull of the moon, and the warm fragrant breeze, and Natalie’s

sweet, hot kisses. But deep inside, she remained remote and untouched. And it

was that part of her that Þ nally pulled away. “You’re hard to resist.”

“Do you want to?” Natalie’s voice was breathy and low.

“Yeah. I think I better.”

“I can think of a million arguments against that,” Natalie said, caressing the back

of Dev’s neck. “Some of them, you might even buy. But”—she kissed Dev’s

cheek—“it’s a long summer. Wanna walk me back to my car, or should I have

another brandy and sleep on the couch?”

“Is that a trick question?”

Natalie laughed.

v

Leslie knew she should go inside. It was chilling fast, and even the blanket she’d

pulled around herself when she curled up in the porch chair wasn’t keeping her

warm. After parting with Dev in the parking lot that morning, she’d used the

wireless connection at the lodge to download work from the ofÞ ce, and she’d

kept busy for the rest of

• 85 •

RADCLY fFE

the day and evening. She’d worked straight through dinner and Þ nally relaxed

with a bottle of wine out on her porch. Dev’s cabin had been dark until after

eleven, when the lights came on. A few minutes later she caught the murmur of

conversation, although she couldn’t hear any words. However, she could make

out the unmistakable sound of feminine laughter.

She told herself that she was glad Dev had company and that she was feeling

better. She meant it, too, at least part of it. When she heard the quiet thump of a

door closing and the voices disappeared, she Þ nally dragged herself inside in

search of sleep. Lying alone in the dark, images that she’d thought long ago

expunged returned to haunt her.

Half dragging Mike back to the boathouse while he raged and accused and she

denied and pleaded. The ß eeting glimpse of Dev staggering to her bike and

careening from the parking lot. The look of broken despair on Dev’s face.

Leslie closed her eyes tightly as the frantic ß uttering in her chest stole what

remained of her breath. Grief and guilt felt so much the same, she could no

longer tell them apart.

• 86 •

WHEN DREAMS TREMBLE

CHAPTER TEN

Natalie was a light sleeper and the quiet movements across the room woke her.

She turned on her side beneath the cotton blanket and watched Dev making

coffee. She could have told her she was awake, but she was enjoying the

opportunity to observe her. Dev wore a T-shirt that had seen better days—hell,

better years—and a pair of faded plaid boxers. She was barefoot, and muscles

rippled in her arms and thighs as she stretched and reached into cabinets. Her

hair was wet from the shower and a shade darker than usual, slicked back

behind her ears and curling in small tendrils over the back of her neck. Those

delicate strands gave Dev an unexpectedly vulnerable look, and Natalie felt a

dangerous stirring in her heart. The stirring in her loins that the sight of Dev

always elicited didn’t bother her. Lust was a familiar and not unwelcome

sensation. It assured her that her heart was beating and that all systems were

functioning. If she’d looked at Devon Weber and felt nothing, she’d have been

worried.

However, what she did not want was to look at Dev and feel that little twisty

sensation in the pit of her stomach and the tightening in the center of her chest

that spoke not of lust, but longing. Especially not with the signals that Dev had

been sending, which were not so much mixed as cloudy. Natalie sensed Dev’s

attraction and her desire, but something held her back. Something that she was

willing to bet Dev wanted very much but couldn’t, or wouldn’t, admit.

I don’t get seriously involved, Dev had said.

Maybe not now, but once she had. Natalie was certain of that.

Somewhere, sometime, there had been a woman who had mattered.

And whoever she had been, she’d left indelible marks.

• 87 •

RADCLY fFE

There were other marks too. Ones she hadn’t expected. A series of scars

crisscrossed Dev’s right thigh below her boxers, twisting as far down as her

knee. The pale white rivulets were faded reminders of some distant injury, and

Natalie ached to think of what might have caused them. She caught back a

murmur of sympathy.

Dev turned and smiled. “Hey. Good morning. Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake

you.”

Smiling back, Natalie consigned whatever history lay beneath those scars to the

past. Dev was here now and looking very sexy.

Natalie extended her arms over her head, arched her back, and stretched

beneath the blanket with a contented purr. She was naked, and she could tell

from the ß icker of Dev’s eyes down the length of her body and quickly back up

to her face that the thin covering didn’t do a whole lot to camouß age her shape.

“No problem. You’re a nice sight to wake up to.”

“Can I tempt you with coffee?”

“You can tempt me with just about anything.”

Dev laughed. “I trust the couch and the brandy left no ill effects?”

“Not a one.” Natalie swiveled around to sit up, holding one corner of the

blanket between her breasts. “I feel great.”

Dev thought she looked great too. Her eyes and mouth were soft in the early

morning light, her dark hair framing her face like an invitation.

She was beautiful and warm and Dev wondered why she didn’t cross the room

to her and lift the blanket away and accept what Natalie was offering.

Tenderness and shared pleasure. Natalie had asked for no promises, made no

demands.

Maybe it was because Dev liked her, really liked her in a way that she rarely

experienced because she seldom made close friends, that she didn’t. Shouldn’t

she have something to offer too? Shouldn’t there be something more than

desire?

As if reading her mind, Natalie said quietly, “Sometimes things are enough just

as they are, Dev.”

Dev poured coffee into two white ceramic mugs with I ♥ Lake George on the

side. “Black, right?”

Natalie nodded.

“Just in case you thought otherwise,” Dev said, setting Natalie’s coffee on the