downward, burying themselves deep inside. Somewhere in her rapidly blurring

consciousness, she was aware that something felt wrong, but the sensations

racing through her body screamed otherwise.

Trembling, the intoxicating burn very close to claiming her, she steadied herself

with a hand against Rachel’s shoulder and pushed her gently away. “Please,

Rach. Not out here.”

Rachel’s green eyes were hazy, her breath coming in short, quick pants.

Grasping Leslie’s hand, Rachel pulled her toward the bedroom.

“Then hurry, darling. I’m ready to explode.”

Aroused, confused, Leslie couldn’t make sense of her jumbled emotions. This

was Rachel, her lover, and they weren’t doing anything they hadn’t done dozens

of times before. The strangeness, the frightening disconnection, was just because

they’d been apart. She undressed methodically. Rachel threw off her clothes

and then impatiently pushed aside the last of Leslie’s. When Rachel pulled her

down on the bed and immediately rolled on top of her, moaning Leslie’s name

and frantically grinding against her thigh, Leslie blocked the unsettling thoughts.

Whatever was happening, whatever was wrong, was none of Rachel’s doing.

And Rachel needed her right now.

Leslie cupped the back of Rachel’s neck in her palm, holding Rachel’s head to

her breasts, and arched to meet her thrusts. Rachel would come quickly this

way, and then they could sleep, and tomorrow it would all make sense.

Rachel shuddered and cried out. After a few minutes, her breathing steadied and

she slid off Leslie’s body, laughing softly. “Sorry, darling.

I’ve been wound up for days and I just couldn’t last.”

“I know, it’s okay,” Leslie said quietly, pulling the sheet over them.

“You need to get some sleep. You’ve got that early ß ight tomorrow.”

“You didn’t come yet,” Rachel whispered, caressing Leslie’s stomach.

Leslie caught her hand. She was aroused. She could feel the wetness on her

thighs and the tightness in the pit of her stomach. But she didn’t want to come.

Instead, she had the terrible feeling she was

• 203 •

RADCLY fFE

going to cry. She pulled Rachel’s arm around her and turned on her side into the

curve of Rachel’s body. “I don’t need to. I’m still not feeling all that great. Just

hold me now.”

“You sure?” Rachel asked drowsily, stroking Leslie’s hair. “In the morning,

then.”

“Just go to sleep, Rachel.” Leslie closed her eyes, but she lay awake long after

Rachel’s breathing had dropped into the slow rhythm of exhausted sleep. Rachel

wasn’t the stranger in her bed.

She was.

v

Leslie braced her arm along the roof of the sedan and leaned down to the open

window. “Be careful driving. You’ve got plenty of time.”

“Sorry to leave so early,” Rachel said, propping the travel cup Þ lled with coffee

that Eileen had just given her into the space in the console. “I just want to check

my e-mail and take care of a few things at that Internet place in the airport

before my ß ight.”

“Good luck in Detroit. They won’t know what hit them.”

Rachel grinned, looking relaxed and conÞ dent, and Leslie knew it was only

partly Rachel’s exhilaration about the upcoming legal challenge. Rachel had

awakened Leslie at Þ rst light, caressing her into awareness and fondling her to

a shattering orgasm just as Leslie had come fully awake. While Leslie was still

reeling with aftershocks, Rachel had urgently guided Leslie’s Þ ngers into her,

coming hard before rising hurriedly to shower. Rachel made love like she did

everything else, expertly and efÞ ciently.

“It will be quick, but not necessarily painless.” Rachel’s eyes gleamed as she

checked her watch. “I’ve got to run, but this little side trip was just what I

needed. You were wonderful.” She started the car and Leslie stepped back.

“I’ll call you later this week and let you know my schedule. Bye, darling.”

“Goodbye,” Leslie said softly.

Rachel wheeled rapidly out of the parking lot, and Leslie slowly climbed the

path back to the lodge. Through the screen door, she heard her mother setting

out the buffet in the dining room, but she didn’t go inside. Eileen had offered her

breakfast earlier when she and Rachel had stopped by the kitchen for coffee,

but she wasn’t hungry then. She still wasn’t. Instead, she sat down in the same

wicker chair where she’d

• 204 •

WHEN DREAMS TREMBLE

waited for Rachel the evening before. It didn’t seem possible that it had only

been twelve hours ago. Her mind was on overload trying to process everything

that had happened.

It didn’t seem possible that it had taken her all this time to discover that sex and

work were the only two things that connected her to Rachel. She searched her

memory for the last time she and Rachel had talked about anything that wasn’t a

legal case, or an evening they’d spent together that had been more than a few

hours of intense sex and exhausted sleep. She couldn’t come up with one.

“I noticed you like quite a bit of cream in your coffee,” Eileen said, sliding a mug

onto the table next to Leslie before sitting down in the other chair. “Hope I got

that right.”

“Thanks.” Leslie smiled wanly. “I’ve been trying to cut down on my caffeine. I’ll

probably get clogged arteries instead.”

“Rachel’s gone?”

Leslie nodded, her throat tight.

“I didn’t see Dev last night at the party.”

“She didn’t stay long,” Leslie said softly.

“I’m sure there’s a better way to go about this, but I don’t know what it is.”

Eileen sighed. “You look terribly unhappy. What’s wrong?”

Leslie drew one leg up onto the chair and bent forward to rest her chin on her

knee. The sun had crested the trees and bathed the porch in warm morning

sunlight. “I think I’ve really screwed up my relationship with Rachel.”

There was a beat of silence, then Eileen said, “How so?”

Leslie shook her head. She wasn’t about to say that she’d had sex with Rachel

when a big part of her hadn’t really wanted to and that when she’d opened her

eyes that morning in the middle of a screaming orgasm, she’d wanted it to be

Dev who was making her come. “Never mind. God, I can’t talk about it with

you.”

“Something you think a mother couldn’t possibly understand?”

“Something like that.”

“Maybe you should talk to Dev about it.”

“Why?” Leslie said sharply.

Eileen rose and stroked Leslie’s hair. “Because now I’ve seen you with both of

them, and I haven’t changed my mind about which one you’re in love with.”

Leslie said nothing, but she feared her mother was right.

• 205 •

RADCLY fFE

v

Dev turned into the parking lot and saw Leslie piling luggage into the Jeep. The

sight made her feel as if she’d swallowed a ball of lead.

Twenty minutes ago she’d had such an intense sense of foreboding surge up out

of nowhere that she’d dropped everything at the lab and rushed back to the

lodge. The entire trip back she’d been sick thinking that Leslie had already left.

Now she wasn’t sure it was such a good idea she’d come back.

Nevertheless, she climbed out of the truck and crossed the steaming blacktop to

Leslie’s side. Leslie looked fresh in an outÞ t similar to the one she’d worn the

night before. Dev Þ gured she must look like shit because she’d slept in her

clothes. “When are you leaving?”

Leslie regarded her steadily, absurdly happy to see her, even if she had no idea

what she was going to do about anything. “In about an hour.”

“Can you take a walk with me?”

“All right.”

Silently, Dev led the way down a narrow, pine-needle-strewn footpath that led

to the lake on the opposite side of the lodge from the cabins. No one ever came

down there. On the shore, she stopped at the foot of a huge outcropping of

rocks as big as Volkswagens. She held out her hand. “The footing’s going to be

tricky in what you’ve got on.”

Wordlessly, Leslie took Dev’s hand and carefully climbed to the top. The rocks

were pitted from years of weather and strewn with patches of moss. She’d

sunbathed on these rocks when she’d been a child. She sat down next to Dev

and watched a sailboat glide by on the lake.

After a moment, Dev shifted to look into Leslie’s face. “I’m sorry about last

night, Les.”

“I was afraid it would be just like the last time,” Leslie said, feeling so weary. So

very nearly empty. “You were so angry. I was afraid you’d go off half-crazy and

get careless and hurt yourself.”

“I did.” One corner of Dev’s mouth lifted in a tired grin. “I slept on a couch that

had the consistency of a slab of granite.”

Leslie laughed softly. “You look terrible.”

“I feel terrible.” Dev lifted a hand to stroke Leslie’s cheek, then stopped a

breath away. “I…Jesus. I’m so sorry I lost my temper. Did I hurt you?”

• 206 •

WHEN DREAMS TREMBLE

“No.” There were Þ ngerprint bruises on the crest of both of Leslie’s shoulders.