Warren stopped behind it, killed his headlights and shut off his engine.
“Looks like Tuck has a visitor,” he said.
“Lynn has a visitor.”
“Tuck,” Warren corrected her. “You haven’t given me that extra payment yet.”
“Maybe you’ll get it now,” Dana said. “But you have to dose your eyes first.”
He shut them.
“Don’t open them till I say so.”
“Okay.”
“This is terrible, you know,” Dana said. “Making me pay and pay and pay. All for a little slip of the tongue.”
“And I intend to make you keep paying,” Warren said.
“Maybe this will satisfy you.”
“Hmmm?”
“Put out your hands.”
“Okay.”
“You may now open your eyes.”
He opened them, glanced at the bra in his hands, then quickly looked at Dana
She’d already put her T-shirt back on.
“Will that keep your mouth shut?”
He laughed. “Sure. Do I get to keep it?”
“Of course.”
He draped the bra over the white leg of his trousers and turned toward her. She twisted in her seat, leaned in and kissed him. As they kissed, she felt his hand on her right breast. There was only the thin fabric of her T-shirt in the way. She felt the heat of his moving hand. He rubbed her, gently squeezed her, fingered her nipple.
Squirming and moaning, she lowered a hand onto the lap of his trousers. Soon, Warren was also moaning and squirming.
Later, he lifted the T-shirt up over her breasts.
Later, she pulled his zipper down.
Still later, as they held each other and tried to catch their breaths, Warren murmured, “Fraid I can’t...go in with you now.”
“We’ll wait till we’ve...calmed down.”
“Won’t help. My pants.”
“What’s wrong with ’em?”
“Mess.”
“Huh?”
“Feel.”
“Where?”
He guided her hand.
“Oh,” she said. “Sorry about that.”
He laughed.
“Why don’t you come in the house...too?”
He laughed harder.
“We can throw them in the washer,” Dana said.
“Oh, sure. With Lynn and her friend there?”
“We could be sneaky.”
“No, no. I’d better just get going.”
“I hope it is a friend.”
“Was she expecting anyone?”
Dana shook her head. “Not that I know of.”
“I doubt if anything’s wrong.”
“But you don’t know who might own a thing like that?”
“Hell, I don’t know anyone who could afford one. Except for Janice, of course. It looks brand new, too. Doesn’t even have its license plate.”
“Maybe you should come in with me.”
“I could walk you to the door, anyway—stick with you till we find out who’s there.”
Smiling, Dana said, “You could hold my bra in front so nobody’ll see your wet places.”
“Maybe you should put it on.” He lifted her bra by a shoulder strap.
“It’s for you. You’ve got to keep it so you’ll always remember tonight.”
“I’ll never forget tonight.”
“A souvenir couldn’t hurt.”
Smiling, he shook his head. “If you insist.”
“I insist.”
“Thanks,” he said.
“Now, fork over your shorts.”
“Huh?”
“I want a souvenir, too.”
“You’re kidding.”
“Nope.”
“But they’re...wet.”
“All the better.”
Shaking his head and chuckling softly, Warren unbuckled his belt. “This won’t be easy,” he said. “The steering wheel...”
“Nothing really worth doing is ever easy.”
“Tell me if you see anyone coming.”
Dana laughed. “I’ll alert you immediately.”
Trousers and shorts around his ankles, he said, “Sure hope I don’t get in an accident on the way home.”
“If you’re in an accident bad enough for anyone to find out haven’t got underwear on, that’ll be the least of your worries.”
“You may be right.”
“Of course I am.”
When the shorts were off, he handed them to Dana. “Thank you, sir,” she said, folding them. She waited until he had his trousers on again, then leaned over and gave him a quick kiss. “Thanks for the dinner, too. The steak was fabulous...once we finally got to it.”
He gazed into her eyes. “I wish you didn’t have to go in.”
“Me, too. But I have to. It’s already later than I planned. Tuck’s going to start worrying.”
“You might be the farthest thing from her mind right about now.”
“That’s another thing—I need to get in there and meet the mysterious visitor.” She reached for the door handle.
“Wait,” Warren said. “When’ll we get together again?”
“Tomorrow, I guess.”
“Want to come over to my place after work?” he asked. “Maybe we can go down to the beach if the weather’s nice.”
“I don’t know. We’ll see. The thing is, I’ll have to be back at Beast House before eight.”
“What for?”
“The picnic and stuff. I’m doing the whole bit tomorrow night.”
“The Midnight Tour?”
She nodded.
“Do you have to?”
“I want to. And I’ve already told Tuck that I would. She’s sort of counting on me to be there. Anyway, it’ll probably take me a day or two to recover from tonight.”
Warren huffed out a breath. It sounded almost like a laugh.
“You think you had it tough?”
“Aw, poor boy.” Smiling, she patted his cheek.
“I sure wish you’d spend tomorrow night with me,” he said.
Dana’s hand remained on his cheek. It drifted, caressing him. “Me, too,” she said. “But I gave my word about the tour.”
“If you explain to Lynn...”
“Nah. Anyway, maybe we can get together Sunday night. And Beast House is closed on Monday. Maybe we could spend the day together.”
He nodded. “That’d be great.”
“Yeah.”
“But I still wish you wouldn’t go on the tour.”
Dana lowered her hand. “It is safe, isn’t it?”
He didn’t answer.
“Is it?”
“I wouldn’t go in there at night.”
“You won’t go in there in daylight.”
“What I meant was, I wouldn’t if I were you.”
“So it’s not safe?”
“It probably is,” he said, his voice at a higher pitch than usual. He grimaced as if in pain. “The beast hasn’t shown up since the night it came after me. And there’ve been plenty of Midnight Tours since then. I guess you could say it’s safe. But you never know. You just never know. If I ran things, there wouldn’t be any more Midnight Tours. I’d make sure nobody ever got into Beast House after dark. I think it’s tempting fate. One of these times, the shit’s going to hit the fan.” For a few moments, he stared into Dana’s eyes and didn’t speak. Then he said, “I don’t want you in there when it does.”
“Tuck goes in every Saturday night,” Dana said. “She doesn’t even know that a beast attacked you. She thinks they’re all dead. The way you and Janice kept her in the dark, she isn’t even aware of the risk she’s running.”
“I doubt if it would stop her.”
“Maybe not. But she oughta be told.”
“You won’t tell her, will you?”