She shook her head, trying to get her breathing and heart rate back under control. She wanted nothing more than to grab him by the ears and pull him back into that kiss. She wanted to go down on him like a hooker. She wanted. She sucked in a series of calming breaths, and inevitably the glow faded to safety. It made her want to cry again. She wanted to go up the mountain so badly.
Danny tucked a couple of curls behind her ear. ‘You want to go to Bicksburg now?’
She blinked, still trying to pull her senses together. ‘Just like that?’
‘Are you kidding? I’m going to spend every second we’re there fantasizing about what crimes we’re going to commit on that mountain tonight.’
He didn’t just fantasize. He aided and abetted. In Bicksburg he bought her a red feather boa. In Martinsville it was scented warm body oil. Citrus. An odd choice, Dee thought until Danny told her he liked his pleasures tangy and tart. Like her.
While Dee was checking out the Burns Bridge B and B, Danny was at the Sweet Tooth confectioner getting liqueur truffles. And next door to the Motor 8, he found a string of pop beads.
‘Okay, I wanted pearls,’ he told her as they sat in Miss Mamie’s Tea Parlor for dinner. ‘But we’ll have to settle for these.’
Dee pulled the beads apart and then reattached them with a lovely, well, popping noise. ‘You want me to wear a necklace of hot-pink pop beads when we make love?’
Danny’s grin was purely salacious. ‘Honey, they’re not going to be anywhere near your neck.’
Dee was sure she was a fluorescent shade of crimson. ‘Oh.’
But oddly enough, it was Xan who furnished the best accessory. After a long day of not even coming close to finding her, Dee gave up and asked Danny to run by the house. It was sundown, and the storm still threatened. The temperatures ahead of it had risen unnaturally, so that she’d even ditched her cardigan by about four. But it was almost dark now, and Dee had plans.
She was so hungry. So anxious. So damned ready. No matter what, she was going to walk up that mountain and see this through. She might have a spectacular flameout, but she might actually succeed. The only way she’d know for sure was by taking the chance.
So, Danny’s saddlebags loaded with everything from whiskey to a lovely suede French tickler, just in case one of them got spunky, he pulled up to the gate and shut off the motor. Dee swung off the bike and almost stumbled. Something hit her from behind. Something soft, like a wash of air from an open oven. She spun around, wondering what Danny had done now, but he was checking something on his front wheel.
Suddenly there was a rustle in the bushes, and Py let out the most incredibly soulful yowl Dee had ever heard. His call set up a veritable glee club from hell all up and down the block.
‘Pywackt?’ Dee called, shoving open the gate.
‘Seems to have quite a following,’ Danny said, looking up the street. ‘Must be all that Edith Piaf.’
It wasn’t just the cats, though. Dogs howled. Birds chattered and trilled. A veritable squadron of rabbits was suddenly doing maneuvers on the Ortballs’ yard, and the Coxes’ Chihuahua could be seen nuzzling the Nelsons’ Saint Bernard. Dee kept turning in circles, wondering at the sudden heat that was crawling down her spine, at the softening of the stormy air so that it seemed the sun shone anyway. Damn, her flowers were multiplying again, and it was almost dark out.
Her first thought was that Lizzie had had another experiment go wrong. She checked the chimney, but there wasn’t any new smoke. She couldn’t blame Mare. She certainly couldn’t blame herself. She didn’t do that kind of stuff.
‘Is that Frank Sinatra?’ Danny asked.
Dee cocked an ear to hear the vague tunes above the caterwauling. And Michael Bolton and Andrea Bocelli and Liza Minnelli. And, wait for it… yes. Barry White. Every neighbor on the block must be getting in the mood.’
And the Foleys next door were well into their eighties. But that was definitely their silhouette in their front window.
‘I’m impressed,’ Danny marveled.
‘Me, too. Mr Foley’s been in a wheelchair for a month.’
Her own senses were heightened. She could hear Danny breathing as if he were whispering in her ear again. She could smell that wonderful soap and man musk on him, and his power signature had strengthened. Not just an approaching storm, but one about to break. She could see the pale glow of his eyes, and couldn’t bear to turn away.
She was suddenly aching and hot and hungry. She took a look at the oak tree next door and thought how delicious it would be to scrape her back against that bark as Danny took her against it, driving hard into her until her skin was raw and everybody on the block heard her screaming.
‘Dee,’ Danny said from right behind her. ‘Are you thinking what I’m thinking?’
He wrapped those wonderful long-fingered hands around her breasts. Dee sucked in a desperate breath. ‘Probably not,’ she had to admit. Then she closed her eyes and savored every stroke of his fingers.
‘I’m thinking I might not make the mountain. What are you thinking?’
She sighed. ‘That Aunt Xan’s sent out a libido spell.’
Well, there went his hands. ‘Now, Dee. Everything isn’t from your Aunt Xan.’
‘No, but I can guarantee this is. The Foleys haven’t spoken to each other since he had an affair with her sister fifteen years ago. Besides, they both loathe Sinatra. They listen to polka music’
Danny looked over to where the silhouette was gyrating to ‘Luck Be a Lady Tonight.’ And you really believe it’s a… libido spell.’
Py set up another grating racket, making Dee wince. ‘Yeah. When we were younger, we tried a libido spell for me. We hoped it would improve my results. It didn’t. But I know the feeling. Only Aunt Xan’s is much stronger. Either that or it’s just exacerbating the fact that I’m already horny enough to howl.’
‘Uh-huh. Well, what do you plan to do about it?’
Dee laughed so hard three of the rabbits stopped and turned to look. ‘Are you kidding? Say thank you and head up the mountain.’
Mare had walked back to Value Video!! in time to see William moping in the storeroom. ‘Go eat something,’ she said and sent him to the diner, in no mood for any more depression. Then she’d taken her Styrofoam out to the counter and found Jude talking sternly to Dreama, who looked rebellious.
‘Ciao, Mare!’ Jude said.
‘Now what?’ Mare said to Dreama.
‘I caught Dreama making a personal phone call,’ Jude said stiffly.
‘I called Algy,’ Dreama said.
‘That wasn’t a personal phone call,’ Mare said to Jude. ‘Stop being such a damn bean counter.’ She looked at Dreama. ‘Is Algy coming back tonight?’
‘No,’ Dreama said miserably. ‘He wouldn’t even talk to me.’
‘Well, you did your best.’
‘You could have gotten Algy back,’ Dreama said even more miserably.
‘The hell I could have,’ Mare said. ‘I’m a complete failure.’ And Dreama scowled at her.
‘Now about New York,’ Jude said, trying for businesslike and just sounding fussy. ‘I can guarantee you a vice presidency in public relations, but you’ll have to promise to give up anything out of the ordinary-’
‘No. Also, I sent William on a lunch break. He needed hot protein.’ Mare put her Coke down on the counter.
‘No food at the front of the store,’ Jude said automatically.
‘Don’t make me hurt you,’ Mare said. ‘I want to talk to you. In private.’
Jude blinked and said, ‘I really don’t have the time right now, perhaps later,’ and made tracks for the back of the store, and when Mare followed him, he was gone.
‘Little weasel,’ Mare said when she came back to the front.