Paradise Disguised(7)

But not tonight. Tonight his mind was on one thing and one thing only.  Well, two things. The first was obvious, which was the reason he was  standing on Anna's front porch as anxious as a teenage boy on his first  date. But the second … he was confused as to why no one was answering the  door.

He sighed in relief as he saw lights flip on in various rooms of the  house as the path was made to the front door. He looked down at his  wristwatch to check the time. It wasn't that late, only eight-thirty, so  he guessed Anna must have fallen asleep after their tête-à-tête earlier  in the afternoon.

A satisfied smile flitted around his lips as he heard the deadbolts  unlocked from the inside, but it disappeared when he saw it was Jack who  answered the door instead of Anna.

"Hey Dylan, what brings you out here?"

Dylan found it a little awkward that Anna hadn't filled Jack in on their  plans, but he knew it would take her some time to get used to their  situation. Soon everyone in Paradise would know they were lovers. It was  the way of a small town and he'd grown accustomed to the life.

"I'm supposed to pick Anna up. Is she ready to go?" He had an uneasy  feeling in the pit of his stomach with the look Jack was giving him.

"She's not here," Jack said. "She left more than two hours ago. She just  packed a bag and said she'd be gone for a couple of days, didn't even  tell me where she was going." He stopped, scratched the stubble on his  cheek and gave Dylan a considering glance. "What were you two meeting  about this late for? Surely you can talk about the new house during  office hours?"

"We weren't meeting about the house, Jack. I was picking her up for a date," Dylan said in his usual straightforward manner.

"Well it looks to me as if she decided not to go," Jack said.

"It's starting to look like that to me too. If she comes back will you  tell her I stopped by?" Dylan said, already backing down the porch  steps.

"Sure thing," Jack said as he closed the door.



Jack stood inside his empty house and wondered what the hell was going  on. Anna had come home from her meeting with Dylan and immediately  started packing her bags. He couldn't imagine what could have happened  between there and home to make her stand up Dylan for a date, but he was  going to find out.

He still believed they were perfect for each other. They just needed a  little nudge in the right direction. Of course, his plans seemed to have  backfired and they needed more than just a little nudge now. He  couldn't imagine why two young people were so slow to pick up on the  clues that stared them right in the face. They were obviously attracted  to each other and they had common interests. What more could you need in  a mate?

He'd had many happy years with Anna's mother, and attraction and common interests were why they'd married.

And love, his subconscious reminded him. He'd loved that woman to  distraction, and no other could ever take her place. He wanted Anna to  experience that same feeling. He'd been so caught up in his own grief  after his wife's death that he never stopped to think about the grief  that a fifteen-year-old girl was experiencing. He'd let her fall into  the role of caretaker, but that should have been his job.

Jack decided he was going to right as many wrongs as he could, but he just had to get her to cooperate.



Dylan pounded his fist against the steering wheel angrily and hung up  his cell phone. Where was she? She was obviously avoiding him, wherever  she was. What had happened to change her mind after she'd left his  office? He knew in his gut that she was ready for what he had in store  for her, but she was running scared.

His body was in excruciating pain. The pent up needs from earlier in the  day had just accumulated over the hours until he was ready to burst.                       
       
           



       

It was probably a good thing he couldn't find her at this point. She  wouldn't get the gentle introduction to lovemaking he had planned. He'd  never been so angry or frustrated in his entire life.

He pulled out his cell phone again and started dialing Mitchell's phone  number. He was surprised the tiny device wasn't crushed in his hand with  as much force as he was using.

"Hello," Mitchell answered.

"Where are you?" Dylan said, without greeting.

"Nice to talk to you too, old buddy. I'm at Shiney's Pub. I take it by  the growl in your voice that your plans didn't go as you thought they  would."

"You could say that," Dylan said, his anger dissipating into depression.  If he was smart he'd forget Anna and go find the satisfaction that his  body needed. It wouldn't be difficult to find a warm bed and a willing  woman, and he'd also be able to show Anna just what she threw away.

"Come on down and I'll buy you a beer and beat your ass at pool,"  Mitchell said. "It's not like you've got anything better to do. Besides,  there are some fine looking women sitting around here all alone."

"I'll see you in a minute," Dylan said, disconnecting the phone.



Anna threw back another shot of tequila like it was tap water and  continued to pace back and forth-with only the occasional stumble-across  Mel's living room floor. She'd fled to her friend's house like a coward  after being warned to stay away from Dylan.

"I can't believe you stood up Dylan Maguire," Mel said for the  thousandth time. "I don't think anyone has ever done that before. You'll  be a legend in Paradise: The one woman who said, No. I can see the  headlines in the Paradise Today now."

"Thanks, Mel. You're really making me feel better," Anna said.

After finding the note on the windshield of her car, she'd decided to  ignore it and keep her plans with Dylan for evening. After all, it would  be hard to turn Dylan down if he was going to give her an experience  like she'd had in his office. She'd have to be an idiot.

She'd changed her mind when the black sedan behind her tried to run her  off the road. The note was a childish prank. Being run off a bridge  going fifty miles an hour to crash and burn on the jagged rocks beneath  was serious business. Someone was determined to keep Dylan Maguire for  their own. And she wasn't one to ignore clues that stared her in the  face. Apparently someone else didn't want to give up the mind shattering  orgasms he'd bestowed as well.

"I'm just saying," Mel continued, "There are plenty of women in this  town who'd be happy to share Dylan Maguire's bed for one night. But now  that I think about it, you and I might be the only two women in Paradise  he hasn't slept with. The man's a legend."

"That's comforting. At least I could have learned from an expert," Anna  said. "And that means the note could be from anyone." She poured another  shot of tequila and drank it down, each one getting easier and easier.

"Maybe you should slow down on the alcohol, Anna. You've never been much of a drinker."

Mel looked at the half-empty bottle of Tequila that sat on the coffee  table and shuddered. She hadn't drunk anything because she had to open  the bookstore the following morning. That meant Anna had finished that  much of the bottle all by herself.

"And why not? I'm tired of being the sensible good girl. I want to be  the woman in town that fills all the beauty parlors with gossip for the  next six months. I want to be dangerous and daring, and if I want to  sleep with Dylan Maguire, why should I let some maniac in a black  Oldsmobile stop me?"

"I can't imagine," Mel said, shaking her head.

"Is there anyone that you can think of who could do something like  this?" Anna asked, forming a plan in her mind. She'd draw the culprit  out, and they'd have a showdown the whole town would talk about for the  next twenty years. She wasn't letting Dylan go without a fight. Her need  for sexual fulfillment was just as great as anyone's. It would be just  like the movies.

"He dated Veronica Fox for almost a year," Mel said, chewing on her  bottom lip. "That's an eternity for a man like Dylan. He's definitely  love-'em-and-leave-'em material."

"The same Veronica Fox we went to school with?" Anna asked with a gulp.  "The same Veronica Fox that was homecoming queen and head cheerleader?"

"The one and only," Mel said. "But she doesn't seem like the type to  kill you behind your back. She seems more up front to me. She'd probably  try to hit you head on so her face was the last thing you saw. Either  that, or just shoot you at point blank range. But I don't think she's an  option. I like Veronica. She's always been very nice to me."                       
       
           



       

"Yeah, me too, but people change," Anna said. "I can't believe I didn't  know they'd dated. I'll put her on my list of suspects. How long could  it possibly be in a town this small?"