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She sat on the couch and stared at the jade cat. It seemed to stare back at her, but there was no purring, no distant and creepy meow. Not yet, at least. The feline's green face was pointed and sharp, primitively feral, not at all like a normal cat. Ruby didn't believe in ghosts and demons, she didn't believe in Zane's woowoo. But something was going on, and this damn cat was at the center of it.
Trust no one.
The only man Ruby trusted, the only man she had trusted in more than two years, was Zane Benedict.
She was not going to sit here and wait to see what might happen next! It took her no more than three minutes to grab her coat, her keys, her cell phone, and her purse. She had credit cards and some cash, and she was, by God, going to get as far away from Holland Court as she possibly could.
As Ruby locked the front door, Hester Livingston was walking up the driveway with a loaf wrapped in foil grasped in her hands. "Hellooo," the older woman called, and she flashed a smile. "Did I catch you going to work? You're later leaving than usual. When I saw your car in the driveway, I thought you might be ill, so I brought you a loaf of my homemade cheese bread."
"I'm just on my way out," Ruby said.
Hester was not deterred. "This will just take a minute. I know you make your own baked goods, and you're quite talented, but my cheese bread is special."
Intent on taking the bread from the old woman and just carrying it with her, as that seemed the simplest and fastest way to end this encounter, Ruby met Hester on the driveway. "Thanks," she said.
The nosy neighbor did not leave; did not even move from her position between Ruby and the car. "I was up early this morning, and I could've sworn I saw Professor Benedict leaving your house in nothing but his skivvies."
Ah, so this was the reason for the visit and the cheese bread. "They were flannel pants," Ruby said. "Not skivvies."
Hester waved a dismissive hand. "He was hardly dressed at all. Unsavory situations like this can give the neighborhood a bad reputation."
So could demons, Ruby thought. "Zane and I are two fully grown unattached adults. What we do indoors is really none of your business." Letting the old woman believe that Zane had been at her house for a little recreational sex and nothing more was much better than the truth. "Now, if we start hooking up in the middle of the street . . ."
Hester's eyes got wide. "There's no reason for sarcasm."
"There's no reason to be meddlesome."
In a huff, Hester reclaimed her foil-wrapped bread and turned to stalk toward home. Any other time, Ruby would've felt guilty about being short with her neighbor, but today she only had one thing on her mind. Escape.
She got in the car and threw her purse on the passenger seat, started the engine, and let it idle for a moment to warm up. When she put the car in reverse to back out of the driveway, she looked into the rearview mirror and saw the front door to Zane's house open. He stepped onto the porch as she backed into the street, but she didn't give him another glance or another thought. She had to get away from here, and she suspected if she gave him the chance, he would try to stop her.
She didn't know where she was going, but the interstate would be a good start. Twenty minutes to the interstate, and from there she'd go to Birmingham or Huntsville or beyond. Maybe she'd just keep driving until she couldn't keep her eyes open, then she'd find a motel and crash for the night, so tired she couldn't possibly dream.
Not five minutes from the house, Ruby pulled up to a four-way stop. She looked to her left, and saw nothing. She looked to her right, and there on her dashboard, where a moment ago there had been nothing, sat the jade cat. It appeared to be smiling.
Ruby screamed as she instinctively hit the gas and raced impulsively through the empty intersection. She could feel herself losing control, inside and out. She didn't see the telephone pole until it was too late.
Amalie smiled as she stretched her naked body across the fine sheets of her lover's bed. She had never known such pleasures existed, but then, until Henry had claimed her body and soul, she had known very little pleasure in life. An orphan since the age of eleven, a ladies' maid who served others and answered to others' demands, she had never thought to know such indulgence for herself.
"You are incredibly beautiful," Henry said. He was naked, too. She liked his body. It was hard and strong, and so very different from her own. She could not keep her hands off him.
He said they would soon be married, but he had family business to see to first. His wealthy merchant father would not approve of his taking a woman who had once been a servant as his wife. Henry was planning a charade. By the time all was said and done, his family would think she was a fine lady just recently arrived in the colonies from France. "I think he will like you happy," Henry said.
"Who will like me happy?" Amalie asked, smiling as she ran her hands along his fine chest. "Your father?"
"II Gatto Nero," Henry said, taking her wrist and wrapping a length of fine red-silk fabric around it. She did not protest, not even when he tied her wrists together and tethered her to the bedpost. His sexual tastes were sometimes a bit odd, but he never hurt her, and he always saw that she found her own pleasure before he found his. Amalie didn't like being tied up, but if it made Henry happy, it was a small price to pay.
"The black cat? I did not know you had a cat."
Henry took a nipple into his mouth and suckled it, and Amalie forgot about cats and charades. Nothing else mattered but this. She closed her eyes and savored the sensations. She wished to be able to touch Henry, to wrap her arms around him, but she could not. Her lover took his time, kissing and licking and arousing . . . then he was gone.
Amalie opened her eyes to find Henry standing beside the bed. He still smiled with great warmth, so she was not concerned. "Is everything all right?"
"Yes," Henry said. "Areyou happy, love?"
"Ecstatically so. Come back to bed." She wanted to gesture to him, but could not with her hands bound and tied to the bed.
"That is good." Henry reached beneath the mattress and withdrew a small jade figurine. A cat, she saw right away. "II Gatto Nero takes greater enjoyment from a soul filled with pleasure as well as fear. Such a soul tastes sweeter, and he has waited a very long time for that taste."
