Carnal Innocence

managed as a red haze coated his vision. “Greed, revenge. Those aren’t the motives of theserial killer. For him it’s control, power, the hunt. The kill itself isn’t as important as the anticipation, the stalking.”
    “Yes.” She licked gently along his inner thigh. She was doing some stalking of her own, and the anticipation was rising like a hot river in a summer flood. “Don’t stop.”
    “He plans, feeds on the plan. He chooses, and he hunts. All the time he does, he may lead a perfectly normal life. Have a family, a career, friendships. But the need to kill drives him. After he destroys his victim, the need to kill begins to build again. And the desire for control, of course.” His hand fisted in her hair as she took him into her mouth. “Taunting the authorities, even using them.” Burns began to pant as she sucked him deep. “He may want to be caught, he may even suffer from guilt, but his hunger outweighs everything.”
    She slid sinuously up his body, straddling him. “So he kills again. Until you stop him.”
    “Yes.”
    “And you’re going to stop him this time?”
    “He’s already been stopped.”
    She lifted her hands to her hair, combing it back, arching her breasts to him. “How?”
    “Unless other evidence comes to the surface, I’ll report this case closed with Austin Hatinger’s death.”
    Josie shuddered as she lifted her hips and took him deep inside her. “You’re a hero, Special Agent. My hero.” She threw back her head and started the hard ride to paradise.

c·h·a·p·t·e·r 21
    A storm was moving in. The evening was cooling as it approached, and for the first time in days a real breeze ruffled leaves and brought the sweet scent of rain to the air. Dusk came early as the sun hid behind rough pewter clouds. In the west, heat lightning popped and fizzled.
    Even knowing the storm might be a nasty one, knocking down power lines and swelling riverbanks, the delta sighed with relief.
    Darleen Fuller Talbot left her mother’s in a foul temper. Happy had smiled and cuddled Scooter even as she’d raked Darleen to the bone over Billy T. Her father was no better, she thought as she slammed her car door shut. All he could do was shake his head and leave the room. Darleen had suffered through twenty minutes of listening to her mother ramble on about how Junior was a decent man who hadn’t deserved to be betrayed in his own home.
    Well, it was her home, too, and her signature on the mortage. She pouted, wiping away angry tears before she started the car. Nobody gave any thought to that. No, it was poor Junior this, and poor Junior that. Nobody caredthat poor Junior was treating her worse than the dirt you brushed under the rug.
    Was it any wonder she was beginning to miss Billy T. to distraction? Her own husband wouldn’t even sleep in the same bed with her anymore. Not that he’d done much
but
sleep in it, even before the trouble started. But now she was going to bed every night as dry and frustrated as an old maiden aunt.
    She was going to fix that, all right. As the first fat drops of rain splattered the windshield, she set her chin. Happy would have recognized the look, and though it might have surprised Darleen, would have wholeheartedly approved.
    Scooter was going to stay with his grandma overnight. And she was going to see to it that her husband did her duty by her.
    If things didn’t turn around soon, she might as well become one of those papist nuns and go live in a convent.
    Going without was making her jumpy, Darleen thought, switching on the wipers as the rain began to batter her car. Junior had interrupted Billy T. before he’d come close to finishing her off. By her calculations, Darleen had been celibate for more than a week.
    It wasn’t healthy.
    That’s why she was so nervous and irritable, she was sure. For days she’d had the edgy feeling someone was watching her. It was more than the smug looks she’d been getting from some of the town biddies as the story made the rounds. It was more like someone was keeping a bead on her. And there were the phone calls, too. The calls when nobody was there after you picked up.
    Probably Junior keeping tabs on her, she thought. He probably had one of his buddies watching the house, too, in case Billy T. came around.
    As if Billy T. would speak to her now.
    It didn’t seem fair that she lost her boyfriend, her husband, and had to listen to her mother’s lectures all because she’d wanted to have a little