Grand Passion

of that stuff last night. I couldn't believe you'd written it. You wouldn't even go to bed with me.” He shot her a fulminating look. “Just as well, I guess. I'd never have been able to compete with the fantasy in that damned book. No man could. That woman in the book is making love to herself. She doesn't need a man, does she?”
    “Nolan, you don't understand.”
    “Sure I do. Now I know why you wouldn't sleep with me. It wasn't because you were so damned pure, was it? It was because you've decided no mere male can give you what you can get from your own imagination and a good vibrator.”
    “Stop it right now.” Cleo took a step back. “I don't want to hear another word about this. I told you, you don't understand.”
    “I understand what that book could have done to my chances for getting elected to the state legislature next fall. It would have turned me into a laughingstock in the press.”
    Cleo had had enough. “Relax. You're saved. As far as I'm concerned, we never have to see each other again unless our shopping carts collide in the aisles of the grocery store.”
    “Damn it, Cleo, I didn't mean to have it end this way. It's just that I was really getting serious about our relationship.”
    “Don't worry. You've had the good sense to break things off before I could do any damage to your brilliant political career.”
    “It wasn't just that,” he muttered. “I liked you, Cleo. I mean, I really liked you.”
    Cleo sighed. “I liked you too, Nolan. Believe it or not, I still do. Heck, I'll probably even vote for you when you run for office next fall.”
    “Thanks.” He suddenly seemed at a loss for words. “Look, I won't say anything about that book to anyone else.”
    “I'd appreciate that.”
    “Well, I guess that's that, then. No hard feelings, huh?”
    “Sure. Right. No hard feelings.” Cleo turned around and started toward her car. Halfway there, a thought struck her. She turned back. “There's just one thing I'd like to know.”
    “What's that?”
    “How did you find out about The Mirror ?”
    His mouth thinned. “Someone left it in my mailbox along with a note.”
    A chill went through Cleo. “A note?”
    “Yeah. I left it in the book.”
    Cleo nodded and walked on to her car. She opened the door and got inside. For a moment she sat behind the wheel, watching as Nolan started up his Jeep and took off down the narrow road toward town.
    When the other vehicle was out of sight, Cleo slowly opened the paper sack. She gazed at the cover of The Mirror for a long time, and then she opened the book and took out the folded sheet of paper inside. The note was brief and to the point.

    The Queen of the Nile is The Queen of Filth. A man with an important future ahead of him cannot afford to be seen with a whore.

    The tone of the note was uncomfortably familiar. It bore a remarkable resemblance to the anonymous letter Cleo had received last month.
    After the initial shock of receiving it, Cleo had dismissed the letter. It had been forwarded through her publisher, after all, and she had assured herself that the sender had no way of knowing her real identity.
    But now she had to confront the fact that someone not only knew her identity as the author of The Mirror , he or she was apparently determined to punish her for having written it. And that person knew who she was and where she was.
    Cleo's hand shook as she turned the key in the ignition. She suddenly wanted to get back to the safety of the inn as quickly as possible.

Chapter

3

    M ax paused beside the open door of the large parlor. The quaintly furnished room was filled with seminar attendees. At the front of the parlor a man with silver, blow-dried hair, a chunky gold watch, and a massive diamond ring held forth. He was wearing a jacket and a pair of handmade leather shoes that Max knew had cost at least as much as the ones he, himself, owned. There was obviously money to be made in the motivational seminar business, Max decided.
    “My name is Herbert T. Valence, and you know something? I am incredible.” Valence radiated intensity. He practically bounced on his toes as he gazed expectantly around the room. “I am amazing. I can do anything I want to do. And you know what? So can you. Say it after me, everyone. I am incredible .”
    “ I am incredible ,” the audience repeated as one.
    “I am amazing,” Valence said. He looked as if he were about to burst with excitement and enthusiasm.
    “ I am amazing .”
    “I can do