The Eyes of Darkness

nothing had changed, and pressed against him once more.
    She felt as if the two of them had been here, like this, locked in an embrace, many times before.
    "We hardly know each other," she said.
    "Is that the way you feel?"
    "No."
    "Me, neither."
    "I know you so well."
    "For ages."
    "Yet it's only been two days."
    'Too fast?" he asked.
    "What do you think?"
    "Not too fast for me."
    "Not too fast at all," she agreed.
    "Sure?"
    "Positive."
    "You're lovely."
    "Love me."
    He was not a particularly large man, but he picked her up in his arms as if she were a child.
    She clung to him. She saw a longing and a need in his dark eyes, a powerful wanting that was only partly sex, and she knew the same need to be loved and valued must be in her eyes for him to see.
    He carried her to the bed, put her down, and urged her to lie back. Without haste, with a breathless anticipation that lit up his face, he undressed her.
    He quickly stripped off his own clothes and joined her on the bed, took her in his arms.
    He explored her body slowly, deliberately, first with his eyes, then with his loving hands, then with his lips and tongue.
    Tina realized that she had been wrong to think that celibacy should be a part of her period of mourning. Just the opposite was true. Good, healthy lovemaking with a man who cared for her would have helped her recover much faster than she had done, for sex was the antithesis of death, a joyous celebration of life, a denial of the tomb's existence.
    The amber light molded to his muscles.
    He lowered his face to hers. They kissed.
    She slid a hand between them, squeezed and stroked him.
    She felt wanton, shameless, insatiable.
    As he entered her, she let her hands travel over his body, along his lean flanks.
    "You're so sweet," he said.
    He began the age-old rhythm of love. For a long, long time, they forgot that death existed, and they explored the delicious, silken surfaces of love, and it seemed to them, in those shining hours, that they would both live forever.

THURSDAY, January 1

15
     
    tina stayed the night with elliot, and he realized that he had forgotten how pleasant it could be to share his bed with someone for whom he truly cared. He'd had other women in this bed during the past two years, and a few had stayed the night, but not one of those other lovers had made him feel content merely by the fact of her presence, as Tina did. With her, sex was a delightful bonus, a lagniappe, but it wasn't the main reason he wanted her beside him. She was an excellent lover—silken, smooth, and uninhibited in the pursuit of her own pleasure—but she was also vulnerable and kind. The vague, shadowy shape of her under the covers, in the darkness, was a talisman to ward off loneliness.
    Eventually he fell asleep, but at four o'clock in the morning, he was awakened by cries of distress.
    She sat straight up, the sheets knotted in her fists, catapulted out of a nightmare. She was quaking, gasping about a man dressed all in black, the monstrous figure from her dream.
    Elliot switched on the bedside lamp to prove to her that they were alone in the room.
    She had told him about the dreams, but he hadn't realized, until now, how terrible they were. The exhumation of Danny's body would be good for her, regardless of the horror that she might have to confront when the coffin lid was raised. If seeing the remains would put an end to these bloodcurdling nightmares, she would gain an advantage from the grim experience.
    He switched off the bedside lamp and persuaded her to lie down again. He held her until she stopped shuddering.
    To his surprise, her fear rapidly changed to desire. They fell easily into the pace and rhythm that had earlier best pleased them. Afterward, they slipped into sleep again.
     
    •                  •                  •
     
    Over breakfast he asked her to go with him to the afternoon party at which he was going to corner Judge Kennebeck to ask about the exhumation. But Tina wanted to go back to her place and clean out Danny's room. She felt up to the challenge now, and she intended to finish the task before she lost her nerve again.
    "We'll see each other tonight, won't we?" he asked.
    "Yes."
    "I'll cook for you again."
    She smiled lasciviously. "In what sense do you mean that?"
    She rose out of her chair, leaned across the table, kissed him.
    The smell of her, the vibrant blue of her eyes, the feel of her supple skin as he put a hand to her face—those