All Through the Night by Shannon McKenna, Lori Foster, Suzanne Forster, Thea Devine Page B

her when she realized he wasn’t there, either. The breakfast nook looked out on her snowed-covered backyard, as well as the garage apartment, where Malcolm lived. There was no sign of her tenant or anyone else, al-though she wouldn’t have expected to see Malcolm. He worked at an assembly plant during the day, and whether he was at home or not, his blinds were always tightly closed.
Kerry’s mouth had gone dry with excitement the night before. Now it was coppery, bitter. She already knew what she was going to find when she went to the bedroom, but she had to go anyway. A desperate feeling came over her as she scurried through the living room, knowing it was hopeless. He was gone .
The entire house looked alien to her. The place that had given her comfort and refuge now gave her nothing but torment because he wasn’t there.
“Oh, God,” she whispered, “this can’t be happening. It is too cruel.”
Her bedroom was the proof she dreaded. It was exactly as she’d left it, the sheets thrown back the way they were when she’d crept out of bed to investigate the noise. Her bathroom looked untouched, too. There was no trace of him anywhere. Other than her robe on the floor, she couldn’t find evidence that he’d ever been there.
Under her breath, she said, “No one has dreams like that.”
She stared at the Aubusson carpet with a growing sense of horror. Was she delusional now? She couldn’t tell this story to anyone. It would have sounded like the ramblings of a madwoman. But Jean was as real to her as her own heartbeat. Either she hadn’t freed him with her ridiculous plan, or she had, and he had better things to do than hang around with a housebound crazy.
She turned in the room, searching for answers that were becoming more incredible than the questions. Maybe his curse required that he pass more than one test, and this was only the first. Now that he’d conquered the maiden, he had to go out and fight a dragon or something. And maybe Kerry Houston really was in need of antipsychotic medication.
“Our journey isn’t over, Kerry.”
She spun around, thinking it was Jean behind her. Someone had spoken, hadn’t they? But there was no one there. The sensation that ran up her spine was like an icy breath of air. She clutched her arms and held herself, fighting the pain that flared every time she tried to breathe. What was it he couldn’t feel? He had shuddered in her arms and told her that love could free him. What deeper emotion was there than that? She didn’t believe the feeling he spoke of existed. It couldn’t.
Her body quailed with another chill.
“Damn, drafty old house.” She was freezing, but that wasn’t causing her to quake from head to toe. It was despair. Despair and a burning sadness. She had to sell this place. She couldn’t live here any longer. The neighborhood had gone to pot and taken her along with it. Even her grandparents wouldn’t want her to be here now, not like this. How she would get through the ordeal of packing up and moving out when she couldn’t even get through her door was beyond her. But if she didn’t do something, they would soon be coming for her with a net.
Gooseflesh needled her bare arms and legs.
That was when she realized she was standing in her living room half naked He’d left her in nothing but a tank top, and she was still in nothing but a tank top. The awareness nearly made her ill. It was symbolic of her downfall, of the whole mess. It shouted at her that she wasn’t just an emotional wreck, she was guilty of frighteningly bad judgment and worse. She’d given in to dangerous urges with a man she didn’t even know, possibly at the risk of her life, certainly at the risk of her sanity. Who knew what he might have done to her? Or who he might have been? On a sliding scale of moral character, you couldn’t slide much lower than that.
Real or not, he’s gone, Kerry, and you’re a fool for believing … in anything . She rushed back into the bedroom, vowing