He hunched down next to her where she sat, dangling her bare feet in the pool. Her heeled sandals and piña colada were at her side.

“You look gorgeous.”

“Thanks.” She looked at him. “You’re not bad yourself.”

He smiled back. “God, Kaila…Dan has everything I want. Everything in the world, and he doesn’t even know it. Great kids. And a beautiful wife. If you were mine, I wouldn’t leave you alone for a minute.”

“That’s sweet of you to say.”

“You should give me a chance.”

“What?”

“Trial run.”

She stared at him, feeling a flush spread through her. She was tempted. God, he was good-looking.

“I’d give up ten years of life just to see you naked,” he whispered.

She thought he was teasing at first, trying to make her feel better. But then she looked at him. And he wasn’t teasing.

“I’d die just to touch you…to…” He moved his lips closer to her ear and whispered a few graphic words describing with explicit simplicity what he wanted to do to her.

“It would be wrong!” she whispered.

“Why?”

She shook her head.

She should have been horrified; she should have stood up, slapped him and walked away.

Except that she was tempted. And his words were both soothing to her wounded ego and…exciting.

Exciting as…fantasy? she asked herself. Or reality?

She wasn’t sure.

“I…I…can’t…” she whispered.

“You’re not ready. And you don’t believe that I love you. And that I need—no I crave—to be loved by you in return. You don’t take me seriously. You can’t imagine how much I’ll love your children, how good I’ll be—how I can share being the caregiver.”

“I…”

“You need time. I’ll be waiting.”

He rose and moved away.

He was great. So charming. So handsome. So many women were quick to crowd around him….

And she might not have this chance forever!

But still…

Kaila hugged her knees close to herself. She’d been married a long time. She didn’t really know any other man, and she was afraid. Surely, as mad as she was at him, she loved Dan.

Didn’t she?

Or was he just a habit in her life?

She leaned her head down, feeling dizzy. Too many piña coladas. She should be happy. On paper, her life looked perfect. They were financially secure, and they did have three happy, healthy, beautiful children. What kind of a horrible human being was she to be so miserable?

She didn’t know.

She just didn’t know….

Jassy stepped from the house onto the patio. The guests were beginning to leave. The night was growing quiet.

She walked around the pool and toward the dock, staring out at the water. The night was beautiful. She felt wonderful.

Arms suddenly slipped around her. She would have cried out from surprise, except that a hand quickly covered her mouth and a husky voice whispered, “Shh…”

Her heart pounded furiously.

The hand slipped from her mouth; the arms holding her eased.

She spun within his now gentle embrace and kissed her new lover. The kiss deepened. His hands wandered, cupping her breasts. Tongues met and mingled. At length, Jassy drew back, groaning softly.

“Not here, not now!” she whispered breathlessly.

Her lover sighed. “I don’t know why we can’t just—”

“It’s too soon. I want to be taken seriously.”

He smoothed his fingers along a straying strand of her hair. “We need to go somewhere,” he said, kissing her again.

She barely broke her lips from his.

“Can’t.”

“Have to,” he whispered against her mouth.

“Can’t,” she repeated, her mouth against his again.

“We need to be together.”

She broke the kiss at last with a sigh. “I can’t leave here tonight. You know that. Not without a lot of explanations.”

“You’re a doctor—have an emergency.”

“I’m a pathologist. Dead people don’t have emergencies.”

“Ah, come on. Sure they do….”

“Other people are on duty.”

He caught her hand and drew it down the length of his chest, then lower, pressing her fingers against the bulge beneath the button fly of his jeans. “See what you’re missing?”

“A waste,” she agreed sadly.

He smiled and kissed her cheek. “Fine. Miss you. Love you. Monday will be an eternity.”

“Monday,” she agreed softly.

They exchanged one more hot, sloppy kiss, and he slipped away in the shadows. Jassy watched as he greeted someone on the porch. She felt good. Great. God, being in love was wonderful!

He was in agony, absolute agony.

It was dark. Late. Very late. His room was dark and oddly misted. He was bone-weary, but he couldn’t sleep. Because of her.

The whole thing was ridiculous. How could you see someone after so many years and want them so badly that it was a physical thing, an ache that couldn’t be controlled?

Then there was the way she looked at him.

Angrily. As if she wanted to kill him.

Then…

With something else. With a strange blue glitter in the wide depths of her amazing eyes.

He stood up, restlessly pacing the room, like a tiger on the prowl. All he had to do was walk down the hall. She was there. Just walk down the hall. Wake her up. Wrench her out of bed for a showdown. Look, we both want this, let’s do it, get it over with, get on with our lives….

He was moving. Quietly opening and closing his door, entering the hallway. He was wearing a white terry robe, nothing more. Didn’t matter. The house was quiet. It was deep night; he knew in his heart that nothing, no one, was going to stop him.

He threw open the door to her room.

A soft night-light threw its yellow-red luminescence over her. She was lying back on her pillows in a black silk gown, her hair a cloak of fire. She saw him, and she didn’t say a word. She just slipped gracefully from the bed, staring at him all the while. She walked toward him, nearly reached him. She slid the black silk gown from her shoulders and stood in naked glory before him, breasts full and firm, pubic triangle the same deep flame red as her hair.

She reached out. He let the terry robe fall. Her fingers scraped down his chest. Down…so close…

Her whisper was right against his lips. The soft fall of her hair teased his flesh.

“Look, we both want this. Let’s do it, get it over with, and get on with our lives….”

“Yes…”

He lifted her by the waist, walked her back to the bed, set her down, caught her legs, spread them, dragged her back to him. No time for play. Oh, God. He…

Woke up.

Shaking, sweating bullets, Kyle jerked himself from the dream. For a moment it was hard to convince himself that he’d imagined his every step.

But he had.

He was sitting in the guest room. Drenched. Worse.

He groaned aloud, gritted his teeth and threaded his fingers through his hair, pressing tightly against his temples. Damn.

This wasn’t working.

Kyle slept late.

He went to the ten-o’clock mass, having heard that Madison and the girls had gone to the eight o’clock. They hadn’t returned.

He grabbed coffee at a doughnut stand and walked the streets of Key West, watching as the early “Conch Train,” full of tourists, explored the city’s attractions.

Finally, around noon, he wandered back to the house.

Madison had already started back for Miami with Carrie Anne. Jassy and Kaila had started back with her, so that Madison and Jassy could stop with Kaila for a few rest breaks along the way and help out with the kids.

Kyle spent the afternoon fishing with Jordan, his father, Rafe and Trent. It was a good-ol’-guys kind of afternoon. They caught plenty of snapper, kingfish and brightly colored dolphinfish, and polished off several six-packs of beer. They fried the fish back at the house, and Kyle slept for several hours.

Then he, too, headed for Miami.

Monday morning was coming.

And along with it…

Body parts.