Strangers In Paradise Read online

  She trembled. She couldn't help it. She was very, very glad that he was just a few feet away.

  Chapter 4

  Even though she knew Rex was in the house--or perhaps because she knew Rex was in the house--Alexi spent a miserable night.

  The kitchen floor was still a horrible bed; she swore to herself that she would get going on the house. When she first dozed off she nearly screamed herself awake, dreaming of a giant brown widow. She hadn't even known that "widows" came in "brown"--but she didn't want to meet another one.

  Having woken herself up, she ate some of the pizza. Rex, bleary-eyed and rumpled, stumbled in, and at last they shared some of the pizza. When he returned to the parlor, she determined to settle down to sleep again. More dreams and nightmares plagued her. Disconcerting, disconnected nightmares in which men and women in antebellum dress swirled through the ballroom, laughing, chatting, talking. Beautiful people in silks and satins and velvets--but the dancers were transparent and the ballroom retained its dust aids and webbed decay. The only man with substance in her dreams was Rex Morrow--darkly handsome and somewhat diabolical, but totally compelling as he grinned wickedly and pointed in silence to the portraits of Pierre and Eugenia on the wall. She kept trying to reach him through the translucent dancers. She didn't know why, only that she needed to, and the more time that passed, the more desperate she became. Then, at the end, a giant brown spider with John's face pounced down between them and Alexi gasped and sprang up--and came awake, swearing softly as she realized a warm sun was spilling brilliantly through the windows.

  She put coffee on and went in search of Rex, only to find the sofa empty, with a note where his body should have lain.

  Gone home to bathe, shave and work. Checked on you--you were sleeping like a little lamb. Well, a sexy little lamb. Libido, you know. It's light and all seems well. Fix the window today, dammit! If you need anything, give me a ring. I'll be here.

  So he was gone. Funny...she had been looking forward to seeing him. To sharing coffee. To laughing at her fears by the morning's light. She smiled, remembering how they had shared cold pizza. Neither of them had really been awake. She could barely remember anything they had said. She'd liked his cheeks looking a little scruffy; she'd liked all that dark hair of his in a mess over his forehead.

  Well, Rex probably wouldn't be the same by daylight, either. He'd be hostile, annoyed, superior, doing that eccentric artist bit all over again. She swore that the next time she saw him she'd be in control. Competent, able--fearless.

  Oh, yeah! But she had to get started.

  Definitely. She had to do something here, she warned herself. When her dreams began to include shades of The ply, she was falling into the realm of serious trouble.

  By morning's light she was able to roam around the lower level of the house. The place appeared even shabbier.

  "Steam cleaners will make a world of difference," she promised herself out loud.

  Still hesitant of the creepy-crawly possibilities, she kept her suitcase in the kitchen. When the coffee had perked, she poured herself a cup and sipped it while she opened her suitcase. It tasted good. Delicious. But not even the dose of caffeine really helped her mood. Her extended-wear contact lenses weren't "extending" very well--her vision was all blurry, and she swore softly again, wishing she could wear them with comfort and ease. She peered at her watch. It was only eight. She'd take a long shower, then remove her contacts, clean them and put them back in.

  Alexi found her white terry robe, finished her coffee and considered exploring the upstairs for a bedroom and bath. Then, deciding that she would tackle the upstairs after she was dressed, she called and asked the steam cleaners in town to come out. Once they were finished, she would start vacuuming and sweeping and choose a room for herself. She really wasn't afraid of a few spiders and bugs--she just wanted to be a bit more fortified to deal with them.

  So, determined, she grabbed her robe and headed for the little powder room beneath the stairs. She had noticed the night before that it did have a small shower stall. In fact, the little bathroom was really quite nice--tiled in soft mauve, with a darker purple-and-gold-lined wallpaper. Gene must have had it updated fairly recently.

  Alexi turned on the light and grimaced at her reflection in the mirror over the sink. There were purple shadows beneath her red-rimmed eyes. She certainly didn't look one bit like the Helen of Troy lady. She was pale and drawn and resembled a wide-eyed, frightened child. She pinched her cheeks, then laughed, because she hadn't given them any color at all. She reflected a bit wryly that the only real beauty to her face lay in its shape; it was what was called a classical oval, with nice high cheekbones. John had told her once that a myriad of sins could be forgiven if one's cheekbones were good.

  She laughed suddenly; she looked like hell, cheekbones or no.

  "Tonight," she promised her reflection out loud, "I am going to sleep!"

  Sobering, she turned away from her image and stripped off her clothing; there were a million things she wanted to do that day. Clean, clean, clean. And Rex was supposed to be bringing a new hose for the car. She also wanted a stereo system and a television--modern amenities that had never interested Gene.

  Alexi stepped into the little shower stall, surprised and pleased to see the modern shower-massage fixtures. She fiddled with the faucets, gasped as the water streamed out stone-cold, swore softly--then breathed a sigh of relief as heat came into the water. For several long, delighted moments she just stood there, feeling the delicious little needles of wet heat sear her skin. Steam rose all around her, and she closed her eyes, enjoying it. The shower felt so good, in fact, that everything began to look better. The Brandywine house was beautiful. A little elbow grease and she could make it into a showplace again. Gene had really done quite a bit already; the kitchen was warm and nice, and this little bathroom was just fine. Of course, she could see all sorts of possibilities. The kitchen could use a window seat, a big one, with plump, comfortable cushions,

  Some copper implements, some plants. It was a huge room and could be made into an exquisite family center.

  Alexi reached for the shampoo, scrubbed it into her hair and rinsed it. She paused then, reflecting that she really did mean to get things together.

  She really couldn't wait to ask Rex in for a drink or a cup of coffee once she had things straightened out. I wonder why, she thought as the water beat against her face. Because, she reasoned, everything had gone wrong every time she'd seen him. She just wanted something to go right.

  As she stood there, a little curl, warm and shimmering, began to wind in her stomach. She inhaled and exhaled quickly, alarmed at the realization that she wanted to see him again...just because she wanted to see him again. She was eager to hear the tone of his voice; she felt secure and comfortable when he was near.

  It was a foolish feeling. She didn't want any entanglements; she didn't think she was really even capable of an entanglement. But the feeling was there, an ache, a nostalgia, poignant and sweet. She wanted to see him. No...he didn't even want her in the house. He wanted the land all to himself. He saw her as an intrusion on his privacy. But she couldn't help it; she found herself wondering about his relationships with other women. He had been blunt about his divorce, more cold than bitter. Yet she knew that his marriage had left a taste of ash in his mouth. Still, having met him...having experienced that strange feeling of intimacy on the first night, she started to shiver again.

  She couldn't imagine him being alone, either. He was a man who liked women, who would attract them easily-- with or without fame and fortune. But once burned... She Knew the feeling well. He was quiet in his way; he spoke Plainly but gave away very little emotion, it wasn't there to give. But she had been determined to come into the shower and scrub her hair and herself and be as...perfect as she could be. For when she saw him again. She didn't want to be breaking in; she didn't want to be running because she'd blown a hose in the car. She wanted to be composed and poised. Perhaps even cool...cool
enough to regain the control that seemed to be slipping from her.

  Alexi sighed and turned off the shower. She had steamed herself until the water had gone cold as she'd thought about Rex Morrow. If she could put that much concentration into the house, she'd have it a showplace in no time.

  Alexi opened the shower door and groped for her towel. She found it and patted her face, blinking to clear her eyes. The mist from the shower should have cleaned her lenses somewhat, but they felt grittier than ever. It must have been all the dust from last night, she reasoned.

  She started to step out of the stall, then noticed a curious dark line on the floor. A wire? She blinked, wishing again that she had better luck with her lenses. There shouldn't be a wire on the floor.

  Nor did wires move by themselves.

  Alexi gasped, hypnotized at first. There was something on the floor about a foot long and as thick as a telephone wire. Except that the top of this wire was rising and moving, and it had a little red ribbon of color right under the...

  The head!

  "Oh, my God!" she breathed aloud.

  It was a snake--a small one, but a snake nonetheless, slithering, slinking across the bathroom floor.

  Her throat constricted; she didn't move. She didn't know whether the snake was poisonous or not, and at that point it didn't really matter. She hated snakes; they scared her to death.

  The creature paused, raised its head again, then started slithering toward the toilet bowl.

  She swallowed. She had to move.

  Trembling, Alexi reached out for her robe. Soaking wet, she slipped into it and belted it, still standing in the shower stall--and barely blinking as she kept her eyes trained on the snake; In desperation she looked around the little bathroom. A little tile side pocket in the wall held a magazine. Alexi grabbed it and rolled it up.

  Panicked thoughts whirled through her mind. If she didn't kill it on the first swipe, would it bite her? She could just run....

  No. Because if it slithered out of sight, she would never, never be able to sleep in the house again.

  She stepped from the shower stall with her rolled-up weapon. She inhaled sharply, then smacked the snake. She jumped back, screaming. The blow hadn't stopped the creature in the least. It was just writhing and slinking more wildly now.

  She attacked again--and again. Somewhere in her mind she realized that paper would not kill the serpent. It might not be big, but it had a tough hide.

  Finally, though, the thing stopped. Or almost stopped. She had most of the body smashed against the base of the toilet. Only the head wavered a bit.

  She swallowed sickly. What was the damn thing doing in her house? She felt like a torturer--but she was terrified.

  Alexi dropped the paper. She had to get something. A spade--something with which she could scoop the creature up and out.

  And kill it. It wasn't dead--and even though it was a snake, she hated to think of herself torturing the thing. She backed away, then ran--into the kitchen and into the pantry. She wasn't sure what lay in the bottom shelves, but she had seen a number of tools there.

  She found a heavy spade. Armed with it, Alexi made her way back to the bathroom, where she stopped dead still. The snake had disappeared.

  "It couldn't have, it couldn't have," she whispered aloud, leaning against the wall. But it had.

  She searched the bathroom, the floor, the shower stall. But there was no snake. She began to wonder if she had imagined the creature. Had the night been so bad that she had gone a little crazy? She didn't like spiders and bugs, but she could tolerate them. She was terrified of snakes, though. She had almost told Rex Morrow so last night after he had killed the spider.

  Calm yourself, calm yourself. She tried to think rationally. She had seen the creature. And now it was gone. She drew in a deep breath. Had it been poisonous? What had it looked like? She was going to have to find out. She'd have to ask. She'd have to...

  "Argh!" A gasping, desperate sound escaped her as she felt something slither over her foot. She looked down in terror. It was the snake.

  She had her spade. She screamed, jumped--and slammed it down.

  She dropped the spade, leaving the snake pinned beneath it, and backed away. Nearing the kitchen door, she turned.

  Only to see another of the foot-long blackish creatures.

  Sweat broke out all over her. Shaking, Alexi wrenched open the kitchen door and ran to the pantry again. She found a pipe wrench and raced back into the hallway. She swung the wrench down with force, careless of what she might do to the fine wooden floor.

  She wasn't about to pick up the spade or the pipe wrench. She burst into the parlor instead. With trembling fingers she found Rex Morrow's phone number and dialed it.

  "C'mon, c'mon, c'mon, c'mon...!" she muttered as the phone rang. When she heard Rex's voice on the other end, she started to speak, then realized it was an answering machine. He didn't identify himself by name; in a deep, pleasant voice said merely, "I can't get to the phone right now, but if you'll leave your name and number at the sound of the beep, I'll get back to you as soon as possible."

  Alexi waited for the beep. "Rex, it's Alexi. Rex--" Her eyes widened, and she broke off with a long scream. There was another one! Another one, coming into the parlor!

  She dropped the phone and raced to the fireplace. Grabbing the poker, she went for the snake. She got it. Or at least got it pinned beneath the poker. She had to get out. Just for a minute; just to breathe. Her hair was soaking wet, she was barefoot, and her robe was hardly even belted, but she had to get out.

  Tears stinging her eyes, she raced for the front door. By the time she got the stubborn bolt to work, she was crying in great, gulping sobs.

  She flung the door open and went running out and down the path, right into a pair of strong arms. "Alexi!"

  She screamed in panic at the feel of the strong fingers tight around her shoulders. Everything that touched her had become a snake, and she couldn't see anything, as her face was crunched to his chest.

  "Alexi! What is it? Oh, my God, what happened? Is someone in there? Did someone hurt you? Alexi!"

  Somehow the fact that it was Rex filtered into her mind.

  "Oh, Rex!" She grabbed his shirt, her fingers like talons as they dug in. She moved even closer to him, trembling.

  He shook her gently.

  "Dammit, Alexi, what the hell happened? Did someone attack you?"

  She shook her head, unable to talk.

  "Alexi!"

  He caught her hands and gently unwound her fingers from their death clutch upon him. He held them between his own, then slipped his hand beneath her chin to raise her eyes to his. She saw the concern in them, the raw anxiety in the hardened twist of his jaw.

  "I tried to call you--" she gasped out. "I know, dammit, I know! I was there! I heard you scream, and I ran here as fast as I could. Alexi, what--" "Oh, it was horrible, Rex!" "What, Alexi, for God's sake! What?"

  Her eyes were glazed, her lips were trembling, her whole body was shaking. She was deathly pale, terrified.

  And she was beautiful. Not even his confusion and fear for her could block that fact. She was scrubbed and damp, and her hair was soaked, but she was beautiful. Her eyes were huge and as green as emeralds with their glazing of moisture. She was pure and glorious beneath the sun. Her scent was soft and dazzling, as soft as the pressure of her body against his. She was a barefoot waif in a white robe, and he was painfully aware that she wore nothing beneath it.

  And she called on everything primitive within him. He wanted to go out and do battle for her. He wanted to sweep her into his arms, hold her to his heart and swear that things would be okay. And he wanted, with a throbbing intensity, to take her away with him, away from any horror, and make love to her. To tear away that slim barrier of terry and drown in the soft, feminine scent of her.

  "Alexi!"

  He shook himself, mentally, physically. There could be some horrible, stark danger at hand, and he was nearly as mesmerized
as she, shuddering with the hot pulse that rent a savage path throughout his body.

  "Rex! Rex! They--they..."

  "They--who?" he shouted.

  "Sna--" She had to pause to wet her lips. "Snakes!"

  "Snakes?" he queried skeptically, looking at her as if she had lost her mind.

  His tone returned some of her sanity to her. "Snakes!" she yelled back. "Slithery, slimy, creeping creatures! Snakes."

  "Where?"

  "In the house!"

  She was still trembling, but much less. He himself was shaking now, with emotion and with a growing anger. He'd half killed himself to reach her, terrified that a murder was afoot, and she was babbling along about snakes.

  The glaze was gone from her eyes. They were still a deep emerald green, but she was angry, too. He set her from himself and strode quickly up the path to the house.

  Well, Rex quickly discovered, she hadn't been lying. The house looked like a scene from a macabre murder mystery. Pipe wrench, spade, fire poker. A smile curving his lips, Rex walked up to the first of the victims in the hallway.

  It was just a little ringneck, not even a foot long. It was still wobbling pathetically. Rex picked it up carefully and decided the creature still had a chance. He returned to the doorway and tossed the snake into a row of that rimmed the front porch. Alexi, standing further down the path, stared at him incredulously.

  "Alexi, it's just a ringneck."

  "It's a snake!"

  Rex frowned. "You shouldn't have tried to kill it; you should have just swept it out."

  "It! There's a litter in there!"

  He laughed. "Them."

  "Don't you dare make fun of me! They could have been poisonous, and I wouldn't have known one way or the other. You do have poisonous snakes in the state, I take it?"

  "Yes, we do have poisonous snakes. And I'm sorry. You're right; you wouldn't know. But these guys are harmless. They're actually good. They eat bugs. They till the soil. You should have just swept them all out."

  "Fine!" she retorted. "They're welcome to be in the soil! But not in the house!" She was still shaking, he noted. "I'm not going back in! There are more, Rex! I have to get an exterminator. Today!"