“Well . . .” She cleared her throat and walked out of the elevator the minute the doors opened. “I appreciate the time and effort you put into today.”

“I’ll be back Thursday night. I want to see you.”

She slipped her key card out of her purse. “I can’t be sure right now what I’ll be doing at the end of the week.”

He simply framed her face with his hands, moved in and covered her mouth with his. The taste of her, he thought. He couldn’t seem to get enough of the taste of her. “I want to see you,” he murmured against her lips.

She’d always been so good at staying in control, at distancing herself from attempts at seduction, from resisting the persuasions of physical attractions. But with him, each time she could feel herself slipping a little farther, a little deeper.

“I’m not ready for this,” she heard herself say.

“Neither am I.” Still, he drew her closer, held her tighter and took the kiss toward desperation. “I want you. Maybe it’s a good thing we both have a few days to think about what happens next.”

She looked up at him, shaken, yearning, and just a little frightened of what was happening inside her. “Yes, I think it’s a very good thing.” She turned, had to use both hands to shove the key card into its slot. “Drive carefully.” She stepped inside, closed the door quickly, then leaned back against it until she was certain her heart wasn’t going to pump its way out of her chest.

It was insane, she thought, absolutely insane to get this involved this quickly. She was honest enough with herself, scientist enough not to skew the results with incorrect data, to admit that what was happening to her where Phillip Quinn was concerned had nothing whatsoever to do with Seth.

It should be stopped. She closed her eyes and felt the pressure of his mouth still vibrating on her lips. And she was afraid it couldn’t be stopped.

EIGHT

IT WAS PROBABLY a chancy step to take. Sybill wondered if it could possibly be illegal. Loitering near St. Christopher’s Middle School certainly made her feel like some sort of criminal, no matter how firmly she told herself she was doing nothing wrong.

She was simply walking on a public street in the middle of the afternoon. It wasn’t as though she was stalking Seth, or planning to abduct him. She only wanted to talk to him, to see him alone for a little while.

She’d waited until the middle of the week, watching from a careful distance on Monday and Tuesday to gauge his routine, and the timing. Habitually, she now knew, the buses lumbered up to school several minutes before the doors opened and children began pouring out.

Elementary first, then middle, then the high school students.

That alone was a lesson in the process of childhood, she mused. The compact little bodies and fresh round faces of the elementary children, then the more gangling, somewhat awkward forms of those who hovered around puberty. And last, the astonishingly adult and more individual young people who strolled out of the high school.