Page 84 of Just One Look

“Oh. Because you might want to sleep with me later.”

Now, he had to laugh. “Well, yeh. Not to put too fine a point on it, but … yeh. Flirting, eh. Surprisingly fun, flirting.”

“And you want to flirt withme.”

He was laughing more now. It hurt. “Yeh. I do.”

“I’mbadat it, though,” she said.

“I know,” he said. “That’s what makes it so much fun.”

* * *

She headeddown the hill with him following her. They were each going to change out of their wet things, and then he was going to pick her up and take her shopping. Which was either big carefree fun of the type she did not have, or crazy.

She wanted to look at him some more, though. She wanted tobewith him some more. So what if she felt too carried away and wasn’t managing to be one bit casual about it? It was her reboot, when she didn’t have to do things well! She wassupposedto make mistakes, and besides, ferocious desiredidn’tfeel casual, right? It felt exciting. Not that she knew, but she’d heard. And they weren’t even going to have sex anyway, so what did it matter?

She twisted the button for the heat, checked that her defroster was on, shivered, and tried to calm her heart. She’d gotten wetter even during the few yards’ dash to her car, because what she’d thought was a squall had turned into something much more. Her windshield wipers beat a frantic rhythm, and still, she could barely see through the sheets of water that streamed down the windshield. Her hands clutched the steering wheel, and she followed the red taillights in front of her around the curve in the road, down to Tamaki Drive.

Down here, with the full force of the wind side-on to the car, it was insane. In the rare glimpses she got through the driving rain, the sea was angry with tossing gray waves and whitecaps, and the street ran with water that was already overflowing the gutters.

Keep driving,she told herself.Just keep driving. It’s a straight shot to the main part of town, away from the water, and then it’ll be over. You’ll be through this, and you can go shopping. Shopping, and maybe out to dinner, and …

You haven’t talked to Piper yet.

That’s all right, though. Who would you be betraying? And you’re not having sex with the man. He can barely turn his head!

The line of red brake lights, twisting like beads on a necklace around the curve in the coastline. Weak beams of yellow light coming toward her as cars moved through the deluge carefully, or not so carefully, spraying water to either side and drenching already-drenched pedestrians, who were running for shelter. A bus, then another one, splashing her car so thoroughly that she could barely see. Her breath was shallow now, her pulse rate much too elevated. Cars ahead of her, though. Cars going through, still, because this was fine. It was a rainstorm, that was all. A big rainstorm. It was fine.

The traffic slowing even more, and the maritime sound of her car plowing its way through standing water competing with the drumming bullets of rain. Water halfway up the tires of oncoming cars now.

Too deep. Toodeep.

A wave breached the seawall and sprayed across the road, and she cried out, and then another wave did. The cars were going even slower now, barely moving.

The standing water was moving, though, wasn’t it? It was coming down the hill, and it was more than a stream. It was becoming a river.

Get out.Her brain was still trying to give orders, trying for calm, but she could all but feel her frontal lobe being overpowered once more by the little round ball of primitive fears that was her amygdala, shrieking with alarm sirens now. Her amygdala, and her hippocampus, where the memories lived.

He’s going to die,it was telling her.He doesn’t know. Get him out!

Focus. Think. Act.She put on her blinker, honked hard and long, and kept on honking, hoping Luka would see it, that he’d hear it. Finally, an intersection, and she was turning away from the harbor, away from this road.

Get out of it. Up the hill.The rain still drumming hard, and a quick glance in the rearview mirror. Was it him? There was a car behind her, but she couldn’t tell who it was.

Pull over.No parking places open, and she couldn’t care, because her hands were shaking on the wheel, fluttering like leaves, and her foot was banging against the accelerator, too. She wasn’t safe to drive, and she needed to stop. She pulled in front of a driveway, put the car in Park, rested her forehead against the steering wheel, tried to still those fluttering hands, and told herself,It’s all right. It’s all right. Just sit here.

She couldn’t. Her whole body was shaking, and she couldn’t be in this car. She had to get out.

She opened the door, pulled herself out into the pounding rain, and ran.

* * *

When Elizabeth had signaledthat turn, Luka’d thought,Good idea. Road’s going to be closed up here. Not getting through Mission Bay in this. It’s going to be a bloody mess down there.The little sedan ahead of him sped up the hill, where sheets of water were rolling down in a flood. Then she slowed, began to pull over, and he thought,Right. We’ll go around. All the way inland. It’ll be slow, but it’s the best move. Tell her the route, and have her followyouthis time.

He had his own car stopped, his phone out to call her, when her door opened. What the hell? She was going to run back to him, get even wetter? He was out of the car on the sight, headed toward her, but she wasn’t looking at him. She was running around the car, her movements jerky and awkward. Standing in the green verge, then, both hands clutching the slim trunk of a tree whose branches were whipping in the wind, her hair streaming with rain.

He ran to her, grabbed her arm, and shouted, “What’s wrong? Car?”