The Red Diary by Toni Blake Page A

slightly tensed, waiting for the rest of the story, but he still spoke only to Lauren. "I put my arms around her, started kissing her neck," he said. Lauren swallowed nervously. "Things progressed from there."
    "What about her pants?" Carolyn asked. "How did you ... you know."
    Good question. Good enough to make him shift his eyes to her since he was winging this and hadn't expected to be tripped up. "Nosy little thing, aren't you?"
    She grinned. ''I'm not shy." "That's obvious."
    "So answer the question."
    He slowly pulled in his breath, pondering possibilities. No way would he say the imaginary girl was wearing a skirt. That would be too much like Lauren's fantasy, and he didn't want to give himself away. "She stood up in the stirrups," he finally said, "and I pulled them down as far as I could. It was enough."
    Lauren was through with this. She pushed to her feet.
    "Excuse me," she said, then headed into the house, not caring if she had a good reason for leaving, not caring what anyone thought of her.
    The first thing she did was hurry upstairs to her office, where she located her sex journal in the bookcase, right where it should be, untouched. Of course it was untouched-what had she been thinking? Still in a flurry, she ran back downstairs, went into the bathroom, shut the door, then peered into the large mirror spanning the wall. Her eyes looked as frantic as she felt, and her heart trembled. A wave of dizziness passed over her and she clutched the pedestal sink for balance. How could he know? Did he know? His story hadn't exactly mirrored her fantasy, but the similarities had literally taken her breath away. Yet she had to be reasonable, rational. Could he have read her journal? No, definitely not. It was impossible. Even without that fear, though, it was as if he'd held her in some invisible grip. She'd been unable to pull her gaze away as he'd looked into her eyes and shared his horribly personal story, and-oh God-truthfully, she hadn't even wanted to look away. It had been as if he were seducing her with his words, his voice, his dark overpowering eyes, and as if she had let him. Her body felt nearly as wrung out as if she'd just had sex. She shook her head at her reflection-you're going insane. Then she reached for the faucet and splashed cold water on her cheeks.
    Still, even as she snatched a towel from the brass bar and pressed it to her face, her mind raced back to the parallels between his story and her fantasy. The questions rose again in her head. Is there some way he could know about it? Any way at all?
    She sharply pulled in her breath, thinking, trying to reason.
    No-there was no way. Because no one knew. Not even Carolyn. No one.
    But then what? Was this some wild coincidence?
    At the moment, she had no other explanation, so she'd have to accept that. It was either that or believe he'd somehow read her mind. When she finally left the bathroom, she once again considered not going back outside. But this time she was going out with a purpose-it was time to end this stupid party.
    "Are you all right, Laur?" Carolyn looked worried as Lauren returned to the patio. The same crowd, Nick included, still resided around the table, though they'd gone quiet.
    "Actually, I'm not feeling very well. Too many wine coolers," she claimed, hoping no one had noticed she'd drunk less than two. "I don't mean to be rude, but ... I think it's time to call it an evening."
    "Of course," Carolyn said, sounding perfectly sympathetic. "We'll take off."
    'Thanks, guys. Sorry." She gave her head an apologetic tilt.
    "No problem, Lauren," Mike said, getting to his feet. As the rest of them stood up, as well, Carolyn shifted her attention back to Nick. "So, you'll come?"
    Lauren blinked. What had she missed with her latest disappearing act?
    "Yeah, I'll be there."
    "Great." Carolyn flashed a victorious smile.
    "What's great?" Lauren asked casually, trying for a smile of her own.
    Carolyn swung her gaze to Lauren. "I invited Nick to Phil's