Darkness Wakes Read online

  Caroline frowned. “After what?”

  Asshole, asshole, asshole!

  Aaron forced a smile. “You know … after a busy day at work yesterday.” He couldn’t remember what Caroline’s job was, or even if she worked at all. He knew Phillip was in real estate somehow, though the details eluded him at the moment — if he’d ever known them in the first place. And real estate agents worked on weekends, right? Besides, Caroline didn’t strike him as the sort of person to be content with living as a kept woman, but you never could tell. “Too tired to get up early and go running, I mean.”

  Caroline’s frown deepened into a scowl. “Yesterday was Sunday.”

  Aaron’s dream come true of getting a chance to talk with Caroline this morning as rapidly becoming a nightmare. “I’m sorry. I thought you and Phillip worked in real estate.”

  Caroline continued scowling for another moment before finally smiling and nodding. “I see. Yes, we do make our living from real estate, but we don’t sell it. We own it.”

  “Oh.” Aaron felt like an even bigger asshole than he had a minute ago.

  “We own several properties. Apartment complexes, businesses, that sort of thing. Believe me, it’s not as glamorous as it sounds, and it hasn’t made us rich, though the bank’s not going to foreclose on our home anytime soon. We do work odd hours at time, inspecting properties, arranging for maintenance and repairs, sometimes even doing them ourselves, when we can. So it’s not unusual for us to work on a Sunday, but it so happens we took the day off yesterday.”

  Aaron felt a bit less of an idiot now, and he decided to push his luck some more. “I hope you took advantage of your time off and had some fun.”

  Caroline’s scowl didn’t return, but Aaron sensed wariness in her voice as she replied. “We spent most of the day at home, resting.” She paused and looked at him intently, as if she were trying to decide whether or not to continue, and if so, how much she should say. “We did go out last night, though.” She kept her gaze locked on his as she said this, as if she wished gauge his reaction to her words.

  Aaron concentrated on keeping his expression neutral, but inside he felt a surge of excitement. He’d gotten her to talk about the club! Maybe not in any detail — he knew that would be expecting too much — but he was certain that it was the club behind the fuckle door that she spoke of.

  “I hope you had a good time.” Aaron purposely didn’t include Phillip in this statement.

  Her eyes narrowed as she continued looking at him, but her voice sounded perfectly normal as she spoke. “As a matter of fact, I did. I enjoyed myself quite thoroughly.”

  I’ll bet Stripe-Shirt enjoyed you quite thoroughly as well.

  “Good. Glad to hear it.”

  Silence fell between them then, and though Aaron didn’t want to leave her presence, he couldn’t think of anything else he could say that would give him an excuse to talk to her any longer. Not unless he was willing to admit that he’d seen her with Stripe-Shirt at the shopping center last night. And he wasn’t about to do that. A few (mostly) innocent double entendres was about all he could manage. Besides, if he stood here speaking to her any longer, he would start to notice flaws in her appearance. A tiny roll of fat around her belly, earlobes drooping because she often wore earrings that were too heavy, teeth that could stand to be a shade or two whiter. Given his personality, it was inevitable, and he didn’t want to do that to her, didn’t even want to think such things in her presence. Caroline Langdon was perfect for what he needed her for: a fantasy woman, and he didn’t want to spoil that fantasy by injecting any irritating reality into it. It would be best if he just departed and left things as they were.

  “I hate to leave, but I’m late enough for work as it is,” Aaron said. “All the sick pets in Ptolemy won’t survive if Doctor Rittinger isn’t there to trim their toenails, clean their teeth, or empty their impacted anal sacs.”

  Caroline grinned. “Ah, the exciting life of a medical professional.”

  “You know it. See you later. Enjoy your day.” He gave her a small wave, more to stall for one last second than to say goodbye, then turned and walked back to his Lexus. He got in, started the car, put it in drive, and carefully pulled forward, giving Caroline a final wave as he passed her.

  She waved back, but she wasn’t smiling this time. And when he checked his rearview mirror, he saw that she was standing on the street in front of her house, watching him go. He pressed the gas pedal a little harder, and as his Lexus continued around the next curve, he lost sight of her. But though he could no longer see her, he knew she remained standing and staring in the direction he’d driven. He wasn’t sure how he knew this; he just did. He couldn’t decide if this knowledge excited or scared him. Perhaps both.

  Caroline watched Aaron drive off, mulling over what, if anything, this unexpected — but not altogether unpleasant — encounter might mean.

  I’d think you’d be tired after …

  For some reason, Caroline had expected Aaron to finish his sentence with the words last night. And that bullshit about assuming she worked on Sundays that he’d tried to cover with had clearly been the product of desperation. She’d gone along with it, more to see how Aaron would react than anything else. He’d been so relieved that she’d accepted his lie at face value that it was almost comical, even cute, in a boyish kind of way. Obviously, he knew something, or at least suspected. The question was how much?

  It had been a while since she had taken either of the cats in for a check-up. They were long overdue, she was sure. Of course, suddenly taking one or the other of them in for an examination would seem far too convenient. But if one of them were injured …

  She turned and started up the walkway toward her house, trying to remember where she and Phillip had stored the cat carriers. Since her back was turned, she didn’t see the light blue VW bug drive by, following the same direction Aaron had gone … didn’t see the man behind the wheel turn to stare at her as he passed, rubbing his stubble-covered head with rapid, nervous motions of his fleshy hand.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  There were already seven patients — human ones, that is — in Aaron’s office when he got there. Between them, they’d brought ten different animals. A Weimaraner, a chow, two tabby cats, an iguana, a pair of lovebirds, a ferret, a fat dachshund, and a descented skunk. One of the humans — a young boy — removed a guinea pig from his jacket pocket and held it up for Aaron to look at as he walked by.

  Make that eleven animals.

  Diane sat at the counter behind the reception window. She looked up as Aaron passed, gave him a disapproving frown and glanced meaningfully at her watch. Diane Forrester was a pear-shaped matronly woman with white hair and a tendency to dress in loud, colorful blouses. She was hyper-efficient, and it hadn’t been for her, Aaron’s practice wouldn’t be nearly as successful as it was. This made it easier to tolerate her almost manic perfectionism — especially when she expected the same from her co-workers.

  Aaron sighed, gave Diane a quick nod, and hurried though a doorway at the back of the waiting area that led to the examination rooms. Patti Morrilier, his chief vet tech, was standing in the hallway with an armload of charts, as if she’d been lying in wait for him. Patti was young, short, petite, with straight blonde hair that fell just past her shoulders. She’d been out of college only a couple years and still possessed an often annoying abundance of youthful energy. And since Patti was quite attractive — and according to Diane had a crush on Aaron — the beaver part of the nickname was less than complimentary.

  “I’ve already got the examination rooms ready, and I was just about to finish putting the charts in the rooms. I’ve done the first one, though. Examination room three, the Weimaraner.”

  Patti’s words tumbled out of her mouth in a breathless rush, and Aaron frowned slightly as he listened, hoping he didn’t miss anything.

  “Sounds good, Patti. Thanks.”

  She beamed. “You’re welcome, Dr. Rittinger.”

 
He almost told her to call him Aaron, but he remembered what Diane had said about the girl having a crush on him. She was attractive in a diminutive sex-elf kind of way, but he didn’t want to encourage her. Doing so might have been good for his ego, but it wouldn’t be good for the office environment. Diane would pitch a fit if she found out.

  So Aaron merely gave Patti a nod. “When you’re finished putting out the remaining charts, start bringing the animals back, starting with the dog.”

  Then he headed off to examination room three, wishing he’d drank the entire pot of coffee before leaving home.

  By mid-afternoon, Aaron was ready for a nap. He’d been thinking on and off for the last few years about inviting another vet to join his practice in order to lighten his workload a little. After the day he’d had so far, he was seriously considering it again. He was also considering taking up smoking again, even though he’d quit twenty years ago. A cigarette break would do a lot to help him relax right now. But both Kristen and Diane would give him holy hell if he so much as looked at a pack of smokes, so that was out. Just one more unfulfilled fantasy to add to the list.

  He was wondering if there was some way to skip out an hour or two early, maybe get Patti to cover for him, when he walked into examination room one and saw Caroline Langdon waiting for him.

  She sat in the orange plastic chair in the corner, below a poster showing a cross-section of a dog infested with heart worms. She sat with her shapely, toned legs crossed, and a cat on her lap. The animal, an American short-haired calico, was shivering and mewing pitifully. She wore a short-sleeved white top, a shot black skirt, and blue flip-flops with tiny plastic flowers on top where the straps crossed. He took his gaze off her legs, though it wasn’t easy.

  “We meet again,” Aaron said. “A pleasant surprise, for me at least. It doesn’t look so pleasant for your little friend there.” He knelt next to Caroline and reached out to stroke the shivering cat on the top of its head. “What’s the matter?”

  “I think he’s broken his leg, Aaron. Or at least sprained it really bad. I found him around noon, limping across the back yard.”

  The way Aaron was kneeling, his face was level with Caroline’s breasts. He took a quick glance at then, saw her top was unbuttoned to display a good amount of cleavage, and her nipples pressed against the thin white fabric. They didn’t jut out stiffly, though, and Aaron figured she was wearing a bra, but a sheer one. Not black, because he’d be able to see it through her white top. Beige, maybe.

  He reluctantly returned to his attention to the cat. He wished he could remember the animal’s name, but he hadn’t consulted the chart before he began talking to Caroline, and he didn’t want to do so now, for it would mean moving away from her side, and he wanted to remain there as long as he could.

  “Do you have any idea what happened to him? Did he get into a fight with another cat? Maybe fall off the roof or out of a tree?” While cats did often land on their feet when they fell, if they fell from high enough up, it didn’t help them much.

  Caroline shook her head, setting her gold hoop earrings to swinging, the motion also resulting in a slight quiver of her breasts. Though Aaron wasn’t aware of it, he began stroking the cat’s head even faster.

  “Like I said, I just saw him walking in the backyard. The last time I saw him before that was when I let him out just after I got home from jogging. Our backyard is completely fenced in, and Mr. Jinks still has his claws. I figured he’d be all right. He always has been before.”

  Mr. Jinks! Now Aaron remembered, the cat had been named after some old cartoon character. The Langdons’ other cat was named Snagglepuss, after yet another toon feline.

  Aaron took a deep breath through his nostrils, inhaling Caroline’s scent. Her perfume was subtle, and applied in Goldilocks’ fashion. Not too much, not too little: just right. There was another scent, too, underlying the perfume and mingling with it. At first Aaron thought it was the smell of Mr. Jinks. Aaron had been a vet for so long that he normally didn’t notice animal smells — not unless they did something nasty, like puke or shit on the examination table. It was a wild, feral smell, primitive and in a strange way arousing.

  You dumb kid. What you’re smelling is her pussy, and I don’t mean the shivering ball of fur on her lap. The woman’s not wearing any panties.

  The realization hit Aaron like an electric jolt to his testicles, making his penis twitch inside his pants. He knew that, scientifically speaking, whenever you smelled something, you drew molecules of the thing into your nose where they adhered to scent receptors. So technically, in order to smell something, you had to take tiny bits of it into your body. He imagined Caroline’s vagina slick with moisture, pictured molecules of cunt juice detaching and drifting into the air, only to be sucked into his nasal passages and absorbed into his body. He was eating her out with his sense of smell.

  His penis began to harden, and he stood up so the bulge in his pants wouldn’t be so noticeable. “Let’s put Mr. Jinks up on the examining table and have a look,” he said, sounding cool and professional, though inside his hormones were raging as if he were a horny teenager who got an erection every time the wind blew.

  He walked over to the examining table in the center of the room. Caroline stood and carefully carried Mr. Jinks over and set him gently down on the tabletop. When the cat’s left rear leg came in contact with the table, he yowled and drew it up against his body.

  “He’s sure acting like it’s broken,” Aaron said. “Pet him gently and say sweet things to keep him calm while I have a feel, okay?”

  Caroline nodded. She stroked Mr. Jinks’s head and back, though she was careful not to run her hand all the way down to the base of his spine, lest she cause his wounded leg any more pain than necessary.

  “Good kitty, sweet kitty, Mamma loves her kitty …” Her voice was practically a purr itself, and Aaron’s cock got even harder. He was glad he stood on the other side of the examination table so Caroline couldn’t see. But part of him did want her to see, wanted to witness her reaction. Would she be shocked or pleasurably surprised?

  He reached out and with practiced fingers took hold of the cat’s damaged leg and began probing it as gently as he could. Mr. Jinks meowed in protest and turned his head back several times, teeth bared as if to bite Aaron, though he never did. When Aaron was satisfied, he took his hand away and gently stroked the cat’s side.

  “God job, Mr. Jinks. You’re one brave cat.”

  “How bad is it?” Caroline asked. “Is it broken?”

  “I believe so. It feels like a clean break, though, and those are the easiest to set and fastest to mend. We won’t know for sure until we have a few x-rays taken. Is that all right?” Unlike human medicine, when it came to making decisions about animal healthcare, it was up to the pet owners to decide just how much money an animal’s life and health were worth.

  Caroline nodded. She was no longer smiling. Her face was drawn and haggard, as if she was having a terrible time accepting Mr. Jinks’s injury. She didn’t ask how much the x-ray would cost, which was a good sign of her love for and commitment to her pet.

  “All right. You make sure Mr. Jinks stays where he’s at, and I’ll go get my vet tech.” He gave Caroline what he hoped was a reassuring smile, then left the examining room. He found Patti in the reception area collecting a completed new patient form from a woman in her sixties that had an animal carrying case with a plump white rabbit inside it.

  “Could you do me a favor and x-ray a cat for me? I think he might’ve broken his left rear leg, but I want to be sure before I do anything else.”

  Patti nodded and left the Rabbit Woman and accompanied Aaron back to the examination area. They went into examination room one, and Patti took Mr. Jinks off the table, holding him lightly so as not to upset the cat any more than he already was.

  “Nice kitty,” Patti soothed. “This’ll all be over in a flash, and it won’t hurt a bit.” Some people spoke to animals as if they were thinking beings on an evo
lutionary par with humans, and Patti was one of them. Patti then looked at Caroline, her eyes narrowing slightly, as if she’d noticed how attractive the woman was and wasn’t happy about it. “Don’t worry. I’ll take good care of him.”

  Caroline simply nodded and looked as if she might cry. Patti left with Mr. Jinks, closing the door behind. Aaron turned to tell Caroline that the x-rays would only take a few minutes, and that he’d return to look over them with her when they were finished. While things weren’t as busy now as they had been this morning, there were still plenty of other pet owners waiting in other examination rooms or out in the reception area. He could go take care of some of them while Caroline waited. But just as he was about to say all this, Caroline reached across the table and took his hand.

  “Would you mind staying with me?” she asked. “I’m just so worried.”

  Aaron hesitated. Vets had their own version of the Hippocratic Oath. Would he be violating a portion of that oath — to work for the relief of animal suffering — by staying here instead of using the time to attend to other patients? But Caroline had hold of his hand, and he liked the feel of her flesh too much to break contact. He wasn’t going anywhere.

  Smart kid.

  “Sure.” His voice sounded dry and a little hoarse. “No problem.”

  Several moments passed like that, with the two of them holding hands across the examining table. Aaron was surprised by Caroline’s sudden emotional fragility. She’d always struck him as a strong, confident woman. The kind who was always in control of her emotions. But he supposed he really shouldn’t be surprised. People could get funny when it came to their pets. The sweetest little old lady might have her beloved doggie put to sleep without batting an eye, while a big strong macho he-man might weep like a little girl when faced with the same decision. After twenty years as a vet, Aaron still couldn’t tell how people would react to a pet’s illness or injury.