Hello, Darkness Read Online Free PDF Page A

against his teeth and leaving a mark.
    For another hour, the picture taking continued along with the foreplay. By the time they actually did it, she was past ready. Afterward he refilled their wineglasses and lay beside her, stroking her gently all over and telling her how beautiful she was.
    She had thought, Now, here’s a guy who knows how to treat a woman.
    When they finished their wine, he asked if he could take more pictures. “I want to capture your afterglow.”
    “So you’ll have the before and after?”
    He laughed and kissed her quickly and with affection. “Something like that.”
    He dressed her—yes, he had personally dressed her as she used to dress her dolls. He returned her to the park on the lake where they’d met and saw that she got safely into her car. As he closed the door, he kissed her lips softly. “I love you.”
    Whoa! That had taken her aback. A hundred guys had told her they loved her, but usually as they were fumbling to get a rubber on. More often than not these professions of love took place within the steamy interior of their cars or pickups.
    But love had never been proclaimed softly, tenderly, and meaningfully. He’d even kissed the back of her hand before he let her go. She’d thought that was awfully sweet and gentlemanly.
    They’d been together several times since that first night, and it was always good kicks. But soon, and predictably, he’d started whining. Where were you last night? Who were you with? I waited for hours, but you never showed up. When can I see you again?
    His possessiveness took the fun out of being with him. Besides, the newness and novelty had begun to wear off. His photography didn’t seem exotic anymore, just weird and often creepy. It was time to bring this to a halt.
    Maybe he sensed that she’d decided to break it off tonight, because it had started off badly. They’d quarreled immediately after he picked her up. From there things had grown progressively worse.
    He’d gone bizarre and scary on her with this bondage shit. Leaving her tied up for what was going on hours now. What if this dump caught on fire? What if there was a tornado or something?
    She didn’t like it. She wanted out of here. The sooner the better.
    Before he left, he had at least turned on the radio and tuned it to Paris Gibson’s program. That provided her with some company. She didn’t feel quite as abandoned as she would have felt in a total silence that accompanied the total darkness.
    So she lay there listening to Paris Gibson’s voice and wondering when the hell he was coming back and what other fun and games he had in mind.
    Chapter Three
    T he red light on the control board went out. Valentino had hung up.
    It was several seconds beforeParis realized that the only sound she heard was that of her own heartbeat. The music had stopped. On the log monitor she saw a series of zeros where descending numbers should be counting down the time remaining on a song. How long had she been broadcasting dead air?
    With twenty-three seconds left in her program, she depressed her microphone button. She tried to speak. Couldn’t. Tried again.
    “I hope you’ve enjoyed this evening of classic love songs. Please join me again tomorrow night. I’ll be looking forward to it. Until then, this is Paris Gibson on FM 101.3. Good night.”
    By depressing two control buttons, she was off the air. Then she was off her tall swivel stool like a shot, yanking open the heavy studio door, racing down the dark hallway, and barreling into the engineering room.
    Except for a box of take-out fried chicken on Stan’s desk, the room was empty. She continued running down the hall, turning right at the first intersection of corridors and literally slamming into Marvin, who was dragging a dirty rag along an interior windowsill.
    She gasped, “Have you seen Stan?”
    “No.” One thing you could say about Marvin—he was a man of few words. If he spoke at all, it was in monosyllables.
    “Has he already