Between the vandalism and the threatening letters, Carolyn had trouble getting to sleep. It unnerved her that all this time a member of the Light Keepers had been right under her nose. At least he hadn't been in any of her classes. The expression on his face when he'd called her a pariah—it gave her chills. Obviously the community hadn't completely erased her from their memories. She wondered if her father and stepmother still talked about her, or if the name Carolyn was strictly off-limits.

The thought made her so sad that she called to Dragon. "Come on up here, big guy. I know it's against house rules, but they'll never know. It'll be our secret, okay?"

The big Newfie hauled himself off the dog bed in the corner and trotted to her side. His nails scrabbling on the shiny surface of her comforter, he hauled his lumbering body onto the bed. He looked somewhere between guilty and triumphant as he surveyed the room from his new perch.

"I know, I know, breaking the rules is hard, isn't it? I know the feeling. I swear it's okay." She patted his haunches until he sat, then collapsed into a furry pile of doggy bliss at her feet.

She lay back, finally relaxing. Dragon wasn't trained as a guard dog, the way the Light Keepers' dogs were. But he would certainly let her know if any strange sound or movement occurred in the night.

When she finally did sleep, she had a nightmare. A man dressed entirely in black strode into her office. He swept all her papers off her desk—students' essays on the significance of Leonardo da Vinci went flying. Books flew out of the shelves and landed in a big mess on the floor. A wild wind rushed through the room like a hurricane. Her hair whipped out of its knot and swirled against her face. The wind was tugging her out of the room toward a window that suddenly opened up. She was going to be sucked into a void, disappear forever…

But the man in black—Tobias—reached out his hand and grabbed her wrist. He held on tight while she battled the force of the howling gale.

And then she woke up, sitting bolt upright. Poor Dragon uttered a reproachful howl.

"Sorry, boy," she whispered. When her heart rate finally approached normal, she lay back down.

Wow. For a man she'd only met yesterday, Tobias Knight sure took up a lot of space in her brain.

The next day was her lightest teaching day. She usually used the hours between classes to catch up on grading or assemble slides for her next lecture. But today she went first to the hardware store, where she picked up some black gloss paint, then home.

Tobias was already busy cleaning off her door with a damp cloth. He wasn't wearing black this time. Instead he wore jeans and a green plaid long-sleeved shirt with a hole at the elbow. Painting clothes. He wore a bandanna tied backwards on his head, maybe to keep off the sun.

In black or out of black, he looked like pure, unrefined, one hundred percent sin. So male, so strong, so lethally attractive.

She shook off her momentary trance and walked up the steps to join him. "It's a good thing the door is black," she told him. "Easy to match. How are you today, Tobias?"

He paused in his work and glanced at her. The shadows in his eyes made her wonder if he'd had trouble sleeping too. Maybe he was worried about his brother. "Just fine. And you?"

His formal tone made her smile. "Oh, ducky. No letters arrived at my office today. It was kind of a lonely feeling, actually. I might need a pen pal if I want more mail. That was a joke," she said quickly. "My sense of humor can get a little morbid sometimes."

He lifted his eyebrows. "I bet I can beat you in that department. Black humor is the official language of the Special Forces."

"I can well imagine." Her father had an obsession with the various branches of the military, none of which had accepted him because of his psychological profile. The Special Forces had been a particular dream of his. "What made you leave the army?"

"It was time," he said simply. "My brother Ben had this idea about a pilot service. He couldn't do it alone. So I came home and we started Knight and Day Flight Tours. Just had the grand opening recently."

She cocked her head at him. "First Aiden, now Ben … Is it always about your brothers with you?"

He reached for a spot at the top of the door, causing his shirt to stretch tight. "Do you have brothers?" he asked instead of answering.

"No, I never had any brothers or sisters. Just the other kids at—" She broke off, not wanting to get into a discussion of her weird childhood. "Are you hungry?"

"Let me finish cleaning the surface, then I'll have a quick bite while it's drying."

"Sure."

He stepped back so she could unlock the door. In order to slip inside, she had to pass within a few inches of him. As she did so, their sudden closeness made her nerves go haywire. The whirlwind sensation of her dream came back to her. Her heart skipped and raced, her breath fluttered in her throat like a trapped moth.

She practically bolted inside. Dragon trotted to greet her, and she crouched down to bury her head in his shaggy coat.

Sweet lord in heaven, what was this? Being around Tobias was like sticking her finger in a light socket. It was a good thing he didn't live here. She petted Dragon and forced her breath to ease. Good old Dragon. She was going to miss this dog when she went back to Jupiter Point next semester.

Jupiter Point.

Where Tobias lived. Will Knight's brother. Merry's future brother-in-law. Oh God.

She muttered a curse into Dragon's coat and rose to her feet. She'd have to get used to him, that was all there was to it. That meant spending time with him, like a normal person.

Starting with lunch.

She went into the kitchen and pulled sandwich makings from the fridge. What kind of sandwich would a guy like Tobias Knight like? Something hearty, to maintain all those muscles. Roast beef, perhaps. Also, something that packed a punch. Horseradish. Horseradish was the testosterone of condiments. He'd probably like lots of that. Cheese? The guy didn't have an ounce of fat anywhere on him, at least that she could see.

That might require closer inspection, however.

Jarred by the thought, she accidentally squirted mustard onto the counter. As she was wiping it up with a paper towel, Tobias walked into the kitchen.

"All clean," he told her as he went to the sink to rinse off the cloth he was using. "Should be dry in a few minutes with this sunshine."

"Mmm-hmm." She tried hard not to watch the flexing of his muscles as he wrung out the cloth. What were those muscles at the back of the arm called? The ones that ran in a firm line between shoulder and elbow and made her mouth water? "What kind of sandwich would you like? I have roast beef, ham, cheese, I can make some tuna, whatever you like. Are you a peanut butter jelly man?"

He turned, grabbed a dish towel to dry his hands, and leaned his rear against the enamel of the farmhouse-style sink. "I'm easy. You learn not to be picky in the Army."

"Yes, but you're not in the Army anymore," she pointed out. "Now you can you eat whatever you want. That's what I do. Every single meal, I give serious and extensive thought to what I actually want to eat. So, what do you want?"

He stared at her, lips quirking up in a half-smile. "Really? Every single meal? What did you eat last night?"

"My favorite guilty secret snack. Ritz crackers, cheese, and pickles."

"I'll have that," he said promptly.

"What? That's not lunch. That won't hold you through painting the door."

He waved that off as he hung the dish towel back on its rod. "I could paint that door on no food. It won't take me long. The only question is how many coats we need to cover up that ugly orange."

She shuddered as she pictured it. This morning she'd sent an email to the math professor letting him know about the vandalism, though she hadn't included any details—like the fact that it was directed at her.

"Well, I'm sorry, but I'm not ready to share my guilty secret snack with you," she teased, half serious. "We barely just met."

"Guess you have a point there." He grinned at her. "So what do you want to know so you can decide if I'm worthy or not?"

"Let's start with what kind of sandwich you want."

"I told you, I'm easy. Anything you put together, I'll eat." He put his hand on his belly, hard and flat as a country highway.

"Roast beef and peanut butter? With bananas?"

"You're a lot meaner than you look, you know that?"

She gave him an evil grin. "Fine, I'll make you what I originally had in mind—roast beef and horseradish. No complaints."

"Sounds perfect. Can I help?"

She startled. Even after ten years away from the Light Keepers, it sometimes seemed strange for a man to offer help with anything domestic. At the compound, women did all the housework.

"There's nothing much to do. Maybe grab some plates for us?"

She indicated the cabinet where the professor kept his dishes. He retrieved two plates, then examined them closely. "I'll tell you one thing I am picky about—dishes," he explained. "I don't believe in automatic dishwashers. They don't do as good a job as a human being can. I got rid of the dishwasher at my brother's place. Do you mind?"

"Go for it." She rarely even used the dishes here. Her guilty pleasure snack didn't need them, and she usually ate on campus.

She finished making the sandwiches as he took down all the dinner plates and carefully washed them by hand. She seared the image into her brain. A studly man doing her dishes and painting her door. This was fantasyland stuff.

"So you live with your brother? Is that Ben or Will?"

He looked sharply over his shoulder at her. "You know Will?"

Oops. She'd left out that piece of information in the chaos of yesterday. "I know of him. Merry Warren is one of my best friends back in Jupiter Point."

He stared at her with bemusement. "No shit. Small world."

"I only figured out last night that Aiden, my student, was related to Merry's fiancé. I supposed I should have put it together before but names are not my forte."

He turned back and put the dish he'd just washed on the rack to dry. "Well, now I really feel like an ass, showing up here at Evergreen. Coming in hot with my accusations and attitude. Merry will probably rip me a new one when I see her next."

Carolyn smiled at the thought of her friend reading Tobias the riot act. If there was anyone who could pull that off, it would be Merry.

"From what Merry said, you guys didn't know exactly who you were looking for, is that right?"

"Yes. Aiden wouldn't say. He still won't come out and say it."

"Maybe it's not me."

He set the last plate on the rack and turned to face her. "I asked him what made him sign up for your class and his face went bright red. It's pretty obvious that it's you. But he doesn't want to talk to his big brother about it. I can't say I blame him. I did all kinds of shit at his age that I never told anyone. Especially my big brother."

"Like what? Can you share any juicy details?"

He shut that down with a firm shake of his head. "I'm going to take the fifth on that. Suffice it to say I learned all my lessons at an early age. Now I'm a model citizen."

Maybe that smile was supposed to look innocent, but to Carolyn it suggested all kinds of naughtiness. She blocked it out and slid a roast beef sandwich toward him, then took a stool on the other side of the kitchen island. She felt a little safer with it between them.

He waited politely until she picked up her sandwich.

"Please." She waved him ahead. "You're a hard-working man, you must be hungry."

"I am. Thanks." Something in the way he looked at her as he said it made the hairs on her arm rise. He surveyed the sandwich, which she'd loaded up with extras—tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, mustard, mayo and horseradish. "When you make a sandwich, you don't mess around."

"I like food. All kinds of food. When I first left—" She broke off, stunned that she'd almost mentioned the compound in such a casual way. She never did that. Clearing her throat, she tried again. "When I first left home, I wanted to try everything. Every ethnic food I could find. To me it was like traveling without the airfare."

He pretended not to notice her near-gaffe, although most certainly he had. Those deep blue eyes didn't seem to miss much. He bit into his sandwich, eyes half-closing as he consumed the layers of her masterpiece. It dawned on her that making food for someone, then watching them enjoy it, was a very sensual experience. She'd thought carefully about what to make for him, she'd spent time creating it, and now he was wrapping his mouth around it in obvious pleasure.

Oh boy. She was in deep, embarrassing trouble if she couldn't watch this man eat a sandwich without lusting over him.

She shifted her focus to her own simple peanut butter and raspberry jam. They ate in silence for a while. It was more companionable than uncomfortable, although that river of awareness provided a constant backdrop.

He finished with a sigh. "That was great, thank you. I'd paint this whole house for another sandwich like that."

"If Joseph Brown gets any ideas about further vandalism, I may take you up on that." As soon as she said his name, she regretted it. It opened a door that he stepped through immediately.

"I got the impression you knew him, or his family."

"I knew his parents, but I don't remember him. It was a long time ago. Are you thirsty? I'm not sure what I have to offer, but whatever it is you're welcome to it." She crossed to the fridge, which took her to his side of the island. Again the hairs on her arm lifted. She was just so hyper-aware of him. It was unnerving. The cold air from the fridge's interior cooled her hot cheeks.

"I'd take an answer over a soda, if you're handing those out." His deep voice curled around her insides like chocolate.

"I did answer. I knew Joseph's parents."

"At the Light Keepers Brigade?"

She took out two San Pellegrinos and closed the refrigerator door with a sigh. "You're persistent, aren't you?"

"I'm curious. I told you those letters had me worried."

"But we caught Joseph and it should be over now. I'm not going to get him on the track team." She rolled her eyes. "Students. Life would be so much easier if their good judgement kicked in a few years earlier."

"Are you so sure it's over? You let him off pretty easy with that track team excuse."

She froze, still holding the cans of soda. He made a good point. She'd swallowed Joseph's explanation without question, mostly because she wanted to. She didn't want to believe anything more threatening was going on. This campus—her life as a teacher in general—was her safe haven.

But no place was immune from bad behavior. There was nowhere you could hide away completely.

She handed him one of the sodas, then cracked open her own. The sound broke the silence like a firecracker.

And it occurred to her that it was too quiet. Usually there was some kind of doggy sound every few minutes—snuffling, toenails clicking, something. She looked over at the corner Dragon usually occupied, but no sprawling black Newfie peered back. "Where's Dragon? My dog? I mean, he's not mine, but I'm taking care of him and…Dragon!" she called. "Here, boy!"

No answer. She dropped her soda can on the island and ran into the living room. The dog bed was empty. No little puddles of drool glistened on the floor. Tobias was right behind her.

"I remember seeing him when I came in. He came to the door the way he usually does. But I don't remember what happened after that. Did you see him while you were cleaning off the door?"

Tobias shook his head with a frown. "No, I don't think so. I do remember seeing him inside. I didn't notice him come out, but I wasn't really paying attention to him."

The subtext being that he was paying attention to her instead. Which would have been flattering if she weren't suddenly terrified. "One of us would have noticed if he went outside, right?"

He screwed up his face. "I'm going to be honest. I was mostly looking at you and the door. Not much beyond that."

Her face burned, but at the same time she felt sick with guilt. From the moment she'd walked in the door, she'd been one hundred percent laser-focused on thoughts of Tobias. She couldn't even remember if Dragon had followed her to the kitchen. She needed a freaking brain replacement!

"I'm going to look upstairs. He doesn't usually like the stairs, but maybe he got scared because a stranger was in the house." She ran for the flight of stairs that led up to the guest room level.

"I'll check outside." Tobias strode toward the front door.

Cursing her easily distracted self, she flew upstairs, calling for Dragon as she went. But a quick check of all the guest bedrooms revealed no sign of the big dog. Then a shout from outside sent her heart pounding into overdrive.