Sitting at the police station was like having one of those dreams about being in high school again. The one where no one talks to you and everyone walks wide circles around you, staring, pointing, and laughing.

No one was laughing, but anyone who got within ten feet of me cringed, recoiled, and rebounded away, giving me a wide berth. They were shocked to find their nostrils assailed by smells better suited to battlefields than to a psychologist whose face had evidently been on television all morning.

As one officer so succinctly put it, "There just aren't words for that smell."

It didn't take long for me to give my statement, because all I could remember was the last couple of hours. I didn't know what'd happened prior to my waking up and I hadnoclue about who'd brought me there.

But it turned out I didn't have to worry about getting out of there quickly. In fact, taking my statement in the close quarters of the badly ventilated station proved to be such a challenge that my hosts eagerly arranged for me to be taken over to the lab.

I'd expected to be headed off to the shower and outfitted with one of those delightful orange garments, but that didn't happen.

In fact, ever since I'd arrived at the police station things had been strange.

I'd been the focus of several whispered conversations, each containing the words "the chief."I was escorted to the lab and was waiting for a blood sample to be taken, when the double doors burst open and a heavyset, white-haired, fifty-something male strode into the room. Every-one around me froze in mid-action and came to attention.

The new arrivalsignaled to the others, who scurried over immediately.

I would have just stared out the window, waiting for the bureaucratic huddle to end, if it hadn't been for the fact that various faces kept turning in my direction.

I might have been in shock, but I wasn't a complete veg-etable. Clearly, those people were talking about me.

For a brief moment before the older man left, all the eyes in the group turned to me.

What the hell was going on? What weren't they telling me?

I hadn't had much experience with the police, but being treated like a skin-sloughing leper wasn't anywhere in my ex-pectations.

The lab technician who'd earlier been preparing my arm for the blood sample came back and I said, "Who was that?"

He kept his eyes riveted on his task and said, "Chief Cassidy."

"Why was he talking about me?"

Ignoring my question, he responded, "There, all finished. The officer will take you back now."He wrote my name on the samples, gathered up his mate-rials and nodded to a uniform officer standing by the door.

The officer led me back to the detectives' bullpen. I fig-ured I was going there to answer more questions-not that I had any answers-and I mentally prepared myself for a long stay. I was surprised when they quickly said I was free to go. It seemed they were taking me home and someone would come to my house later to pick up my contaminated clothing.

That piece of information drew several incredulous "What?" responses from various detectives, and I heard someone say I must have powerful friends who could roust the chief out of bed before the crack of dawn to start the search for me, postpone the interrogation and over-ride all the proper procedures.

Powerful friends?I was sure they had me confused with someone else, but that didn't matter. As long as this ordeal was over and I was being taken home, I'd claim to know the Queen of England. Hell, I'd claim tobe the Queen of England.

In addition to everything else this situation was.it was humbling.

The pleasure of driving me home once again fell to the policewoman who'd brought me to the station, because, after all, the back seat of her unit was already tarnished. I half expected her to put down newspaper for me to sit on and, frankly, that wouldn't have been a bad idea.

"You're Dr. Knight, right? I'm OfficerColletta . I saw your advertisement in the paper. The one they were talking about on TV this morning. The one that says you're the Vam-pire Psychologist." She examined me in herrearview mirror.

"Yes. I'm Kismet Knight. I'm afraid to know what they were saying about me on TV, so I'm not even going to ask."

She didn't volunteer the information.

"That must be an interesting job-being the Vampire Psychologist. I mean, what do you do, exactly?

Are there re-ally people who think they're vampires?"

She lowered her voice and gave me serious eyes in the mirror. "Are therereallyvampires ?"

"If you'd asked me that question a week ago, I'd have said there are people who are disturbed enough to believe they're vampires, and that it's all mental illness and acting out. But after the things I've seen in the last week, all I can say now is 'I don't know'."

She seemed almost magically able to keep the car on the road and watch me in the mirror at the same time. "We've had murders lately.Murders where the victims are drained of blood. Do you know about those?"

"I heard something about that."

"Maybe the murderer is one of your clients?"

Well Thank you for raising a horrible possibility I hadn't con-sidered. "I hope not."

We rode in silence the rest of the way to my house. As we pulled up in front, OfficerColletta said, "I'm surprised the cam-eras aren't here yet. You'd better prepare yourself for a media blitz. You probably won't have much privacy for a while."

I sighed. "I'm afraid you're right. Thanks for everything."

She met my eyes again and nodded. I got out of the cruiser and she pulled away.

I'd just stumbled up to my front door when I heard the screech of tires and the slam of a car door. I assumed the news vans had caught up with me, and was surprised to hear a familiar voice.

"Where thefuckhave you been?" Alan demanded, bound-ing toward me. His face was red, deep frown lines etched the skin between his eyes, and the veins in his forehead bulged.

"I've been out all night searching for you. I told you to wait in front of the club. Where did you go? You look ter-rible. What's all over you? And what's that gross smell?"

He stepped away from me like he'd received an electri-cal shock.

As he yelled at me, the psychic numbness that had kept me from feeling the depth of the hideous experience receded, and I stood there trembling. The inner dam broke. Tears raced down my cheeks. I slumped onto the porch, tumbled over on my side, and sobbed loudly.

Alan cursed under his breath He kneeled down next to me. "Geez, don't cry. I'm sorry, Kismet. I didn't mean to be a jerk. I was just so worried. I heard on the police scanner that they'd found you, and then something about dead bodies. I guess I added up the num-bers wrong and overreacted. I felt responsible for taking you to that club and for whatever happened to you.

"And now you stroll up to your front door, obviously in one piece, and I'm so relieved to see you and so pissed at myself for putting you in danger."

He sniffed the air.

"But we need to get you into the house and out of those clothes, because I never thought I'd say this to you, but you smell worse than anything I've ever smelled. Plus, the media vultures will be here any minute."

The professional part of me knew that I was sobbing be-cause it was a natural physical reaction to the kind of trauma I'd experienced, but the little girl part was simply crying be-cause it had been a terrible night and she wanted to be held on someone's lap and rocked to sleep. She wanted to feel safe again.To feel normal again."Let's take these boots off out here, okay?" He slid them off my feet and tossed them into the bushes.

He pulled me up, put his arm around me, asked for my alarm code and opened the door.

I still couldn't stop crying long enough to speak in full sentences, so I was grateful he seemed intent on helping me. Once the reality had melted through thedefenses I'd cre-ated to weather the nightmare, I was hanging by very thin threads and was happy to have a friend running underneath me with a net. Hopefully, the net wasn't accompanied by men in white coats.

Still holding onto me, he helped me up the stairs to the bathroom and propped me against the sink while he turned on the water for my shower.

"I'm going to leave the door open, if that's all right with you, because after you step into the shower, I'm going to take these clothes and bag them up for the forensics team. They'll want to analyze all the various . . . substances."

He shook his head. "I can't believe the chief made them let you wear the clothes home."

He really did look like he'd been up all night, and I was touched by the concern in his eyes.

I gave a limp shrug. "Sure. Leave the door open. That's fine," I sniffled, as I peeled off my clothes without waiting for him to leave the room.

"Uh, uh, I'mgonna go find that bag. I'll be right back." He flew down the stairs.

Sometimes things get very simple. Standing under that stream of hot water was the best thing I'd ever experienced. Not even chocolate or orgasms could top it on the list of won-derful things at that moment.

I washed my hair several times and used every good-smell-ing soap product I had on the plastic shelf that hung from my shower head. I scrubbed my nails and finally justlaid down in the tub and let the water beat down on me.Ambrosia."Kismet?Are you okay?" Alan yanked back the shower curtain.

I just stared up at him, unable to move even one muscle in response.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to burst in on you like that. I couldn't see you in the shower and I thought you might have fallen down or something."

I didn't seem to have any opinions about him opening the shower curtain or seeing me lying naked in the tub. Nothing was more important than enjoying feeling like a warm, limp noodle. I couldn't get worked up about my blatant nudity or anything else. I was so happy to be home-so happy to be safe. And clean. It would have taken an earthquake to jar me out of my Zentranquility .

Now that I smelled better, I realized I'd shared my aro-matic carry-out with Alan, and he was less than springtime fresh. Whatever had been on my clothes was now on his.

I raisedmv arm. "Give me a hand, would you?"

He pulled me to my feet, his eyes moving slowly down my body.

I pinched my nose closed. "Anything strike you about your state of hygiene since you helped me upstairs?"

He glanced down at himself, half grinned and scrunched up his nose.

"I think you'd better add your clothes to the bag for the forensics team and step in here with me. That smell doesn't work any better on you than it did on me."

His eyebrows shot up and then he shrugged. "How can I refuse such an enticing invitation?"He sloughed off the fouled clothing and gingerly stepped into the tub, making sure he kept his back to me.

He had an astoundingly nice ass.Firm, round, and beg-ging to be palmed. I stood at the far end of the shower and watched the muscles in his back ripple as he soaped his arms.

After he'd washed everything he wanted to without turning around, he finally shifted his body and faced me, his compass enthusiastically showing true north. My eyes feasted on the impressive erection and he stared at me as he lathered himself there.

I felt an earthquake.

"Oh, my," I uttered without thinking. I fought the urge to reach out and touch someone.

We admired each other in silence, eyes caressing where hands wished to be.

He turned off the water and ran his fingers through his wet hair, pushing it back from his face. His lovely purple-blue eyes sparkled mischievously, and his cheeks were flushed. Moisture beads glistened on the muscles of his chest.

He stepped forward, brushing my arm as he reached for the towels on the rack outside the shower. My arm tingled and became the epicentre for waves of pleasure sensations. He handed me a towel, slowly dried himself off and stepped out of the tub.

I stole another quick peek at his admirable erection and argued with myself about what I was thinking. I followed him, fastened the towel above my breasts and moved over to the sink. I wiped off the mirror with my hand, leaned in and stared at my reflection. None the worse for wear, if you didn't notice my spacey, glazed-over eyes. The normally sparkling sky blue didn't seem so vibrant right then.

Alan made good use of the extra toothbrush I found, and we stood side by side, silently gazing at eachother in the mirror. I don't let just anyone watch me take care of dental business.

I brushed my teeth, flossed and used every kind of mouth-wash that I had in my medicine cabinet before I finally felt semi-normal.

"What do you need now?" he asked.

Knowing exactly what I needed, I turned to him and met his kind eyes. "I want to curl up in my bed, under my covers, and I want you to hold me."

The corners of his lips quirked up in an amused grin, which I interpreted as an affirmative. I grabbed his hand, led us into my bedroom and pulled down the bed covers. I dropped my towel and slid between the sheets. Giving him my best "come hither" smile, I patted the mattress next to me, sending a clear message.

It had been a long time since the Brazen Hussy part of my personality had a chance to come out and play.

He stood and gazed down at me, hesitating only a few seconds before he joined me.

I wrapped myself around him, feeling finally safe, and sighed. "Thank you for being here with me. You're a good friend."

"A friend?You're giving me way too much credit. I'm not having very friend-like thoughts at the moment."

I met his eyes. "What kind of thoughts are you having?" As if I didn't know, even without the compass to point the way.

"I'm-in-bed-with-a-beautiful-woman thoughts.And I know this isn't the right time to be romantic, because you need to rest and recuperate."

"It's very sweet of you to take care of me."I didn't want to think about where I'd been all night, or what might have happened, or the media frenzy that was waiting for me. I absolutely didn't want to think about the probability that there really were vampires. All I wanted was to be held, touched,connected without any expectations or rules or complications.

I brushed his lips lightly with mine and slid my hand down the muscled plane of his belly, down over the warm, firm length of his erection. He moaned, grabbed a handful of my wet hair and pulled me tight against him as he closed his lips over mine with hungry need.

"I haven't even begun to take care of you," he breathed against my mouth.

Our bodies melted into each other as we took the kiss deeper, allowing all the emotions and tensions of the previ-ous hours to find release through the firestorm of our mutual attraction.

We kissed until every nerve in my body was sizzling and burning.

He pulled away, his breathing ragged and his voice husky. "I don't want to take advantage of this situation. Tell me to stop and I will."

All I could think of was how good he felt next to me, how warm and sweet his mouth was on mine. And after the freak circus I'd experienced the night before, the pleasure of being with a normal male felt overwhelmingly right.Safe. Pure, primitive desire with no insanity attached to it. No fear.

"Don't stop." I ran my hands over his smooth chest.

He rolled me over onto my back and began licking and sucking my nipples, trailing his hand down my stomach. His body was fever hot and his touch like liquid fire.

He brought his face up to mine. "Your body is beautiful. I've imagined this since the first moment I saw you."We kissed each other wildly, hands exploring, his erec-tion rubbing against my leg rhythmically as he slid his finger into the hot wetness between my thighs. I arched my back and opened myself to him, as a wave of ecstasy built inside me. He straddled me and licked his way down my body until his tongue finished what his finger had started. I screamed and dug my fingernails into his shoulders as he laved me over the edge. Quivering, I grabbed his hair and pulled him up onto me, aching for him to fill me, longing to be joined in that primal way with someone. Wanting to give him what he'd given me.

Then there was loud pounding on my front door.

"Dr. Knight?DenverPD. Your door was unlocked. We heard a scream. Are you all right? Do you need help?"

Alan leaped up and ran into the bathroom.

I sat up in the bed and yelled, "No. Everything's fine. Stay where you are. I'll be right down."