All Through the Night by Shannon McKenna, Lori Foster, Suzanne Forster, Thea Devine Page A

that pose, news anchors, even cowboys, men of some authority, men with a problem to fix.
“Bottom line?” he said. “There’s an emotion I’ve never experienced.”
“Which one?”
“The one that makes you shudder.”
“Fear? Is that the one you mean?” No wonder he’d been sent to her. Kerry Houston was an expert on shuddering.
“Not necessarily, although fear could be part of it. It’s an emotion that can never be mastered by the human will. I can’t explain it beyond that, but I’ll know it when I feel it.”
Now she was curious. Maybe this was one of those lucid dreams, the kind that were so vivid and real you couldn’t tell them from everyday life. Was that even remotely possible? And if it was, then maybe the dream had something to tell her. It might be her own subconscious, trying to communicate.
“But you do know who put the curse on you, right? Someone had to—a practicing witch, the computer gods, your ex-wife?”
Irony tempered his smile. “I’ve come to believe that you can curse yourself. In fact, maybe that’s the way it always happens with curses. They’re self-imposed and self-fulfilling. But even if that’s the case, I’m ready to change. I want to be free.”
So did she. Oh, yes, so did she.
“Kerry, there was a moment when I thought I saw you peering back at me through the screen, and it was like waking from a deep sleep. There’s a reason that happened to me. There’s a reason it was you and there’s a reason I’m here. I don’t have much time.”
“But why was it me?”
“Because you woke me up, because you wished for me to be here? Maybe you even needed me to be here.”
Because she needed him to be here. How strange that her grandfather had always said that life had a way of bringing you whatever you needed, but you had to ask, and most people never did.
“Kerry… I may be trapped for all time.”
Okay , she thought, so maybe this is a dream and maybe it does have something to tell me . She could certainly use the feedback. Her life wasn’t exactly a picnic in Lover’s Park lately. And it probably wouldn’t hurt to go along with it— with him—for a while.
“I could be stating the obvious,” she said, “but you are here. You are free. Why don’t you just walk out that door and go merrily on your way?”
“It doesn’t work like that. There are things a man has to learn, things that maybe only a woman can teach.”
Her stomach was doing that handspring thing again, and Kerry could hardly contain a sigh. He had her at things a man has to learn .
“You know, Jean, I’m not exactly a poster girl for mental health.”
“You’re perfect.”
His voice resonated softly through the dark, tapping at the stubborn barriers that protected her heart. She drew the comforter around her, warding off a shiver.
“What do I have to do?” she asked him.
“Teach me how to shudder, the crash course?”
She laughed at that. “We could put it on video, the companion piece to ‘Discover the Secret, Sensual You!’”
“You’ll do it then?”
“Honestly, Jean, I don’t think that can be taught.”
There was pride in the lift of his head, pride and sadness. “Then show me the way back to my soul. Isn’t that where shuddering comes from?”
She tugged on the comforter, trying to cover herself, but there was nothing she could do. He was sitting on the other end.
“The crash course sounds easier,” she admitted.
“What makes you shudder, Kerry? How does it happen?”
You , she thought. Don’t you know? Can’t you see ?
“It’s cold in here,” she told him. “I should probably get some clothes on.”
“Can I help with that?”
Again, Kerry found herself staring at him. I gave him the wrong name , she thought. He isn’t Jean Valjean from Les Mi. He’s Starman from the movie . She had her own personal starman. He thought it was just fine offering to help a crazy naked lady get dressed. He was from another planet.
“I’ll stick with the comforter,” she said, “but