Flesh

hands out and down, down over her collarbones, down her chest, going away instead of touching her through the filmy fabric of her bra, and opening the last buttons.

He slipped the blouse down her back. Alison’s wrists were trapped in the sleeves, but she made no effort to free them.

For a while, his hands roamed her back and sides. Then they unfastened her bra. Evan kissed the side of her neck. He nibbled, making her squirm. Her heart quickened, desire pushing away the lazy weak feeling. He caressed her sides. His hands moved beneath her arms, slipped under her bra, and lightly cupped her breasts. Her nipples stiffened, pressing into his palms.

Reaching back, she rubbed his thighs through the soft fabric of his pants.

He squeezed her nipples.

A hot tremor pulsed through Alison. She caught her breath. She reached higher, intending to caress his penis through his pants, but she found it rigid and bare. Her hand flew from it.

He chuckled softly. “Surprise,” he whispered.

How long had he been that way, his penis secretly exposed while he caressed her? It seemed wrong, deceitful, almost perverted.

But he rubbed and squeezed her breasts and what did it matter if he’d jumped the gun a bit? He saved me the trouble, Alison thought. She reached up and stroked him.

Then she turned around. Evan was on his knees. As he slid down his pants, Alison removed her hands from the sleeves of her blouse.

She glanced down at herself. Her bra hung like a flimsy scarf above the tops of her breasts. She began to sweep its strap down her left arm and saw a smudge of red on the white, translucent fabric of one rumpled cup.

She stared at the red stain. It looked like a smear of the salsa they’d been dipping their chips into before dinner.

I must’ve spilled…

It’s on my bra.

In the bathroom after waking up, she had found the middle button of her blouse unfastened.

After waking up.

Evan, naked from waist to knees, lifted his knit shirt to pull it over his head. It was covering his face. Alison jabbed a fist into his belly. Air whooshed out of him. He folded at the waist. Alison flung herself off the sofa just in time to avoid being struck by his crumpling body.

She rammed her feet into her shoes.

Behind her, Evan was gasping for breath.

“You shit,” she muttered. Shaking with rage, she shoved her bra into her handbag. “You filthy shit, you felt me up while I was asleep!” She whirled around to face him. He was on his knees, his forehead pressed against the sofa seat. “That really stinks. Stinks!” She thrust a hand down the sleeve of her blouse. “It’s sick is what it is!”

“I’m sorry,” he gasped.

“You rotten bastard.” She struggled to find her other sleeve, then shoved her arm through and slung the purse strap onto her shoulder. With palsied fingers, she tried to fasten her blouse as she rushed to the door.

“Alison!”

She jerked the door open and glanced back at Evan. He was still on the sofa, his ass in the air.

“Don’t go!” he called. “Please!”

She stepped out and slammed the door.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

I got him good, Alison told herself as she hurried along the sidewalk. I got him real good.

Oh, sure you got him good. Maybe he’ll have a sore gut for a while, maybe even a bruise, but by morning he’ll be almost as good as new and you won’t.

How could he do a thing like that?

How could I sleep through it?

He probably just slipped his hand in for a quick feel, nothing more.

Yeah, sure thing. A feel here, a feel there.

If he’d cleaned the goddamned salsa off his hand, I never would’ve been the wiser. What the fuck was he doing, eating while he groped me?

Alison heard an engine. Headlights brightened the road on her left. A car moved slowly ahead of her, close to the curb. “I’m sorry!” Evan called through the open passenger window. “Please, can’t we at least talk?”

She kept walking.

Evan’s car stayed beside her. “At least let me drive you home. We can’t leave it like this.”

“Oh yes we can.”

“I didn’t do anything!”

“Oh no?” Alison strode across the grass and stepped off the curb. Evan stopped his car. She crossed in front of its headlights and went to his door. The window was down. She clutched the sill and peered in at him. “You didn’t do anything? How do you figure that, huh? What do call grabbing my tit, not to mention whatever else you might’ve grabbed?”

“I didn’t know you were asleep, damnit! I came back from the kitchen and sat down with you, and you looked at me. You opened your eyes when I sat down, and gave me this look as if everything was okay, and I put my arm across your shoulders. You didn’t tell me to get lost, so I thought you liked it. I thought everything was okay again. That’s when I put my hand in your blouse. I didn’t know you were asleep. You didn’t act asleep. My God, you moaned when I…touched you.”

“I don’t believe you,” Alison muttered. But her outrage had turned to confusion.

What if he’s telling the truth?

She lowered her head. Her grip on the car door seemed necessary to hold her up.

“I thought you were awake. I never would’ve done those things if I didn’t think you were awake.”

“What things, exactly?”

“You really don’t remember any of it?”

“You did more than…touch my breast?”

“Yes.”

Alison groaned.

“You seemed to like it.”

“Christ.”

“You were breathing hard, you were kind of writhing…”

“My God, I don’t—”

“Then suddenly you snored. I couldn’t believe it. I mean, I was in shock. I couldn’t believe you’d been sleeping the whole time, but I thought what if you were! I mean, what if you suddenly woke up and found me all over you? So I buttoned your blouse as fast as I could, and decided I’d better pretend the whole thing never happened unless you brought it up first. Which you didn’t.”

“It was just going to be your dark little secret.”

“It was a mistake, Alison.”

“Yeah, uh-huh.”

“I’d planned to tell you about it, but not until later. I figured that, once everything was patched up between us, it’d be safe to tell you about it. Hell, you probably would’ve thought it was funny.”

“A riot.”

“I can certainly understand your being upset. I mean, I know how it must look. But look at it this way: if you hadn’t noticed that sauce on your bra, we’d be making love right now. Wouldn’t we?”