Page 25 of Her Property

“You’re kind of g-g-good at that,” she said.

He was tempted to open his eyes. Too tempted. Instead, he grinned. “Thought I’d be rusty.” He slid the bra from her shoulders and it fell to the ground at his feet, the strap landing across the top of his bare foot. He pictured her breasts springing loose before him and bit his cheek hard to keep from growling.

Finally, he reached for her hips.

But she wasn’t there. He patted the air in front of him, and his eyes fluttered open out of pure instinct. He caught a flash of pale skin before he squeezed them shut again.

“I got the last part, she said. Thank you for your help.”

He heard the sound of her body entering the water and the shuddering exhale of her breath.

“I’m good now,” she said.

He stood there a moment like a dummy with his eyes closed. Then he turned away from her, lifting his lids again.

“You’ll want to get some more hot water in there when you acclimatize,” he said, immediately regretting the words. The woman knew how to have a bath. “I’ll throw a log on the fire before I go.” He moved to the door, gripping the handle and pausing, before turning slightly, his chin to his shoulder. “Are you okay? Do you want help with your hand?”

“I’m fine now,” she said. “Really.”

Did he imagine it or had her voice taken on a terseness that wasn’t there a moment ago?

“Goodbye Cat,” he said.

“Bye, Jake.”

Cat

It was a dream. That was the only explanation.

Except, as Cat sat up in bed, she held her hand up in front of her, and there was the physical proof—her stitched up hand.

It was real. Of course it was real.

Everything flooded back to her, the memories of the day before playing themselves in a reel before her. From the first moment she saw Jake out on his dock, water streaming down his naked body, all the way to the reverse image at the end of the night, where she stood naked before him in the bathroom upstairs.

Cat brought her breakfast outside on the deck where everything had started last night. Not so she could relive the memories, and certainly not so that she might spot Jake down at his dock. But as she sipped her coffee, she knew she was lying to herself. Yesterday had been incredible. And everything on the other side of it felt like a shadow.

Is this what it’s like to feel normal?

Last night she’d held her breath when Jake left the bathroom, not taking a breath until his truck started up a minute later. Even though she’d gotten nervous and told him to leave, that wild and loosening part of her—the part that had her prancing through the swimming hole last night—wanted to call him back. She’d wanted to call out his name once more, to tell him to strip his clothes off and step into the bath with her.

She’d wanted to have him spray her all over with the hot shower nozzle; to take hold of her breasts, which she’d bared for him without him seeing. She’d wanted him to play with her naked body for hours and hours until they were both, finally, warm.

She’d settled for adjusting the nozzle to the massage setting and pointing the hard jet of pulsing water between her legs, bringing herself to an intense orgasm. Visions of Jake’s hard body all over every part of her spurted through her head as she came so hard she had to remember to suck in air at the end.

Now, as she took another sip of coffee from a new, fully intact mug, Cat had to acknowledge that Jake Colson undressing her last night had been the sexiest non-sex thing she’d ever experienced in her entire life. But she cringed, too, recalling that all of it had been predicated on a series of her own mistakes. She’d gotten caught peeping at his naked body. She’d broken the mug and slashed her hand. She’d fallen in the lake. She’d spent the day with the guy next door, who she was supposed to report to her boss. The guy who was supposedly trying to destroy Alfred, even though all the guy wanted to do was build a summer camp.

Thinking of Alfred’s name, Cat realized that she hadn’t thought about work once—if she didn’t count talking briefly about it with Jake last night. After three days of replaying the disaster trial in her head on repeat, she’d gone a full night not thinking about work and the biggest gaffe of her life.

Thinking about it now, the memory threatened to come back. The anxiety about the trial itself, but also her casework piling up around her, calls and emails unanswered. The briefs and memos unread. All of it rose like stomach acid in her throat.

Cat took another swig of coffee, trying to swallow it down. Laura had everything in hand. And maybe what she talked about with Jake last night was worth considering. Maybe shecouldchange gears. But now that she wasn’t in the vortex of Jake, with his questions and encouragement, it didn’t sound as appealing. Being an overworked lawyer was the only thing she knew how to do.

Putting the mug down, she thought about Alfred. Never mind that something was off with his view of Jake. He was her boss. She was staying in his house.

She hadn’t just ignored Alfred’s instruction to let her know if she heard any sounds of work from the neighbor.

She had gotten naked with the neighbor.

---