Page 75 of The Wrong Side of the Law

“No.” The stiffness and tension fades with Emily’s long sigh, and she rests her head on my shoulder again. “I’m not complaining, though. It’s not my place to try and change you.” she says, her words muffled against me.

“It wasn’t for me, either,” I say, running one hand through her hair. “And what I meant, before, about not being sure that I should change? Dorothy and I, we didn’t share the same goals. We didn’t have the same vision of what our future should be. I was indifferent toherwants and needs, and she was outright hostile to the things thatIneeded.”

In the darkness I can feel the weight of Emily’s silent attention, and I turn to face her again.

“You shouldn’t have to force each other to change,” I say, “to be in a relationship. Not if you share the same goals. The same wants. You and I, though…” I fumble helplessly for words, failing to find a good closing argument for my case.

“I get it,” Emily says, softly. “It’s a lot to process, though.”

“Yeah.” I pull her close to me again, counting silently to ten before speaking again. “Are you done yet?” I ask.

“Hmm?”

“Have you finished processing yet?”

“Not even close. But,” she says, her voice serious, “you’ll notice I’m still here.”

“I didn’t run you off? You didn’t just, I dunno, get it all out of your system already?”

“No,” she answers, shaking her head and nestling tight against me again. “Not even close.”

She trails fingertips down my side as far as my waist, the slowly walks her hand down between us.

“Whatever this is, Idefinitelyhaven’t gotten it out of my system yet,” she says, smiling at me and working her fingers up and down, lightly teasing me back to stiffness. “Do you think there’s something that we should do about that? Maybe we just need to try again?”

“It might be a good idea,” I say, grinning back. “I’d hate to think we got so close to the solution and then just gave up.”

Emily squeals as I pull her over me; it deepens into a moan when our lips meet.

I hope that this isn’t just a matter of two people getting a thing out of the way so that they can move on with their separate lives. The last thing I want is for this to be just a one-night stand.

I’m not ready to say it out loud yet, and maybe it’s just the heat of the moment, but there’s a four-letter word lurking in the back of my head, and it begins with an L.

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