Something Fierce by David Drayer Read Free Book Online

reflection in the blade. “Have you slept with a lot of beautiful women?”
    “What the hell kind of question is that?”
    “A legitimate one.” She thrust the knife back in its home. “You fuck like a guy who’s had a lot of practice.”
    “My fair share, I suppose.” He divided a generous portion of scrambled eggs between two plates. “It’s never been about seeing how many I could get.”
    “Of course not. You run deeper than that; definitely not that one-night-stand type. The protagonist in The Fourth Option is you when you were younger. Right?”
    “He is a fictional character that I created when I was younger.” He narrowed his eyes. “Didn’t we already have this conversation?”
    She closed her eyes. “‘He learned that happy hours were some of the saddest places on earth,’” she said, quoting him, “‘and that a night spent with a stranger was little more than assisted masturbation…two people trapped inside their own minds using the other’s body to get whatever they desperately needed at that moment. He wanted more than that…’”
    “You weren’t kidding about the photographic memory,” he said, flipping the pancake and wondering where she was going with this line of conversation, pretty sure that it had something to do with those four little words she’d mumbled in her sleep when he had covered her up this morning.
    “I’ve always felt like that,” she said. “Like I was trapped in my own mind. It didn’t matter who the other person was. Just that there was someone there and he was into me. Last night was different. It was hot and wild but…it was more than that. It was special.”
    “I thought we were just ‘fucking?’” he said, flipping the first golden pancake onto one of the plates and handing it to her.
    She grinned. “There might have been a little overlapping going on.”
    He nodded toward the table. “Please start,” he said. “I’ll join you as soon as my pancake is done.”
    She sat down and started to eat. “This is delicious. Thank you.”
    “You’re welcome,” he said and joined her several minutes later with his own plate of food. He smiled at her. She smiled back and the guilt rose up in him again. She was so young; he didn’t want to hurt her.
    “I made you uncomfortable. Saying last night was special. Didn’t I?”
    “No,” he said. “It was special. Is special.”
    “But…?”
    “But…we barely know each other, Kerri.”
    “And?”
    “And I don’t know where this is going; I don’t know if there’s anywhere it could go.”
    “Yesterday you were rescuing me and today you are protecting me. Do I really appear that fragile to you?”
    “No, not at all. But I want to be up front. While I am having a great time with you, I feel…a little overwhelmed…off-kilter.”
    “It’s funny,” Kerri looked down, “but you make me feel exactly opposite.”
    “I didn’t say you were making me feel—”
    “I don’t expect anything from you,” she said, plucking a napkin from the holder in the center of the table and wiping her mouth. “Really, I don’t. Would I like to see you again? Of course. I’d love to have more talks with you. More sex with you. To just be around you, really. But if this is all there is then it’s all there is. Like I said in the email, I’m not a child. I know the risks.” She gathered their plates and carried them to the sink.
    “That sounds all cool and convincing,” Seth said, “but…feelings are…you can’t control how…I mean, you might say…”
    “I was awake this morning when I told you I loved you,” Kerri said from the kitchen. “More coffee?”
    Seth opened his mouth and closed it. This girl who seemed to be chasing him was suddenly ahead of him, waiting for him to catch up.
    She brought the coffee pot to the table and refilled his cup. “And I meant it.” She looked down at him and into his eyes. “I do love you. But I loved you before I had sex with you, even before you kissed me at