Something Fierce by David Drayer Read Free Book Online Page A

the stoplight. You are not responsible for that. You’re not under any obligations.” She went back to the kitchen, shut off the coffee maker, rinsed the pot, and said over her shoulder, “I think I loved you the moment you walked into room 121.” Rejoining him at the table, she added, “Surely a romantic like you believes in love at first sight.”
    He didn’t know if he did or not, but in that moment, he realized that he did believe love—in all its incarnations—was something people were entirely too stingy with. Hadn’t all of his love affairs been—to varying degrees— love affairs? And if he hadn’t been afraid of the possible consequences of those words this morning, wouldn’t he have been warmed by them, wouldn’t they have touched him deeper than he’d been touched in a long time, wouldn’t there have been a natural desire to return that love?
    Absolutely.

6
    W hen they arrived at Kerri’s car in Willoughby, Seth insisted on brushing off the thick layer of snow that covered it and scraped the ice from the windows while she started the engine and got the defroster going. She wrote down her phone number and when he climbed into the passenger seat to say goodbye, she handed it to him. “I’ll call you right now,” he said, taking out his phone, “and then you’ll have mine.”
    She put her hand over his, stopping him. “No. Call me when you want to see me again,” she said. “ If you want to see me again. Otherwise, I would rather it end here.”
    He gave her a look that said this was the most ridiculous thing he’d ever heard, but Kerri knew her only shot at keeping him was letting him go. And if he did go, losing him would be hard enough without the temptation of calling him in a desperate moment. “And don’t call to be polite, to thank me for a nice time,” she added. “Please. Only if you want to see me again.”
    “Are you sure you’re okay?” he said and she knew he was referring to the episode before they’d left his house. “I can follow you home.”
    “I’m fine,” she said, holding out her hand to prove how steady it was. “Other than feeling like a total ass, that is.”
    “There’s no reason to be embarrassed.”
    “That’s easy for you to say. You weren’t the one freaking out.” She didn’t want to talk about it; she didn’t want that to be the image of her he drove away with. “I had the most incredible time with you. I’ll never forget it.”
    “You really don’t expect me to call?”
    “I don’t know. But I can’t think about it. You will or you won’t. It’s up to you.”
    “If I don’t call,” Seth smiled, “just remember that you are still an ‘attractive and intelligent young woman.’”
    “I’ll keep that in mind.”
    He kissed her and then hugged her and held her for the longest time. He said goodbye, got out of the car and walked to his SUV. They exchanged a little wave as he drove off and the good feeling of being with him immediately began to slip away. She closed her eyes to hold on to it as long as possible.
    “So we could just be friends?” he had asked her earlier at the breakfast table with that facetious grin of his. She’d shrugged, sure, if that’s what he wanted. Then, he pulled her to him and kissed her. Like the very first time, it came out of nowhere and melted her. She’d straddled him at the table, running her hands over his shoulders and down his back, causing his robe to fall open. She felt his hand gently between her legs. She guided and then poured herself over him, filling the emptiness inside of her. Even the pain was delicious and she started thrusting her hips with abandon, but he stopped her. Brushing the hair back from her face, he looked up into her eyes as if he were shining a light into her mind. “Be here with me,” he whispered. “Just be here.”
    It was an odd thing to say, but she knew exactly what he meant. The wild fucking was her way of showing off and hiding at the same time. Having him