Read Learning to Drown for Free Online Page B

you a favor. Sure, I can hold.”
    I finished the toast and omelet.
Sipped the coffee and managed a smile. It really wasn’t so very terrible once
you took a few sips. Like the first time sampling red wine, at first it is
intense and overpowering if not off-putting. But the more you sip, the more
your palate adjusts, the more you want. I watched him on the phone.  Resting my
chin on my hand to hold my own head up I was so tired. I really studied him
while he was distracted. Lucas paced the small kitchen. I was fixated on his
faded jeans and how they fit him. His body was lean and muscular but not
pumped. This was no gym-rat body, this was a man who worked hard and probably
earned that body with heavy lifting, movement and time outdoors. “Yeah, let me
ask, anything come through for a missing woman in the last few hours? Local.
About a ten mile radius of the station house.”
    While he waited, I watched his broad
back, his hard shoulders, his strong neck. Crow’s dark blonde hair swirled here
and there with unruly cowlicks. His intense eyes made me think bad things. “You
okay?” He frowned.
    I laughed. It sounded high and nervous
and so fucking stupid. I downed the rest of the tepid spiked coffee. To him, I
probably looked stoned or stunned. I wasn‘t any of those. Just muzzy headed,
trying to figure out how I got from playing a sex game to where I was. Part of
the confusion was my bizarre comfort being around him. “Fine. Just tired and
very, very sore.” I moved my shoulders and winced. “Beat to shit from rolling
around in the truck bed.”
    He moved behind me, kneading the hard
muscles in my shoulders. His fingers, insanely strong, dug into my tight
muscles. I moaned before I could stop myself. Lucas laughed but then Marcus,
wherever he was, must have returned. “No, that’s too old. That one’s too young.
How about mid to late twenties? Tall, blonde, blue green eyes, thin but not
bony. Built.” This last word he said right into my ear. His voice had dropped a
bit and it sent a zing through me. Singing in my blood, making my nipples go
hard. My head had never felt more full of cotton, but in a pleasant way I
didn’t want to end. I liked the way his voice alone could send my whole self
into throbbing confusion.
    I tried really hard to breathe then.
Tried to suck in some air as he hovered right there at my ear. His lips so
close to me. My earlobe, my throat, the tingling nape of my neck. Just then his
mouth could have found my shoulder, his teeth my collar bone. Right then it
felt as if he could see straight through the gray billows of his sweat clothes
and into my heart. Into the part of me that both feared and knew the truth. “He
didn’t,” I said.
    As usual, he moved so fast it was hard
to track him. Lucas trapped the phone between his ear and shoulder, hooked his
foot in the chair leg and turned me a quarter turn. He dropped to one knee ¾ God,
there he was, so close all over again ¾ and fixed stern dark eyes on me. What? he mouthed.
    I shook my head.
    He mouthed it again. Tapping my thigh
with his hard fingertip. Like he was punching in a code to make me talk.
    I shook my head, eyes welling with
tears that doubled my vision. What the fuck was with me tonight? All of my
wires were crossed. I felt like a crazy woman from all the emotions swirling
through me. One moment I felt sad, the next thrilled, the next scared.. It was
all too much and I felt my lips tremble like I was freezing. Lucas frowned
harder, then his attention went back to the phone.
    “Yeah. Okay, man. Thanks for checking.
Listen, if anything does come in for that area that matches her description,
will you ring my cell? Nah. Nothing to worry about. A friend. And she’s fine,
but I don’t know if the guy will report her missing. Right.” Quiet laughter
here, he stood. “Yeah. No sweat, Marcus. See you next Friday. Bring lots of
money because I plan on whipping your ass. I’ve been brushing up on my mad
Poker skills.” Lucas