The Encore of Us novel · Chapter 16 of 24

Chapter 16: Slow Hands

Anders read the note twice, standing at the foot of the bed in the dark gray light of the evening.

"She wrote it herself," he said. "In felt pen. Another page in her own hand."

"She wants me scared."

"Are you?"

"A little," I said. "Mostly I'm angry that she put it where Tove would find it."

He folded the paper along its crease and put it in the trunk with the logbook and the shoebox.

Rhea had taken Tove home at five, with the music box on a high shelf and two pancakes in a bag.

The house was ours, and the lake had gone black outside the long window.

He came back and stood in front of me, and I saw the tired line around his mouth.

Ten days ago they had taken a kidney out of him through three small cuts and one longer one low on his left side.

"I can't lift you," he said. "I can't hold myself over you. I can't do any of the things I want to do."

"I know."

"I've been lying awake imagining every one of them."

"Good," I said. "Take your sweater off."

His mouth curved.

"You're giving orders again."

"I'm leading. You can't, so I will."

He pulled the sweater over his head, carefully, and the bandage on his side was a white square against his skin.

I put my palm beside it, flat, and felt his breath catch.

"Lie down," I said.

He lay back on the bed with his hair spread on the pillow.

I stripped in front of him slowly, one thing at a time, while he watched.

My sweater.

My bra.

My skirt, and last my panties, which I dropped off the end of my finger onto his chest.

"God," he said hoarsely. "Come here."

"Not yet."

I climbed onto the bed and knelt over his hips.

I kissed his mouth, long and slow, until his hands came up into my hair.

I kissed his jaw and his throat and the hollow below his collarbone.

I kissed down his chest, around the bandage, down the line of hair below his navel.

His cock was hard against my belly, and I took it in my fist and stroked him once, and he arched.

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