Chapter 7: Please

His reply came before I reached the end of the block.

Home. Back door. Study is the room with the light on. She won't be back before midnight.

I parked behind the garage, where the lake hid my car from the road.

The back door was unlocked.

I walked through the dark kitchen and up a short hall, and the study door stood open.

Tony was at the window with his back to me, in his shirtsleeves.

He turned when he heard me.

Neither of us said hello.

I crossed the room and held out my left hand so he could see it.

Then I took off the ring and set it on the corner of his desk.

It clicked against the wood.

"I took it off," I said. "I'm not married to anyone in this room."

His eyes went to the ring and back to me.

"Say it," he said.

"Say what?"

"What you said you'd say in the nicest voice you had."

My face burned.

I stepped up close, until his shirt brushed my dress.

"Please," I said.

He kissed me.

It was not gentle.

His hand went into my hair and tilted my head back, and his mouth took mine slowly and thoroughly.

I grabbed his shirt in both fists.

He walked me backward until the desk hit the backs of my thighs.

"Dress," he said against my mouth.

I reached behind me for the zipper and he batted my hands away and did it himself, one slow inch at a time.

The dress fell to the floor.

He lifted me by the waist and sat me on the edge of the desk, on top of a pile of lumber invoices.