Chapter 19: Friday Night, a Day Early

Mason's house in Silver Lake had one lamp on, and a bowl of lemons on the kitchen counter.

He shut the front door behind us and turned the lock.

Then he put my bag on the floor and took my phone out of my hand, switched it off and set it face down on a shelf.

"Four hundred messages," he said. "They'll keep."

"Roz said the same thing in the car."

"Roz has good instincts."

"She told me to take the night, and she told me to be loud."

His mouth twitched.

"She did not say that."

"She said it in a lot of words, but yes."

I stood in his hallway in the navy dress and realized my hands were not shaking.

They had not shaken since the stage.

"It's Thursday," I said.

"I know."

"You told a table of people Friday."

"I told them I'd take my time." He came a step closer. "I never said which night. I couldn't wait for Friday either."

"The panel's over, Mr. Kerr."

"It is."

"Nothing is standing between us."

"Nothing," he said, and his hand came up and found the zip at the back of my dress.

He drew it down slowly, one tooth at a time.

The navy cloth slid off my shoulders and I let it fall.

He looked at me in the lamplight, in my bra and underwear, and breathed out hard through his nose.

"Take your time," I said. "You promised."

"I did."

He kissed me, and it was not like the couch.

There was no hurry in it.

His mouth moved over mine with a long, deliberate pull.

When I opened for him his tongue stroked against mine, and I heard myself whimper.

He walked me backward down the hall, kissing me, and into his bedroom, and put me down on the edge of the bed.

He knelt in front of me and took off my shoes one at a time.

Then he stood and pulled his sweater over his head.

His chest was broad and hard, with a line of dark hair down his stomach.

There was a faint scar under his ribs, and I wanted to put my mouth on it.

"Lie back," he said.

"No. You first."

His eyebrows rose.

"Last time you did it for me," I said. "It's my turn."

I got up and pushed him down to sit on the bed, and he went, watching me.

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