Chapter 12: Terms, Mr. Hartwell

I had never been inside his bedroom.

It was big and dark, with a low bed, a wall of glass, and the lake lit up silver by a moon I'd never noticed.

The gray cat tried to follow us in.

Elias scooped him up with one hand and put him on the other side of the door.

"Sorry," he said to the wood. "Not tonight."

When he turned around, I had already taken off my shoes.

"Terms, Mr. Hartwell," I said.

He stopped.

"Clause three. No sex, no feelings."

"Leona."

"You said it to me against a window. I thought you might like to hear how it sounds."

A slow, dangerous smile crossed his face.

"Overruled," he said.

"By whom?"

"By the husband."

I laughed, and he crossed the room and caught it in his mouth.

He kissed me slowly, and he didn't hold anything back.

His hands found the zipper at my back, the one that had stuck, and this time he drew it all the way down.

The green dress slid off my shoulders and pooled on the floor.

I stood there in my underwear, and I did not cover myself.

He looked at me for a long moment.

"Say something," I said.

"I'm thinking about where to start."

"Start anywhere."

"No." He touched the thin white scar on my left hip, the one from the retrieval, with the tips of two fingers. "Here."

He knelt and kissed it.

I put my hand on his head, and I felt the tears come up out of nowhere.

He didn't stop, and he didn't say a word.

He kissed it again, and then he stood up and pulled his shirt over his head.

His chest was broad and dark with hair, and there was a long pale scar across his ribs I had never seen.

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