The Challenge(51)
“I’ve been thinking about writing a legal guide for laypeople. It might be a nice change.”
It didn’t seem like fun to practice without Bob either. She had done it for the last year, carrying his caseload and her own, and hadn’t enjoyed it. In the meantime, Tom was helping her fix up her house, purely for the fun of it, and she spent every day talking to him while he did. He always asked about the boys and how they were doing. He took a real interest in them. It gave her someone to talk to, now that Bob and all the nurses were gone. She was concerned about what colleges Justin should apply to. She hardly saw the boys with all their after-school sports practices and activities. But she spent hours every day talking to Tom, and she thrived on the attention. He was good company. They laughed a lot, and she enjoyed helping him with the wallpaper and paint. She loved the results.
“Maybe we should go into business together, fixing up houses,” she said, only half joking one day, and he smiled as she handed him the next piece of wallpaper. She stood there, holding it, waiting for him to take it from her, and he couldn’t stop looking at her. He couldn’t even remember what she had said to him. All he saw were her eyes and her hair, the curve of her neck, and the fullness of her breasts, everything he had been trying not to see for the last month of spending every day with her. Bob had been gone for six weeks, and she looked more peaceful now.
He put down his tools, took the wallpaper from her, and before he could stop himself he was kissing her, and they both felt as though a tidal wave had hit them. She hadn’t realized how desperately she had wanted him, maybe even since before Bob had died. She didn’t know when it had started, but they couldn’t stem the tides until they were in her bed and had made wild passionate love all day. Her face was chafed, and she could hardly move by the time they stopped. She lay in bed smiling at him, and he started laughing. He’d been afraid all afternoon that she would come to her senses and either throw him out or call the police.
“Oh my God,” she said, still breathless as they lay in the tangle of sheets, with their lovemaking heavy in the air. “What happened? I think we lost our minds,” she said as she ran her hand over his body again and got an instant reaction. She couldn’t remember ever making love the way they had all day. They were insatiable, like two starving people, which they had both been. He hadn’t made love in two years, and she hadn’t in a year. Her sex life with Bob had been lackluster for years, but she loved him and told herself it didn’t matter. But as it turned out, maybe it did.
“Or maybe we found our minds,” Tom said gently, then fondled her breasts and kissed her again. “I think we need to go to a desert island somewhere so we can make love all day all the time.” But they had the perfect alibi with the house repairs he was doing, and his showing up every day with his toolbox. Their children were in school, and there was no one to disturb them. She had let her cleaning woman go with the nurses and was going to clean the house herself. Her sons never came home before six. All Tom had to do was be home for Juliet at around four o’clock, or later when she had volleyball practice. They were free, independent, single adults. The only thing that might have stopped her was the memory of Bob, and she was amazed to discover that it didn’t.
“I suppose I should feel guilty,” she said as they climbed into the shower together when they got up. “But I don’t. We were happy together and I loved him. Our sex life was never exciting but everything else made up for it: the kids, our work. Our relationship was always more intellectual than sexual. We loved working together. He was so sick for so long, though, that our whole relationship and our life changed. I became his caregiver, but it was agony watching him die. I felt like I was dying too. And now you make me feel alive again,” she said as he kissed her. He was so overwhelmed by how sensual she was that they made love in the shower before they finally got out and got dressed.
“I could hardly keep my hands off you for the last month,” he confessed. “I thought you’d hate me if I reached out to you. You’re the sexiest woman I’ve ever seen or made love to.”
“How was it with Beth?” She was curious. His ex-wife was a beautiful woman. And he was a very sexual man, she had discovered.
“It was great in the beginning, but we drifted apart. And the more I hated our life, the colder she got. We stopped having sex a year before we separated, and I haven’t wanted anyone since, except you. I thought I didn’t care about it anymore, and I don’t care about sex. What we did today is making love. That’s different. Marlene, I am crazy about you.”
“Me too,” she whispered in a sultry voice, then stretched her body the length of his and pressed herself against him. It drove him crazy again, but he had promised to meet Juliet at home.
“What do you think we should say to people?” he asked cautiously as they both dressed. She looked panicked when he said it.
“Nothing for now. Our friends would be shocked. Bob’s been gone for six weeks. We can’t tell my kids for a long time either. It would be disrespectful to their father. They already love you. I don’t want to spoil that.”
“I agree. What do you think? Six months? A year?” He was willing to keep it a secret for as long as they had to. For a minute, he wondered if he should tell her about Justin’s drinking the day of the funeral, but this wasn’t the time. He seemed to be okay now. He had looked sane and sober anytime Tom saw him since then. So it might just have been a very bad day. He hoped so, for her sake. She didn’t need any more worries, and he didn’t want her to have any. He wanted to protect her.