Free Isabella Moon by Laura Benedict Page B

sandals clapping brightly against the newly laid wood floors. “What do you think of my view? Isn’t it fabulous? You can see almost the whole county from here. You can see almost all the way out to the Quair.”
    Caleb remained standing near the door, where he’d been since he first entered with Kate. “Looks too expensive to me,” he said.
    “You’re just not used to the best, honey,” she said. “It doesn’t take long to acquire a taste for the good things in life. You just have to taste them first.”
    Caleb walked slowly to the window, close to where she stood. “Cut the shit, Janet,” he said.
    Janet relaxed her smile a degree, but it remained bright.
    “I’ve spent well over two years of my life working on this house. All that time since I lost Richard,” she said. “And I think it should be appreciated.”
    Caleb laughed. He half expected her to stamp one of her pedicured feet. To him, Janet was better than television, she was so damned unpredictable. “I think this house would’ve been finished a year ago if you hadn’t ridden your men so hard. You’ve made Kate’s life hell over this place.”
    “She can handle it,” Janet said, her eyes narrowing. “I don’t think you know our Kate as well as you think you do.”
    “Is that right?”
    She leaned forward and gently scraped a long, polished nail across his forearm.
    Caleb didn’t like her so close. Ridiculous as she was, she was disturbingly sexy. He’d been sucked in by her more than once, and he wasn’t about to be sucked in again.
    “Oh, she’s full of secrets, our Kate. What if I told you,” she whispered, “that our Kate knows all about our little conference in the bathroom at the arts fund-raiser?”
    “Fuck you, Janet,” he said.
    The sound of her delicate laugh seemed to echo off the glass and fill the room. “But you’ve already done that, ” she said.
    Caleb had a strong urge to wrap his hands around her skinny throat and make her eyes pop out of their sockets. The idea of this woman telling Kate how he’d almost ripped off her dress in a fit of lust fueled by three or four glasses of George Dickel made him sick to his stomach. Sometimes when he was making love to Kate, Janet invaded his mind: his hands, his mouth on her breasts; the smell of perfume that emanated from her. The way he’d been desperate to fuck her without hesitation filled his mind, so that Kate disappeared beneath him and he couldn’t help but do to her what he’d been so driven to do to Janet. It filled him with shame and self-loathing, but he couldn’t stop himself. But equally disturbing was Kate’s reaction: she didn’t object, but only seemed to become dead to him, her eyes empty, her body willing but unresponsive.
    He could smell that perfume now as Janet leaned close. He jerked his arm away from her, her nail leaving a jagged scratch on his skin.
    “You’re just another slut, Janet,” he said. “You’re nothing special, and this pile of sticks you’ve built is nothing special either. You think your money buys you class, but everything about you is cheap and always will be. I hope this playpen you’ve built for yourself burns down around you.”
    By now Caleb’s hands were balled into fists and pressed against his thighs to keep them from grabbing Janet.
    A look of shock passed over her face, but she recovered quickly. There were no more smiles. She turned and hurried from the room, shouting for Kate.
    Caleb’s first thought was to go after her, but now that she was gone, he suspected that she’d been bluffing about saying anything about them to Kate. She wouldn’t, at least not until she could use it to some advantage.

     

When Janet had gone, Kate took a quick walk through the house, making some notes on what was left to be done before the decorators and painters came in. She had a good relationship with the contractor and his subs, and if she could just keep the money flowing from Janet, the house would finally be finished.