Free Deep Night by Kathy Clark

most observant guy on the planet, but those were important details to overlook. She had always been one of the guys and seemed quite content with that classification. Clearly, things had changed.
    Chris was a normal, healthy male, and it had been a long time since he had held a barely clad woman in his arms. He could feel the heat building in his loins and his dick swelled beneath the towel. His hand slid down her back. Her T-shirt had ridden up, exposing a wide expanse of bare skin at her waist. But as soon as he actually touched it, she stiffened and jerked away so quickly, he almost fell off the bed.
    Her eyes were wide and panicky as she skittered to the very edge, as far away as she could get without actually standing up. She pulled the comforter up to her chest like a shield. “You should leave now. We…uh…need to get some sleep.”
    Chris stood, holding the towel shut over his erection and trying to hide it from her. It was the most awkward near-walk-of-shame that he had ever had. “Are you going to be okay?” he asked, feeling guilty that his good intentions had gotten sidetracked.
    “I’m fine. I was just upset that I couldn’t do more to help that little girl.”
    Somehow he knew this wasn’t all about that little girl, but Sara wasn’t encouraging any more discussion on the subject. “Okay, we need to leave by six.” He tried desperately to pull the moment back into a neutral zone. The last thing he wanted was to screw this up by making her uncomfortable.
    She nodded stiffly, obviously anxious for him to leave her alone.
    Without saying another word, Chris left the room and pulled the door closed behind him. He was confused and concerned. The little girl had triggered something in Sara that he suspected went much deeper than her worries about the child. She was clearly relating to this situation on a more personal level.
    Chris thought back to their childhood. He had known her mother and her father. They had divorced when she was a teenager, but that wasn’t unusual. Most of his friends came from broken homes. Sara had showed no sign of duress or abuse that he could remember. But then, he had been an oblivious teen boy, focused on his own life. Had something been going on all that time? Had he been such a bad friend that he hadn’t noticed? And worse, was Sara a victim of abuse?
    “Stupid, stupid, stupid,”
he mumbled, timed with each slap of his bare feet against the old wood floor. She needed his friendship, and he had acted like a horny teenager on a first date. Not cool.

Chapter 6
    In an unusual show of extravagance, Rusty and Julie had rented a beautiful house that was perched on top of a hill in Genesee, an area just outside of Denver. It was an easy drive up I-70 at the base of the Rocky Mountains, close enough that guests could get there in less than an hour from almost anywhere in the city. It was also large enough that the entire wedding party could spend the night after the party if they overindulged or just wanted to wake up to a view of the snow-capped peaks.
    In spite of its easy accessibility, the ride up to the house was mostly silent. Chris had volunteered to drive, so he was behind the wheel of his ten-year-old midnight-blue Ford Focus. It was not the car of his dreams, but it was the car he had been able to afford his senior year of high school. Sara sat quietly, pressed up against the passenger-side door, staring out at the scenery as if it were the most amazing sight on earth. Actually, it was pretty impressive, but her mind was a million miles away.
    He had tried to start a conversation, but after a couple of brief responses, it had trailed off to nothing. Finally giving up, he increased the volume on the radio and pretended it was his favorite song. He wished he were brave enough to come right out and ask what was bothering her, but his area of expertise was bloody wounds and not tortured souls.
    Sara didn’t seem any more inclined to broach the subject than he was. He slid