Free Skin by Kate Krake

towel
please.”
    I
dripped out of the shower with the towel around my waist. Why
couldn ’t she just get the idea that I didn’t want to
talk, that I didn’t want her there, and leave. Victoria was not a
dumb woman. So why was she being so stupid? She followed me into my
bedroom and fished around in her handbag, producing a small plastic
jar of green pills. She tossed it onto the bed between
us.
    “ Here,
take these,” she said. “Don’t worry, it’s totally natural. It’s the
new OE product I was telling you about. Primal Mass we’re going to
call it. The multivitamins will help you deal with all the stress,
the unique protein devices will help your injuries
heal.”
    She sounded
like a brochure. How could she even fathom to think I would take
anything that came out of the Prime Life labs?
    “ Great,
thanks.” I said. “I’ll take them, I swear. But now I’ve really got
to keep getting ready. Are we going to meet tonight?”
    “ How
about Novo? I’ll book us in for eight.”
    “ Sounds
awesome,” I said. I went back past her into the lounge room and
opened the door to let her out.
    “ Eight
o’clock,” she reminded me.
    I pecked
her on the cheek. “I’ll meet you there,” I
lied.
    I closed the
door in her face and sighed deeply.
    Moments
later the buzzer rang again. Why was she coming back? It was Sveta.
She and Victoria would have passed each other. My belly locked in
guilt. Sveta knew who Victoria was, she ’d seen her
photos online. With her leaving my house in the morning, she going
to think I had been sleeping with her.
    I opened the
door and pulled her immediately into a deep kiss, the touch of her
skin instantly wiping any thought of Victoria out of the
universe.
    “ Do you
always answer the door wrapped in a towel?” she said.
    “ Only
for you.”
    “ And not
for Victoria? That was her coming out of the elevator,
yes?”
    “ It’s
not what you think?” my cheeked burned red.
    “ I think
you are taking private steam rooms with a woman who is not your
girlfriend,” she said. “Don’t fret, Rev. I know men can take some
time to adjust to new changes. And you’ve had a lot lately.
Speaking of one change, you are late for work. Again. I should fire
you.”
    “ I think
I’ll be OK. My boss is quite understanding. She’s a very remarkable
woman.” I said. I held her close, looking down into her face and
just wanting to kiss it for the rest of the day.
    “ If you
left from my house, you’d never be late,” she said.
    “ But I’d
have to come here anyway to get my stuff.”
    “ Not if
your stuff was at my house.”
    “ You
want me to move in with you?”
    “ Why
not?” She tugged at the towel. I let it fall to the
floor.
    “ Why
not?” I said, doing a terrible job of trying to ignore the fact I
was completely naked and getting hard. “How about because I’m well
aware I’m just the latest in a line of play things for
you?”
    “ It’s
not like that,” she said. She hadn’t moved any closer, hadn’t tried
to touch me or respond in any way to the fact she’d just stripped
me. “I’ll admit, you’re not the first man I’ve become involved with
who I have met through my enterprise. Or woman, if we’re going for
complete transparency here. But it’s different with you, Rev.
You’re really special to me.”
    Sure I
was. I knew how that line worked, I ’d used it before,
even told Victoria that same thing more than once.
    “ You
don’t believe me do you,” Sveta said. “I can see the doubt on your
face.”
    “ Let’s
just say, I don’t believe you yet. You’re going to have to prove
it.”
    She took a
small step closer and touched her fingers gently to my still wet
hips.
    “ What
would I have to do to prove it?”
    I
flicked my eyes downward. Sveta ’s lips stretched into
a sly grin and she knelt before me. This didn’t mean anything, I
knew. But I would think about that later.
     
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