Free Death and Deceit by Carol Marlene Smith

knew he could do better than that. No one had ever had this effect on him before. No woman had ever entered that part of him that was his own sacred ground. No woman...until Jessie.
     
    ****
     
    Liz got her chance to fill in for Jessie on Saturday. And Kent got his chance the night before to take Jessie out of the city and homeward. The house smelled slightly musty, and Jessie travelled from room to room opening curtains and raising windows to let the soft, evening breeze drift through her family home.
    Her mother was already set up in Sandra’s spare room, which made Jessie feel strange. She’d never come home before to spend a night without her mother there. When she’d visited the week before, she had only briefly gone to the house to check things. Now she was preparing to spend the night...and not alone. Kent would be in the house with her. Although they had spent a lot of time together and Kent had been more than attentive since her arrival back from Wakefield on Tuesday night, she still felt apprehensive about spending the night with him.
    As soon as they’d arrived Kent felt Jessie’s urgency. How she’d flitted through the house opening windows, then she’d busily begun making up the beds with fresh sheets. She had told him he would occupy Alan’s old room, and he could see from her nervous reaction that spending the night under the same roof with him was giving her anxious tremors.
    In order to stay out of her way while she bustled about, Kent ventured outside. He walked to the far edge of the front lawn and looked over the property. The one-and-a-half story Cape Cod house was clapboarded in white. It had a sharply pitched green roof and rose above tall, dark cedars that stood like sentinels on each side of the front door. Green shutters adorned the windows. And although the grass needed a good mowing, which he planned to tend to if Jessie would allow him, the house had been well kept and was shaded by two identical sized maple trees.
    He strolled around the back and looked up into the branches of a giant willow, spreading its protective branches downward. A small, but well-worked flower garden stretched out behind the willow in a rectangular shape. Weeds now crept between the rows threatening to overtake the diligent work that probably had been done earlier in the season by Jessie’s mom. A hedge surrounded the backyard. Kent returned to the house and passed closed French doors that separated the dining room from the front hall entrance.
    Jessie smoothed out the last wrinkle on the bed that Kent would occupy, then backed away wondering how he would look stretched out in her brother’s bed. A warm hand on her shoulder jolted her from imaginary scenes to the real Kent.
    “Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you,” he said.
    She didn’t move or turn around, for the feel of his hand on her shoulder was too comforting, and she didn’t want to lose that feeling. “I was preparing the beds,” she explained.
    His hand slipped off her shoulder and both arms went round her waist. “The beds? You went to a lot of extra work while one would have done.”
    It surprised her and she turned in his arms. “Oh no, Kent, not in my mother’s house, not like this.”
    He kissed her immediately almost ignoring her words. She didn’t resist as he caught her waist again and pulled her to him. With one swoop he had her in his arms. She was a lightweight — all that aerobic stuff made her firm though. He carried her the few steps to the bed and laid her down gently, placing himself just above her. Her eyes were closed now and she looked like she might be waiting, anticipating the next kiss or caress. He wouldn’t disappoint her. He touched her cheek which flamed with heat. His soft caress of her hair off her forehead made her tremble. This he could feel, as his body touched hers. “My God, Jessie. You’re the sexiest woman I’ve ever been near,” he whispered. “You do things to me I never knew