Good Intentions (21 page)

panting and shuddering uncontrol ably at his kiss. Her heart pounded in her chest, emotions running willd within her. It was so much better than the first time, and even that had laid waste to her composure. Fragments of thoughts and feelings flew through her mind and her heart, al of them things that were supposed to be unknown to the fiends of hell … …but there they were. It wasn’t time. It wasn’t rational. But she would have told Alex, confessed her every feeling, if only her mouth could form coherent words. Instead, she let go and enjoyed. Ninety-two minutes later, when her phone finally rang, Alex grabbed it first and said, simply, “Ssshhh.” His panting partner looked down at him deliriously as he opened the phone and simply said, “Hi, are you here for the car? She’l be out in just a couple minutes. Thanks.” Then he put the phone aside. Lorelei’s eyes went wide with awe. Alex just smiled softly. His hands caressed her body in soothing strokes. “I just wanted to give you a moment or two to cool down,” he smiled. She did cool down, at least on the surface. Lorelei paused for a shuddering breath or two, shifted around to kiss him briefly, then got up to grab a towel from the bathroom. Alex stretched out on the bed again, feeling quite pleased with himself as she calmly went downstairs. He heard the door open briefly, a polite exchange of words, and then the door was shut again. Everything sounded perfectly controlled. The Lorelei that returned to him, however, was in a barely-controlled frenzy. She leapt upon him, throwing al care for his injuries to the wind as her mouth devoured his and her hands grabbed and clawed at him. Her body slid against his possessively. Lorelei’s fingers wrenched his head to one side, al owing her to bite and nibble at the side of his neck, his jaw, and his ear. It hurt him a little, but he didn’t care. Being assaulted and mauled like this was far more pleasure than pain. Her breath was hot in his ear as she hissed, “You’re mine.”

“Is this a revolt?” “Yes,” she answered. Alex was absolutely cooperative, his breath broken by the rush of being drawn inside of her. “You have none to blame but yourself,” taunted the lips at his ear. * It wasn’t The Night Alex Put Three ‘Bangers in Jail. It wasn’t That Time Alex Was a Big Damn Hero. Nor was it even The Night Alex Hooked Up with Taylor, No Real y. Rather, Alex’s circle of friends on Facebook and various chat programs decided that Wednesday night had been The Night Alex Got Beat Up and Shot. Al of it unfolded over status updates and comments shown on Lorelei’s laptop. His disappointment was fairly minimal, though he did wish he could share his insider information regarding the news story of Raymond Cordingly and his sudden change of heart. A couple of plates holding the crumbs and stems from a scone and fruit from breakfast sat nearby. Curled up against him once more, Lorelei continued to smother him with affection. “Would you like to meet my friends?” he asked finally. “They’re playing pool tonight…wow,” he mumbled, having trouble forming words again as she attacked his neck. “Think I’l be up for that at the rate I’m…um…feeling better. Guess there’s a party on Saturday night, too.” Her lips formed into a smile. “Alex,” she asked “what of the rest of our weekend?” “I figured we’d both really like to spend the weekend in a frenzy of sex,” Alex grinned. “Probably have to squeeze

some homework time in there, but mostly I just want more of you.” “May I make arrangements for a hotel room?” “Later?” “As you wish,” she said. “What sort of party is this?” “It’s a ‘my parents are out of town’ thing. High school classmate who went to UW. Not too many of us went far out of town after graduation, so we al sometimes run into one another.” Lorelei asked, quite innocently, “Have you heard from Taylor today?” “Not so far.” Without thinking about it, Alex went straight to Taylor’s profile page. He blinked. “Huh.” “Hm?” “I didn’t know you could have your relationship status say you were single and that it was complicated, but…oh, jeez. Wow, I guess she and Gabriel really have had things brewing. He’s going off on her and she’s ignoring it. This is ugly.” “Gabriel?” “Her boyfriend since high school. Basketbal star at UW. Guess he’s been playing the field with his groupies, though. She said this might blow up.” “Has she told him about the two of you?” He tapped one-handed at the laptop. “I don’t think…oh. Huh. Yep. He says he’s gonna kick my ass if he sees me. Guess she told him after al .” “You don’t sound too concerned.”

“What, he’s gonna risk his basketbal scholarship to defend his honor in a relationship when he’s apparently been cheating, too? His page is full of chicks who are jumping up to…aaand now I’m blocked. Meh. She told me to stay out of it, anyway.” “There is only one thing to do about this, master,” Lorelei suggested seductively. “What’s that?” “Confirm your attendance at the party, and then put it out of your mind for now.” Seeing no harm in it, Alex fol owed her advice. He didn’t really question why Lorelei was tel ing him what to do on his Facebook page. * “Ah was good an’ freaked out when ah got hit,” Wade said, waiting for his shot. “Ah mean, it jus’ slammed into me as ah was fixin’ t’ throw a grenade. Ah still threw it, ‘cuz whut else was ah gonna do with a live grenade, y’know? Got the guy ah’d been goin’ for, too, but then ah’m fall in’ backward an’ then mah sergeant’s askin’ if ah’m okay, an’ that’s when ah noticed ah couldn’t stand up right an’ ah’m slippin’ al over the place.” Neither Jason nor Drew were really playing pool at this point. They were simply listening to Wade talk. He was dressed in simple jeans, a gray hoodie, and a John Deere bal cap. Since middle school, they and Alex had worked to break Wade of his southern accent. By their junior year—or senior, in Drew’s case, being the eldest in the circle of friends—Wade had mostly lost it. Then Wade went and joined the Army, where it came right back to him. He had only come home a few weeks ago. He had been to basic, infantry school, jump school, a handful of other

training locations and then through a busy year in Afghanistan. He had brought home that reinvigorated southern accent and a slight limp. They knew he had been hurt. Shot, specifical y, and the limp implied where, but he didn’t really talk about it. It was only now, waiting for Alex to show up at the pool hall , that he was unexpectedly opening up about it. “Sounds really scary, man,” Jason said after scratching his shot. The skinniest of the trio was clad in his Green Lantern t-shirt and jeans. “It wuz, but it wuzn’t, y’know? Ah mean, it hurt, but ah could tel right away that it wasn’t nothin’ vital. Medic was right there, said ah’d been shot in the ass but ah’d be okay. But you hear things, like about infections, an’ how it’s your femoral artery that gets cut an’ you can jus’ bleed out. An ah’m like, ah know the femoral’s down in your thigh, but don’t that mean the vein’s gotta run through your ass at some point? An’ that’s what freaked me out.” Drew shook his head. He was the largest of them, muscular and much better dressed. He looked over the table to plot his next shot. “I’m just glad you’re home, man.” “Ah am, too, but ah’m not, which is weird. feel like ah’m lettin’ the guys down by sittin’ this out. Ah mean, ah was surprised they gave me disability an’ discharged me. Ah thought ah’d be up for active duty again by now. Prob’ly could be.” He shrugged, sitting on his bar stool at the small table next to their pool table, and looked at the menu. “Army logic, ah guess.” Jason and Drew glanced at one another, but said nothing. Neither really felt like they had the right to counsel Wade on this. As happy as they were to have him home alive and in one piece, there was a palpable sense that neither had been where Wade had and didn’t really know how to relate. Al they could do was keep him close and be ready to listen. “Y’al ’re lookin’ at me like ah’m traumatized or somethin’,” Wade grinned without looking up from the menu. “Christ, al ‘at happened wuz ah got shot inna butt. Wanna see mah scar?” “Knew we’d walk in on an awkward moment,” came Alex’s voice.

“Aw, hey, Alex,” Wade smiled, looking up and then blinking in awe. Drew glanced up to say hell o before taking his shot, then promptly sent the cue bal off the table as he did a double-take. Jason, for his part, simply looked on in shock. “This is Lorelei,” Alex said, tilting his head to the phenomenal beauty holding his hand. “Lorelei, this is Wade, Drew and Jason.” As if her tight slacks, bare midriff and low neckline hadn’t done enough to dominate the room for al three of Alex’s lifelong friends, her confident smile settled the matter. “Hi,” was al she said. It took some effort to get conversation going again after that. * “You hadn’t told me you tried to enlist in the military,” Lorelei said with a slightly surprised smile. “Tried,” Alex shrugged. “Didn’t.” He stood on the other side of the pool table, waiting for Jason to make his shot. Lorelei and Wade sat at the small bar table nearby. “It didn’t really seem like something worth mentioning.” “Quack quack,” Jason smirked. “Naw, it’s true, he did,” Wade said. “He went through enlistment processin’ with me. We wuz supposed t’ go to boot camp t’gether, too. It’s one of those things they can do when they draw up your papers, y’know? Go in on the buddy system.” “Why didn’t it work out?” Lorelei asked, intrigued. She held her drink just below her lips, stirring and looking entirely at Alex while the group talked.

“Alex failed the underwear duck test,” Drew put in quicker than Alex could speak. “Sleepwalking,” Alex frowned. “The questionnaire they had us fil out asked if I’d ever been sleepwalking, and I did it, like, twice when I was in fifth grade. But I was al worried that they were gonna know somehow or something, so I checked ‘yes,’ and then when we were doing the whole formal screening process the crusty old doctors running everybody through the tests got al freaked out about it.” “And then he fell down while doing the duck walk in his underwear,” Jason snickered. Wade laughed, too. Lorelei’s interested smile did not diminish. “Explain,” she told Wade. “Hel , this is like having my mom bust out an album of embarrassing baby photos,” Alex grumbled. “So they give Alex al this shit about sleepwalkin’, right?” Wade began. “But they let ‘im continue on, an’ they do al that stuff where they check your vision, check your hearin’, pul you in a back room to turn your head an’ cough.” Jason and Drew, as if on cue, both grabbed their groins, turned their heads and coughed. Alex grumbled again. Wade continued. “But there wuz this one test. Ah don’t know how or why this makes sense t’ anyone. Maybe either they check t’ make sure every little bit of you bends right or maybe they’re jus’ tryin’ to get embarrassin’ footage of everyone. Anyway, they line us up against the wall in this big, empty room, an’ there’s like a half dozen old, old doctors sittin’ on folding chairs on the other side of the room. An’ they tel us to strip down t’ our skivvies. Stand on one foot, then th’ other, al that stuff. Then they have everyone squat down as low as they can an’ walk like a duck from one end of th’ room t’ the other.” Lorelei just listened with obvious mirth on her face. “I still say that’s just a hazing ritual,” Drew put in. “No way is that a combat skill .” “Well , ya never really know what’s gonna come up in combat. Ah mean, y’al might have t’ crawl aroun’ here, climb there, suddenly do some jumpin’ jacks in a firefight,” Wade said sarcastical y. “Strip down t’ your underwear an’ duck-walk out t’ the enemy. Ah imagine th’ Taliban are terrified by that, but mah unit never tried it.”

“And so Alex failed this test?” Wade nodded, grinning widely. “Motherfucker fell down twice. Knocked people over.” “I lost my balance,” Alex frowned. “Apparently,” Jason giggled. “You laugh like an eight-year-old girl,” Alex retorted. “You duck-walk like a retard,” Jason countered. Drew got a kick out of that one. So did Lorelei. “So yeah, between that an’ the sleepwalkin’, they sent Alex home,” Wade finished. “And then I didn’t have any of my university applications together in time, ‘cause I really didn’t think I’d have a hard time getting into the military,” Alex sighed, “which is how I landed where I am today.” “Aw. I’m glad that you had such trouble on that test,” Lorelei said affectionately. “Otherwise we may never have met.” “You say that now,” Jason nodded, “but someday you’l be watching a Donald Duck cartoon, and you’l turn to Alex driven willd by passion and ask him if he can—oh look, Alex scratched on the eight bal ,” he grinned. “Can’t imagine why. Guess that’s game. Rack ‘em.” Alex sighed, glared at Jason, and then grabbed the rack. “So y’al ain’t from ‘round here,” Wade said to Lorelei finally. Lorelei grinned, her elbow on the table. “Naw,” she said. “Y’al makin’ fun of mah accent now?”

“Reckon ah am,” she drawled sweetly. Her accent was perfect. “I like her,” Drew declared as he picked his glass up off the table for a gulp. “I’m still suspicious,” Jason shrugged. He looked to Alex, who was finishing up racking the bal s. “She’s too good for you. I’m guessing she’s a relative. Cousin or aunt or something.” “Could I perhaps assuage your concerns by making out with my man?” Lorelei offered, dropping the southern accent. “See, now she sounds British ‘r somethin’,” Wade said. Alex rolled his eyes, walked over to Lorelei and kissed her deeply. She was more than happy to accept him, wrapping her arms around his neck and slipping a leg up against his. “That doesn’t prove anything,” Jason shrugged. “Hey, Alex, y’al gotta let ‘er up. It’s her break,” Wade noted. Laughing, Lorelei slipped out of Alex’s arms. She picked up a cue stick, strutted to the end of the table, and put half the bal s on the table into pockets right off the break. With barely a glance at the guys, Lorelei strode from shot to shot, sinking every bal in turn until finally she declared, “Eight bal , corner pocket,” and stretched across the table before sinking that, too. Alex wasn’t terribly surprised. Drew, Jason and Wade al looked on in stunned silence. “Perhaps it would be best if I let someone else break next game?” she asked. *

An hour later, she fit in just fine. To say that she was “one of the guys” would have been far from the mark. Lorelei clearly had little in common with them, and was quite spectacularly not a guy. But she held her own, neither seriously flirting nor being standoffish. Lorelei may have been there as Alex’s girl, but soon enough she was everyone’s friend. She had them talking openly about topics that were normally sensitive: Drew’s mixed racial heritage, Wade’s experience in the war. Even conspiracy-minded Jason had given up theorizing how Alex’s “date” could be some sort of prank or stunt. Over the course of the evening, Alex couldn’t help but notice that each of his friends had found occasion to rescue Lorelei from the clumsy and sometimes rude attentions of some other patron of the pool hall . He wondered if that was the handiwork of her centuries of social acumen; it wasn’t like they’d ever had cause to not bring dates to the hall before. Yet somehow Lorelei was indebted, slightly, to each of his friends for a small display of chivalry. Eventual y, Lorelei beckoned Alex close to her with a finger. He came over, smiling at her. “They like you,” he noted. “I know. I’m glad. Alex, they’l want to talk to you a bit without me present.” “About you, you mean?” “It’s natural,” Lorelei shrugged. “I have arrangements to make for the weekend. The hour is late, but not for what I have to handle. Would you like me to give you some space?” After a moment’s thought, Alex nodded. “Might be good, I guess.” She leaned over, kissed him, then made her goodbyes. “He’s gotten to lay around al day while I’ve been taking care of business,” Lorelei said simply. “I’d like to cal it a night. Can someone do me a favor and take him home for me?” “Yeah, we got him,” Drew nodded. “Cool having you out with us. You coming to the party Saturday night?” “It’s a plan,” Lorelei said, flashing them al a winning smile and kissing Alex before she sauntered out. Most of the patrons of the pool hall watched her go. The only one who didn’t, real y, was a slightly heavyset man in a cheap suit