All Mortal Flesh Read Online Free PDF

year she’ll be in school from eight thirty until three thirty. She won’t need you at home during the day.” Rachel kicked her work shoes off into the closet. “And in case you hadn’t noticed, this day-night working thing sucks. Big time. I never get to see you.”
    “You’re right. It does suck. Now explain to me how the solution to the problem is to for me to join the state police and move to Middletown.”
    She unhooked her bra. He looked away, refusing to be distracted by the sight of her full breasts.
    “Cut it out,” he said.
    “I’ve done my research, you know. With your experience, you could skip trooper entirely and lateral in as a sergeant. You’d be making more money and actually have a chance to climb the ladder. You could be an investigator.”
    “I have opportunities right here.”
    “As what? The town’s so cheap they don’t even have a detective pay grade. You need to stop thinking the sun shines out of Chief Van Alstyne’s ass and to let him know that you’ve got other options.” She hooked her thumbs in her waistband and shimmied out of her bright blue work pants. “Maybe at least then they’d take your requests for a day shift seriously.”
    Mark flopped back on their bed, feeling like his head might explode. He let out a strangled sound of frustration.
    “No one’s saying you have to take a job with the state police. But wouldn’t it be neat to know you could?” The bed dipped as she knelt next to him, nude except for her bikini underpants. “C’mon. Try it. An application doesn’t commit you.”
    Part of him—the part from the waist down—was telling him,
The gorgeous naked woman wants to have sex! Agree with her, you idiot
! The part of him above his neck noticed that this wasn’t the first time Rachel had sidetracked a heated discussion with sex. And, funny thing, he never seemed to get back to the points he had been making before they hit the sheets.
    Who cares
? His groin howled.
It’s sex! Sexsexsexsex
!
    He pushed himself up, off the bed. “Rache, we need to talk about this.”
    “We are talking about it. You don’t want to work the graveyard shift anymore. I want you to have the recognition and opportunities you deserve.” She kneaded her hands on the bedspread and leaned forward. He had to look up at the ceiling. “You can even take the letter in, so Chief Van Alstyne can see you’re being all open and aboveboard.” The bed squeaked a little. “Now come on. We’re wasting time.
Beauty and the Beast
only has another twenty minutes.”
    “Rache,” he said to the ceiling, “it’s not just contacting the staties without telling me.”
    The bed stopped squeaking.
    “It’s… look, I like the MKPD. I like my work. I like knowing Maddy’s five minutes away from her grandparents.” He glanced down.
    Rachel’s face was very still. “Do you remember when we got married? I told you I wanted something more than to spend the rest of my life in Cossayuharie.” She rolled off the bed. “I thought you wanted that, too.” She snagged her robe off the hook on the back of the closet.
    “Rache, when we got married, I was just starting out. I thought what I wanted from police work was all guts and glory. But working with the chief these past five years—I want what he has. A history with the place he’s protecting. Roots in the community.”
    “A girlfriend on the side? A little late-night patrolling action?”
    He clenched his hands. “Nobody’s got any proof of that. As far as I know, it’s a bunch of gossip.”
    “And that’s one of the things that drives me crazy about living here. There’s no such thing as privacy in a small town.”
    “Is this about your sister?” Two months ago, Rachel’s sister Lisa had lost her husband in a mill fire. That would have been bad enough as it was, but the guy had been in the mill in the first place because he had decided to try his hand at assault, kidnapping, and extortion.
    “Maybe. A little. I can’t be