Inn on the Edge Read Online Free PDF Page B

two
o’clock in the afternoon, and we were hanging out in the tent, fooling around,
messing with each other because there was nothing else to do—”
    “And those people in the next space yelled at us! I
remember!”
    “That’s right!”
    “They called us, what, moral deviants? They told us to get a
room!”
    “Yes! How ridiculous was that?”
    “Totally ridiculous!”
    “Mortified, weren’t we?”
    “Maybe you were.” He made a lewd gesture with his spoon.
    “Stop that!” I said, reaching for his arm. “You’re teasing
me. How am I supposed to stay away from you if you’re teasing me?”
    He shook his head in mock dismay, his eyes at half-mast.
“You’re the tease! Just sitting there, all tarted up, pretending to be a
bride.” He set his spoon down. “You know, I had no idea we were making so much
noise that day.”
    We smiled at each other. This wasn’t so bad. I swallowed my
tomato, thyme and something-else bisque, wondering what the rest of the evening
would bring.
    “I’ve got a good one,” said Josh. “Remember Tilly? What a
crazy dog. Every time we had sex she would jump onto the bed and try to get
between us. What the hell was wrong with her?”
    He tipped soup into his mouth.
    “She was neurotic. How long ’til we eat some real food?”
    “Forget food,” said Josh, “when do we get to have sex ?”
    I rested my hand on the bread basket. “There’s nothing
stopping us from cheating.”
    “But I want a prize!”
    “Fine.” I looked out of the nearest window. From my seat at
the table, I couldn’t see the twinkling lights of the town that I’d noticed
when Zenith had been in the room, only inky-black sky. “Okay. A couple more,
then. I’ve got a recent memory. From only two nights ago.”
    Josh raised his eyebrows.
    “It was midnight. We were…doing it. We were almost done. After
we…you know…switched positions but before we…ahhh…” My voice trailed off. I
swallowed. “Josh! This is brutal !”
    He leaned forward, wanting more. He made a small noise deep
in his throat, his lips parted just a little. “Please,” he said softly.
    It was that “please”, so sincere, so genuine, that got to
me. How could I refuse? I took a deep breath and continued. “So. You were doing
that thing you like—and I like too—you were going…in-and-out, in-and-out…of me,
yeah, in and out of my…you know…” I threw up my hands. “Argh! I can’t do this!”
    He closed his eyes then opened them again. “Angie,” he
whispered, “it’s making me so hot, hearing you talk like this. Don’t stop now!
Keep going.”
    “I want to! But it’s so hard to describe sex. Especially
when all you want to do is have sex!” I took a much-needed drink of
water. “That old man must have known how impossible this would be.”
    Josh grinned and licked his lips, the fiend.
    Gamely, I went on describing my memory, trying not to look
at him lest I leap across the table and ravish him. “Anyway, you started
kissing me. I was on top. I was leaning over you, and you were kissing my neck,
remember? Josh, I thought you’d given me a hickey. Right where it would show on
my wedding day! I thought was going to have a heart attack.”
    “Jesus, Angie,” he said, tapping the spoon on the table.
“What kind of person would do such a thing? I would never do that.”
    “I know, I know. I was just being an idiot.”
    I ate my spoonful of soup.
    “Tell me again about the in-out, in-out thing.” He made the
lewd gesture with his spoon again. “Was it like this…or more like this?”
    I swatted at him. “Stop it.”
    He sat back. “The other spice is cinnamon—I just figured it
out.”
    “Enough memories,” I said, flustered and feeling hot, too
hot—alarmingly hot. “Let’s turn over the next card.”
    He reached for it. He read it. He frowned.
    “What?” I said.
    “We’re so screwed, Angie.”

Chapter Four
     
    “What’s it say?”
    He set the card on the table. “We either eat