The massage was sigh-inducing pleasurable, and my eyes drifted closed. When she was done, I planned to thoroughly show my masseuse my appreciation for all that she’d done for me tonight.
Sunlight laseredbright beams right through my eyelids. I blinked my eyes open and stared at the ceiling fan blades circling slowly overhead for a moment. The last thing I remembered was Jenny straddling my back, her clever fingers soothing my aching muscles.
I was embarrassed that I’d conked out on her last night. Turning on my side, I faced her. She was on her stomach, her beautiful red hair hiding her face. The cover was pushed down to her waist, and I lifted it to see if she’d left her pant bottoms on. No, she hadn’t, but I saw the thin waistband of her thong. The sight of her perfect bottom was all it took to wake up the little man.
Jenny wasn’t a morning person. She slept hard, so I didn’t worry about waking her as I kicked off my pajama bottoms, then dug out a condom from my nightstand and put it on. There was nothing better than lazy morning sex, and no better way to wake up Jenny Girl.
I pressed my body against hers, nuzzling her neck and smiling into her hair at hearing her sigh. She grumbled something when my hand traced the shape of her back and ass. “Grouchy girl,” I murmured.
She snuggled her face into her pillow. “Mawh wah.”
“Is that so?” I slipped my fingers between her legs and then inside her panties. It only took a few minutes of playing with her before she was wet and ready. She turned her face toward me, peeking at me with one eye half open.
“You got something in mind this morning, Dylan?”
“I sure do. Panties off.” She lifted her sexy ass so I could pull them down. “Sorry I fell asleep on you last night.”
She gave me a sleepy smile. “That’s okay. I think you’re about to make it up to me.”
“I’m going to do my best. Turn over on your side with your back to me.” She pushed her body against me, and I put my hand on her hip as I slid into her. “I wish you could be me for a few minutes so you’d know how good it feels to be inside you.”
“I don’t think it could possibly be better than how I’m feeling.”
Maybe, but I didn’t think so. She took my hand and moved it to her breast. I buried my face against her neck and breathed in her scent as I made love to her. There was no rush to reach the end, no need for hard and fast. That was what I loved about morning sex, the softness of it.
“Dylan,” she whispered.
That was it, just my name spoken softly as she came. It was sexy as hell, and I let go, climaxing with her. I kissed her neck, holding her close. She fell back to sleep, and lying there next to her, I wondered if I liked her in my bed a little too much. She had plans that didn’t include me, and I didn’t want to be left behind, missing her. One woman I’d loved had already left me, and I had no desire to lose another.
The trick was to not fall in love with Jenny, and I’d thought I could guard my heart against that happening. Now I wasn’t so sure I could do that if I kept seeing her.
Disturbed by my thoughts, I slipped out of bed. After dressing, I took Daisy for a long walk. I honestly didn’t know what I wanted to do about Jenny. I liked being with her. She was funny and caring, and then there was the sex. We were good together, whether we were going at it like frenzied got-to-have-it-right-now bunnies or like the sensual half-asleep coupling this morning.
“What should I do, Daisy?” She paused in sniffing a bush to look up at me, gave me what appeared to be a doggie shrug, then went back to sniffing things that were more interesting than my girl problems.
We were on a nature path that circled my complex. It took a good twenty minutes to walk it, and we were five minutes from making it back to where we’d started when Daisy growled. Her fur rose in a razor-sharp line down her back, and she stepped in front of me, forcing me to stop.
“What’s wrong, girl?” The dog’s behavior was scaring me, and I regretted that I hadn’t brought my gun with me. I wouldn’t make that mistake again. Daisy let out another growl as she pushed against me, forcing me to step back.
Then I heard it. A sinistershhhhhhhhhhsound, something like dried beans being furiously shaken in a paper cup. The leaves in the path two feet from where we’d been moved, and the pointed head of a snake lifted, his tongue flickering in the air. Behind him his tail rose, the rattlers making their get-away-from-me-or-you’ll-die warning. The middle part of the body was still hidden by the leaves, but the head was large and it looked to me like it was a big, full-grown bastard.
“Fuck me,” I whispered. Daisy pushed me back again, and I gladly let her. Two more steps and I would have gotten way more up close and personal with a snake than I ever wanted to be. Having grown up in a big city, the only snakes I’d ever seen had been in a zoo behind glass. I hadn’t even liked them then, and I sure as hell didn’t like having a close encounter with one.
Daisy and I kept backing away. The snake slithered out from under the leaves, and I estimated it to be a good four to five feet long. It disappeared into the brush, leaving me with a pounding heart. As soon as it was gone, Daisy started back down the path. I debated going back the way we’d come, but we were almost to the end. Daisy didn’t seem concerned, so I’d trust her instincts, especially since she’d kept me from ending up in the hospital.
“Good girl, Daisy.” I scratched around her ears, where she loved it the most, making her feathery tail wag. We finished our walk with no further deadly encounters. As we emerged from the woods, I looked up to see Jenny standing on my balcony, watching us. She smiled and waved, and all I could think about was getting her back into bed.
“Atimber rattler,” Gene Lanier said. “They’re common in this area.”
We were sitting in my office that afternoon, going over the Gertie Jansen case. I’d told him about my early morning encounter, and didn’t at all like hearing timber rattlers were common. Daisy and I liked that path, but I didn’t care for meeting up with another snake.
“All I know is that’s the last time I’ll walk in the woods without my gun.” I glanced at Daisy, curled up in her dog bed in the corner of my office. She was my hero of the day, and I’d given her extra treats when we’d gotten inside my place, and then I’d sweet-talked Jenny back into bed.
“People don’t usually smile when talking about rattlesnakes, Chief.”
Thinking of loving on Jenny tended to make me smile, but I wasn’t about to share that. “So you don’t think the prosecutor’s going to press charges against Gertie?” I hoped not.
“That’s the vibe I’m getting.” Gene stood and closed the door. “Moody’s raising all kinds of stink about Gertie not already being in jail.”
