"I guess I should take that as a proposition," he said, stalling.
"I kinda wish you would."
He nodded. "I'm flattered. A woman like you-I imagine you land most anyone you want." "It would seem not," she said, lowering her eyes again.
"Hey," he said gently, "try and understand. If I had a kid sister, she'd probably be around your age."
She scoffed, but nicely. "Incest taboo-I'm sure you can handle it."
He peered into her eyes. Was she putting him on? Looking at her heaving freckled chest, he recalled the two times he'd come to her office and found her coated with sweat. Suddenly he was seized by a hard carnal longing. He wanted her very much.
She reached toward him, touched his cheek with the tip of a finger.
"No big deal. Sometimes I get pretty bold." She smiled. "If there's someone in your life you're loyal to-I apologize." :'No, there isn't anyone now."
"So, then… " she coaxed gently, "if you're anxious about getting involved, don't sweat it."
He looked at her. Her face was flushed. He liked her nonchalance.
"Okay, you're on," he said, trying to match her casual approach. "What do you say we begin by building up some trust?"
"Great idea!" She snuggled against him. "I liked you the moment I met you. Did you know, Frank? Remember how hot it was? The hottest night of the summer. But you were really cool. You were the only one there who acted like he knew what he was doing." She raised herself up to kiss him. "When you followed me into the kitchen, I said to myself: "Hey, this guy could be fun!"
" She stared into his eyes. "You don't believe me, do you?"
"I'm beginning to," he said. "I don't think of myself as being particularly attractive to younger women."
"Hey! You are! You're handsome and you keep yourself in shape. But I don't care about that. It's more the way you carry yourself. You're like a real person, not some pretty boy with body tone."
She kissed him again. He kissed her back. They stroked one another, then began to unbutton each other's shirts.
After a while she took hold of his hand. "Come on," she whispered,
"let's move this into the bedroom."
His bed had belonged to his parents. Sarah had always hated it because, she'd said, it was "too old world." She had wanted everything in their house to look sleek, like furnishings from the Home section of The New York Times. For years Janek had kept his parents' furniture in storage, finally finding use for it when he got divorced.
When he and Netti were completely undressed and in each other's arms, she thrust her hands above her head into the grillwork of the headboard, then grinned wickedly.
"You guys all carry handcuffs, right?"
Uh-oh! He shook his head, regretting he couldn't accommodate her.
"Sorry, too much like work." He gazed at her. "What about straight?
Think you can handle it?"
Her eyes gleamed as she took up his challenge. "Depends how you do it, I guess." it took them the better part of an hour to settle down. Then, though he perspired a lot and felt thoroughly exercised, he didn't feel at all fatigued.
"You're a lot of fun," she whispered in his ear.
He kissed her. "So are you."
"Let's sleep a while. What do you say?"
He agreed that that seemed like the appropriate thing to do.
They made love again an hour later, then lay entwined and talked.
"Do you mind if I ask a fairly rude question?" "Go ahead," she said.
"Do you do this kind of thing… often?"
"What kind of thing?"
"You know-"
"Make love to a client?"
"Yeah, I guess that's what I meant." "No, not often," she said. "In fact, this is the first and only time."
She got up to get a drink of water. When she returned, she sat naked by his feet at the bottom of the bed, arms wrapped around her knees.
"You're a good guy, Janek."
"So are you, Rampersad." She smiled. "Thank you." She gazed at him. "I like you. I think you like me. But we're not going to get involved. Just liking someone isn't enough for either of us. Still, I'm glad that didn't stop us from having fun. Meantime, I'm handling your alimony appeal.
And there's also the other thing."
He studied her. "You want to talk about it, don't you?"
She looked serious. "I won't if you don't want to."
"It's all right. We've gotten to know one another, I figure now we're friends."
"Thanks. I feel that way, too. Which may have been in the back of my mind when I came on to you. Which isn't to say I wasn't greatly attracted, because you can be sure I was. In fact, still am." She lightly slapped her own face. "Geez, Netti, why're you tongue-tied?"
Janek sat up. "Let's hear it. What's on your mind?"
"This whole Mendoza thing stinks. I figure you already know that. I wonder if you know how much."
He appraised her. "Why don't you tell me?"
She nodded. "The way I see it, Jake Mendoza most likely did pay someone, probably that doofus, Metaxas, to beat the living shit out of his spouse. He probably did it because he despised her, knew she was going to divorce him and didn't feel like paying out twenty or thirty mil to cut her loose. So, okay, that may have been what happened. I don't know.
I wasn't there. But I know one thing: There wasn't anywhere near enough evidence to convict him. Not legitimate evidence anyway."