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“It wasn’t Beau. It was our father.”

“Arthur?” Pearl screeched again.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Marlowe wince. She was seated right next to Pearl, the same woman who had taken our orders, delivered our food, then promptly sat down at our booth and demanded to know everything that had happened.

“Pearl, you’ve gotta keep it down. Marlowe has a headache, remember?”

“Oh yeah, the chloroform.” She nodded. She turned to look at Marlowe who plunked her straw back into her milkshake. “Are you okay, baby?”

“I could probably go for a piece of pie,” Marlowe said. “To go.”

“Sure. What kind?”

“Surprise me,” Marlowe said. She winked at me as Pearl hurried away to get Marlowe her pie.

“So, where are we staying tonight, my man?” Marlowe asked. Her voice was a low purr. “Are we staying in Randy’s room? Your suite, or my rented house that could have all of my possessions thrown out on the front lawn.”

“First off, I’ve called Nash. The person in charge of throwing your possessions out on the front lawn would be the sheriff. Guess who doesn’t intend to do that?”

“The sheriff?” Marlowe guessed.

“My woman gets a gold star.” I saw her wiggle in her seat as I used the phrase, ‘my woman.’ It seemed she got off on it. Good to know.

“In that case, I would really like to introduce you to my sheets,” Marlowe whispered.

“I would love that introduction.”

Kai was being amazingly difficult to seduce. It was past the point of irritation and was now beginning to piss me off. When we’d first arrived at Onyx, I’d gone into the bathroom and cleaned up as best I could. Then when I got home, I’d brushed my teeth, brushed my hair, washed my face, and brushed on some mascara and lip gloss, so I knew I didn’t look like a swamp creature. But still, no go. And that was after I had played with him at Pearl’s with the whole milkshake, whipped cream, straw thing.

What the hell?

We were on the couch; I was snuggled up to the corner, with one leg tucked up beneath my fanny, and the other hanging off the edge. Kai was in the middle, looking at me. He was telling me some hilarious stories about the guys he had served with. I was with him. I really, really hoped that Clay would find himself a girlfriend. But more than that, I wanted to get Kai into my bedroom.

I had been touching his leg. Touching his shoulder. Touching his arm. Making sure that my t-shirt collar hung down as far as it would go so that he could see ta-ta. Sue always said that showing ta-ta would get me somewhere, but apparently not tonight.

“Honey, sex is not on the table tonight.”

What?

What-what?

“What did you just say?”

“Marlowe, I need you to know that making love to you has been the highlight of my life.”

“Why do I hear a but coming on? Are you dumping me?”

Kai reached over and grabbed me. In a flash I was on his lap. “You’re kidding, right?”

“Uhm. I don’t know,” I said quietly. “That kind of sounded like the start of a break-up speech. Everything has gone so fast for us in the last twenty-four hours, so I thought maybe…”

“You’re thinking wrong. Marlowe, we’ve been seeing each other for five weeks. Yeah, the last twenty-four hours has been intense, but why would I want to break up with you?”

I shook my head. I didn’t want to answer that question. How did you say, I’m kind of fucked up in the head?

“Let’s go back to where you were saying that sex with me was the highlight of your life.” I put a wide smile on my face.

“Marlowe, you weren’t listening. I didn’t say sex, I said making love. I said what I meant. Seeing that man with his hands on you? Seeing you passed out in that van? That has a tendency to make a blind man see.”