Chapter 11

Elena served Steele a thick steak with baked potato for dinner and watched him eat while she picked at a salad, claiming she wasn’t hungry. All through dinner, her eyes bored into him and darted away when he made eye contact.

After the table was cleared and the dishes put in the dishwasher, the two sat on the living room sofa where Elena watched the latest doctor drama series on television. Not Steele, though. His mind was on the interviews he had conducted. They had been so brief that it was a stretch to even call them interviews. He didn’t have anything to go on to formulate more questions. And what answer was he looking for? Who did it or why did Pete do it? Whichever it was, he needed the answer for Elena’s sake.

Who else was he going to interview? Everyone else who had been there was dead. He thought about the people in the third classroom, but they had been locked inside while bullets were fired through the door. They didn’t see anything. If only the crime scene was intact. Or an autopsy had been performed. Or even a body to autopsy. Pete’s body had been cremated. All Steele had were the photographs of the crime scene and a skimpy police report. He brought the photographs out of his memory and studied them in his mind one by one while Elena snuggled closer.

Elena laid her head on his shoulder. “Did you ever wonder what would have become of us if you hadn’t left?”

Poof. The images of the photographs vaporized. “You were the one who left.”

“I was mad. I mean if you hadn’t gone on that last mission.”

“You know I had to go.”

“I’m not blaming you. I know you had to go. Yeah, I was mad and overreacted. I know I ruined it when I blew up and left. I was just wondering what if.”

“It’s best not to dwell on the past.”

“What we had was real, wasn’t it?”

Steele patted Elena’s thigh. She was wearing shorts and the bare skin was soft. He left his hand there. “It was real, but it was a long time ago.”

“Any regrets?”

“I told you, I don’t dwell on the past.”

Elena placed her hand on top of Steele’s and squeezed it. “That’s no answer.”

“I don’t look back so I don’t have regrets.”

Elena lifted her head off his shoulder. “I was hoping for a different answer.”

Steele shifted a little away from Elena as he turned toward her. She clamped down on his hand to keep it on her thigh. Or maybe to keep him from moving farther away.

“I don’t regret what we had,” Steele said. “Could it have been more? Would I have been happier? Those are the things I don’t think about. We make decisions in our lives. Some are good and some are bad. We can’t go back and change the bad ones.”

“So it was a bad decision to break up?”

“I guess we’ll never know.”

Elena leaned forward and pressed her lips to Steele’s. He stiffened, eyes open, lips unmoving. Her lips lingered on his until she pulled back.

“What are you doing?” Steele said.

“If you have to ask, I guess I’m not doing it very good.”

“Elena, what we had was a long time ago.”

“That was then. This is now. I didn’t know how much I missed you. But now that you’re living here, so close to me, feelings are resurfacing. Are you telling me that you don’t care for me?”

“I care for you a great deal. That’s why I’m here.”

Elena chewed her bottom lip. “Don’t you feel any desire for me?”

“Of course. You’re a beautiful woman.”

“Then what’s the problem?”

“When I find out what happened at the school I’ll be leaving.”

“But until then you’re here.”

Elena carried the hand on her thigh to her lips, kissed it, and then pressed it to her breast, holding it there with both hands.

“I know I’m not as young as I used to be,” Elena said, “but am I—?” Her eyebrows furrowed. “You think I’m fat, don’t you?”

Steele instinctively curled his fingers around her breast. “That’s the second time you said that. You are anything but fat. Yeah, you’re not that skinny college girl I knew. But the changes are all good. You’re a beautiful woman with a great body.”

Elena stuck her bottom lip out. “Then make love to me.”

Did Steele want to go there? Soon he’d be telling her that her son was a mass murderer. She’d hate him for that. But her big brown eyes were longing. Filled with desire. In need. Since the shooting, she had been alone. Shunned. She and Steele had something once. Something very special. But they were different people now. Like most things in Steele’s life, the answer wasn’t black and white.

With his right hand still on her breast, Steele cupped her cheek with his left one. Elena leaned into it. Steele pressed his lips to hers, flattening her lips against her teeth. Elena closed her eyes and moaned. Her lips parted. Steele slipped his tongue between them. When their tongues touched, Elena grabbed the back of Steele’s head, curled her fingers in his hair, and pulled him to her, crushing their mouths, flapping her tongue against his while pushing his hand against her breast. She moaned into his mouth.

Elena pulled her head back. Her face was flushed. “Take me to bed. Please, I never needed you more.”

“Elena, are you—?”

She placed two fingertips on Steele’s lips and nodded. Grasping his hand, Elena pulled him up with her as she stood. She led him in silence to her bedroom where she turned in front of him and cupped his face in both hands. She pulled his head down, guiding his mouth to hers. Her lips parted before his tongue even came out of his mouth.

Elena’s hands snaked under the front of Steele’s shirt, slid up to his muscular chest, and slithered around to his back. She pulled him to her, crushing his body to hers with her fingernails digging into his flesh as her tongue swirled wildly against his tongue inside her mouth.

Steele wrestled with the button of her shorts. It popped off, flew to the floor, and rolled under the bed, probably never to be seen again. A few loose threads dangled on the front of the shorts. He shoved the zipper down so hard it brought the shorts down partway with it, and then he rammed both hands inside the back of the shorts, cupping her nylon-covered buttocks. Consumed with passion, he squeezed them while urgently pulling her body against his, pressing her belly against his hardening dick. Then his hands traveled upward, underneath the back of her shirt. They unclasped the bra strap before gliding around to her front and underneath the loose bra, cupping both breasts.

Elena’s tongue stopped moving. She moaned.