Gwyneth's Secret [RUNNER UP - Freeze-Dried Fiction Contest]

~5~

"Sam?"

He rolls over, throwing dollar bills over his shoulder as if they were blankets, and places his mouth against my ear. "Sleep tight..."

Sam presses his body against mine and reaches for a zipper. Clear plastic closes over us, and the more I struggle, the harder he squeezes...

I wake up gasping for air. As I adjust to my non-dream surroundings, a weird shadow passes by my window. I scoot up against the headboard with the blankets in tow, hoping it was just my imagination. Then I hear footsteps. It's four in the morning and there's someone in my house. Yet this time I want the perception to be real.

With a tingle of fear and exhilaration, I slip a silk nightgown over my head that barely covers the essentials. And I wear nothing else.

I meander into the living room. "Do you have to leave so soon?"

Fred's packing up his things, but he glances up. The glance turns into a look, and the look becomes an unfocused eye wander to anything other than me. "Um...I..."

Beneath the tough façade, he was a man, and flawed, and only human. I move into his space, run my fingers down the buttons of his shirt.

"I shouldn't," he says, but he leans his head closer to mine.

"I know."

Still, I kiss him, soft and sensual, and he responds without the inclination to strip me of that tiny bit of power and control. It's my to turn to get what I want, and Detective Alfredo Mariano doesn't seem to mind.