There were handprints on the mirror, but there was nothing I could do about that now.
I headed downstairs, ignoring the twinge between my thighs. Gathered the folder with the disclosures and marketing material I’d deposited there on the way in.
I heard Titus on the stairs, and endeavored to feel, or at least appear, cool as a cucumber, calm and collected and unaffected—when I felt precisely the opposite.
He had his hat on forward this time, aviators hiding his eyes.
“So.” I sounded normal. Yay me. “I have two more properties you requested to see. Based on what you told me earlier, I think one of them would suit Jeremy’s family best—it has a pool, but it’s fenced and gated in a big backyard, at the end of a nice quiet cul-de-sac.”
He nodded. “Sounds good.”
“Okay then.” I gestured at the door. “I just need to lock up, and then you can follow me.”
We were both old hands at this game, pretending everything was totally normal when we’d obviously just fucked each other senseless. No talking about it, no referencing. It wouldn’t happen again. It was a quick fuck and a good one, nothing more and nothing less.
He preceded me out of the house, and I locked it and returned the key to the box. Titus was in his truck, the big old engine rattling and rumbling. He was watching me, though. I could feel his gaze on me even though his eyes and thus his expression were hidden behind the mirrored lenses.
I climbed into my car, started it, backed out, and headed for the next property. On the way, I called Teddy, earbuds so I could talk hands-free; she’d texted the group earlier in the day that she would be in the office for a few hours if anyone needed anything; she was the closest we had to an office assistant, mainly because she was always so willing to do that kind of work, even though she was a fully licensed realtor who sold just as much as any of us.
“Hiya, pal,” she said, by way of greeting. “How was the showing?”
What to say, what to say?
“Um.” I sighed. I couldn’t lie to Teddy, for some reason. I could avoid the truth, though. “Unexpected.”
I heard the grin in her voice. “It was him!”
“You knew?”
She laughed, then. “No, but you just confirmed it. What happened?”
“Goddammit, Teddy,” I laugh-groaned. “Are you psychic or something?”
“No, just highly intuitive. And you sound…weird. Off. Which meant something happened.”
“He fucked the absolute shit out of me. I’m going to be walking funny for a week.”
She broke into hysterical laughter. “I need details!”
I was, unaccountably, annoyed at her exuberance. “The details are, I need a cleaning crew to go over that house again. Specifically, there are…um…handprints on the mirror in the master bedroom closet.”
She was conspicuously silent. “Laurel McGillis.”
“Theodora Pike?”
“Up against a mirror?”
“I’m still shook, Ted,” I said. “Shook, I tell you.”
“That’s a good thing, right?”
“I mean, sure. But that’s it, I got to fuck the Titus Bright, and it was every bit as good as the stories would have you believe, and that’s that. Over, done, buh-bye. He’s out of my system.”
Teddy just laughed. “Okay, Laurel. Whatever you say.”
“You don’t believe me?”
“I believe you think so, but my matchmaker intuition says that’s not it for you and the Titus Bright. You can pretend all you want, and I’m not gonna say another word about it after this, unless you come to me. But mark my words, Laur, you haven’t seen the last of him.”
“Well, I’m about to show him the McCormick property, so yeah.”
“Not what I mean, and you know it.”
“I’m not fucking him again. Once was it.”
“Okay.”
“Stop being so agreeable!”
She just laughed. “Does epic sex always make you this cranky?”
“No,” I snapped. “I don’t know why I’m angry.”
“Because you’re denying your true feelings.”
“No, because it shouldn’t be possible to come that hard, that many times and still function as a human. And no man should be that beautiful, that talented, and have a dick that fucking perfect. And—” my voice was shrill, by this point, “AND be so good at sex I literally forgot my own name for a moment when it was over. It shouldn’t be possible for one man to have all that. And it makes me angry.”
Teddy’s laughter drowned out my voice at that point. “Oh, darling. You are so screwed.”
“Shut up.”
“Is it just the mirror that needs cleaning? Or do we need a full detailing?”
“Just the mirror. And maybe make sure there’s no other evidence. I sort of left in a hurry. I don’t think there’s anything, but hell, I’m still trying to get my shit together.”
“That good?”
“Have you ever forgotten who you were afterward, Teddy?”
“No,” she sighed. “But I dream of sex that good.”
“It’s not good. It’s scary.” I checked traffic as I made a left turn through a green light, and then continued. “It reminds me of that time I smoked what I thought was a normal joint. It turned out to be laced with heroin and it was the worst trip of my life because it was scary fucking intense. After that, I never touched drugs again because that shit scared me so bad. This, Theodora, what Titus Bright just did to me, is like that.”
She was quiet then, no longer laughing. “Except he isn’t hard drugs that can kill you.”
“Wrong,” I whispered. “He is exactly hard drugs. And I’m staying the hell away from him, after today.”
“Ohhhh, Laurel,” Teddy sighed. “What are we going to do with you?”
“Exactly what you said you’d do—not bring this up again.”
“Fine, consider me mum on the subject.”
A pause.
“There were no feelings, Teddy.”
“I didn’t say there were.”
“I could hear you not saying it.”
“You don’t have to convince me, Laurel.” She sighed another tinkling laugh. “I’ll get someone over there.”
“Thanks, Teddy.”
“No problem. I have a showing in a bit, so if you need anything else from the office, tell me now, because I have a date after the showing.”
“Oh you do, do you?”
She just huffed. “Tinder. My hopes are very firmly not up. If nothing else, it’s something to do on a Saturday evening besides sit at home alone eating Ben and Jerry’s and watching nature documentaries.”
“Well, if your date goes bust, call me. We can add wine and call it a party.”
“Sure, sure.”
“I’m serious. I’ll hang out with you. Ice cream, wine, and nature documentaries sound like a good time to me.”
“Okay, I might just take you up on that. Assuming my date goes bust.”
“So should I hope you don’t call me? Because that would mean instead of your date going bust, your date busted…a nut, inside you.”