"Could be a helluva lot of different guys," he said. "No, I don't. I don't want to know."
Nina had last seen Chad about nine o'clock last night. He wanted to leave Treeline and understood her staying behind as a reporter. He'd taken off alone in the car. But he could've gone west instead of east. He could've gone to Hank's cabin for a quickie with Kathy. Chad operated that way. Gently she probed Hank. Sure enough, he'd tied one on last night and slept somewhere in town, he wasn't sure where.
Motive. Opportunity. Wow! Nina felt a stab of aching sorrow and compassion. What if Chad were gone and she'd never see him again? What if she were a widow?
No more of his silver-haired sleek good looks. The resonant voice. The bullshit manner. No more of his big body, turning to fat, climbing in bed with her, smelling of some woman's cunt.
She drew deep breaths and suddenly realized with a rush of feeling that she didn't like Chad very much anymore. They'd fought incessantly about her desire to be a mother and his refusal to be a father. About his women, until she realized he couldn't be changed. Still, they'd gotten used to each other and adjusted.
Two tears for now. Just as Hank had shed for Kathy.
She pulled up in front of the PINE TREE bar and lounge. "Drinks are on the house," she told Hank. "We both need one."
He followed her inside, silent and serious. The bar was deserted, lights on, the bar supply glittering its welcome. Nina felt light-headed, almost giddy. She went behind the bar and mixed drinks for them.
"I thought we had to look for people."
"The deputies have been scrounging the place since dawn," she said. "They've covered Treeline a dozen times over-it isn't that big."
"I slept through the whole goddam evacuation," said Hank. "I think I passed out in the Simpson's garage. I was fixing their swimming pool furniture." He smacked his lips over his drink. "Ahhh, free booze tastes the best."
She studied him. He didn't seem much different than usual. He'd been on a downward course so long, the fire couldn't have mattered much. A big, sad, golden man. With a tremendous snake in his pants. Her giddiness increased.
"Hank-that man. It could've been Chad."
"Damn right, it could've! He was one of the worst. Not only with Kathy either. I told you that before."
They stared levelly at each other and Nina felt the glow start between her legs as it had last night.
"You're a jerk-off, Hank," she said softly. "You go around town begging for sex from the wives of the men your wife tossed."
"They owe it to me."
"It doesn't work like that. Nobody owed you anything." She'd told him that before when he'd approached her in his fumbling, roundabout way. She guessed that with her brusque reporter's manner she'd been a turn-off. He hadn't bothered her lately.
"Anyway," he said, "it's over now. I'm broke, homeless and a widower."
"You must've really loved her," she said softly.
"I hated her, Nina. But I couldn't let go."
Her hands began to tremble. She felt her breathing deepen and her nipples felt sensitive and aching. There was her baby, right in front of her, concealed in the lump of a cock and big balls of Hank Farr. There was nothing to stop her, whether Chad was alive or dead. If he were dead, she could have her baby with impunity and raise it the way she wanted. There were lots of single mothers these days. If he were alive, he'd have to take it as his. He'd had his fun-he owed it to her. The fire had changed of her normal morality.
She came around the end of the bar to saunter over and start the juke box. She was aware that his hot eyes followed her. Because of the fire she wore only shorts and a halter. The mountain air had been as hot as the plains below since the fire.
The hiking boots, however, did nothing for her femininity. She slid out of them and stood by the juke box, swinging her hips to the music. She felt very sexy now; her life split open… anything possible.
She felt his gaze on her body, her shapely thighs and long legs, her bare midriff, her perky breasts, the flow of her tanned skin. Self-consciously she shook her brown hair to swirl about her face and sipped her drink in a girlish, I'm-being-looked-at manner.
He came over to her. "Nina.-"
Her hands felt hot and cold. What would she do if he asked? She couldn't stand puppy dog men.
"Every time I see you I get a hard-on," he said. He put an arm around her waist.
She turned into his arms and smiled up brightly at him. "I know that."
She couldn't play coquette; it wasn't her style. But she felt soft and pliant and knew that her eyes gleamed in the soft lights of the bar. It was as if they'd been transported to another planet, safe, alone together. She sensed his big, powerful body, those huge shoulders, the handsome features of his face. What a waste for a man like this to turn stupid over a nothing like Kathy.
He pulled her to him in a tight hug and she spilled half her drink. She went "unk," in a not very romantic grunt. But she felt his cock against her belly, big and growing.
"Nina, you're a cold bitch, a career type but you've sure got one sexy little body. Chad was nuts to cheat on you."
It was seduction blabber, but she didn't care. Her cunt had started to flow, her belly thrilled in anticipation and her breasts were really giving her hell. They felt so mellow, aching, soft and excited that she had to breathe deeper and knew she flushed.
She undulated her loins against his belly and felt his big cock rise. She also felt thrilling stabs of growing desire.
"Maybe I feel different about you today, Hank," she murmured.
Today he was not begging or blathering. Maybe it was what happened to Kathy. He set down his drink and hers and kissed her. It was wet desire-kiss that forced her lips open. She felt a thudding heart, his or hers or both. Her tits, erect nipples, crushed to his breast really gave her hell.
"Mmmmmm," she went.
Despite her heat, the wet tongue, surprisingly inside of her mouth, startled her. Chad wasn't much for foreplay. He jacked himself hard, strummed her cunt and they went at it. Forever and ever. That was one thing that hurt her sex life with her husband. The way he kept pumping until she was sore. Chad's cock wasn't big enough to bring her to continuing orgasms. In fact, Chad didn't like to come, he only liked to fuck. Which was why other women liked him, she guessed. He could rock for hours, it seemed, such drawn-out sex bored her. She liked to go up in a puff of smoke and explode, and then rest and do it all over in a passionate rush.
"Now, Ha-Hank," she said. "I don't know whether-" She gasped after that sexy, French kiss. It was that old reticence. You didn't flip over to wild sex when you weren't used to it.
Hank nibbled the base of her neck. He groaned and she thought it faked and then realized it wasn't, as his wet tongue on her smooth vulnerable neck and throat brought him thrills. She shivered with the sexiness of it. It had been years.
She was awkward in love. She felt like a foolish school girl. Yet her belly plastered tight to his, feeling the outlines of the hard cock.
He started inside of her shirt for her bra.
"Hank-we'd better not-right here," she protested. It was one thing to think glibly about fucking a man for her baby and quite another to be held in his arms with his hands and body doing outrageous things to her body.
"Baby, I'm hot!"
Where was the shy tortured man she knew as Hank Farr? He pulled her towards the door at the end of the bar.
"Stoney's office ought to be okay," he said, dragging her along.
"Now Hank, dammit." She felt more and more like a reluctant girl being rushed into something she hadn't got set for.
His eyes glittered. "It's my turn, Nina. I want that long, lean mean body and that tight, old maid cunt."
"Hank!"
His actions and his words upset her. She'd imagined a suave encounter with some light banter and understated, ironic jokes like her boss made. But of course she'd never seen her boss, or any man but Chad, caught up in the hot action of sex.