The Bone House Read Free Page B

work.'
        Mark
didn't feel vulnerable to her, but he remembered what Hilary had told him about
teaching teenage girls. You think they're kids. They're not. He wanted
this encounter to be over. He wished he had never got out of bed and never
taken a walk on the beach. Nothing good could come from being here with Glory.
        'It's
OK to play with fire,' the girl said.
        'I'm
leaving.'
        Glory
scrambled out of the water. She sprinted up to him and stood, dripping, in
front of him. Her voice was young now. 'Don't go.'
        'We're
both going inside.'
        'Why
don't you want to have sex with me?' she asked. 'Is it Tresa? I won't tell
her.'
        'Oh,
for God's sake, Glory,' he muttered in exasperation.
        'I'm
not a virgin,' she went on. 'Troy wasn't even the first. You know what the boys
call me at school? My nickname? It's Glory Glory Hallelujah.'
        'You
shouldn't brag about that,' he said, before he could stop himself. He didn't
want to lecture her or be drawn into a discussion of her sexuality. He just
wanted to turn around and go. Things were getting out of control.
        He
saw her eyes focused on the palm trees over his shoulder, and he flinched. He
turned, expecting to see someone watching the two of them together. He knew it
would be the same as last year if they were discovered. Suspicions.
Accusations. You're a predator, they would say. Instinctively, he
thought of ways to explain his behavior, to defend himself, even when he'd done
nothing wrong.
        Instead,
he saw no one. They were alone. Weren't they?
        'I'm
leaving, Glory,' he insisted.
        'If you
go, I'll just tell everybody we had sex anyway,' she said. 'Who do you think
they'll believe? If you stay, it can be our secret.'
        Glory
reached behind her back. He didn't realize what she was doing, but when her
hands came forward, they held the strings to her bikini top, which dangled at
her hips. She tugged the ties at her neck, undoing the knot, and shrugged her
torso, letting the red top peel away and fall to her feet. Her eyes were
serious and confident as she cupped her naked breasts.
        'No one
will ever know,' she whispered.
    ----
        

Chapter Two
        
        'You're
quiet this morning,' Hilary Bradley said to her husband.
        They
sat at an outdoor table by the pool with plates filled from the hotel's
breakfast buffet. It was early morning, just after seven o'clock, and the patio
cafe was sparsely populated. Both of them were early risers. Hilary sipped her
orange juice and watched her husband, whose blank eyes were focused on the wide
stretch of beach and the placid GuIf water.
        'Anyone
in there?' she asked when he didn't answer her.
        Mark's
head snapped toward her. 'Oh, sorry. I'm not quite awake yet.'
        'Drink
your coffee.'
        He
sipped from a ceramic mug, not saying anything more.
        'You
OK?' she asked.
        'Sure.
Fine.'
        Hilary
didn't push him to talk. She tried the jalapeno-laced scrambled eggs, which
were spicy and delicious, and she picked up a piece of crispy bacon with her
fingers. The buffet meant an extra hour on the treadmill tomorrow, but the
trade-off was worth it. Hilary was tall, and she would never be thin. Even when
she'd danced in school, she hadn't been a waif; instead, her muscular physique
had been an asset in winning competitions. That was a long time ago. Now she
was only two years away from forty, and she found herself waging a daily battle
to maintain a weight where she could look at herself in the mirror and not
wince. Each year the battle got a little harder, but she wasn't about to starve
herself.
        She
studied her husband, who had shown surprising willpower at the buffet this
morning. Mark was a rugged man, the kind who turned women's heads. She felt
satisfaction when she thought about his toned body, but she also felt mild
jealousy and annoyance. He carried his own weight well,