What She Forgot Read online

  I didn’t really bump into him, because that would mean skin-on-skin contact, and all we had right now was eye contact. That is, until his eyes started that slide down my body. My face heated and my pulse hammered. He looked away almost as quickly as he’d looked down, and his eyes looked everywhere but at me, which was good, I guessed. He could have been a letch. He obviously wasn’t.

  He was a good guy, I knew that much. I knew because he’d helped my sister last year. And me, too, for that matter. Had I ever thanked him? I probably should do that.

  I pressed my fingertips over my nipples and said the only thing I could think to say. “Why are you back here, Clark?”

  Chapter 3

  Clark

  I never expected to find a naked woman in the hallway of a church. At least not at a christening. Well, she wasn’t completely naked. She was nearly naked, which was even worse. She wore nude stockings that stopped at the tops of her thighs. They were held up with delicate little off-white garters with tiny metal hooks on them. I was pretty sure that her panties were barely-there wisps of fabric because I had a pretty good view of the curve of her ass when she turned sideways. She covered her breasts, which I assumed were completely naked, with her fingertips, pressing her nipples down, dimpling her creamy skin.

  But what surprised me the most was the fact that she didn’t seem at all disturbed by the fact I’d just intercepted her in the hallway of a church. Naked. Well, again, not completely naked. Just nearly naked. Which was almost worse than completely naked, because my guesses about the tiny little parts of her that were still covered were taking up my entire brain. They took up so much that all I could utter was—

  “Umm…” I swiped a hand down my face.

  “Why are you back here, Clark?” she asked.

  “Lynn sent me to find you.” I jerked a thumb toward the sanctuary, which was two halls over and down about four miles. At least right now it seemed like four miles. Because I was with Shelly Punter and she was naked. Nearly naked. Fuck me.

  “Shit,” she muttered. Then she looked up toward the ceiling. “Oh, so sorry, God,” she muttered. “Didn’t mean to do that in your house.”

  She stood naked in his house and she was worried about saying the word shit? Really? I swiped a hand down my face again, trying to center myself. Trying to look everywhere but at her.

  “I’m late,” she said. She darted into a room on the right. “Lynn is going to kill me,” she said from inside the room, her voice muffled. She squealed. “Could you help me?” she called out, her voice much louder this time.

  I walked cautiously toward the doorway and leaned to look inside. She stood in front of me with her arms above her head, trapped in a dress she must have tried to get into without unzipping.

  “I’m stuck,” she said, her voice muffled by the fabric.

  Luckily, the dress now covered what I knew were her naked breasts. But her legs…my God…there they were.

  “Today,” she snapped.

  I took her by the shoulders and turned her away from me, because I thought it might be easier. But then when I looked down, I saw the two bare globes of her ass and realized what a colossal mistake I’d made.

  “This just had to happen on this day,” she said, her voice still muffled as I unzipped her dress. Suddenly, her head popped free as the dress settled around her hips. She blew a lock of hair from her eyes, and her gaze skittered across my face. “Thanks,” she said. She stepped into a pair of nude heels, which brought her up to my chin. Around her neck rested a delicate strand of pearls, which were so at odds with her personality that they always confused me. She lifted her hair to the side. “Could you zip me, please?” she asked.

  I grabbed the tongue of the zipper and slowly raised it. When I reached the top, I could finally take a deep breath. I hooked the eye at the top and stepped back.

  “Thanks,” she muttered.

  She darted through the door and into the hallway. “Be right back. I have to pee.” She dashed into the bathroom, then she came back. “Are you coming?” she asked.

  “Oh,” I said, and forced my feet to move. My brain, and most of my common sense, were still in the hallway with Shelly, from a moment ago when I’d found her naked. “Yeah.”

  “Lynn is going to kill me,” she whisper-chanted as she sprinted down the hallway. I had to jog to catch up. And I really needed to catch her since her dress was now tucked into her panties after her mad dash to the bathroom, and one of her ass cheeks could be seen if she moved just the right way.

  When we reached the doorway that led into the sanctuary, Shelly reached for the door handle. I laid my hand over hers. “Wait,” I said.

  “What?” she groused. She looked at me like I was the dirt beneath her shoe.

  “You’re a little…” I looked for the right word. “Mussed,” I finally came up with.

  Her brow rose. “Mussed?”

  I reached a hand toward her hair. I stopped just short of touching her. “May I?” I asked.

  “Yes, you may,” she said. “If you’ll hurry the hell up.” She looked up toward the ceiling again. “Sorry, God. What am I supposed to do when subjected to imbeciles?” She lifted her hands beseechingly toward the ceiling, like the answer would fall directly from heaven into her grasp.

  I lowered my hand. This imbecile no longer wanted to fix her hair. Nor did he want to tell her that the back of her dress was tucked into her panties. “Never mind.”

  She pulled the door handle and ran into the sanctuary, the clip-clop of her heels suddenly muffled by thick carpet. I followed her and turned to go down the aisle and take my seat next to Aubrey, a friend of Lynn and Mason’s. Her husband Mal stood next to Mason at the front of the church, and Shelly ran to stand next to Lynn.

  Mason had chosen his best friend Mal to be his baby’s godparent. Lynn had picked her sister, Shelly. Shelly and Lynn were twins and looking at them side by side still startled me. They looked so much alike that it was ridiculous, but they were nothing alike at the same time. They shared some features, like their blond hair and blue eyes, and they both were of similar height, with strong, lithe bodies. The main difference between them was that Lynn had an air of kindness about her, and Shelly had an air of reserve. And strength. Strength seeped from Shelly’s pores. So did fuck-ability.

  Lynn took one look at Shelly’s disheveled hair and lifted a lock of it, putting it back in place. Shelly patted the rest of it smooth. Lynn reached behind Shelly and adjusted the skirt of her dress.

  “Please tell me that you didn’t just have sex with Shelly Punter,” Aubrey whispered from her seat next to me.

  Sex? What? “No,” I hissed. “Of course not.”

  She turned in her seat to face me. “Are you sure?”

  “I think I would know,” I muttered.

  “Promise?” she asked. Aubrey didn’t care much for Shelly, and with good reason. Shelly had once taken her into a dark, cold forest and dropped her off.

  “We’re in a church,” I hissed at her.

  “Never stopped her before,” Aubrey muttered. She crossed her arms beneath her breasts and made a noise. I couldn’t even describe the noise if I wanted to.

  “I’d like to think I have a little more respect for the sanctity—” Suddenly she stopped me.

  “Do. Not. Sleep. With. Shelly,” she said, punctuating each word with a glare.

  “I have no plans to.” I threw up my hands. Why were we having this conversation?

  “Malcolm didn’t have plans to, either. But then he did.” She turned to stare straight ahead.

  “Not recently, right?” I didn’t know about that part of their history.

  “No. Before we started dating.” She pointed a finger at me. “You. Will. Not. Sleep. With. Her.” Her finger jabbed with every word. I felt each one all the way to my soul.

  She didn’t have to worry. I had no plans to sleep with Shelly. That bitch was more than a little unhinged and everyone knew it. Hell, even Shelly knew it. The funny thing about it,
though, was that she embraced it. She didn’t apologize. She just was…well, she was Shelly. That was all she was and all she’d ever be.

  It didn’t matter that Shelly was beautiful and smart and that she kicked ass. The bitch was completely unpredictable, and I had enough unpredictability in my life already.

  Chapter 4

  Clark

  When the service was over and Mason and Lynn’s new baby boy had been dedicated to God and all that jazz, everyone was invited back to their house for a small party. I stood in front of the punch bowl, filling my cup, wishing it had liquor in it. But I had to work later, no matter what, and liquor and guns didn’t exactly go hand in hand.

  “Thanks for coming today, Clark,” Mason, the baby’s father, said as he stepped up next to me.

  “Thanks for inviting me.” I lifted the cup to my lips.

  “Did you fuck Shelly at the back of the church?” Mason suddenly blurted out, turning to face me, his arms crossed over his chest as he glowered at me.

  “Why does everybody keep asking me that?” I muttered, more to myself than to Mason.

  “Because Shelly came out of the back of the church looking like she’d just been tumbled in the sheets.” He began to tick items off on his fingers. “Her cheeks were flushed. The hem of her dress was tucked into her panties, and her hair was all over the place.”

  “Hmm,” I said noncommittally.

  His eyes grew wider. “You didn’t!”

  I laughed. Because, well, his indignation was amusing. “No, I didn’t.”

  “Then what happened?”

  “Your wife sent me to find Shelly. That’s all. I went and got her and delivered her to her sister’s side. That’s it. Nothing else.”

  “You’re sure?”

  I said the same thing I’d said to Aubrey. “I think I’d know if I fucked her.”

  “I know she’s really pretty,” he began, using his psychiatrist’s voice on me. “But she has mental health issues that are still undefined.”

  “I know that.”

  “She’d eat you up and spit you out.”

  “Mm-hmm.”

  “So why did she look so disheveled?”

  “She had just changed clothes.” I shrugged my shoulders.

  Mason’s chest sagged. “Oh.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Sorry, man.” He reached over and gave my shoulder a squeeze. “I just wanted to be sure.”

  “No worries. I completely understand.”

  “Just wanted to be sure you understand. Shelly… She’s not like most women.”

  I was fully aware of that. I’d put a full file together on her, back when Mason’s wife, Lynn, was missing. Shelly had been abused as a child, had been removed from the family home at the age of six, the circumstances of which I still didn’t fully understand, and she had never had a solid relationship with a man. Oh, and she was known to be homicidal. No one could prove it, but I was pretty sure she’d kill anyone who threatened Lynn. I was also certain she’d killed their father, but I couldn’t prove it.

  “Well, good thing is that you never have to worry about anyone hurting that kid of yours.” This time, it was me who squeezed his shoulder.

  Mason shivered. “She’s like an old mother hen with him. I never would have thought that Shelly has a maternal side.”

  “I don’t think they call that maternal. I think they call it homicidal.” I took a sip of my drink. Too sweet. Needed alcohol.

  “Takes one to know one,” a voice chimed out from right behind me.

  Ah, fuck. Of course, she was right behind me. “Shelly,” I said. I inclined my head toward her ever so slightly.

  “Clark,” she replied. Nothing more. Just that single word. I had a feeling I was in trouble.

  “So,” Mason said slowly, looking from Shelly to me and back again, doing that Spidey-shrink thing he did so well, “did you find anyone to fill that job you had open?”

  “Job?” Shelly parroted. Instantly, she was beside me, staring up at me, her blue eyes blinking slowly, the side of her breast pressed against my arm. “What job?

  “Whoops,” Mason said and chuckled. “I think I hear the baby.” Then he walked away, leaving me with the viper.

  “I don’t know what he’s talking about,” I said quickly.

  “He said job. I heard him. What kind of job is it? What would I have to do?”

  “No.” No fucking way I would ever hire Shelly Punter to work in my office.

  “Tell me.” She jerked my forearm toward her.

  “No.”

  “You have no choice, now that I know about it.”

  I heaved out a sigh. “I needed a person to help with filing, answering phones, doing data collection for cases, and things like that. Just someone to help me, that’s all.”

  “I’d be perfect for a job like that.” She danced on the toes of her sexy shoes.

  “No.”

  “Yes.” She stomped her foot. I jerked my toes back at just the right moment.

  “No.” I tipped my drink up and drained the last of the glass. “I need to go.”

  “Where are we going? What are we working on?”

  “I’m working on a case. You’re staying here.” She pressed so tightly against my side that I could feel her heart beating in my forearm. I put my hands on her hips and set her away from me. But then all I could think was how Shelly’s hips felt under my hands. “I have to go.”

  She finally stepped away, her eyes narrowing into thin slits framed by blond lashes.

  I paid my respects to Lynn and Mason, pretended to fawn over their offspring for a moment, and left.

  As I walked to my car, I looked up to find either Shelly or Lynn framed in the doorway. I couldn’t tell which one it was, but my gut said it was Shelly, and it also said that Mason had just opened a big old can of stinky, smelly worms for me.

  There was no way I would ever allow Shelly Punter within one hundred yards of my office.

  And what was even worse was that every time I closed my eyes, I could see Shelly standing naked in that church, her hands over her nipples, and all the rest of her…well…there. Right in front of my face.

  Chapter 5

  Shelly

  “I’m sorry I was late today,” I said to Lynn as she changed Jason’s diaper in the nursery of their home. The house was finally empty, and Lynn had exchanged hostess duties for baby duties, while Mason cleaned the kitchen.

  “Why were you late?” Lynn asked, as she cooed over Jason’s naked stomach, blowing loud raspberries against his petal-soft skin. He pumped his arms and legs, his smile so cherub-like that my ovaries ached.

  “Getting my dress at the drycleaner’s took forever.” I didn’t tell her about chopping the dickhead in the throat, because she would have scolded me if I did. “Then I had to change clothes.” I took a breath. “Again, I’m sorry I was late. I didn’t mean to be.”

  She blew another raspberry on Jason’s stomach and said absently, “You and Clark, huh?”

  “Me and Clark, what?”

  She started to wrestle Jason’s legs and arms into a pair of pajamas. “I just assumed—” She shook her head. “Never mind. I read something into the situation that must not have been there.”

  “What exactly did you read?” I got up and walked to stand next to the changing table so I could look at her face. She wore guilt like some women wore a bikini that was too small.

  “I’m sorry. I thought you had seduced him at the back of the church.” Her cheeks flamed and she looked everywhere but at me.

  “What gave you that idea?” I had to bring my voice down a few octaves, because the level of noise would scare the baby.

  “Your hair was all messed up.” She put socks on Jason, his little feet flailing in the air as she tried to catch them. “And your dress was tucked into your panties. You flashed your butt cheeks at all the guests. I told you that you shouldn’t wear thongs with dresses.”

  “You act like they’ve never seen butt cheeks before.
” I couldn’t contain my snort.

  “I doubt any of them have seen butt cheeks at a christening,” she muttered.

  Suddenly, it hit me and shame overwhelmed me. “Did I embarrass you?”

  “Not at all,” she rushed to say. She took a deep breath in through her nose. “Well, maybe a little, but only because I assumed you screwed him. But now that I know you didn’t, I’m not worried about it, and you shouldn’t be either.”

  “I didn’t. I wouldn’t do anything to ruin your day. Not on purpose.”

  She looked up at me. Her blue eyes, so like my own, stared into mine. “I know you wouldn’t. I’m sorry I assumed.” She smiled at me. “Forgive me?”

  She held a bottle out toward me, and my insides got all warm. “I can feed him?”

  She motioned for me to sit down in the rocking chair, and then she passed Jason to me. He rubbed his eyes, already tired. I tucked him into the crook of my arm, lifted his bottle to his mouth, and started to rock.

  “He saw me naked,” I suddenly blurted out.

  She froze, where she had been folding tiny clothes on the other side of the room. “Who?”

  “William Clark.” Jason lifted his fingers to my lips and absently played with my mouth, his eyelids growing heavy as he fought to stay awake.

  “William Clark saw you naked? How did that happen?” She spun to face me.

  I pulled Jason’s fingers from my lips and let him hold my index finger instead.

  “I dashed across the hallway naked and bam! There he was.”

  “And what did you do?”

  I shrugged, which caused Jason to settle in closer. The warmth of him seeped through my dress. “I covered my tits with my hands and tried to pretend like he wasn’t a really hot man who was looking everywhere but at my naked body.”

  She giggled. “How did that work out for you?”