“How about a trip somewhere?” I said. “I need to get away.”

“That sounds good. Yes — before school starts. Anywhere. Take me away from all this.”

Her room smelled of fresh flowers. There were pink and red roses on the nightstand. She has a passion for flowers and gardening.

“You planned this all along, didn’t you?” I said. “You did. This is entrapment. You sly girl.”

“I was thinking about it all day,” she confessed, and sighed contentedly. “I thought about being with you all day, in my office, in the hallways, the schoolyard, and then in my car on the way to the restaurant. I’ve been having erotic daydreams about you all day.”

“I hope I can live up to them.”

“You will. No doubt about it.”

I took off her black silk blouse in one sweeping motion. I put my mouth to a breast, pulling at it through her demi-bra. She was wearing a brushed leather skirt, and I didn’t take it off, just slowly pushed it up. I knelt and kissed her ankles, the tops of her feet, then slowly came up her long legs. She massaged my neck, my back and shoulders.

“You are dangerous tonight,” she said. “That’s a good thing.”

“Sexual healing.”

“Mmm, please. Heal me all over, Doctor.”

She bit down hard into my shoulder, then even harder into the side of my neck. We were both breathing fast. She moved against me, then opened her legs for me. I moved inside her. She felt incredibly warm. The bedsprings began to sing, and the headboard rocked into the wall.

She pushed her hair to one side, behind an ear. I love the way she does that.

“You feel so good. Oh, Alex, don’t stop, don’t stop, don’t stop,” she whispered.

I did as I was told and loved every moment, every movement we made together, and I even wondered for a second if we had made a baby.

Chapter 40

MUCH LATER THAT NIGHT, we rustled up some eggs with Vidalia onions and cheddar and mozzarella cheeses, and opened a nice bottle of Pinot Noir. Then I started a fire in August, with the air conditioner turned up high.

We sat in front of the fire, laughed and talked, and planned a quick trip away from Washington. We settled on Bermuda, and Christine asked if we could bring Nana and the kids. I felt as if my life were changing fast, going to a new, good place. If only I could get lucky and catch the Weasel somehow. That could be the perfect ending to my career with the Metro police.

I went home to Fifth Street late, and got in just before three. I didn’t want Damon and Jannie to wake in the morning and not find me there. I was up by seven o’clock the next morning, bounding downstairs to the delectable smells of fresh coffee and Nana’s world-famous sticky buns.