Robert B. Parker (18 page)

I stood. The sound of my breath quivered in the crystalline space between us. Jennifer stood with her back against the door, her palms flat against the door on each side of her hips. The smell of her perfume was enveloping.

“I didn’t know I was going to say that today,” she said.

I didn’t move.

“Do you want me?” she said.

I nodded.

“Do you want me to leave John and live with you?”

I nodded.

“And when I divorce him do you want to marry me?”

Nod.

“I think you should kiss me now,” Jennifer said.

I put my hand on my desk and held myself steady. My breath was short. I was breathing through my mouth and each exhalation made a little
huff
. I tightened my
grip on the edge of the desk and felt the muscles in my forearm clench. My eyes were full of tears.

Jennifer made a small nod with her head and stepped to me and put her arms around me and kissed me on the mouth and I felt myself unclench, and my spirit burgeoned, spread throughout me and mingled with her perfume and her heat and the weakness was gone and I pressed her against me with the unbestowed strength of a silent quarter-century feeling her press back and feeling my soul begin at last to romp with hers in newly created pastures where eternity shimmered before us and time, just begun, was ours forever.

 … with my body I thee worship, with all my worldly goods I thee endow.

ALL OUR YESTERDAYS
CRIMSON JOY
PALE KINGS AND PRINCES
TAMING A SEA-HORSE
A CATSKILL EAGLE
VALEDICTION
LOVE AND GLORY
THE WIDENING GYRE
CEREMONY
A SAVAGE PLACE
EARLY AUTUMN
LOOKING FOR RACHEL WALLACE
WILDERNESS
THE JUDAS GOAT
PROMISED LAND
MORTAL STAKES
GOD SAVE THE CHILD
THE GODWULF MANUSCRIPT