Lorraine smiled. He kept saying he should leave, but he didn’t move. Suddenly, she wasn’t anxious to have him go. Without his day clothes, he looked so different. His mischievous, lopsided smile and his half-naked body made him seem almost boyish, less threatening, and casually provocative. Her eyes raked across his chest, his arms, and finally shifted up to meet his eyes. Something burned in them.
The strained silence between them was suddenly filled with raucous language from across the way, drunken ramblings, and the shrill laughter of the saloon girls. The voices seemed to surround them as it drifted in on the hot summer air, its mystical fingers blowing illicit kisses against their almost-naked bodies. It seemed to bring them alive with longing.
Then, she was in Jude’s arms, lips cr
