Choke Read Online Free Page B

groaning with pleasure. They stopped gradually, wound down like a clock spring.
    “So much for safe sex,” Clare said.
    “You look pretty safe to me,” he replied, rolling off and lying next to her on the rug.
    “Don’t you believe it,” she said, then she got up, went to the bar for some paper towels, and returned. She mopped him gently, then herself. “That was very quick,” she said. “Next time you’re going to have to last longer to make me happy.”
    “Making you happy is why I’m here,” Chuck said.
    “I hope so,” she replied. “In a minute, after I’ve rested a bit, I’m going to cook you the best steak you ever had, and then I’m going to let you make me
very
happy.”
    “I’m not going anywhere.”
    “Do you feel guilty? About Harry, I mean?”
    “Not really.”
    “You shouldn’t, you know. Harry looks great, but he’s not a healthy man. He had bypass surgery a year and a half ago, but he still drinks a lot and eats lots of fatty foods. Then he’ll go out there and swim fifty laps in that pool like there’s no tomorrow.”
    “That’s dangerous.”
    “I know. He’ll drop dead one day. I’ll go out there and find him floating facedown.”
    “Are you ready for that?”
    “Yes, but in the meantime, there’s practically no sex. He had prostate surgery last year.”
    “I’ll do what I can to help.”
    She laughed. “You’re sweet; only thinking of me.”
    “You think Harry knows what we’re doing?”
    “It wouldn’t surprise me.”
    “How often does he go away on business?”
    “Two or three times a month, usually.”
    “That’s not often enough.”
    “We’ll manage.” She turned and looked at him seriously. “How old are you, Chuck?”
    “Forty-four,” he replied.
    “Mmmm,” she breathed. “It’s time you were thinking about your future, your security.”
    She got up and, still naked, began to prepare dinner.
    Chuck watched her move about the kitchen and wondered how he’d gotten so lucky.
    After dinner they made love again, then again, before they fell asleep in each other’s arms.

5
    C huck woke late on Sunday morning and had to rush to make it to work on time. As he stepped ashore, a catamaran of about fifty feet was backing into the space on
Choke’s
port side.
    “Can you take our lines, please?” a young woman called from the yacht’s stern. She was young, in her late twenties, probably, not tall, and voluptuously constructed, which was easy to see, because she was wearing only the tiniest of bikinis and barely that. Her hair was shoulderlength and sun-bleached, and Chuck thought she was, for want of a better word, pert.
    “Sure,” Chuck called back and caught the length of rope just as it was about to strike him in the face. He made the line fast, then took the next one thrown and secured it. On the foredeck a man was paying out anchor rope.
    “Thanks,” the girl said, stepping ashore and holding out her hand. “I’m Meg Hailey.”
    “Chuck Chandler, Meg; nice to meet you. I guess I’m your next-door neighbor.”
    Her male companion walked through the cockpit and stepped ashore. “Hi, I’m Dan Hailey,” he said, shaking hands.
    “I’m Chuck Chandler, and this is my boat,” he said, nodding at
Choke.
“Where’re you in from?”
    “Fort Myers was our last port,” Dan said. “We’ll be here for the rest of the winter, I think.”
    “Let me know if you need any local knowledge,” Chuck said. “I’ve only been here for a few days myself, but I’ll tell you whatever I can.”
    “Thanks,” Meg replied. “You can start by pointing me at a grocery store.”
    “The Waterfront Market is just along the way. I’m headed that way; I’ll show you, if you like.”
    “Be right with you,” she replied and jumped back aboard the yacht.
    “You here for just the winter, too?” Dan asked.
    “Maybe longer,” Chuck replied. “I’ll see how it goes.”
    Meg returned wearing a T-shirt over her bikini and carrying a purse. “Be back in