Not Since You Read Online Free Page A

banged on the door one more time, this time hard enough to make the horseshoe-shaped brass knocker rise and fall against the door. The dog shifted at the end of her heavy chain leash.
                  "Aroow," she muttered, stood and moved to the steps, peering straight up as if trying to see in the bedroom windows on the second floor. She lifted her snout and barked.
    Good idea. When he and Carrie were kids, there'd been many nights when he'd climbed the trellis to the porch roof and then through the window of her bedroom. They'd lie on her bed, talking to each other and holding each other, exploring each other's bodies under pajamas and clothes. Things were different, then. Sex was still a big deal, not taken lightly as it was with the kids from Samantha's generation. They didn't do anything but cuddle and kiss deeply. As time went by, the kisses led to hands roving over bared skin in tremulous exploration, to stifled moans and sighs. But never sex. They'd stopped just short of the actual act, telling themselves they'd wait until they were ready, until they were older.
    But never wiser.
    Zack shook his head, remembering how it felt to be young and in love, to fall asleep in each other's arms, and wake when the sky turned pink to kiss some more and clutch at one another as if they were to about to be separated for eternity.
    If only he'd known, then. He never would have slipped down the trellis and away. He would have managed, somehow, to stay in Carrie's bed—and her arms—forever.
    Right.
    And his parents would have castrated him.
    Though they hadn't when he'd told them Sarah was pregnant with his child.
    He sighed and looked toward the once-familiar trellis. "I must be out of my mind," he told Ellie, hooking the end of her chain over the flagpole holder on one of the porch pillars before moving to stand at the bottom of the aged wooden structure covered with morning glory vines.
    Shit. He looked at the dog. "I'll have you know, I'm thirty-eight."
    "Woof." The dog barked. And then barked again, as if urging him to go, go, go!
    Right. Here I am, eighteen years older and twenty pounds heavier. And if this freaking thing breaks, how much will the ambulance cost? And the physical therapy?
    He put his foot on the first rung and started climbing. And how in the name of God will I explain what the hell I'm doing? The guys at the station will never let me forget this…
    The dog started barking louder, and he realized if he didn't hurry, she'd wake the entire neighborhood. Shit.
    He moved quickly up the trellis, hoping that if he only stayed a moment on each square, he'd be less likely to break it. Zack practically leaped onto the roof, landing with a thud and a bang. Ellie continued to bark. The lights in Carrie's bedroom window came on, glowing yellow against the black and blue of the nighttime shadows. Zack scrambled up to the sash and knocked on the pane. "Carrie? Open up. It's Zack!"
    She appeared in the window, staring out at him with the phone pressed to her ear. Her long, dark hair cascaded down her shoulders in a silken tangle over her peach-colored, un-sashed robe. Beneath, she wore a peachy silk-looking nightgown that clung to her figure. Zack swallowed as a lump rose in his throat and his groin tightened. Carrie was beautiful. Still slender, but with a woman's curves instead of a girl's gauntness; he could even see a hint of a valley between her breasts.
    He remembered that her nipples had been the color of raspberry sherbet, and his mouth watered; he'd loved taking them into his mouth and sucking each one until she squirmed. Would she still squirm now?
    How many men had done the same thing, since he'd seen her last? He didn't even know if she was involved with someone, or married, or divorced, or even widowed, as he was. All he knew was, if he could climb through the window and lie down on her bed with her again, he'd be the happiest man in the world. But first, he had to get her to open the