Soft Sounds of Pleasure Read Online Free Page A

Colton was sick of neurotic women, always seeking reassurance about their supposed defects.
    Stepping into the kitchen, he dropped the condom into the waste bin and looked around. She was in the laundry room to his right, tying the belt on her robe. She stood there playing with the ends of the sash, the gesture telling him she was wrestling with what they'd done.
    His heart did a funny stutter as he thought about the fact that she had made him the first man she'd been with since Pete.
    "Would it be all right if I showered?" he asked. The coconut-scented oil was clinging to his skin. There was no way to explain smelling like suntan oil back at the garage. He wasn't ready to leave her, but he needed a minute to think about what had happened between them, and from the look of her, she did too. "Then, we'll talk."
    Not that there was much point to his errand if Pete was dead, but telling her why he'd come allowed him to spend a bit more time memorizing Lila.
    * * * *
    "Oh, how horrible," Lila gasped, after Colton fell silent, shocked by the news that Sarah De Marco had been murdered during a car-jacking. She remembered Sarah, a beautiful girl if Lila had ever seen one. About five minutes after she'd graduated high school, Sarah had jumped on a bus bound for Los Angeles. Not long after, Lila had seen the first picture of Sarah's infant son hanging on the wall behind the counter at the De Marco family garage. Now the lovely young woman was dead and her son had come to live with his only remaining relatives. The photo in her hand was recent. Jonah had reddish tints in his version of the trademark De Marco dark brown hair, otherwise he looked like a younger version of Colton. The picture didn't show whether his eyes were the same attractive hazel as the rest of the men in his family, but it showed well enough the kid was going to be just as good-looking.
    "He's gonna be a real heartbreaker." Lila handed the picture back to him, and impulsively put her hand on his arm. "I'm so sorry you lost your baby sister, Colton. Sarah was a lovely girl and I know your entire family must be devastated. How is Jonah adjusting to her loss?"
    Lila had learned the hard way that death was about the survivors.
    Colton covered her hand with his, giving her a gentle squeeze that she felt to her toes, but his expression became even more troubled. "Jonah isn't adjusting, Lila. He hates it here. Apparently this town is sadly lacking compared to life in California. He's not trying to make friends because he says he'll just have to start over next year at the high school. He doesn't want to do anything I suggest. All he does is bury his head in a video game or sit around looking miserable. I'm trying my ass off to just get the kid to smile, and finally, he opens up and tells me one thing he'd enjoy doing, and I cannot seem to make that happen."
    Lila couldn't suppress a twitch of her lips, earning a questioning look from the handsome man across the table. "Before you start kicking yourself too hard over not living in the world's most exciting spot, allow me to point out nothing is ever quite right in the world of a thirteen-year-old. What is it he wants? A horse? A skateboard park in the backyard?" Her smile became wider as she recalled what Charlie had wanted at Jonah's age, and thank God Pete had said 'no', otherwise there'd be one more thing she had to find a way to look after. "A pool?"
    Colton's dark hair gleamed wetly as he shook his head. "Baseball. He wants to play baseball. But we missed the tryouts by a week because he wouldn't talk to me."
    Ah, it made sense to her now, why he'd come here. If anyone in the world could get a thirteen-year-old kid a spot on a baseball team after tryouts had ended, it would've been Pete. Pete and Tucker Sizemore, the Athletic Director at the local Parks and Recreation Department, had been best friends. Pete and Lila had once been very active with the competitive league Jonah De Marco would be in, back when her son