The Border Part Two Read Online Free

she said slowly, “then…”
    “Then what?”
    “Well…”
    “Why am I fucking you every night?”
    “I was just wondering.”
    “Do you know the last time Beth and I made love?” he asked with a sigh.
    She shook her head.
    “Four years ago.”
    She raised both eyebrows.
    “Seriously,” he continued. “Since our daughter was born, that side of things has been pretty much dead. And when I finally confronted her about it, do you know what she told me? Do you want to hazard a guess as to her excuse?”
    “Well…” She thought about it for a moment. “Maybe it’s because she had the baby, and that did stuff to her. Psychologically, and maybe physically too. I heard people can get pretty mangled during childbirth. Maybe she’s self-conscious.”
    “She told me she’s asexual.”
    “She’s what?”
    “Asexual. She sat there, on our bed, and told me that she’d never really liked sex, that she’d never felt sexually attracted to anyone, man or woman, and that she was sorry she hadn’t told me earlier. She was sorry .” He paused, staring at her breasts for a moment longer. “I mean, anything else we could fucking work around, you know? But that ? She said she could try, she said she could still go through with it and stuff, but…” Rolling onto his back, he sighed. “What’s a guy supposed to do when his wife tells him something like that? That she’s asexual .”
    “So she doesn’t get turned on by anything?” Candy asked, staring up at the ceiling fan. “Not by anything in the whole world?”
    Bob watched as a fly crawled across the ceiling. “Nope.”
    “So it’s nothing to do with you?”
    “Hell, no.” He laughed nervously. “Are you fucking kidding?”
    “It’s all her?”
    “It’s all her. She admitted it.”
    She paused for a moment. “Golly,” she said finally. “I can’t imagine living like that. Not getting excited by anything, ever. Not feeling that little twinge when you sit on the washing machine, or when you see a hot guy giving you the right look. I mean, that’s something I look forward to each day.” She tried to imagine it, but the whole thing was just too bizarre and too strange for her to contemplate. “Are you sure she’s telling the truth?” she asked finally. “Are you sure it’s not just an excuse?”
    “Oh, I believe her,” he muttered bitterly. “She’s fucked up. I knew that from the moment I first met her, but it used to be fun. I just didn’t realize how fucked up.” He paused, watching the fan, before turning to her. “I love her, though. I love our daughter, too. I know that might seem strange to you, given the fact that… Well, the truth is, I just need sex too. Like, really really need it, and with someone who needs it right back. I can’t get by without it, so one day I figured I just needed to get a little one the side. Believe it or not, doing this with you is probably saving my marriage.”
    “It is?”
    “It is.” He looked down at her naked body, before rolling over and putting a hand between her legs. “Now why don’t we have a little more fun before checkout time?” He reached around and cupped her ass, before starting to slip a finger between the cheeks. “Have you thought any more about what we talked about earlier?”
    ***
    “Jesus Christ,” he muttered an hour later, as he pulled the morning’s paper out of the coin-operated rack near the motel’s front door. “Someone was murdered right here in Bowley.”
    “Someone was what, where?” Candy asked. The rain had picked up a little, and a strong breeze was blowing her hair across her face.
    “Listen to this,” he continued, reading from the front page. “Police say they have no suspects yet following the discovering of a dead body in a dumpster behind the Monument bar. The body has been identified as Melanie Armitage, a barmaid at the -”
    He paused.
    “Holy shit,” he continued, sounding a little excited, “I know who that is. She works at the bar,