Genuine Lies

strength.
    “Ready to go?” he said, and slipped a hand into hers.
    She didn’t speak until they were outside. It shocked her that it was still daylight. Cars were stretched along the road as commuters battled their way home to dinner. Hours before, only hours ago in the soft blue morning, they had buried Eve. Now she was accused of causing that death.
    “Brandon?”
    He caught her arm when she swayed, but she kept walking, as if she hadn’t noticed her own weakness.
    “Don’t worry. CeeCee’s handling everything. He can stay the night with them, unless you want to go pick him up.”
    God, she wanted to see him. To hold him. To smell him. But she remembered the glimpse of her own face when they’d let her dress. Her face was white, her eyes shadowed. And there was terror in them.
    “I don’t want him to see me until I’ve … until later.”Confused, she stopped by Paul’s car. It was funny, she thought, now that she was outside again, out of that cage, she didn’t know what to do next. “I should—I should call him. I’m going to need to explain … somehow.”
    She swayed again so that when he caught her he could all but pour her into the car. “You can call him later.”
    “Later,” she repeated, and let her eyes close.
    She didn’t speak again, so he hoped she slept. But as he drove he could see the way her hand would go from limp in her lap to clenched. He’d been prepared for tears, for outrage, for fury. He wasn’t sure any man could prepare himself for this kind of dangerous fragility.
    When she smelled the sea, she opened her eyes. She felt drugged, as if she’d awakened from a long illness. “Where are we going?”
    “Home.”
    She pressed a hand to her temple, as if she could press reality back in. “To your house?” “Yes. Is that a problem?”
    But when he glanced over, she’d turned away so that he couldn’t see her face. He braked too hard when he pulled to a stop up in front of the house. They both jerked forward, snapped back. By the time he’d slammed out of his door, she was already standing.
    “If you don’t want to be here, just tell me where you want to go.”
    “I have nowhere to go.” Eyes stricken, she turned to face him. “And no one to go to. I didn’t think you’d … bring me here. Want me here. They think I killed her.” Her hands shook so badly she dropped her bag. After she crouched to pick it up, she couldn’t find the strength to stand again. “They think I killed her,” she repeated.
    “Julia.” He reached for her, but she pulled back.
    “Please don’t. Don’t touch me. I won’t be able to hold on to whatever pride I have left if you touch me.”
    “The hell with that.” He gathered her up, into his arms. The first sobs began to rack her body as he carried her inside.
    “They put me in a cell. They kept asking me questions,over and over, and they put me in a cell. They locked the door and left me there. I couldn’t breathe in there.”
    Even as his mouth tightened into a grim line, he murmured reassurances. “You need to lie down for a while. Rest for a while.”
    “I kept remembering the way she looked when I found her. They think I did that to her. God, they’re going to put me back in there. What’s going to happen to Brandon?”
    “They’re not going to put you back in there.” After he laid her on the bed, he took her face in his hands. “They’re not going to put you back in there. Believe it.”
    She wanted to, but all she could see was that small, barred space, and her trapped inside. “Don’t leave me alone. Please.” She gripped his hands, her tears burning her eyes. “Touch me. Please.” She pulled his mouth down to hers. “Please.”
    Comfort wasn’t the answer. Quiet reassurances and gentle strokes couldn’t sear away the desperation. It was passion she needed, fast and fulminating, rough and ready. Here, with him, she could empty her mind, fill her body. She groped for him, her eyes still wet with shock and terror, her body arching against his as she tugged at his clothes.
    There were no words between them. She wanted no words; even the softest of them could make her think. For this brief space of time she wanted only to feel.
    He forgot about easing her fears. There was no fear in the woman who rolled over the bed with him, her avid mouth and seeking fingers shooting arrows of pleasure into him. Every bit as desperate as she, he tore at her clothes to find her. That hot, damp skin vibrating under