Secret Prey

out . . . So what’s happening with you?’’
    She peered at him, almost as if she were nearsighted, which she wasn’t. ‘‘I’ve got this thing going around in my head and it won’t go away.’’
    ‘‘Uh-oh,’’ Lucas said. ‘‘I’ve had that problem . . .’’
    ‘‘No-no-no. Nothing like that. I’m not depressed. But, you know that old thing about, ‘Women don’t want sex, women want love’?’’
    ‘‘What?’’ She was talking fast, and he was suddenly aware of how quiet the building was, how dark the hallway had been outside, and how the two of them were alone in a not very big office.
    ‘‘Yeah, well maybe I’ve heard something like that.’’
    ‘‘The fact is, I always liked sex,’’ she said. ‘‘A lot. And I haven’t had any for a year and a half before Mike was killed, while we were breaking up, and none since he was killed, and right now I just really don’t need love, but I really would sorta . . .’’
    As she spoke, she was moving to his left, and he was on his feet moving to her left, in a narrow circle, Lucas edging toward the door. ‘‘Jesus,’’ he said.
    ‘‘Look, you don’t have to,’’ she said. ‘‘Where’re you going? You’re running for it?’’
    She almost started to smile, a sad, tentative smile, but Lucas only saw part of it. He flipped the latch on the door and hit the light at the same time, and in the next halfsecond his hands were all over her. She gasped and went a few inches up in the air, and then they were dancing around, half struggling, mouths locked together, Sherrill’s blouse coming off, and five seconds after that they were on the floor.
    AND TEN MINUTES LATER SHERRILL WHISPERED, ‘‘WAS that loud?’’
    ‘‘Pretty loud,’’ Lucas whispered back.
    ‘‘Jesus, I want to do it again.’’ He could only see her face dimly in the light coming through the door’s glass panel. And he thought: This rug smells weird . But he said , ‘‘My place,’’ and he reached out and pressed the warm palm of his right hand over one of her breasts.
    ‘‘I’ll follow you,’’ she said.
    ‘‘No: Come with me. We can be there in ten minutes.’’
    ‘‘Can’t find my underpants,’’ she said. ‘‘What’d you do with my underpants?’’
    ‘‘Don’t know . . .’’
    She pulled on her jeans and untangled her bra from around her neck, buttoned her blouse as Lucas pulled himself together, half turned away from each other, a small piece of still-necessary privacy. Neither of them wanted the light—when Lucas was dressed, Sherrill opened the door and Lucas found her cotton underpants hooked over the top of his wastebasket. Lucas stuck them in his pocket: ‘‘Let’s go.’’
    ‘‘What a fuckin’ terrible idea this was,’’ she said, as they jogged down the hall. ‘‘Screwing your boss.’’ She looked at him. ‘‘You can’t screw your boss.’’
    ‘‘I’m not your boss,’’ Lucas said. ‘‘Keep moving.’’
    LUCAS CONCENTRATED ON DRIVING, OUT OF MINNEAPOLIS past the dome, onto I-94 across the Mississippi and off at Cretin, south to the stoplight at Marshall. The light was a long one and Sherill was suddenly on top of him again, one hand fumbling at his belt while he tore at her blouse and finally freed her breasts, his mouth on her neck and then . . .
    ‘‘Christ, we’re a movie,’’ she said suddenly. He looked up, past her: a couple of St. Thomas students were walking past, and one of them flashed him the V-for-victory sign.
    ‘‘Gotta go,’’ Lucas said, as the light went green, and Sherrill subsided, but still half turned in the passenger seat, her hand on his chest. He dodged one red light, got down toward the river, then out on the boulevard heading south. Home in ten minutes, into the garage, then through the kitchen, stumbling with each other.
    ‘‘Where’s the bedroom?’’
    She was turned around, but with an arm over his shoulder, and he picked her up and carried her back, dumped her on the bed and kicked off his shoes.
    ‘‘Hurry,’’ she said.
    AND LATER, SHE SAID, ‘‘MAN, THAT RUG IN YOUR office sure smelled weird. What’d you do in there, anyway?’’
    Lucas sighed and rolled away from her and said, ‘‘This was really a bad idea.’’
    ‘‘That’s what I said an hour ago.’’
    ‘‘Yeah, well . . .’’
    ‘‘What?’’
    ‘‘So even if it’s a bad idea, I wanna do it some more.’’
    ‘‘We should maybe wait a few minutes.’’
    Lucas laughed