Calculated Exposure by Holley Trent Page A

that moment, Seth leaned into the doorway wearing his favorite blue-and-yellow plaid shirt and a pair of brown cargo shorts.
    Curt cringed.
    “I can feed you,” she said, “but it won’t be anything special. I had to run out to cover some breaking news. I’m on scene now, actually. Waiting for a press conference to start.”
    “So, sex, then.”
    She laughed. “If you’d like.”
    “I would like. That goes without saying.”
    “See you when you get here, then. Bye, rubio .”
    “When are you leaving?” Seth asked.
    Curt pushed back and stretched his arms overhead with a yawn. “Soon.”
    Seth grunted, rubbing the stubble on his jaw with eyes narrowed. “Same woman twice?”
    “Yes.”
    “When’s the wedding?”
    “Funny. It’s purely physical.”
    “You could get physical closer to home. You usually stagger them so you don’t see the same one two dates in a row.”
    Curt’s response to that was a stare.
    “Just sayin’. What is it about this one? Tits?”
    “Don’t know. Maybe it’s because she doesn’t come off as needy. I’m tired of needy.”
    “Do you want a woman or a cat? Sounds like you want a cat.”
    “I don’t want either .”
    “Right. You’re stupid. If I could find just one woman to…” Seth walked away, mumbling.
    “Whatever.” Curt dropped to his knees and dragged his duffle bag from under the bed. Two dates in a row did not constitute a relationship or even the budding of one. Maybe if the stars aligned the right way, he’d think about settling down sometime around thirty-five. Have a kid or two before he got too long in the tooth and waking up in the mornings got too hard.
    Unzipping the bag, he froze and did the math. And it was easy math. Thirty-five wasn’t all that far away. How the hell did that happen?
    * * * *
    Erica hurried home from a mind-numbingly dull event and scoured her freezer only to find nothing particularly interesting. After staring at the options for two minutes and damn near defrosting the compartment, she shrugged and wriggled a frozen veggie pizza from under a couple of Lean Cuisines. She tarted it up with chorizo she found in her refrigerator meat drawer and slid the concoction into the preheated oven as she heeled off her shoes and socks.
    Curt knocked on the door right as she stepped out of the shower.
    She opened the door a crack and said, “I’m still dressing.”
    He smirked. “You want me to wait here and pretend I haven’t seen you naked, or…”
    “Damn it.” He had a point. She opened the door and waved him in. After securing the deadbolt, she scurried to her bedroom. “Don’t let that pizza burn,” she called back.
    “Don’t bother dressing on my account,” Curt said. “You naked is why I’m here, remember?”
    She laughed. Well, she had made that promise, but dinner was a higher priority. Her stomach felt inside out from hunger. When she’d been called out to take photos of an arson scene, she hadn’t expected to be there all day waiting on the fire marshal’s statement.
    She dressed quickly and casually and dashed to the kitchen. “I hope you don’t mind.” She slipped a pizza peel into the oven and removed the slightly-charred pie. “I need to upload some images from today. I’ll be really quick.”
    “Go for it. Maybe I’ll go and see if that damned game show is on again. Still don’t get it. I hate that feeling.”
    “You sure? That’s alright? You can watch in here if you want. Tuck into the pizza.”
    “You got it. We got all weekend to play.”
    Erica felt her cheeks flush as he walked away. “All weekend?”
    “Mm-hmm. Brought a change of clothes and my laptop. If you’re going to help me relax, I plan on making the most of it.”
    “Suddenly, helping you relax is sounding like a lot of work for me.”
    “Scared?”
    “Of you? No way. Last night was just an appetizer.”
    Slow down, girl. You’re gonna have to walk that talk.
    He winked at her over his pizza slice as she connected her work