Finished by Claire Kent Page A

find the guns?”
    “What?” Julia’s question sounded strangled. “He has a gun?”
    “More than one. In the saxophone case. Very expensive ones. He doesn’t have a license for them. I checked.”
    “Do you think he’s a spy or something?” A crazy suggestion, but Julia was desperately trying to find some explanation to fit all the inexplicable evidence.
    “I wish. I don’t know what he is.”
    “You’re talking like he’s a stranger or something.” Julia sat up and grabbed his t-shirt in her urgency. “Mike, that’s not fair. This is Drayton. You’ve known him longer than I have. And you always…always cared about him, didn’t you?”
    Mike nodded. “Yeah. But he used to be different. He was always arrogant and private, but he wasn’t always like this. He’s changed, Julia. Hardened. I know you’ve seen it too. And I’m not sure how long I can go on pretending it’s still all right.”
    Julia felt a familiar terror—the same fear she felt any time she had to genuinely consider the possibility of losing what she had, what she wanted so much more from. “Don’t talk like that. It can’t be as bad as that. He’s been different lately, but maybe it will pass. He does care about us. I know it. We set up this relationship to give each other the space to go through phases like this, and it’s not fair to blame him for following the rules we agreed on before. Maybe he has good reason for not telling us his secrets.”
    “I’m sure he has good reason,” Mike said, his voice as unyielding as steel. “I’m just not sure I’ll like what his reasons are.”
    There wasn’t anything more she could say. She knew Mike too well to believe she could change his mind at the moment, but she wasn’t going to give up. Until she knew the whole story, she wasn’t going to count Drayton out as a lost cause.
    She wasn’t going to give up on him because of unanswered questions. He was part of her life, and she cared about him. Cold reason wasn’t enough to break those ties.
    Mike must have understood that she wanted the conversation to be over because he didn’t persist or try to convince her either. He just flipped on his television and tuned it to a news channel.
    After a minute, Julia was able to relax again and lay back down with her head in his lap. She sighed with pleasure when he began to slowly stroke her hair again. She closed her eyes and tried to forget all of her worries.
    In a few minutes, she felt his caress alter. He began to stroke her shoulder and arm, and then down to her hip.
    She smiled without opening her eyes. “Trying to get in a grope while I’m asleep?”
    He chuckled warmly. “I knew you weren’t asleep.” His hand slipped down to curve around her bottom possessively.
    She turned over so she could look up at him. “Honestly, I’m kind of tired tonight. I’m not sure I’m in the mood.”
    He inclined his head, to her relief not looking terribly disappointed. “That’s okay.”
    Her position allowed for a pretty clear assessment of his arousal. His groin was just next to her head, and the old sweatpants didn’t leave much to the imagination. He was already half erect. “Are you sure? You look a little…hopeful.”
    His mouth tilted up at one corner. “Hopeful? Is that what you call it?”
    “Yeah.” She turned her head to more accurately observe his condition. At the closer proximity of her mouth to his groin, she saw his cock give a little twitch through his sweats.
    She couldn’t help but giggle. “Hopeful is definitely the word.”
    “It’s really fine,” Mike said, his voice still amused. “But maybe you’d be kind enough to move your head farther away from my dick. You’re giving it the wrong idea.”
    For some reason, she didn’t want to sit up. She’d been honest about not really being in the mood for sex, but a strange, playful compulsion caused her to move her face a few inches forward toward the outline of his hardening cock beneath the worn fabric