bare hands or something? You do—what?—a hundred sit-ups without getting winded? Could you pick up this bed and hold it over your head?”
“I’ve never tried those things.” He rose up just enough to kiss her again. “I get to do cool stuff. I’m a man of action. That’s what we call it.”
“We? You part of some alien space force or something?”
“Hardly, Kiley. I’m just a man.”
“Just a man you say. Just a man. You made love like five times last night. Now I suppose you’ll tell me the bad news. You’re part of some ancient brotherhood cult and you run naked and throw telephone poles.”
“Now, that I’ve actually done. Well, with some help from my friends.”
“Do your friends look like you?”
“No. We’re all different. We come from all over the world.”
“You all have these markings?” she asked.
“Well, some of us do. Not like these, though. And I don’t run naked down the beach, but some probably that have. But these types of tats are special. These are a chronicle of my heritage, my Polynesian ancestral heritage, Kiley. So, someone else’s would be different.”
“So, what are you, a big soccer team?” She knew that was wrong. “Maybe not soccer. Soccer players are skinny. But how about Rugby then?”
“I love Rugby. We have a Hawaiian form of Rugby that’s even more challenging. And there’s a famous Rugby team who do Maori chanting before their games. Ever heard of the All Blacks Haka?”
“The what?”
“It’s a Maori All Blacks Haka. I’ve watched them several times. They do this chant that scares the liver out of the opposition.”
Kiley had never known a Rugby player.
“So are you a sports figure of some kind?”
“No.”
He knew she was pressing for answers and wasn’t going to give her any until he was good and ready to. She hoped that he wasn’t going to keep secrets, but she’d play along for a bit.
“I know,” she giggled. “You’re a personal trainer!”
His eyes roamed down her frontside. He angled his head to take a different view. “Would you like that?”
“I think I’d find it distracting,” she said, avoiding his eyes. “I’d probably drop the weights on my foot, something like that.”
“Why do you say that?” He gently brushed the hair from her face.
“I’m just a klutz, that’s all. Not very coordinated.”
“It’s just a matter of training. With focus and discipline, you can make your body do anything you want it to do.”
“Can you heal the dead?”
She realized right away the mistake she’d made. He sat up and turned his back to her.
“Jason, I’m sorry about that comment. That was stupid of me. I wasn’t thinking.”
“It’s okay,” he said to his lap.
But she could tell something was eating a hole in his heart. She waited. Finally, he turned, flipping onto his stomach and peered into her eyes.
“I’d give anything to be able to do that. Life is random. We do the best we can, but sometimes, that’s not good enough. He didn’t have to die. He shouldn’t have died. But he did, and I was spared. There have been times when I’ve beat myself up about that. But it is what it is.”
“And you’re going to honor him by living well,” she said, stroking his forearm. She let her fingers mate with his, examining the roughness, the cuts and divots made in his flesh. He used his hands for something, and he obviously worked hard. She drew his palm to her cheek and held it there, returning his gaze.
Then she drew his hand down her frontside, guiding him to the juncture between her legs. She felt shy all of a sudden.
“Sorry.”
“You sure apologize a lot, Kiley. Don’t ever apologize for things you don’t mean to. It’s the way you are. And…” he said as he placed his hand under her thigh and bent her knee, “I find you perfect just the way you are. This is magic,” he said before he kissed her belly button. “And I’m in the mood for a whole lot more.”
Kiley’s cell phone rang, waking them up. It was Carmen. She took the call in the living room.
“Hey there,” she whispered. “So Newman put you on the story.”
“Was that your doing? Because I’m not happy.” Carmen was smart, but Kiley had always felt their communications started way too adversarial. “He should have finished your work instead of taking me off my desk.”
“Between you and me, Carmen, he’d have fucked it up, and you know this.”
“I don’t dig seeing naked women horribly brutalized and left for dead, Kiley. I cannot