Lisa Scottoline - Devil's corner

"Are you in denial?"

"No, I'm in reality."

"But you loved her, didn't you?" Say no .

"I don't think I did, really. It wasn't a very good marriage." Dan shrugged. "Funny. After she told me, I went to the gym, but there was no game that late, so I took foul shots until they closed. Then I went home to my completely empty house and took a good, long shower. I think I sweated that woman out." Dan smiled. "And I dried myself off with toilet paper, because she took all the towels."

Vicki laughed. "Did that work ?"

"Yes, if you like white balls stuck in your leg hair."

"That's so hot."

Dan smiled. "Bale said there's like starter marriages, practice marriages. He thinks that's what this was."

"Bale's been married three times."

"He's still practicing," Dan shot back, and they both laughed. Then he grew serious. "So that's that. She can have the stupid furniture. I'll sign the agreement, which gives her half our money, and it will be over and done with."

Vicki frowned, sipping her wine. "But didn't you earn most of it? I mean, what does she make, as an intern?"

"What's the difference?" Dan paused, as if waiting for an answer, but Vicki didn't have one. "She can have it. I don't want to fight, I want to move on. We'll sell the house and split the proceeds."

"Don't you want to talk to a lawyer first?"

"No, I am a lawyer. But I want Zoe back. A man needs his kitty cat." Dan got up with his full glass and took it to the sink, and Vicki rose.

"You don't like the wine?"

"It's fine, I've had enough. I'm going to be a good boy and wash my glass."

"Let me." Vicki came up behind him. "You shouldn't have to do dishes on a night like this."

"Why not? I always do." Dan flipped on the hot water and regulated it with care. "I always stand at this sink, just like this, with you hovering at my right shoulder, yakking away while I wash dishes."

Vicki smiled. "I wash, sometimes."

"Sometimes you do, but mostly, it's me. Cooking. Making coffee. I am completely gay."

Vicki laughed. "You're just a good friend."

"I'm your best friend, am I not?"

"Actually, you are." Vicki smiled, feeling a rush of warmth. It was the wine, partly. And partly not.

Dan turned from the sink, his blue eyes frank and direct. "And you are mine."

Vicki nodded, and a silence fell between them.

Dan turned off the water, set the wineglass upside down in the sink, and then looked at her again. "And that , my dear, is why I'm not going to fight over the china. Because Mariella was right about one thing."

"What?"

"I was in love with somebody else, all along."

Gulp . "Really?"

"Really. I share everything with this woman. Chicken dinners and jury closings and funny e-mails on the BlackBerry. And the amazing thing is, I feel like she's with me all the time, even when she isn't. Wherever she is, and wherever I am, I am connected, profoundly connected , to her."

Vicki's heart thumped. All of a sudden her organs were very noisy.

"I never had an affair with her, but to be honest, I wanted to." Dan's voice softened. "I never touched her that way, but I imagined her touch. I've never seen her without clothes on, but I know exactly what her body looks like, naked. And I've made love to her so many times, in my head, that I can't count them all."

Vick felt strangely like she was going to cry. I sure hope this girl is me .

"I told you, and I realized that night, when I thought that I might lose you, that you are my best friend. Remember that night?"

Vicki nodded. There were tears in her eyes. She had wanted to hear what he was going to say for so long, it somehow hurt to hear it now, as if its sweetness were too much.

"Well, you are my best friend. And so, I love you." Then Dan leaned over slowly and kissed her, gently, and she kissed him back, just as gently, until she sensed his hips shift closer to hers and felt his tongue flicker just inside her mouth. In the next instant, his arms closed strong around her, and Vicki breathed in the hard soap scent on his scratchy cheek.

But then something made her heart pull back. "Is this a good idea?" she asked, worried, and Dan smiled softly, holding her in his arms.

"Do you love me?"

"Yes," Vicki answered, because she did, and she had, for so long.

"Then it's a very good idea." Dan grinned.

"But is this a rebound?"

"No, my rebounding sucks. This is love."

Vicki smiled. "And it's really happening?"

"If you ever shut up, it is."

Vicki laughed, and Dan laughed, too, and the laughter ended with a happy kiss, and then another, and next a deeper one, which was joyful in a different way, more serious. And the serious kissing didn't stop when the touching began, or when his flannel shirt came off and then her heavy fisherman's sweater and her white turtleneck and next her old Harvard T-shirt and eventually her pink-waffle thermal undershirt, which was when Dan started laughing, mystified.

"Vick, what were you dressed for?"

Oops . "Sledding, with the kids across the street."

Dan kissed her again, then his mouth made a path down her neck to her chest, and he reached around and unfastened her bra, slipping the silky straps from her shoulders, taking her fullness into his mouth. Warmth surged through her, leaving her weak, and Vicki arched her back involuntarily, giving herself to him, loving the feel of his mouth on her skin and his hands everywhere on her body, and in the next minute, she heard herself whisper.

"Let's go upstairs."

Vicki awoke to knocking on the front door and cracked an eye at the alarm clock. The red numbers glowed 8:15. She blinked against the noise until her brain started to function.

It's Reheema. I am so busted.

She moved aside the covers quietly enough not to wake Dan, climbed out of bed, and hurried for the bathroom. She had no time for a shower, and she grabbed her pink bathrobe and wrapped herself in it on the run. Dan remained fast asleep on the far side of the bed, his head buried sideways in the pillow, his strawberry hair a lovely rumple.

Dan Malloy is in my bed. Yippee!

Vicki ran downstairs and flung open her front door into the frosty air and an unusually cheerful Reheema Bristow. Re-heema's eyes were darkly bright and her smile broad, and she wore her customary knit cap, pea coat, jeans, and Timberlands. In her hand was a tall pink-and-orange Dunkin' Donuts coffee covered with a plastic lid.

"Yo, girl." Reheema offered the coffee. "You look like you need this."

"Jeez, thanks," Vicki said, in a low tone, so Dan didn't wake up. She accepted the coffee and pulled her robe around her, feeling guilty. "I'm really sorry, I'm running a little late."

"S'all right." Reheema stepped inside the living room, looking around. "Nice place."

"Thanks," Vicki said softly.

"Why are you whispering?"

"I'm not whispering," Vicki whispered.

"You are, too," Reheema said, then her eyes narrowed to disapproving slits. "Oh no, you didn't."

"I'll explain later. Follow me." Vicki signaled her out of the room, past the dining room and into the kitchen, then she set the coffee down and started digging for her stakeout outfit among the clothes heaped on the floor.

"In the kitchen?" Reheema's tone sounded admiring, if surprised. "You did it in the kitchen? Damn !"

"Turn away, I'm embarrassed," Vicki said, and when Reheema turned away, she dropped the bathrobe and yanked on her jeans and panties.

" Embarrassed ? You weren't embarrassed last night, when you were doin' it on the damn floor ." Street Reheema had returned and she was having a good laugh. "You weren't embarrassed , you were bare-assed ."