Karin Slaughter - Skin Privilege

'I want to know why he ran,' Jeffrey said, wetting the cloth, his mind still on the man in the building.

Sara pushed herself up onto the countertop, feet dangling above the floor. Her senses were coming back. She could smell an acidic mix of smoke and sweat coming off Jeffrey's body. His shirt was wet with perspiration and soot.

He said, 'I couldn't get a good look at him. Smoke was everywhere.'

'Can you breathe okay?' she asked, the doctor part of her brain whirring to life. 'Does your chest or throat hurt?'

He shook his head. 'Come here.' Carefully, he washed her face with the rag, saying, 'There's a stream that runs behind the building, some kind of shack beside it. The guy tripped down the bank and fell into the water. I thought I'd catch him then, but he just disappeared.' Jeffrey picked something out of Sara's hair and threw it into the trashcan. 'I couldn't tell if he dropped what he was carrying. Whatever he had, he thought it was worth running into a burning building for.' He rinsed out the rag. She could see that it was spotted with dirt and wondered what her face looked like. He finished,

'Then the building blew, and I saw you go down.'

She felt something cool on her cheeks and realized that she was crying.

'Hey, now,' Jeffrey said, wiping her tears. 'You're okay.'

Emotions came rushing in. Sara didn't give a damn about herself. 'I just… you went into that building, and then the next thing I saw… I thought you were…'

He gave her a curious smile, as if she was overreacting. 'Come on, babe. I'm fine.'

She touched his face, tried to keep her hands from shaking. Sara knew that Jeffrey was attracted to her toughness, her independence. She couldn't be that person right now, couldn't let him think for a moment that she could survive without him. 'I don't know what I would do if something happened to you.'

'Come on.' He tried to make a joke of it. 'You'd have a line of guys waiting to take my place.'

Sara shook her head, unable to play along. 'Don't say that.'

'Maybe Nick Shelton would finally get his shot. Y'all could get matching necklaces.'

She kissed him, feeling grit on his lips. Sara didn't care. She opened her mouth to him, wrapped her arms around his shoulders, her legs around his hips, pulling him as close as possible. She wanted to feel every part of his body, to know that he still belonged to her. Something frantic took hold, and she tore the neck of his shirt trying to take it off.

'Hey-' He pulled back, that same curious smile on his face. 'We're okay, all right? We're fine.'

We, he had said, but that had never been her concern. She could see right through him – that his smile didn't really reach his eyes, that he was talking too fast, that he was worried about something – too worried to tell her about it. She touched the tips of her fingers to his lips, let them travel down his neck, his chest. When she scratched her fingernails down the front of his jeans, he finally stopped smiling.

'Don't ever leave me,' she told him, unbuttoning his jeans, opening the fly. It sounded like a threat, but she was speaking out of sheer terror at the thought of her life without him. 'Don't ever leave.'

He was ready even before she wrapped her hand around him. His tongue went deep into her mouth as he kissed her, long, firm strokes that matched her own. Sara kissed back harder, used both hands to tease him until he jerked down her pants and spread her legs apart. She slid to the edge of the counter, putting her full weight onto him as he pushed inside of her. Again he tried to slow her down, but she gripped the counter with one hand and thrust against him, quickening his pace.

'Fuck…' he breathed, slamming her back against the mirror, kissing and biting her neck. She felt his teeth graze her breast, his hands gripping her ass as he pushed harder, deeper. Sara dug her fingernails into his back, knowing how close he was, wanting nothing more than for him to let go.

'You feel so good,' she whispered putting her lips to his ear, letting him feel her breath. 'So good…' She kept talking, coaxing him along with the words she knew would push him over the edge.

He gasped, the muscles along his back tensing like wire. Sara squeezed her eyes closed, focusing everything on the warm flowering at her center as his body shook with release. He slowed his pace and this time she let him, relishing each stroke, wishing she could hold him in forever.

He shuddered again as he finished, falling against her, his hands gripping the counter as if he needed help standing. She traced her fingernails lightly up and down his back. His skin was hot and sticky but still she wanted to feel every part of it. Sara kissed his shoulder, his neck, his face.

'Jesus,' he panted. 'I'm sorry I couldn't…' He shook his head. 'Jesus.'

Sara put her mouth to his, gave him a soft kiss. She could count on one hand the number of times Jeffrey had let himself finish before she did. She could also honestly say she had never felt closer to him in her life.

He was smiling again, that half-smile that could infuriate her and make her love him at the same time. 'I bet you Nick couldn't do that.'

She leaned her head back against the mirror, still not ready to make a game of this.

'You know what they say about short guys overcompensating.'

She looked at him, saw that he needed her to play along. 'Give me a little credit,' she relented. 'I think I can do better than Nick.'

He smoothed back her hair. 'Do you know that I have loved you pretty much since the first time I laid eyes on you?'

She laughed. 'You had a hot date lined up the very same night.'

'I did not.'

She poked him in the ribs. 'You had to call her to tell her you'd be late.'

He brushed his lips across hers. 'I love you, Sara.'

She felt her throat tighten. She gave him her usual answer, her joking answer that had driven him crazy the first year they were together because she would never say the words back to him. 'I know.'

'You know what else?' he asked, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. 'You are a dirty, dirty girl.' Sara felt herself blush crimson and he laughed out loud. 'That, too, but I meant literally. Look in the mirror.'

She turned and checked her reflection. He'd managed to wipe off most of the dirt from her face but she still looked as if she'd been hit by a truck.

He said, 'I have to be honest. I don't like what you've done with your hair.'

She turned back around. 'You're not exactly the prize pig at the fair.'

'Then why don't we finish this in the shower?' He glanced down, ran his hands up her thighs. 'Or did you want to give me a chance to redeem myself right now?'

'You think you remember how?'

They both jumped as a loud banging shook the door.

Sara slid off the counter, pulling up her sweatpants and closing her shirt in one swift motion. Her heart was pounding like she was eighteen years old again, caught in the back of a Buick with a boy instead of an old married woman who had every right to be in a cheap motel with her husband.

There was more pounding on the door, almost like a hammer. Light streamed in at the top where the flimsy plywood bent from the impact. The plate glass window overlooking the parking lot made an ominous creaking sound.

Sara buttoned her shirt as Jeffrey tucked himself back into his jeans. 'If that's Jake Valentine,' he began, but didn't have time to finish his sentence. The window shattered, glass flying into the room, curtains billowing as a large object smashed onto the plastic table then fell to the floor.

Jeffrey had dropped to his knees, his arms covering his head. 'What the-'

Wheels screeched on asphalt outside.

Sara's mouth opened in surprise. The object was a man. Someone had just thrown a man through their window.