That night, she refused to let Tommymake love to her, saying she didn’t appreciate his getting heatedup by looking at another woman all evening ...nd then taking it outon her. That settled it for Tommy Singleton. If he was going to stick out this marriage until Linda gotover some of her sexual hang-ups, he was going to have to releasehis tensions elsewhere. By the time he was falling into atroubled sleep beside the softly breathing warmth of Linda’s body,it was all he could do. Let's do this." Who died and made you manager?" Melinda snickered. Reaching under the table, Chuck squeezed her thigh in appreciation. The mustached manager just shook his head."The last person to make that joke. Now," he said, turning to the two squirrels standing beside him, "first, thank you for letting us put this off till today. You arrived at ... well, an inconvenient time."That was putting it mildly. The stupid ship had shown up, unannounced, as they were having Remembrance Eve dinner,. I...” he cleared his throat. “Tara, I don’t want to scare you off, and I was hoping that we could try to give us another chance.” He had never wanted anything as much as he wanted a second chance with her. “I never really got over you.” She looked into his eyes and could feel the wetness in her panties, her sex throbbing too. “Pete, when you left me, I thought you’d come right back. And you probably would have, but I got involved with Shawn’s dad, and when I got pregnant...” she stopped there. I did nothing to stop him. I suddenly felt aware of this man, this stranger, scrutinizing my body, yet I did not feel embarrassed or vulnerable. I was enjoying it. It had been many years since anyone looked at me with desire, and I had forgotten how good it felt. What had been damp was in danger of running down my thighs. He took two handfuls of ice, and smothered them onto my naked shoulders. It made me gasp. Slowly he rubbed his hands down my back. I started to shiver and tingle, though not.