"No, I think I'm done for the day," Heather said. "But thank you forasking." She drove them home with a combination of elation andenlightenment, feeli...g very much like she had unlocked something in bothher children and herself."Oh, hey, Mom, do you want me to pay for some of that stuff you bought?"Richard asked after walking in the front door."Richard, everything we did today was my gifts to the two of you. Icertainly don't expect you to pay me back for any of it. The only thing Iwant in return. She closed her eyes and bit her lower lip. I kneeled next to her and grabbed an ice cube. She looked up at me and swallowed hard. I licked my lips and slowly rubbed the ice cube across them. The ice began to melt as it traded its cold for the heat from my lips. A droplet of water ran down the whiskers on my chin and landed on her cheek. I rubbed the ice cube over my lips, till the cold began to burn them. I threw the ice cube back in the bowl. The loud metallic clang startled her. I lowered my. He didn't disappoint her either.It was easy to see what Daryl was thinking. The frown on his face said it all. Cricket, on the other hand, had an almost evil smirk on his face. There was no telling what was going on in his mind behind that smirk, and Sheryl was just glad to be away from there."Didn't you hear me when I said I didn't want to go over there?" asked Sheryl, as soon as Shawn had driven his car back out onto the street."No, I didn't hear ya askin' nothing."Sheryl could see the. " She smiled, took a sip of her martini and looked into my eyes, "like you." "What do you mean like me?" I asked, finding our conversation adding to the heat of what we were feeling, wanting to see if our honest words would take us where we wanted to go. "I saw how you looked at me when I came in and knew you wanted to fuck me and I said to myself, "jackpot." "Jackpot?" I repeated, chuckling."Yeah. I knew I was going to score—get what I was looking for." Is that so," I said, glancing at the.