Chapter 9
As we pulled into the parking lot of Cary's apartment, all I could think about was getting home to shower and change into regular clothes not covered in dirt and paint splatters. Well, that and Cary's spectacular kill streak. And her boobs against her sports bra and flat tummy. And my sudden realization that my feelings for her might be real love.
"Awesome day," I said, to cover my stunned distraction.
Cary nodded, beaming. As she stepped out of the car, she jerked to a stop and frowned.
"What is it?" I asked. Had she seen something in my face that gave my inner turmoil away?
"I thought just I saw Eric's car leaving through the back exit," she said. I felt my muscles tense involuntarily--instinctively. Man, I hated that guy.
"You want to get back in the car?" I asked, my protector mode activated. "We can go somewhere else."
"No, wait. Come in," Cary said, as I was about to put the car back in drive. "If I'm right, we're about to see how Eric reacted to my photos. I want you with me if that's the case. I have a little bit of a surprise in store."
Wary, curious, and now mildly horny, I turned off my car and locked it behind me. We walked up the stairs to her apartment. There wasn't much to see through the baggy seat of her surplus army camo trousers, but I watched her butt as we went up anyway. As we ascended, I ran through half a dozen scenarios in my head. What was she planning? What if her dirtbag husband was there, jealous and armed?
As she opened the door to her building and led the way down the hall, it occurred to me that she probably had these concerns every time she came back. It made me both sick at heart for her and impressed by her grit. We reached her apartment, and she made "shush" and "wait there" motions at me.
I leaned back against the wall as she slowly and silently unlocked her door and made her way into the apartment, clearly tiptoeing and working to make as little noise as possible. I kept an eye on her as she progressed, as tense as I had been waiting to "kill" opponents during paintball. In my head, I was already running through various scenarios in which I would leap into action to save her if there was trouble.
She froze, shoulders hunched, and then leaned forward to look at something. I couldn't tell from my position what she was trying to see. Just as I started to move away from the wall, she quietly backed out of the apartment. If I had had hackles, they would have been standing straight up. As it was, I had goosebumps.
Cary slowly and silently pulled her apartment door closed and inspected it. Clearly seeing something important, she waved me over. I tiptoed up and looked at where she was pointing. Up at the corner of her door were two pieces of clear tape. I would have missed them entirely if she hadn't pointed them out to me. Cary peeled them both off, pulled a broken strand of hair from each, and then quickly yanked one of her own hairs from her head, taping it on either side of the door frame.
"Back to the car," she whispered. "We're about to do something naughty that will really get him angry." She looked both excited and nervous.
My dick almost fractured itself by the speed of the boner I got. Luckily, the baggy, tough material of the camo trousers hid it from view. I led the way back to the door. Cary stopped to check her mail and smirked knowingly. We climbed silently into the car, and I found myself breathing normally again. I didn't even realize I had been holding my breath.
"What the fuck?" I asked.
Cary shook her head and showed me an announcement from the superintendent.
Painters will be working on balcony railings this afternoon.
"Eric," she muttered. "He has a friend who runs a house painting business. I half-expected something like this. I honestly thought he might try to break into my apartment."
"What did you see? Besides the tape on the door?" I asked. "Was he
in
there?"
"No," Cary shook her head. Now that we were back in my car, she was flushed. "Let's go get Frosties. Remember, you're buying." I backed out of the parking space and started heading towards Wendy's. "Eric has always thought he was terribly clever. When we first got married, he only ever read spy novels. John LeCarre, Len Deighton... you know the type." I nodded as if I did. "Anyway, he picked up some 'tricks' from his spy books that he thought made him very sneaky."
I almost laughed. "The guy who got caught having four affairs and thought that an unlocked storage room fifty feet away was private thinks he's James Bond?"
"In more ways than one," Cary scowled. "He's done the tape on the door trick before, when he was trying to figure out if
I
was spying on
him
. It was during his second affair. I think he got his painter friend to let him come work for the day, and has been trying to get a look into my apartment. They must have gone on break, so he left a mini tape recorder running outside of my bedroom window."
"Jesus Christ, what a creep," I muttered in exasperation.
"I'm going to make a phone call or two from the phone outside of Wendy's." Cary looked slightly anxious. "And then we're going to go back and make some noise."
My heart was pounding as I ordered us Frosties and fries--for dipping. My feelings for her were a confused muddle--concern and protectiveness and horniness all swirling together. After several moments, Cary returned and sat down with a plop next to me. She took a deep breath. "Okay. Here's the plan. I asked Cameron to meet us here."
"Really?" My eyebrows shot up. "But he's such a douche!"
Cary snorted a short laugh. "Yeah, he is. But that's what we need. Here's what we're going to do. Eric thinks he's going to catch me in the act. The tape was about halfway through, so that means he was there only twenty minutes before. We're going to give him time to go back and flip the tape and start recording on the other side."
"What if he just takes it?" I asked.
"Then he gets a tape with forty minutes of nothing on one side," she shrugged. "But I don't think so. I think he'll come back and try again. He's tenacious. When he wants something... " she trailed off and frowned fiercely. "Anyway, that gives us time to get things worked out." She blushed, took a deep breath, and put her shoulders back. "I want you to come in and make sex noises with me," she said in her most businesslike manner.
I almost choked. It didn't take me entirely by surprise, but hearing her say it out loud got my heart racing again. And it certainly didn't help in trying to sort through my newly-recognized feelings for her. Trying to sound calm, I replied, "Is this what you asked Cameron to do, too?"
"Yes," she answered coolly. "I bet he knows how, and he made his interest pretty clear at the paintball match. I need two voices--remember, my pictures show two guys, and the note said one of them wasn't from the States."
As if I didn't remember every detail of her phony infidelity story.