Meant for Her by Amy Gamet

insult to injury, pointing out what she should never have forgotten.
    Hank Jared was not someone she could trust.
    Julie stood and turned the hot water on full force as she began to undress. She resented the fact that she was stuck here, pretending to be someone she wasn’t just to stay one step ahead of a nameless, faceless enemy. As the water sluiced over her skin, she shivered in spite of the heat. Her mind was full of images—a burned out hotel room, the window seat at Gwen’s house, a rusty red generator and footprints in the snow.
    She thought of the message from the safe deposit box as she let the water run down her bent head and shoulders. Her quick cryptanalysis in the car had begun to awaken memories of processes long since forgotten. She knew and understood every class of cipher ever popularized, from simple substitution and Masonics to the latest in computer generated random keys and transport layer security. Her mind played the options like notes on a score, trying different combinations and looking for patterns that would confirm or deny their collusion.
    Grabbing a bar of sweet-smelling soap, she began to wash away the experience of the day while her mind raced through secret codes and memories. Something was bothering her about the message, interfering with her thoughts like a car parked in the middle of a freeway. There was a familiarity about the cipher that eluded her, ringing the faintest of bells in her jangled memory.
    Frustrated with herself, she tried to stop focusing on it, hoping it would gather itself together in her subconscious and emerge as a coherent whole if she left it alone.
    Julie turned off the water and opened the shower curtain, gazing through the steam at the bathroom door with annoyance. It was going to be a long night with Hank sleeping on the floor just feet from her bed. The thought of him in such close proximity made her pulse pick up, and she cursed her own attraction to the man.
    She dried her hair with the towel before wrapping it around her torso. The pajamas she’d frantically been searching for earlier were now clearly visible at the top of her duffle bag.
    That figures.
    An old favorite, they were knit of soft green cotton, with a boxy tee and wide pants that were about as alluring as a potato sack.
    “Thank God for ugly pajamas,” she said to herself.
    The bedroom was dark when she emerged, with just a small nightlight in the bathroom behind her to light the way. Maybe he was already asleep. She stood still, waiting for her eyes to adjust to the inky blackness.
    “I’m on the floor, between the bathroom and the bed. Don’t step on me.”
    She could just make out the bed posts and began walking toward them in the darkness. Three steps in, she kicked something solid.
    “Ouch!”
    “Sorry!”
    “Seriously? Because I didn’t tell you exactly where I was?”
    “I said I’m sorry.”
    “Well then, I guess it didn’t hurt.”
    “Oh please, you’re fine.”
    “You just kicked me.”
    “What are you, a baby? Because you’re carrying on like one.”
    She heard him stand up in front of her. “You’re calling me names, now?”
    “If the shoe fits…” she was startled when he pulled her against him.
    “Shut up, Julie,” he said, kissing her roughly. She pushed against him half-heartedly, even as her mouth responded to his and kissed him back passionately. His hand slipped beneath her top to caress the bare skin of her back.
     ~~~
    He hadn’t meant to kiss her.
    She had been playing games with him, flirting and retreating, and Hank didn’t like games. While she was in the bathroom, he made the decision to keep their relationship professional. He had no intention of jeopardizing his career for Julie Trueblood.
    That was, until she opened the bathroom door and he saw her body silhouetted in the light of the doorway, the thin fabric of her pajamas teasing him like the sexiest lingerie.
    His body’s response had been instantaneous.
    This woman made him feel