Polished Slick (Natural Beauty) by Holley Trent

prescribe to me what a room should be used for. I don’t necessarily need a dining room at this stage in my life, but that doesn’t mean when I’m forty my wife won’t want one.”
    “I didn’t think you were the marriage type.”
    “Sure I am. I have nothing at all against the institution, I just…” Why am I having this conversation?
    “You just what?”
    “I only want to do it once , you know?”
    A slow, sly grin spanned her face.
    “What’s that look for?”
    “Nothing. So, if none of these houses work, what’s your back-up plan?”
    “Smart girl. May I?” He pointed to the computer.
    “Sure.” She put her hands on the armrests to stand, but gently, he pressed her back down by the shoulders. He leaned over the back of the chair, draping his arms across her shoulders to access the keyboard.
    Her delicate breaths tickled the fine hairs on his arm when she turned her head a bit to the right to assess the intrusion into her personal space. Her cheek skimmed his forearm, imparting warmth, then a tickle when she whipped her head forward once more.
    So tentative. She behaved as if a man had never touched her.
    Maybe she hasn’t been. That would explain a lot.
    He filed her reaction away to the back of his mind, and navigated to the tax assessor’s record for the distressed property he’d discussed with Lynn. “What do you think?” His face was just behind Trinity’s head, his lips near her right ear.
    “Um.”
    He would swear he felt her face heating.
    “It’s…a dump.”
    “At least you’re honest.” He laughed and stood erect, moving away from the back of the desk chair. He walked over to his bookcase and idly straightened the oversized atlases that were falling over. “And you’re probably right,” he said when he turned around. “Haven’t seen the inside. The house being habitable would be a bonus, but I’m really more interested in the land.”
    “Why? Gonna take up farming?” She closed the tab and cued the live video feed back up.
    “Funny. No. It doesn’t have a lot of trees on it, so the rooms would get great light. It’s flat terrain, lots of it. Not too prone to flooding, either. So, even if I decided to build something from scratch, I wouldn’t have to do too much rehab of the land itself.”
    “You’d actually build a house? Just for you?”
    “Yeah. Just like how I said I only want to do the marriage thing once? Well, once I move, I ain’t moving again, hon. Huge pain in the ass, so I want this house to be absolutely right.”
    “Oh.”
    “Hopefully nobody tries to bid me up too high. The auction is Tuesday when we’re supposed to be doing the nail polish shoots. I’m leaving my real estate agent in charge, so hopefully she can swing it.”
    “Trust her?”
    “Barely,” he said, giving her a real smile for a change, because she seemed genuinely interested. She was actually asking questions and not trying to divert him. “She’s an idiot in most things, but she knows real estate. Hopefully things will shake out the way they should.”
    “Good luck.”
    He studied Trinity’s face for evidence of sarcasm to go with those words, but there was none there. Her expression was relaxed. Tired, even.
    No, she wasn’t cute. She was pretty when she didn’t have that jaw clenched and those big brown eyes narrowed into slits at him.
    “Thanks.” He strode to the doorway, thinking he’d have that last slice of pizza he’d told Juan didn’t exist and paused there at the threshold. “Say, you know we can hook the laptop up to the television if you really want to watch. Might be more comfortable.”
    She was very still for a long moment, staring at him, then nodded, finally. “Yeah. Okay. You’re probably right. Any pizza left? I’m actually starving.”
    Damn it.
    With Trinity snuggled up into his recliner with the last slice of pizza, he attached all the necessary cords and pushed all the right buttons to make the picture from his laptop show up on the big