Close Up. Erin McCarthy

between her legs. It was like performance art or yoga for perverts, and she was enjoying it far too much.

      He stood up again, so that she rested on his shoulders, his head bent forward. “Okay, sit up before you snap my neck.”

      Kristine sat up, freeing her chest, and clamping her thighs onto the sides of his head to give her a sense of stability. “Is this doomed to failure?” she asked, eyeing the window and doubting her ability to haul herself through it without injury or death. It was possibly the only thing that could distract her from the fact she perched on Sean’s shoulders with his hair tickling her bare midriff.

      “Don’t be so quick to throw in the towel,” he said, turning them both sideways so she could access the ledge without him in the way.

      Something about his tone made her realize he was not just talking about the window. It made her determined to show Sean she wasn’t a quitter, that for once she could follow up and do something right, that she wasn’t like her mother, with a new project to back and then abandon every other week.

      So she got a better grip and hauled herself the rest of the way up onto the ledge, the window frame cutting into her gut. When her head was completely out of the window and she was staring down at concrete, she let out a squawk. “I’m going to fall!”

      Sean’s hands firmly gripped her thighs. “Pull your head back! You have to get your leg over the ledge. You can’t go headfirst.”

      Good point. She pulled herself back and tried to sit up. This was a lot of work and she didn’t have the core strength to do it. Maybe she should start Pilates. Then again, why would she ever need to climb through a window again? She had a record of not setting foot in a gym in five years; it would be a shame to break that impressive streak.

      But with Sean shoving and her hauling, she managed to get her leg up and over the frame so she was straddling the ledge, one leg inside, one outside. Good thing the window was full sized or this would have never worked. Even so, she was hunched over, and her perch wasn’t exactly comfortable. She rocked back and forth. “I think I’m breaking vital parts.”

      “Well, we definitely don’t want that.” Without warning, Sean’s hand slid between her legs and under her booty, while his thumb rested quite comfortably on her clitoris.

      Kristine screamed and almost fell out the window.