Everything to Everyone

by Sherryl Hancock

  “You believe her?”

  “Not as far as I can throw her,” Harley said, shaking her head.

  “I didn’t think so,” Shiloh said, grinning.

  “Okay, so we sleep in here together,” Harley said, looking hesitant again.

  “Will you relax? Sheesh!” Shiloh said, rolling her eyes. “I don’t think I snore or anything,” she added with a grin.

  Harley looked back at her for a long moment, then grinned, shaking her head. “I just don’t want to ask too much here.”

  “I see it this way,” Shiloh said, as she climbed into the bed. She grabbed Harley’s hand and dragged her down on the bed with her. “If she manages to compromise you, you get arrested and I’m out of a job, so…”

  Harley laughed when Shiloh pulled her down on the bed. She lay down on the left side of the bed, then looking over her.

  “So it’s all about you?” Harley asked, grinning.

  “You got it,” Shiloh said, winking at Harley.

  Shiloh looked over at Harley, seeing that Harley had laid down about three feet from her.

  “You think Julie’s gonna believe that I’m your girlfriend if you’re sleeping way over there?” she asked, raising an eyebrow at Harley.

  Harley pursed her lips. “I guess not,” she said, moving closer. She lay on her side, her right arm extended out to the side, her left arm resting on her hip.

  Shiloh moved closer, putting her head in the crook of Harley’s extended arm, her moss-green eyes looking into Harley’s. They both grinned. It was an odd situation they had found themselves in.

  “You know, if you touch me, I probably won’t burst into flames or anything,” Shiloh said. It seemed that Harley was pointedly not doing so.

  “So pushy…” Harley muttered, putting her hand on Shiloh’s waist gingerly. “Is that better?”

  Shiloh moved a little closer, putting only about four inches between their bodies as they faced each other.

  “More convincing, yes,” Shiloh said, nodding.

  They were both silent for a few minutes, then Shiloh looked at Harley again.

  “Why did you do it?” she asked.

  “Do…what?” Harley asked, looking perplexed.

  “The credit card,” Shiloh said, her eyes searching Harley’s. Harley looked hesitant to answer. “And, yes, I called about the balance, before you try to bullshit me.”

  “Oh,” Harley said, her eyes widening slightly. Then she shrugged. “I wanted you to be able to have whatever you want, when you want it.”

  “Do you know how risky that is for you?” Shiloh asked, her tone worried.

  “Why?” Harley asked her look open and sincere.

  Shiloh sighed. “I wouldn’t do anything crazy, but you don’t know who else might… Please tell me you don’t do that for everyone…” Shiloh said, her voice reflecting the troubled look in her eyes.

  Harley smiled softly. “I know you wouldn’t do anything crazy, Shy, that’s why I trust you with that card. And no, I’ve never done that for anyone else.”

  Shiloh drew in a deep breath, nodding, feeling both relieved and her heart swell emotionally at the same time.

  “You are such an amazingly generous, kind person, Harley,” Shiloh said.

  “And I hear a ‘but’ in that statement,” Harley said, grinning.

  “The ‘but’ is that you worry me.”

  “What are you worried about?”

  “That you’ll let the wrong person in and they’ll take advantage of you and you’ll get hurt,” Shiloh said honestly.

  Harley looked back at her, her blue eyes softening at Shiloh’s statement.

  “Well, now I have you here to keep me from getting into too much trouble, right?” she said, grinning.

  “If you’ll actually listen to me,” Shiloh said.

  “Well, there is that,” Harley said, grinning.

  Eventually they fell asleep. At one point during the night, Shiloh heard a click at the door, and knew without a doubt that Julie was looking into the room. She saw the shaft of light from the hallway and moved closer to Harley, sliding her hand up Harley’s arm. Harley was asleep, but responded to Shiloh’s closeness and brought her right arm up to hold her closer, sliding her left hand further around her waist. Shiloh shuddered at the feel of Harley holding her, but did her best to appear asleep to Julie. The door clicked closed a couple of minutes later. Shiloh glanced over her shoulder to insure that Julie had indeed left, she had.

  Laying her head back against the hollow of Harley’s shoulder, Shiloh knew she should move away from Harley at that point. But she really didn’t want to. Harley was still sound asleep, so she really didn’t see any harm in staying where she was. Taking a slow deep breath through her nose, she could smell the cologne Harley wore, and once again Shiloh felt an almost electrical current go through her. She sighed softly and did her best to go back to sleep.

  At one point during the night Shiloh got up to go to the bathroom and when she came back, settled on her side, this time with her back to Harley, but still with Harley’s arm under her neck. She was chastising herself, even as she scooted back closer to Harley. Once again, Harley responded to her proximity and her right arm came up to encircle her shoulders, her left hand slid over her waist. Shiloh fell asleep, doing her best to ignore the thoughts that were swirling around her head, memories of years ago, and of the recent night at The Club.

  Apparently, falling asleep thinking those kinds of thoughts caused dreams she definitely couldn’t squelch. There were thoughts of Harley’s hands and lips on her, touching her, kissing her, and then there were vivid visions of what could have happened in her bedroom all those years ago. In her sleep, Shiloh writhed, her body pressing back against Harley’s. She woke to the sensations of Harley’s hands on her body and it took her a few seconds to realize she was no longer dreaming.

  Harley was still asleep, but her left hand at Shiloh’s waist was pressing her back against Harley’s body sensually. Harley’s right hand was splayed between her breasts, her thumb brushing upward across an extremely hard nipple. Once again, Shiloh knew she should move away, but her body refused to listen to anything her brain had to say. Instead, she lay in Harley’s arms, writhing against the other woman as her body turned into molten liquid, quickly going up in flames. Suddenly she was coming and doing her best not to scream knowing that would wake Harley. Still she was surprised that her gasping and writhing didn’t do that. Apparently, Harley was a heavy sleeper, even when aroused.

  Shiloh lay breathing heavily, astounded by the ease with which a mostly unconscious Harley had brought her to orgasm, when men she’d dated had almost never succeeded after as much as an hour of effort. She was fairly sure she knew why women were hounding Harley now, if this was any indication; the woman was a rock star in bed. Even her kiss years before in her bedroom had set all kinds of sensations off in her body. Apparently, her skills had done nothing but improve with practice.

  Shiloh turned over, looking at Harley as she slept. Her eyes moved over the smooth, tanned skin. She had a very attractive face, especially with her very blue eyes framed by long eyelashes. Her white blond hair fell a couple of inches past her shoulders, cut into layers, with the rainbow colored section extending four inches past the blond. Her ears had multiple piercings, five in each ear, in four of which she usually wore graduated silver hoops, the largest of which was only the size of a nickel. In the fifth piercing, the one highest up on her ear, Harley had a small silver chain with a rainbow feather extended from it at the end.

  Harley Marie Davidson was very much her own person, and very different from anyone Shiloh had ever known. Staring up at her in the dark, Shiloh realized that she had always known that Harley was destined to be part of her life. She still had no idea how, but she also knew now that she was attracted to her, and had always been. It was a rather sobering thought.

  The next morning, Harley woke to the realization that she was holding Shiloh extremely close. She grimaced and tried to extric
ate herself carefully before Shiloh woke up. The last thing she wanted to do was to freak Shiloh out by appearing to come on to her. She was too late, however, because Shiloh looked up at her, her moss-green eyes bright in the morning sunlight coming through the windows above the bed.

  “Good morning,” Harley said, grinning.

  Shiloh smiled softly. “Good morning.”

  Harley gave her a chagrinned look, lifting her hands to indicate their location on Shiloh’s waist and at her back.

  “Sorry about this,” she said. “I guess I’m too much of a creature of habit when there’s a body in bed next to me…” she said, her voice trailing off as she grimaced.

  “It’s okay,” Shiloh said, smiling.

  Harley blew her breath out in relief. “Whew, good,” she said, grinning.

  “Julie did come in during the night,” Shiloh told her.

  “Seriously?” Harley asked.

  “Yeah,” Shiloh said, nodding. “She opened the door, and must have watched us for a few minutes, then I heard the door close again.”

  “Well, hopefully this worked then,” Harley said. “So much for her promise though, huh?”

  “Yeah, you really need to stand firm on her not staying here, Harley.”

  “I know,” Harley said, sounding resolved as she nodded. “Guess we should get ready for work though, huh?”

  “Yep,” Shiloh said, grinning.

  They both got up and started getting ready for work, each of them going to their own bathroom. An hour later when Shiloh got downstairs where Harley stood fixing her coffee, she was stunned.

  Harley was wearing dark jeans that were fashionably tattered in a couple of places, a black tank top with a colorful design on it, and her two-inch heeled Harley Davidson boots. What was surprising was the long black lapelled jacket that fell to her mid-thigh. The sleeves were pushed up her forearms exposing a thick linked silver bracelet on one arm and her thick-banded leather and stud watch on the other. She also wore her usual six silver rings. At her throat, she wore a double-looped black leather tong-style necklace with angel wings dangling from the cord. The most surprising thing was that she also wore makeup, not a lot, but eyeliner and a little bit of mascara that made her blue eyes stand out even more, and a slightly tinted lip gloss that drew Shiloh’s eyes right to her lips. Her hair was down and smooth, and the rainbow section wasn’t in braids for once. It blended with the rest of her hair, the rainbow colors standing out. She looked… hot was the only word Shiloh could think of.

  “What?” Harley grinned, seeing Shiloh’s astounded look.

  “You look…” Shiloh stammered. “Wow…”

  Harley smiled, looking pleased by the sparsely worded compliment. “Thanks.”

  “Is this for that meeting with the AG later? ’Cause she’s straight, you know?” Shiloh said, winking at Harley.

  “And married to a man she’s majorly hot for,” Harley said. “It’s legendary, and I do have a TV you know. No, remember, Roslynn comes in today…”

  “Oh, right,” Shiloh said, not believing she’d actually managed to forget that. She wondered remotely if she’d blocked out the thought. “Well, now I’m feeling jealous,” she said, her grin wry, even as her mind said, touch of truth to everything. A thought she quickly tamped down on.

  “Why?” Harley asked her look amused.

  “’Cause you don’t dress up like that for me,” Shiloh said, winking at Harley.

  “Stop being straight, we’ll talk,” Harley responded jokingly.

  “One never does know,” Shiloh replied, her tone teasing.

  “Ohhh…” Harley said, grinning.

  “Holy fucking shit!” Julie said as she walked into the kitchen her eyes on Harley instantly. “Harl, you look hot!”

  Harley laughed, shaking her head. “Well, at least it’s unanimous, but you two are starting to make me feel nervous, Jesus…” she said blowing her breath out slowly.

  ***

  Dakota had gone back to work three days after her accident. She’d recovered quickly. She still had a couple of nasty bruises, one of which was on her shoulder where she’d collided with the railing on the stairs, but she felt better. Cassandra didn’t show up to the site for a few days, and Dakota took it as a sign that she was done making a play for her attention.

  A week later, Dakota was sitting in bed on her iPad with Jazmine next to her reading a book. Dakota’s phone rang. She put her Bluetooth in as she continued to scroll through the pictures she was perusing for ideas.

  “Yo?” Dakota answered her phone.

  Jazmine could only hear Dakota’s end of the conversation, but she knew who it was immediately.

  “Hey,” Dakota said, grinning. “Yeah, I’m looking right now… What were you thinking? You what? No… Cass, you can’t… Are you kidding me right now? No, that… no…” She chuckled. “Why would you do that?” she asked, her tone exasperated. “I know, but… No, just because they call them that… They’re not… Cass, they’re not… I’m not bullshitting you. I’ll show you… No… I refuse, you can’t make me.” She said the last teasingly. She laughed then, and Jazmine felt her ire rise instantly, but she did her best to hide it.

  The conversation continued and Jazmine had to finally get up and leave the room to keep from making a nasty comment. Dakota found her sitting in the living room twenty minutes later.

  “What’s up, babe?” Dakota asked, sitting next to her on the couch.

  “She’s calling you on your off time now?” Jazmine asked.

  “I get calls from the home owners all the time, babe,” Dakota said, her look pointed.

  “Yeah, well, she knows how I feel about her… So…” Jazmine said.

  “Babe…” Dakota said her tone entreating.

  “I know, I know,” Jazmine said, grimacing. “But it just bugs me when I hear you laugh at something she said… You should hate her guts like I do…”

  Dakota wet her lips, scraping her teeth over her lower lip.

  “I don’t have time for that,” she said evenly. “I’m doing a job, it’s not personal, Jaz.”

  “Her coming on to you is personal, Dakota.”

  “She wasn’t coming on to me, babe, she was talking about putting blinds up over the stained glass we just installed. It was ridiculous and I told her that.”

  “She’s always coming on to you, Dakota. She’s just trying to romance you now.”

  “Oh God, seriously babe?” Dakota asked.

  “Yes, damnit!” Jazmine exclaimed angrily.

  Dakota dropped her head back against the couch, shaking it. “I don’t know what else I can do here, Jaz… I’m seriously in on this project… If I quit it now we’re gonna lose a lot and my business’ll take a major hit…”

  Jazmine pressed her lips together, swallowing convulsively as she nodded.

  “Jazmine,” Dakota said, sitting up and taking Jazmine’s hands in hers. “Babe, I’ll quit if you really want me to, but I’m telling you, we won’t be doing any expanding of the studio if I do… We’ll lose a serious chunk of change at this point.”

  “How much?” Jazmine asked almost instantly.

  Dakota blew her breath out, doing some quick calculations in her head. “About a hundred and fifty kay.”

  “That much?” Jazmine asked, stunned.

  “Yeah, I had to front the equipment rentals and the materials babe, the same as any other job, but the materials for this job were insane…”

  “That’s it, that’s what she’s doing…” Jazmine said, her tone strident.

  “What babe?” Dakota said her tone annoyed.

  “She’s trying to ruin you, so she has a hold over you again…”

  “Oh Holy hell, seriously, Jaz?” Dakota said, her tone telling Jazmine she thought she was crazy.

  “You don’t think she’d do that?” Jazmine asked.

  “I think everyone will do something at some point, but what you’re not hearing is that it wouldn’t ruin me, it would fuck me business-wise for a wh
ile, but that’s it.”

  “She’s up to something, Dakota, damnit!” Jazmine exclaimed.

  Dakota looked back at the woman she loved and really wasn’t sure what else she could do or say at that point. She reached out, putting her hand behind Jazmine’s neck and pulled her to her, to kiss her deeply. Minutes later, she was making love to Jazmine, reminding her with her body exactly who she wanted. Afterwards they lay on the couch, both of them trying to catch their breath. Dakota lay next to her, her hand still on Jazmine’s skin.

  “I love you…” Dakota whispered next to Jazmine’s ear. “Only you, only ever you.”

  ***

  Harley was driving to work that morning and the stereo was on as usual. As one song ended and another started, Harley started nodding, glancing over at Shiloh.

  “A while back you asked which song I think is most me,” she said. “Well there are a few of them, but I’d have to say this is the best one right now.”

  “Okay,” Shiloh said, nodding. She turned up the volume so she could hear the words. The song was “I Am an Illusion” by Rob Thomas.

  As the song ended, Shiloh turned the stereo down and looked over at Harley.

  “You think that song fits you?” she asked.

  “I think a lot of it does, yeah,” Harley said, grimacing.

  Shiloh blinked a couple of times, then pursed her lips.

  “Okay, let’s look at it,” she said. She pulled out her phone and looked up the lyrics. “ ‘The confusion running around your head’… Is that the ADHD?”

  Harley nodded, grinning at Shiloh’s thoroughness.

  “ ‘Take back my unkind words’… Harley you almost never speak unkindly,” Shiloh said, but then she nodded, “so, if you did, you’d feel bad… I see… Okay, now this next set… talks about you being the place where things go bad? What do you mean by that? In relationships?”

  Harley drew in a breath and blew it out, nodding.

  “What makes you think it’s your fault the relationships fail?” Shiloh asked, her look sharper than she meant it, but she didn’t like Harley taking on all the responsibility for that.