Table of Contents
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Erasing the Lines
About KD Williamson
Other Books from Ylva Publishing
Blurred Lines
Crossing the Lines
Between the Lines
Drawing the Line
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Other Books by KD Williamson
Pink
Cops and Docs
Blurred Lines
Crossing Lines
Between the Lines
Drawing the Lines
Dedication
As always, to my wife, Michelle.
Acknowledgments
As requested, here’s a little bit more of Kelli and Nora.
Erasing the Lines
A Kelli and Nora short story
Detective Kelli McCabe leaned to the side to get a better look at the line of people in front of them. She didn’t bother glancing behind her. Those dumbasses didn’t matter. “Fuck, I think we’ve moved less than a centimeter.”
Gerald Travis shrugged. “Mmm, well, I told you we should’ve called ahead. We don’t usually come here around this time.”
The Dirty Cat, one of the best food trucks in Seattle, had gotten even more popular over the past year and a half. It seemed as if everyone wanted their tacos. “You do know that wouldn’t have made much of a difference?” Kelli glared at her partner and waited for him to say something else stupid or smartassy.
“Bullshit. He knows us. We coulda walked straight up to the window and picked it up.” Travis crossed his arms. “We might have to Taco Bell it. We don’t have a lot of time.”
“Oh, hell no. Definitely not.” Kelli pulled on the lanyard around her neck to make sure her detective shield was visible and adjusted her jacket accordingly. She grabbed Travis’s arm and pushed her way through the line. “C’mon.”
“What are you doing?”
“Using your idea. We’re moving up.”
People around them grumbled, but she held up her shield, hoping to keep shitty attitudes under wraps. It worked.
“Just like a damn cop abusing their power,” someone called out.
Well, her plan almost worked. At least it got them past the middle part of the line. Kelli bit the inside of her cheek to keep from responding.
Travis sighed and ran a hand over his bald head. It was pretty much a new look for him, and it went well with his baby smooth face. No matter what he thought, Travis didn't look like a younger version of Kojak. If Travis’s skin had been a lighter brown, then maybe.
“Don’t they have crimes to stop or something?” the man behind them yelled.
Exactly. They did have crimes to solve, so he could just fuck right off and cut them a little slack.
“This is your tax money at work, everybody!”
People in front of them glanced at them.
“Goddammit, McCabe. You’re about to start a riot over tacos,” Travis muttered, a grin curling his lips.
She smiled back at him. “Probably.”
Someone tapped Kelli on the back. She turned around, meeting one of the disgruntled people face-to-face. He should have chosen Travis. Sunshine usually came out of his ass, and Kelli sure as hell wasn’t in the mood.
The man’s eyes widened. “Uhhh.”
The grumbles from behind him grew louder. The man took a step closer as if he drew energy from the crowd. “You cut in front of me.”
“Yeah, I did.” Kelli was very matter of fact.
“Well, you can’t just ignore me.”
“I heard every word you said, and I gotta tell you it’s just tacos. So get over yourself.”
The man’s face reddened. Kelli didn’t wait to see if he had anything else to say. She turned back to her stolen place in line.
Travis laughed. “Damn, woman. Look at you. Always making friends and influencing people.”
Kelli shot him the finger.
“Use your words, McCabe.”
“Okay, then. Fuck you.” She smiled.
“That’s better.”
Kelli rolled her eyes.
“So what’s making you surlier? The stakeout we have to do? Because I gotta remind you, it’s our case. He robbed and killed an old lady for fuck’s sake. I don’t want a couple uniforms busting it wide open. We need to get there and claim what’s ours. Or is the attitude more about Nora being out of town?”
Kelli had no doubt that their asshole shooter would show up at his ex-girlfriend’s house. She was lying about what she knew; that much was obvious. Still, Travis just had to bring Nora up. She hadn’t thought about her in a whole five minutes, which had all passed while she moved them closer to heaven in the form of carnitas tacos. Kelli glanced at him. “What do you think?”
“I think I can’t wait for her to come back so your ass will be normal. But I can hang on for another forty-eight hours.”
“Yeah, don’t remind me.” Two days. Two more fucking days. Kelli wasn’t sure that she could last that long, but it wasn’t as if she had a choice. Nora was in goddamn California. Part of Kelli was proud of Nora for branching out. As a surgeon, Nora had never been to a medical conference before. Change had painted them both, just with different brushes. Nora’s horizons had broadened, whereas Kelli’s edges had softened. Minutely, anyway. All the irritation that had taken hold of her fizzled out. She missed Nora big time, and for the moment, there wasn’t room for anything else. Two more days might as well have been two weeks. They talked, texted, and used just about every other fucking digital device or program to close the distance, but it wasn’t anywhere near enough. Hell, even Phineas, Nora’s pet kune kune, was acting funny. He wasn’t being as social, and that was saying a lot for a two-hundred-pound pig with fur.
The line had thinned out somewhat in the past few minutes, leaving only two people ahead of them.
“Still going to see Tony this weekend?”
Kelli stared at Travis. She definitely didn’t want to think about her dunderheaded younger brother spending the next decade in prison. Maybe while he was inside, his drug addiction would get better, not worse. “Was that your idea of a subject change?”
Travis shrugged. “We could talk about who Sean’s fucking.”
She cringed. “Uck, no.”
He laughed. “He’s your brother. You should care. Never know. She might be special.”
“Uh-huh.”
They stepped forward.
“Travis and McCabe! Why didn’t you just call ahead? I would’ve done a pick up for you guys.” Julio smiled at them.
Kelli met Travis’s gaze. He pressed his lips together, closed his eyes, and shook his head.
“Use your words, Gerald.”
Instead, he gave her the finger.
* * *
Kelli wrestled out of her jacket and threw it in the backseat. She licked a napkin and then rubbed it against her T-shirt, trying to get habanero sauce off the material before it stained. The shit was hot enough to burn a hole in concrete. She was surprised that her chest wasn’t smoking.
“Good thing you weren’t wearing a pantsuit,” Travis said from the driver’s seat.
“No point in being well dressed for a stakeout.” The guy they were looking for was a first-time killer and lifelong thief. The amount of evidence he left at the crime scene could have been seen from space. So that made him stupid too.
“Hmm, I don’t know, sometimes the cut of those suits makes you look intimidating as hell.”
“Whatever,” Kelli snorted. Clothes could make the woman, but her favorite thing? The way Nora looked at her when she walked into the kitchen dressed for
work. Oftentimes that look sent them right back into the bedroom or, hell, even on top of the counter. A scalding heat churned in Kelli’s stomach and seeped its way outward. Had it only been a week since Kelli had touched her? Jesus Christ, Nora brought out the horndog in her, and right now, that dog was starting to pant.
The phone calls, FaceTime, and Skype sessions were filled with a lot more than talking. Kelli bit her lip to keep from smiling. Nora was by no means a prude, but Kelli had no idea her freak flag flew that high. For lack of a better word, Nora was shameless, displaying and touching herself in ways that left Kelli’s head spinning. The thought wrenched her stomach into pleasurable knots and made her sex clench. Kelli pressed her legs together to ease the growing tension.
Travis burped.
Kelli turned sharply to look at him in the semidarkness. Hell, she almost forgot she wasn’t alone. Talk about potent.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“Uh-huh.”
On top of the dashboard, Kelli’s phone vibrated and lit up. She reached for it, and the pressure between her thighs jumped up several notches. Thank goodness it wasn’t a request for FaceTime. Kelli had no idea which part of Nora’s body would greet her. “Hey, you in for the night?”
“Yes, although I do believe I disappointed several colleagues by not attending the dinner party.”
“Uh, you mean disappointed as in they were—”
“Propositioning me, yes.”
“That’s kinda hot,” Kelli whispered. She glanced at Travis because she felt his smirk. He looked straight at her.
“Good thing I brought earphones. Tell Nora hi for me.” He pressed the earbuds in.
Kelli cleared her throat. “Travis says—”
“I heard him. Now, what’s hot about it?” Nora sounded confused but curious as well.
Shifting gears again wasn’t hard given the way Kelli’s body simmered. “That they want you and can’t have you.”
“No, they can’t.” Nora’s tone was forceful, and it did something to Kelli’s insides.
Two days. Two more fucking days. Kelli’s mind scattered a bit, so she expressed the first thought that was clear. “You order something fancy from room service?”
“I’m not hungry, and you’re changing the subject.” Nora’s voice deepened.
“Didn’t mean to. Maybe part of me is trying to keep the conversation PG.” Kelli licked her lips. She was on the job after all, and it needed to stay that way.
“What if I don’t want it to be?”
Kelli sucked in a surprised breath and cut her gaze toward Travis. He bobbed his head to music turned up a lot louder on his cell phone than it needed to be. “I say I should probably give you what you want then.” On the inside, Kelli cringed. What the hell was she doing? Going through with this phone call was far from the smartest thing to do.
“Good. I take that to mean that Travis is occupied?”
“Sounds like he’s listening to the Foo Figh—"
“I don’t care if it’s La Bohème.”
Damn. That statement was way sexier than it had any right to be. No, Kelli wasn't being smart at all, but she was going to do it anyway. The apprehension prickling in Kelli's gut hiked up her excitement, and judging by the desperation in Nora's voice, this wasn't going to take long. Thank goodness she wasn't alone. Kelli had to believe she'd make a better choice otherwise.
“My sex drive has always been rather high, but with you, no matter how many times you’re inside me…no matter how deep or hard, I want more,” Nora continued, her voice low and seductive in a way that pulled Kelli in further.
While a section of Kelli’s brain overloaded, other parts of her stood up and applauded. “Jesus, Nora.”
“Every time I masturbated this week with you, for you, I still woke up in the middle of the night wanting more.” Nora’s tone was thick and her breathing ragged.
“Why didn’t you call me?”
“It’s not the real thing, is it? The way you feel, smell, taste…”
“God, I know what you mean.” Kelli groaned.
“But I still want you to see and hear what you do to me. I have two days left, and I don’t want to stop. Is that normal?”
“Normal isn’t the right word. It’s just us.”
“I pulled up my skirt and brought myself to orgasm before calling you. I haven’t even taken off my shoes yet.”
Images flashed through Kelli’s head of Nora with her brown eyes closed, long blond hair and clothing disheveled but still in outrageously expensive heels as she groaned and rubbed her fingertips against her clit. Kelli’s breath left her, and she didn’t even bother to try to catch it. Guilt shot through her. “Stop. We have to stop. Travis is—” She glanced at her partner.
He was still shaking his head, but his focus was on the house they’d been watching.
As if sensing her gaze, Travis turned toward her. He removed one of the earpieces. “What?”
“Nothing.”
Travis continued to stare. “I’m not listening.”
“I didn’t say you were.”
“The seats aren’t waterproof.”
Kelli punched him in the shoulder.
Travis laughed and put the earphones back in.
“You have to stop, but I don’t,” Nora said.
Dear God. In a few hours, Travis was going to look over and find her dead, crunchy, and dehydrated. “W-what?”
“I need you to understand what it feels like to want you like this.”
“But I do.” Kelli fidgeted.
“I don’t think so, but you will. I’ve told you more than once that it can’t always be about you.”
“I know that, but this isn’t the best time or place. I think Travis’ll notice me fucking myself silly.”
“Then, obviously that’s not something you can do," Nora said.
“So, wait. You really think I can sit here and listen to you and not go off like a goddamn rocket?”
“You’re a detective. You like being challenged.”
“Damn right, I do.”
“I’m glad we’re on the same page. Besides, it should make your stakeout more interesting.”
That it would, but interesting wasn't the right word. It was sugar coating. Regardless, Kelli still wasn't deterred.
“I don’t think you have any idea how fucking hot you are when you talk like this.” Kelli’s breathing became uneven. She stared at the house across the street, wishing that things were about to go down instead of potentially embarrassing herself in front of her partner.
“I know what it does to you, and that’s all that counts.” Nora paused. “I just sent you a text. I thought it would be a safer option.”
Shit. Nothing about this was safe, which made it, fuck, all the better. “He’s right next to me, Nora.”
“Then don’t let him see.” Nora’s tone was sultry, thick.
Kelli pulled the phone away from her ear and opened the message. A picture of one of Nora’s breasts greeted her in all its pink-nippled glory. When had she gotten undressed? Another photo followed of the same breast, but this time her nipple was erect and wet. Kelli forgot how to breathe. She licked her lips, knowing, remembering what Nora felt like in her mouth and on the back of her tongue. Then her recognition went deeper. Kelli brought the phone back to her ear, only to hear a whimper followed by sucking sounds. Even though it didn’t have far to go, Kelli’s stomach twisted and fell to the car floor.
“Christ.” The word came out of Kelli’s mouth in a growl. “You—you’re trying to kill me.” She didn’t expect Nora to answer right away. Her mouth was full.
Yet another text arrived. Kelli shifted toward the passenger side window, turning as far away as she could before she even glanced at it. Nora’s tongue circling her own nipple. Kelli’s chest heaved in an effort to breathe. Something in her short-circuited, sending an electric tingle all over her body, settling between her thighs. She pressed her legs together tightly and grabbed hold of t
he passenger assist handle above her. Kelli was going for a ride. She needed to hang on.
“It’s nowhere near the same as when you do…it.” Nora moaned, but it was muffled. The one thing she heard clearly was the rapid flicking of Nora’s tongue.
“I imagine not, but it sounds like you’re doing a bang-up job of trying.” Kelli swiveled her hips to find a more comfortable position, but with everything going on between her legs at the moment, that was damn near impossible. “Are you dreaming about us when you wake up in the middle of the night?”
“Yes.” Nora’s voice was distant but no less needy. Kelli wondered what she was doing and waited for visual evidence to pop up.
“Tell me,” Kelli said.
“It’s a variation of the same dream. You’re on your knees behind me—”
“Spanking you?”
Nora made a small noise, and the covers rustled. “At…times.” She sounded pained.
“You’re wet as hell right now, aren’t you?”
“Yes.” Nora dragged the word out.
“Let me help you with that.” If Kelli had to sit there and take it, she wasn’t going to make things easy on Nora. Not at all. “You should see how red your ass gets. It’s like your skin is on fire. All I wanna do is rub myself all over you.”
“You do.” Nora’s voice shook.
“I know. What does it feel like to have my clit sliding over your ass like that?” Kelli leaned her head against the window.
Nora swallowed so hard it might have been a gulp. She followed up with a throaty, desperate sound. “Like…you’re all over me at once, and I can’t get away from it.” She paused. “I don’t want to get away from it.”
“Next time, I’m gonna take a video so you can see. Then you can take it with you wherever you go.”
“I don’t think that’s a good i-idea.”
“Yes, it is, and I have an even better one. Touch yourself.”
Kelli heard rustling again and wondered if Nora was on top of the covers or underneath. Experience told her Nora was on top of them, naked with her legs spread wide.
“No.” That one word was succinct, sexy, and final. It was also a definite challenge.
“You’re trying to drag this out. Make me lose my shit. This is about me,” Kelli said.
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