by MJ Duncan
She had half the puzzle filled in and a total of four holes torn through the flimsy paper from repeatedly erasing incorrect answers, but it was the perfect thing to distract her from the fact that she had no work to do at the store and there were still several hours left for her to kill until she would be able to talk to Maeve again. Maeve’s agent had put her on every panel he possibly could and filled the time between panels with book signings on the convention floor, which meant that the only time she had to herself was before the doors opened or after her final appearance of the day.
“Seriously,” Scott continued his rant as he picked his phone back up and began searching for a new base to attack. “Such a dick move.”
“You take that game way too seriously.” Joss tossed the puzzle onto the counter and sighed. She was never going to finish the stupid thing. How Maeve did it every week without fail—and in pen, no less—was beyond her.
“Whatever,” Scott grumbled as he squinted at his screen, assessing the base the game had pulled up for him to attack.
Joss rolled her eyes, and was about to respond with a crack about his being a total geek, when her phone started dancing across the counter, the vibration matching the beat of Maeve’s ringtone. She frowned as she looked at the phone—it was the middle of the afternoon, Maeve should not be calling her right now—and reached for it with a growing feeling of trepidation. “Hey, you. Everything okay?”
“Fine. I’m just taking a break from signing for a few minutes and thought I’d call to say hi. How’s my girl?”
Joss blew out a soft sigh of relief and nodded to herself, her pulse slowing to a more regular tempo now that she knew everything was okay. “I’d be doing better if you were here, but, you know…”
Maeve laughed. “I was talking about George.”
“Oh.” Joss made a small sound of playful disappointment as she got to her feet and wandered into the stacks for privacy. “Well, she’s perfect, as usual. She’s sleeping on the rug in front of the fire with Willy Shakes and Dickens at the moment.”
“Wow. Dickens?”
“I know. It’s weird, but he’s actually been following her and Willy around a lot the last few days. Maybe he’s mellowing in his old age or something.”
“Maybe,” Maeve agreed with a soft laugh. She sighed and added, “Is it bad that I wish I were there right now instead of here working?”
“Not at all. I’d rather have you here with me, too. George is good company, but she’s not you.”
“Charmer.”
Joss smiled. “Just for you, beautiful.”
“Good.”
Joss laughed. “How’s the con going today?”
“It’s the last day, so things here are beyond crazy. It’s fun though. There’s something that's just really great about seeing people so genuinely excited about stuff.”
“I’ll bet. Any good cosplayers?”
“There’s a Deadpool going around who’s pretty awesome. He was chasing a Superman around with a bouquet of fake roses earlier. Oh, and I actually had two women dressed as Faith and Greta come by my table earlier with some fan art and books for me to sign.”
“You had people dressed as your characters come see you?” Joss repeated in surprise. “That’s awesome!”
Maeve chuckled, sounding both pleased and a little embarrassed, and Joss could just picture the faint blush that was no doubt creeping over her cheeks at that very moment. “It was very cool. They gave me a picture one of them drew—I think it was the one dressed as Greta—you’ll really like it.”
“I will, huh? Why?”
“Because you have a thing for pretty ladies kissing each other,” Maeve replied in a playful whisper.
Joss laughed. “That’s true. But I mostly have a thing for me kissing you…”
“And I very much appreciate that.”
Joss nodded and sighed. “I can’t wait for you to get home.”
“Me neither. Anything exciting happening there?”
“Not really,” Joss answered. She laughed when she realized where she was in the store, and shook her head as she remembered what had happened in this very spot not even two hours earlier. “But, you’ll never guess what happened here”—she kicked the bookshelf in front of her—“this afternoon…”
“It snowed?”
“No, but that would be cool. I got to play disapproving adult and break up a couple of kids who were getting all hot-and-heavy in the stacks.”
“Please tell me you didn’t embarrass the hell out of them.”
“Oh, I totally did. I even sicced George on them. It was awesome.”
“You’re awful,” Maeve chuckled.
“What? If I can’t make out with my girlfriend, then why should some preppy teenager get to get his mack on in my store?”
“Because all book geeks have a secret fantasy about doing it in a library?”
“This isn’t a library,” Joss pointed out. She smiled as Maeve’s words sunk in and added, “And, really? All book geeks?”
“All book geeks,” Maeve confirmed in a low, suggestive purr.
Joss’ mouth went dry. “And, um, have you ever”—she cleared her throat—“fulfilled that fantasy?”
Maeve laughed. “Not yet.”
“Fuck…”
Maeve laughed harder. “Well, that’s the idea…”
“You are so mean.” Joss ran a hand through her hair and groaned.
“I’m sorry,” Maeve apologized, though the apology carried no weight because she was still laughing softly. “It was just too easy, though.”
“Evil.”
“But in a good way, right?”
“That depends. When are you coming home?”
“Soon,” Maeve promised.
“Good.”
“I know,” Maeve sighed. “I’ll be right there,” she said, her voice somewhat muffled. “Just let me finish this up.”
“You need to go?”
“Yeah. The panel for Kick-Ass Female Leads is up next.”
“Well, you go kick some ass then, beautiful, and I’ll talk to you later.”
“Okay.” Maeve sighed. “I love you.”
“Love you too,” Joss murmured. “I’ll see you soon.”
“Give George a kiss for me.”
“I will.”
“And save a few for me.”
“I’ll save you all the really good ones.”
“I can’t wait.” Maeve sighed again. “I’ll call later.”
“I’ll be here,” Joss promised. When the line went dead, she pocketed the phone and meandered back toward the front of the store. She had missed Maeve the last time the author had gone on a business trip, but that sense of longing was magnified now, leaving her feeling like a piece of herself was missing. A five-foot-six inch, beautiful blonde piece of her heart was too far away for her liking, and she blew out a frustrated breath as she cleared the end of the stacks and wandered back into the main front area of the store. Scott was where she had left him at the counter, hunched over his phone, thumbs tapping quickly against the screen as he mumbled incoherently to himself, and George, Willy Shakes, and Dickens were still snuggled together on the rug in front of the fire. It was all so much more than she had hoped to find when she moved back to Sky, but with Maeve missing from the picture, no matter how happy all this made her, it was still not enough.
“What’s wrong?” Scott asked without looking up from his phone.
“Nothing.” Joss shook her head.
“You sound sad.”
Joss rolled her eyes. “I didn’t even say anything.”
“Your breathing was depressed. Don’t argue with me, I’m a writer. I know these things.”
“And how’s that writing thing going for you, Mr. Author?” Joss teased.
“Good.” Scott looked up and grinned. “My agent sold my latest collection of short stories to Macmillan.”
“Wait. What?” Joss said, her eyes widening in surprise. “When? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Technically, you’re not working now?”
“True, but I’m hiding from my responsibilities at home while simultaneously keeping you from going stir crazy because Maevey-wavey is out of town.”
“Shut up.”
Scott laughed. “Whatever. But yeah.” He nodded, his smile absolutely untamable. “Macmillan. Can you believe it?”
“That’s so cool, man,” Joss said, shaking her head. His other collections had gone through small publishers and done well for the market, but selling a manuscript to a powerhouse publisher like Macmillan was huge. “You’ve hit the big time.”
“Or it’s gonna hit me,” he said, a sliver of insecurity creeping into his tone.
“What? You’re gonna do great. Maeve is going to flip her shit when I tell her.” Joss grinned. “We need to celebrate. Call your wife,” she told him as she pulled out her own phone, “and tell her we’re going out for beer and billiards later. Have her call that friend of hers for Lennox, and we’ll kill two birds with one stone. I’ll round up the rest of the crew. You, sir, are going to get totally shitfaced tonight.”
“You’re crazy.”
Joss laughed and nodded as she unlocked her phone. “You say that like it’s a bad thing.”
Thirty-Five
Joss smiled as she stepped out of the coffee shop and into the blustery fall afternoon. After years of having only fire, flood, earthquake, and drought as seasons, being surrounded by colorful leaves and a nip in the air was an absolutely decadent experience, and she took her time walking back to Atramentum to just soak it all in.
“God, I’ve missed this,” she said to herself as she pulled the door to the bookstore open and stepped inside.
“Missed what?” Scott asked, looking up from his phone. “Not being hungover?”
“You were the only one hungover yesterday.” Joss smirked as she set the cardboard tray she was carrying down onto the counter and handed him his drink. “I meant that it’s nice to have actual seasons.”
He nodded and sipped at his mocha “Yeah. I don’t know how you managed in LA. I couldn’t give this up.”
“It’s one of those things you notice at first, but by the second year of wearing shorts and flip-flops on Christmas Day, you just kinda stop paying attention to it all,” Joss said with a shrug. “Anybody come in while I was gone?”
He nodded again. “Just one. She’s in the stacks.” He took another sip of his coffee and sighed. “Look, would you mind if I bailed? We’ve been dead, and I just—”
“Scott,” Joss interrupted. “Go. It’s fine. Get out of here.” She ran a hand through her hair and checked her watch. They had not had a single customer all day, and she was planning on calling it an early night too so that she could make sure she was at the house when Maeve got back from her trip.
“You’re sure?” Scott asked as he got to his feet, right hand reaching into the front pocket of his jeans for his car keys.
“Yeah. There’s no reason for us both to suffer. Hell, I’m half-thinking I won’t even bother to open tomorrow.”
Scott laughed and waggled his eyebrows. “Big plans?”
“None that I’m telling you about,” Joss shot back with a smirk. She sipped at her coffee and sighed. “I’ll figure it out.”
“You want me to cover the store?”
Joss shook her head. “Nah. It’s fine. If I get in, I get in. Otherwise, whatever. It’s not like we’ve been doing much anyway.”
“I dunno, that game of gin we played this morning got pretty cutthroat.”
Joss chuckled and nodded. “Exactly.” She took a deep breath and let it go slowly. “Get out of here. Go surprise your wife with dinner or something nice. I’ll see you Friday.”
“Thanks.” He shouldered his backpack and grinned. “Have a good night.”
“I plan on it,” Joss assured him. They both laughed, and Joss sipped at her drink as she watched him leave.
The store was silent in his absence, and she shook her head as she locked the front door after him and flipped the sign. There was no reason to stay open after the customer in the back left, and this way nobody else would come wandering in to draw her afternoon here out any longer.
Her thoughts drifted to Maeve as she stood by the front counter, sipping at her coffee, and she idly wondered where she was at that moment. It had been a long week of evening phone calls and bursts of text-messages, and while George had been her usual charming self, Joss was really looking forward to having her girlfriend back. She lingered near the register, replaying their various conversations from the last few nights in her head until her drink was gone, and then tossed the cup on the trash before heading into the stacks. She still had a couple hours until Maeve was supposed to get home, but she was going stir-crazy sitting in the store waiting, and if she could speed this customer along, she could get out of here for the day. Every aisle she passed was empty except for the very last one near the office, where she found a woman in a short black skirt and an ivory silk blouse that had an enticing third button open at the neck. A black pea coat was draped over the purse she had set on the floor by her feet, leaving her hands free to browse, and Joss’ heart did an ecstatic flip-flop as what she was seeing truly sank in.
Maeve was home early.
It was dramatic and entirely unnecessary, but that did not stop Joss from giddily tiptoeing down the row toward her. She grinned, just resisting the urge to laugh as she stopped behind Maeve, and she held her breath as she reached out to wrap her arms around Maeve’s waist. Joss chuckled when Maeve jumped in surprise, and pressed a gentle kiss to her cheek. “Can I help you find something?”
“You know, I think I just found what I was looking for,” Maeve replied with a smile as she turned her head to press their lips together. “I missed you.”
Joss hummed as she cradled Maeve against her. She knew she had missed her, but she had not realized exactly how much until this very moment. “Me too.” She kissed Maeve again, slowly, sweetly, lingering in the caress before doing it again and again and again until her head spun and her heart felt like it was about to burst with happiness. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath as she buried her face in the crook of Maeve’s neck, savoring the warmth of Maeve’s skin against her lips and the scent of her perfume. “So, so much.”
Maeve moaned as she leaned her head to the side, giving Joss more skin to worship. “Joss…”
“Maeve,” Joss murmured, tightening her arms around Maeve’s waist as she laid a string of slow, wet kisses down Maeve’s throat. The feeling of Maeve’s hips rolling back against her as she nipped at her pulse point brought one particular conversation of theirs from the past week to mind, and Joss’ pulse spiked as she slowly, purposefully let her hands slide from Maeve’s waist down to the top of her thighs.
The door was locked, and they were alone, she figured, so why not?
Joss stroked her fingers back and forth along the edge of Maeve’s skirt, keeping her touch light as she tested the waters. This was not how she had planned for their reunion to happen, her plans had ran more along the line of a romantic dinner before retiring to the luxurious confines of their bedroom, but the idea of having Maeve here and now was too much to resist. “How serious were you the other day?” she asked, flattening her palms against Maeve’s thighs and holding her close as she thrust her hips forward.
Maeve let out a shaky breath as her head fell back onto Joss’ shoulder. She braced her right hand on the shelf in front of her as her hips rocked back to meet Joss’ next thrust. The way her body was responding was proof enough she knew precisely what Joss was talking about, but she smiled as she whispered coyly, “About what?”
“About word nerds all having a fantasy about doing it in a bookstore.”
“I believe I said a library.”
Joss ran the flat
s of her hands heavily over Maeve’s thighs, letting her thumbs dip between her legs as much as the tight skirt allowed. She smiled at the sound of Maeve’s breath catching, and lingered there for a moment before moving higher. “Is that really so much different than a bookstore?”
“Not really,” Maeve conceded when Joss’ fingers began tracing back and forth along the curve of her breasts.
“The door is locked, and it’s just us in here,” Joss murmured against Maeve’s ear, understanding where Maeve’s hesitation was coming from. It was one thing to fantasize about something like this, but neither of them could afford the backlash that would come from being caught. “We can stay or we can go home, sweetie. No pressure. I just thought…”
Maeve groaned, her body melting back into Joss as she nodded. “Yes.”
“You’re sure?” Joss cupped Maeve’s breasts and stroked her thumbs over her straining nipples. When Maeve turned her head to kiss her hungrily in response, Joss could not help but let out a soft groan of her own. She massaged Maeve’s breasts, rolling and pinching her nipples as they kissed, teasing them to hard, tight points. She nipped at Maeve’s lower lip as the need for more drove her hands lower, and she traced the plump, captured flesh with her tongue as her thumb uncovered the small zipper at Maeve’s hip.
The quiet whimper that tumbled from Maeve’s lips as she gave it a tug made Joss’ knees weak, and she swallowed hard as she began pulling it slowly downward. Their breaths tumbled together in ragged waves in the small space between their lips as Joss worked the zipper lower and lower, the air around them rippling with anticipation as the skirt hugging Maeve’s hips became looser and looser.
“You are so beautiful,” Joss whispered as she gave the skirt a push and sent it cascading to the floor. Her stomach clenched with desire as she drank in the view afforded her once the garment was kicked aside, and she licked her lips as she traced the black satin garter straps that stretched along the backs of Maeve’s thighs. She lifted the tail of Maeve’s shirt to get the full view, and her mouth went dry as she drank in the vision before her. Toned thighs, lace-topped stockings, garters drawing dark lines across unobstructed alabaster skin that was left on tantalizing display thanks to the black lace thong Maeve was wearing. “Fuck.”