A Dark Horse

by Cooper, Blayne

  “I thought we were doing this together.”

  “We are. But Kurt Mosley and Billy Hobson are nothing compared to Morrell. You need to understand that they’re pussycats to Morrell’s wolf. A dumb, mangy wolf, but one with sharp teeth and claws. I’ve known him for years. When he feels threatened, and he will, he won’t hesitate to bite. He’s not smart enough to be predictable.”

  “Ella…” Natalie sighed and looked skyward, eyes welling. “What you’re asking isn’t fair. We’re supposed to be a team. You would never stay back if it was me going to meet Morrell.”

  The look on Adele’s face was guilty but defiant. “You need to trust me.” The challenging look fell away and was replaced by genuine fear. “Please.”

  At that, Natalie’s angry insistence began to crumble without her permission.

  “I’m going to be fine with Morrell, Nat, I’m not doing this alone.”

  They’d been trying to reach Al all day but either he wouldn’t or couldn’t answer his cell. Adele had explained he was a Vice detective and sometimes they went undercover for days or even weeks at a time and were unreachable. The worry that he was unforgivably angry with her was written all over Adele’s face as clearly as if it had been etched there in black ink.

  They’d even tried using the disposable phone Natalie had purchased for herself until they could retrieve her personal phone, in case he’d blocked Adele’s number. But as before, there was no answer. Natalie couldn’t really blame him for being upset. It wasn’t every day a dear old friend wanted to make sure you hadn’t broken into her home and strangled someone.

  Across the room, Adele’s phone began to ring. She shifted back and forth on her feet, clearly wanting to answer it, but also not about to abandon their argument.

  “Go,” Natalie said quietly. “It might be Al.” She hated the idea that she wouldn’t be with Adele and Morrell, but at least if she couldn’t be with her, it would be someone Adele trusted.

  With a grateful nod, Adele retrieved her phone. She stared at it for a long beat, lower lip caught between her teeth, before she closed her eyes and answered, “Hey, Landry.”

  Natalie’s eyebrows rose in surprise.

  “Yeah, everything is okay. I know I missed my call with Logan last night. I…I got tied up. ” Adele licked her lips and shot Natalie an apologetic look. “I need your help with something tomorrow. It’s important, Landry.”

  Natalie’s mouth sagged.

  Adele’s gaze skittered away from Natalie.

  Him? Natalie was dumbstruck. After everything? Adele didn’t believe he was dirty like Morrell, but how could she be certain? Why take the risk? At the very least Landry had already shown himself incapable of standing by Adele when she needed him. And yet he was who Adele chose to have by her side?

  Anger tinged with jealousy burned hot and sick in Natalie’s belly.

  “Logan can stay with Amelia.” Adele nodded at something Landry said, looking relieved. “Me too. Okay, here’s what’s up and what we’re going to need.”

  Seething, Natalie grabbed a sweatshirt and headed for the door.

  * * *

  The sun had set and storms were moving into New Orleans once again. Adele had only turned on a single light since Natalie’d been gone, too engrossed in her thoughts to notice the growing darkness. She’d been waiting by the open window the entire time, although it only allowed a view of tree branches and a tiny sliver of sidewalk along the driveway.

  The breeze carried with it the fresh scent of bruised grass, charcoal from someone’s winter BBQ and ozone. Adele tapped her foot and peered at her watch for the twentieth time. Natalie had been gone for more than two hours and she cursed herself for not going after her immediately. She wasn’t raised under a rock and actually had been to the movies. She knew what she should have done. You always go after the girl.

  Please be okay.

  Adele knew she could have handled their argument better, tried to be more flexible or at least have explained that if Landry hadn’t called her, she was going to call him, regardless of whether Al was available. But she hadn’t gotten that far, and eventually she’d reasoned that she’d rather have Natalie angry but safe.

  She firmly believed that Morrell had already had his filthy hands around Natalie’s throat once and she wouldn’t allow that to happen ever again. Still, their terse words and Natalie’s obvious hurt and worry left Adele feeling truly awful.

  Adele acknowledged with a deep sigh that Natalie had been especially right about one thing. Were the shoe on the other foot, there was no way in hell she would allow herself to be sidelined, no matter the risk. “So I was a jerk and a hypocrite,” she mumbled to herself, rolling her eyes. “Great.”

  The door to the carriage house opened just as the first raindrops began to spatter against the windowpane. Adele held in a growl as she slowly walked past Natalie. She locked the door, woozy with relief. Thank God.

  Neither woman made eye contact and Natalie was uncharacteristically quiet.

  “Where were you?” Adele burred, her voice low and angry. Her back to Natalie, she gripped the doorknob tightly with one hand and the deadbolt with the other.

  With cheeks pink from the cool wind and tousled hair, Natalie headed to the back of the apartment and behind the Chinese screens. “There’s a tire swing in the backyard,” she said softly. Her words lacked the heat and sting they’d carried earlier.

  Adele perched on the sofa arm and watched Natalie move behind the screens. She wasn’t sure whether she was resentful that Natalie had stormed out and left her to stew, or simply grateful that she was back safe and sound. She settled on both. “You left like that before. You just marched out and never came back.”

  Natalie stripped out of her sweatshirt, then folded it and put it into one of the dresser drawers. When she was finished, she tilted her head, her hair falling softly over one shoulder. “What are you talking about? Since the hospital—”

  “You went back to Wisconsin. I tried to do the right thing and you—you left.”

  Natalie turned and faced the screen, arms hanging loose at her side, and for a moment Adele wished she could see her face to know what she was thinking. “That was years ago.”

  The lamp next to the bed, on its lowest setting, cast the area of the room behind the tall screen in a golden glow. All that was visible of Natalie was her dark, but well-defined outline behind the delicate paper. As she moved, Natalie’s outline grew larger or smaller, and when she bent, as she did to remove her shoes, her silhouette on the angled side panels became slightly distorted.

  Fascinated by not being able to really see anything, but also the illusion of seeing everything, Adele’s mind was split between the provocative feast for her eyes and their conversation. “I thought maybe you’d done the same thing tonight. Run away.”

  Finger-combing her long tresses, Natalie gathered her hair as though she intended to put it into a ponytail. Instead, she twisted it into a low, haphazard knot. Wisps of hair immediately escaped to frame her face.

  Why did Natalie seem to be moving in slow motion? Adele’s nostrils flared.

  “Ella, yes, I’m angry,” she sighed as she admitted, “and even a little bit jealous of Landry. But I wouldn’t do that to you.”

  “You don’t need to be jealous.”

  “I believe you. I was just having a moment.”

  Adele lifted an eyebrow, the tension in her belly growing at the sight of Natalie gently tugging her shirt from a pair of snug jeans, then slowly releasing each blouse button from the bottom up. So goddamned sexy. Hating herself a little for her body’s undeniable reaction while she was still irritated, she swallowed, her mouth suddenly dry. She looked away. “A moment? You let me worry about you for hours.”

  A pause. “I needed to cool off before I said something I would regret.” Natalie squared her shoulders and let her shirt slide down her back and into a puddle on the floor behind her, revealing the outline of her tantalizing curves and dips in far greater detail.r />
  Crossing her legs and relentlessly bouncing her top foot, Adele covered her mouth, nose and chin with both hands. She drew them slowly down her face as she muttered a quiet, “Christ.”

  “Did you say something?” Natalie began peeling out of her Levi’s.

  Completely distracted, Adele fought to remember what they were talking about. “I-I needed to know that you were okay.” She bit back a groan as one long naked leg revealed itself, and then another.

  Natalie lifted her hands high over her head and arched her back in a languid stretch. She put her hands on her hips in a pose that signaled frustration. “I was only in the backyard. I—”

  “It’s called a safe house for a reason.” Adele’s voice cracked on the last word and she prayed for strength at the same time she prayed for more clothes to be shed. “To be safe, you’re supposed to stay inside it. You could have at least called or texted me.” Had it always been so hot in the apartment?

  Natalie reached behind her and unhooked her bra. As she shrugged out of it, Adele could picture it in her mind as though it danced before her very eyes, a scarlet red lacy number that her sister had declared a masterpiece of function and art. Goddamn Amelia was always right.

  When Natalie twisted to the side to toss the bra onto the bed the outline of full, perfect breasts came to life on the screen and Adele felt a corresponding rush of warm wetness between her legs. What had begun as a gentle ache at her core had escalated into a deep throbbing sensation that was low, hot and impossibly heavy.

  “Ella, you could have called or texted me, too.”

  Adele couldn’t think of a comeback to that. Of course she’d considered calling Natalie. She’d been irrationally afraid that she’d catch her at the airport in the midst of leaving town. But it was okay that she didn’t have a good reply, she wasn’t sure she could speak anyway.

  Natalie turned and bent deeply at the waist to pick up the jeans and blouse, and Adele had to close her eyes and grab the arm of the sofa to keep from sliding to the floor.

  Adele’s skin suddenly felt too tight for her body. Somewhere in the far reaches of her mind she wondered whether Natalie knew she was providing the sexiest-ever-peep-show-for-one. Maybe. She was certain Natalie was just that wicked.

  “I was fine in the backyard.” Natalie disappeared for a few seconds and Adele could hear her dump her clothes into the hamper. When she came back into view, Adele’s heart did a double thump at the sight. Natalie was completely nude, and her hair had completely escaped its loose knot.

  Adele felt her toes curl.

  Toned arms gestured as Natalie spoke, her breasts slightly bouncing with each emphasized word. “You need to stop worrying about me like I’m going to break.”

  Quicker than she thought she could move, Adele strode across the room, barely feeling the twinge in her leg. She moved around the screen in a blur of motion and gathered Natalie in her arms. In a surprise move that left both breathless, she yanked Natalie as close as humanly possible. “I couldn’t agree more,” Adele said in a hushed, reverent voice, relishing skin so smooth it put the finest silk to shame.

  A tiny smirk played at the corners of Natalie’s lips and her eyes danced. “Took you long enough to get back here. I was beginning to think I would have to go out in search of a pole.”

  Adele lowered her arms and reached down to grab two full hands of Natalie’s remarkable ass. Hands gripping tightly into firm flesh, she ground their centers together. Adele shivered at the sensation, but managed to choke out a laugh. The want she felt for Natalie eclipsed anything she’d ever known. “I knew it! You tease.”

  Natalie’s face softened into something a lot like tender adoration. “Ella, I-I—”

  Adele held her breath. Tell me you love me…

  Instead of finishing her sentence, Natalie wrapped a hand around Adele’s slender neck and roughly pulled her into a scorching kiss that temporarily caused Adele’s mind to go utterly blank and threatened to send her legs wobbling out from underneath her like a newborn foal’s.

  After a few insanely hot minutes, Natalie pulled away gasping. She placed a gentle peck to the corner of Adele’s smiling mouth. Natalie’s face and chest were flushed with arousal and Adele could feel the heat in her own cheeks. “I’m sorry for our argument,” Natalie began earnestly.

  Adele’s body buzzed with so much raw energy it felt as though she’d grabbed hold of a live wire, and it took a few seconds for Natalie’s words to penetrate the sensual haze that clouded her thinking.

  “You need to be safe when you meet with Morrell. You need to do it the right way. I trust you. I was just afraid for you…terrified, actually. I-I still am. And I’m not at all happy about it. But I do understand.”

  Adele melted. “Natalie—”

  Two cool fingertips pressed against Adele’s lips to stop her from speaking. “I’m not finished yet.”

  Adele nodded and felt Natalie’s body somehow inch even closer. She could feel every breath, every twitching muscle, and the quick, strong beating of Natalie’s heart.

  Pale eyes gleamed with unshed tears and Natalie removed her fingers from their position against Adele’s mouth and drew them down Adele’s chin and throat, stopping at the base of her neck to dip them in the notch between collarbones. “I won’t run out on you. Ever. But that doesn’t mean that sometimes I won’t need some space so I don’t let my mouth get away from me, okay?”

  Adele nodded slowly.

  “I’ll always come back.”

  “You’d better,” Adele said fiercely.

  Natalie slid her hand back to tickle the fine hairs at the back of Adele’s neck. “I need you to really believe me.”

  The clear sincerity in Natalie’s words penetrated deep into Adele’s chest and settled there, working to soothe away lingering doubts and frustration. It would take time to believe without fear, but she would get there. “I’m sorry too. I do want to talk about Landry and everything that’s going to happen.”

  Adele dragged her fingers from Natalie’s ass to her waist and released a tiny growl of pure lust. “Just not right now.” Not when they were so close it was hard to tell where one ended and the other began. She ground their hips together once again to make her point.

  Natalie nodded and released a shaky breath. “Not right now.”

  “By the way,” Natalie paused and gave Adele a gentle poke in the ribs, “one of us is way overdressed, and it’s not me.” She began to nibble at Adele’s lips, each separately, then together as she whispered against them. “I know you’ve never been with a woman before and—”

  Adele propelled them forward onto the bed where they landed with a soft thud on the mattress. She latched her mouth onto the skin below Natalie’s ear and sucked. “I’m sure I’ll figure it out as I go.”

  Adele reached up to fondle one of Natalie’s breasts, and elicited a throaty moan. “So soft,” she whispered reverently. In that instant she made it one of her life’s missions to hear that exact moan again. As often as possible. But then a wave of panic hit her. Natalie wouldn’t have mentioned it if… “I will figure it out, right?”

  Natalie burst into happy laughter, her eyes crinkling with joy. “Yes.” She let her gaze drift down their bodies and a lifted eyebrow told Adele she was doing just fine so far. “I’m confident that you will.”

  “Whew.” Adele nodded, a full, dimple-inducing grin stretching her cheeks as wide as they could possibly go as she chuckled. They tried to kiss again while still laughing, and their teeth collided lightly. Their kissing was sloppy and urgent but impossibly sweet, hot tongues swirling against each other, tasting, exploring as though they could discover each other’s innermost secrets through touch alone.

  Natalie slipped her fingers just beneath the hem Adele’s T-shirt and tugged upward. “Off. I want to feel you too.”

  Adele pushed herself up from the bed and stripped off her shirt, taking only a second to make sure she didn’t tear off the bandage covering the laceration near her wrist, and h
er pants in record time.

  Propped up on elbows, Natalie watched delightedly, her lower lip between her teeth, a low purr of approval vibrating through her like an inordinately pleased jungle cat.

  Adele stopped moving altogether when she got a good look at Natalie’s body in all its glory. Natalie’s nipples seemed to harden further under her laser-like gaze.

  In the bath there had been bubbles to slightly obscure her view. Though they’d dressed and undressed in the same room several times, they’d turned their backs, affording each other a modicum of privacy. But this unabashed, unobstructed view…Adele’s heart threatened to pound out of her chest. Natalie was brazenly on full display, and it took her breath away.

  “You’re…” Adele had to swallow around a lump in her throat. “Nat, you’re so gorgeous, I think…It hurts to look at you,” she whispered not bothering to hide the fact that she was simply in awe of the goddess before her.

  Natalie sat up on her knees, her eyes brimming with raw emotion as she reached for Adele’s hand. Her wish was granted immediately. “Ella,” she murmured softly, bringing the hand to her lips, then tugging gently so that Adele ended up in her waiting arms. “C’mere.” They fell back on the bed, together.

  Their next kiss was wild and incendiary, the flames threatening to reduce Adele to a pile of smoking ash. Adele had no idea how long they kissed, but it was finally Natalie who moved things forward by tracing Adele’s bra. The bolt of heat it caused between her legs jerked Adele from her hedonistic haze.

  Lower lip between her teeth, Natalie glanced at Adele in question and received a smile and a nod in return. It took Natalie three tries, but she finally unhooked Adele’s bra and slid it down her arms, their madly roaming hands never stopping. Adele shivered at the sparks cast from Natalie’s fingertips.

  Adele tightly wound her hands in soft brown hair and gently pulled Natalie’s head back long enough to issue a quiet command. “Turn over onto your belly.”

  Natalie mewed at the loss of Adele’s lips and looked confused. “Wh-what?” Her hands had been spread wide and possessively around Adele’s waist and were purposefully inching toward generous, bare breasts.