Witness Protection: Moving Target

by Jet MacLeod

  Her body was addicted to the warmth of the woman slightly below her and holding her. She felt wonderful before Angie’s knowing hands, but she didn’t know Del. Her hands graced across Del’s cheek. She could hear the moan building before it escaped.

  Del pushed her back just enough to look into her eyes. Chestnut met cerulean and melted. As their eyes danced over each other’s faces, Del’s resolve broke a little more. She knew that she should stop Angie, but she didn’t want to.

  They had been flirting and fighting their obvious connection for weeks. Angie did have a penchant for pushing Del’s boundaries further and further away. There was just something about her that Del knew that she could lose herself in if she would let Angie close enough. She had been fighting it since they arrived at Cole’s. Angie didn’t look at her like something that needed to be fixed but something that should be cherished and loved. As appealing as it seemed to be, Del knew that she shouldn’t be giving into the temptation of Angie. But, when her lips moved across Del’s neck the way they were, all bets were off.

  Angie needed to feel something, anything. She needed to ground herself in the reality that they were creating. She didn’t care about protocol and principles at the moment. She needed to feel the warmth of another person against her. It helped that Del was so damn beautiful and warm.

  Her mouth was insistent. She wasn’t going to lose this fight. Not tonight. She needed this. She needed Del like she needed air. She needed the connection and she knew that Del did, too.

  Angie moved from her neck to her jaw line. She heard Del sigh. She continued to brush her lips across Del’s skin. With each new kiss, she waited for Del to stop her. When she didn’t, she continued up her jaw and to her ear lobe. She took it in her mouth and sucked on it, nibbling on it just a little.

  Del moaned. Her mind was telling her stop Angie’s advancements, but she didn’t. She liked the feeling. She indulged not only herself and her desires, but Angie’s as well. She was willing to give in for just a moment, but she knew that nothing would ever come of a relationship together.

  Angie was amazed at her self-control and her want for the dangerous woman next to her. She couldn’t help but smile around the bitten ear lobe when Del moaned in pleasure. She couldn’t help herself as her hands ghosted over Del’s face and brought their lips back together again. The kiss was a clash of teeth and lips as they fought for dominance and self-control, neither willing to give in or give up. She was not going to be detoured this time. She was going to make Del understand what she felt, what she saw and what she wanted.

  Del didn’t stand a chance against Angie’s onslaught, but then again, she wouldn’t have had to wanted to stand up against it in the first place. She wasn’t sure how Angie did it, but she really didn’t care once she felt Angie sit across her hips. Del looked up at her from her back and saw the raw emotion pouring from her clear and lust filled azure eyes. It was intoxication at its finest and Del was drinking it up and drowning in the feeling.

  Angie kissed her hard and bit her lip. Then, she would soothe the lip with her tongue as she kissed her softly and gently. She kept changing the pace and the pattern so quickly and without any warning that Del’s brain couldn’t keep up with thought, but only feeling. When her hands moved down the side on Del’s torso to anchor themselves on her hips, Del once again found her hands on Angie’s back. This time just meeting skin, as her hands had gone under Angie’s shirt. The electricity of sensation pulsed through Del’s fingers and straight to her core.

  Her desire for the blonde was off the charts and she was losing herself in Angie’s touch, body, and kiss. Her brain was trying to throw red flags in front of her face, but her libido was pushing them aside as fast as they could come. Her body was surrendering to the affections of the younger woman and Del knew that she was lost…so very lost in the ambiance of everything Angela.

  Just as quickly as Angie started the kiss, she stopped. She rocked back onto her heels and sat there, still across Del’s hips. She stared down into her blown russet eyes and waited for the supplications and the appeals of apology for allowing the instance to occur, again, and with so much more force and hunger this time. She knew that Del had nothing to apologize for because she was the one that pushed the envelope.

  The yearning in her heart for the comfort of another person, someone who didn’t care who she was or is, was more than she could handle. She needed an outlet and Del was there. It wasn’t ideal for either of them, but the attraction was mutual. Of that, Angie was sure. She wanted Del, but she had to wonder if was on just a physical level or if there was some emotional bond as well. She was trying to deal with everything that had been going on.

  Three years was a long time trying to be yourself and not being yourself. She hadn’t become some new name and persona. She had stayed Angie and it had created the pleasant Hell that she found herself in today. Del wasn’t just a distraction for her and that began to worry her. Could she actually be falling for the raven hair beauty below her?

  Del stared up into her questioning eyes and waited. She wanted more, but her mind was telling her to run away from Angie and be just the protector that she was supposed to be. Her heart wouldn’t let her move. She knew that it might be wrong to fall for her, but she couldn’t deny the growing desire within her own soul. She was drawn to Angie in a way that she hadn’t been with any other human being in her existence. That in itself was enough to give Del pause, but not assuage her thirst and lust for the woman straddling her body.

  She reached up with her hands and held firm to Angie’s hips, pushing her down her own hips just enough to sit up. She met her face to face, and the questions in her eyes didn’t go away. There was a war brewing inside both of their heads and they didn’t know which side was going to win.

  Del didn’t want to let her go. She slid her hands back up from Angie’s hips to her back, allowing them to glide back under her shirt. Angie leaned into the movement and sighed. She leaned forward into Del’s welcoming body and put their foreheads together. She placed her hands on Del’s shoulders and willed herself not to kiss her again.

  Del however didn’t. She leaned forward just enough to kiss Angie off guard. She met no resistance as she nibbled slightly on Angie’s lower lip. Del could have sworn that she heard Angie moan, quietly, at the action. When she teased her mouth with her tongue, Angie parted her lips and allowed Del’s complete domination. She relished in it.

  But, again, just as quickly as it began, it ended. Angie pulled back and held Del’s upper body back away from her own. Her arms weren’t fully extended, but to Del the gesture felt like she was pushing her away. Their eyes danced, but no questions were asked.

  “Help me with my hair?” Angie asked breaking the silence and the tension.

  “Sure,” Del told her.

  Angie moved off of her and went to the table to gather the box of dye. She opened and started preparing the mixtures. She moved the vanity and watched Del’s movements in the other room as she stalked up behind her.

  The longing wasn’t gone from her eyes, but the rest of her body took on another posture of readiness. Angie wasn’t sure what was going on in Del’s head, but she wondered if she was fighting the same battle she was. She let out a pent up breath when Del stopped just behind her. The warmth rolling off of her onto Angie caused her own bewilderment at her actions just moments before to seem like it had been the best idea she’d had in decades.

  Del quietly donned the gloves and took the mixture. She found the comb that Cole had supplied and began to squeeze the dye onto Angie’s head. She did it in a methodical fashion betraying her military background and her constant vigilance. Del didn’t say a word while she finished her task. Truth be told, she didn’t know what to say and she feared what the sound of her voice would be and do to Angie if she had tried for small talk at that moment. No, being quiet and vigilant was what Del was good at. It didn’t matter the task or the problem.

  Now, when she looked down into Angie’s sapphir
e eyes, she wondered if she would see her as a problem. Part of her knew that she would and the other hoped that she wouldn’t. She didn’t know what do or say to make things better between them. She was lost. She was totally lost.

  When she was done applying the dye, she set the timer on her watch and went back to the bed to sit down. Angie sat and watched her from the table. They weren’t going to talk about it. They weren’t because if they did, they would have to admit that it had happened and that they both wanted it. They weren’t ready for that. They weren’t ready for emotions and connections. They were both just trying to survive. They could have used each other and not think anything of it, but now, they were growing closer. And closeness meant so much more.

  Del’s watch alarm went off. Angie silently got up and went into the bathroom. Del watched her go and felt like a heel the entire time. She went back to the bed and lay down. She began to count the ceiling tiles and try to find patterns in its random fissure texture when she heard the shower start. She couldn’t remember Angie taking clothes and wished for everything holy and for the sake of her mental capability that she had.

  She was starting to feel like she was having a hard enough time keeping her hands off the other woman. She didn’t need to see her naked. It would only fuel her growing need for Angie’s touch and companionship. It was dangerous. It was a complication that she didn’t want to have to deal with, but it was becoming more and more real with each second that they were in closer proximity to each other. Del was losing the fight but she wasn’t ready to surrender completely. She didn’t know if she ever would be again, especially after Yulia.

  Del slapped herself. She couldn’t believe that she had just compared Angie to Yulia. They were nothing alike in mentality or wants. Sure, Angie was blond just Yulia, but that is where the similarities really ended. Angie was warm and supple in ways that Yulia could never be. They were both intelligent, but Angie had a savviness that most people would envy. She could literally talk her way out of most arguments and leave you feeling like the fool. No, Angie wasn’t Yulia, but Del knew that she could hurt her just the same if she allowed her too close.

  Angie opened the door to the bathroom slowly and quietly. She hoped that Del had gone to bed. She was only mildly disappointed when she saw her sit up on the bed as she returned into the room. Angie crossed the room and set on the other bed for a second before she stood back up to undress the bed enough to get in it for the night.

  They still said nothing to each other. Finally, her throat dry and her feelings everywhere, Del stood up and went to their cooler. She pulled out a soda, popped the tab and drank heartily. She tried to slacken her sudden thirst for Angie with her own thirst. It didn’t work. She crossed the room and started to pull out her laptop, determined that she was going to do something with the pent up energy flowing through her, now.

  Angie just watched her from her perch on the end of the bed, towel in hand as she absently dried her now auburn hair. She, too, couldn’t sit on the bed any longer. She went back to the vanity area, dropped the towel on the counter, and leaned over the sink as she stared at her “new” self in the mirror. She was taken aback a little by the visage that greeted her. It was more like a twin staring at their twin, then her own reflection looking back at her.

  She stayed there, staring at herself for unknown minutes before she felt Del behind her. She hadn’t seen her move from the table in the other room, but she was so close that she could smell her. Her body wanted to give in to the temptation. Her eyes must have betrayed her, so she closed them and turned around. When she opened them, she met Del’s body, front to front, face to face, eye to eye. She had nowhere to run or hide.

  Del usually not the aggressor in such situations found that she couldn’t temper herself or her cravings for Angie’s body, naked and beneath her. She let out a strangled moan in a hoarse sigh. Angie heard it and tried to take a step back, but Del’s arms stopped the movement. The next thing either of them knew, Del had Angie pinned against the wall, her hand around her throat, loosely. Before either could protest, Del crashed her mouth onto Angie’s lips and gave her everything.

  Angie moaned. Del sighed, but they never broke the kiss. They clashed over and over again, but didn’t stop. Teeth, tongues and lips met, clashed and fought, but there would be no winner. Del finally unable to take the teasing that she had created, backed up just enough, her hand still holding Angie by the throat. She looked into her crystal blue eyes and broke a little more under this woman’s awesome and contagious spell of emotions. Being with her made Del realize that she wanted an out. She wanted to retire. She could actually have a life…worth living.

  “Come to bed with me,” Del stated and the plea even sounded strange her own ears.

  Angie merely nodded in agreement. Del let her go and they both walked over to the bed that had been, for lack of a better description, making out on earlier. Del got Angie into the bed and methodically turned all the lights off. She got into the bed and curled up next to Angie. She felt her melt into her as she put an arm across her stomach, pulling her back into her own front, and holding her there as they spooned.

  “Angie…”

  “Not, now, Del…”

  “But, Angie…”

  “In the morning, Del…we can talk in the morning. Right now, just hold me and let me pretend that everything is going to be normal in the morning. I just need to get some sleep.”

  “As you wish,” Del answered, giving her a slight kiss in her hair, knowing that it was going to take hours for her body to calm down enough to go to sleep.

  When she finally heard the steady breathing of Angie, Del finally dared to close her eyes. All she could see was Angie in her dreams. And the only thought that crossed her mind, damn, this is going to be a long six months or more until her court date. I hope I don’t combust before then. Del didn’t know how much more she could take before she gave in fully. She reflexively snuggled further into Angie and finally drifted off into dreamland.

  Chapter 23

  Angie awoke sometime in the wee morning hours. Daylight still hadn’t broken through the curtains of the room. She was more relaxed than she had been in years and then, she realized why. The strong, muscular and tan arm around her stomach gave her pause, but she felt protected, cared for and even dare she say loved. She sighed.

  The arm around her middle tightened. She knew that she should get up and face the day, but she was just so damn comfortable. And, she thought, as long as I am in bed with her, we don’t have to talk. It was more than she wanted to deal with.

  It wasn’t that Del wasn’t someone that she couldn’t love. She knew that she could. But, their circumstances weren’t ideal to develop a meaningful relationship. Angie was worried what would happen to them if they tried. She wanted to go back to New York, back to work and Del wanted to retire to some quiet place in the country near the mountains and the ocean. They wanted two different things. They were different. They wouldn’t work.

  But, then Del would look at her, the way she had last night and Angie’s heart would melt. She couldn’t deny the way Del made her feel. It was warm and wonderful. Something that she hadn’t felt in a long, long time, and that is another reason that it was dangerous. She loved her career. She loved getting the conviction, but her resolve was waning the longer she was her.

  She couldn’t think about her future when she was with Del. All she could think about was her past and how she was going to survive. She absently wondered if that was how Del processed everything.

  The more she stared at the window, the more she wondered about her future. Did she even really have one? Or, would she be on the “run” with Del for the rest of her life? The thought of being with Del didn’t disappoint her as much as she thought that it should. Instead it made her feel…loved, wanted, cherished, happy…guilty that she would never see any of her friends again. But the more she thought about it, the more she realized that she didn’t have many friends and those that she did have were all cops or
lawyers. There were no “regular” people in her life.

  That is why Del was so refreshing. She wasn’t a cop or lawyer. She didn’t think about the legality of everything. She processed information as it came and made a decision based on her life experience. She wasn’t worried about how anyone else would think she was crazy or wouldn’t worry about the possibility of the ramifications of the law. She simply just did.

  She sighed again. She could feel the small, even breaths of Del on her hair. She could get used to this. There were worse things than waking up with a beautiful woman every morning. Angie was beginning to re-evaluate her entire lot in life. There was just something that Del could give her that no one else had before and she couldn’t name it.

  She finally had to get out of the bed. She couldn’t lose herself completely to Del. She had to regain some of herself. She might be Emily Sullivan in name, but she would always be Angela March at heart. She had to find a way to reconcile the two and live with it. She didn’t know who Emily really was except she was a brunette with Del. And she couldn’t even define what “with Del meant” at that moment.

  She moved Del’s arm slowly as to not wake her. As she free herself slowly, she got out of the bed. She went to the bathroom to complete her morning ritual and found herself dressed some thirty minutes later sitting at the table with a cold soda staring at Del’s laptop. Her curiosity got the better of her and she booted it up. She knew that she couldn’t go on Facebook or any other site that would require her to log in. She needed to find something else. She needed a distraction. She looked over at Del and thought about how easy it would be to get back in bed.