Providence (The Velvet Series Book 2)

by Diana Kane

  “More than anything!” Isabella’s face lights up, somehow reaching across the 2,000 miles between us, making me feel warmer.

  “Good. I booked my flight. Where are you right now?” I barely hear her question over the hammering of my heart. She will be here in just over two weeks!

  “Sitting on my bed, why?”

  “Can I see?”

  “Can you see what?”

  “Your bedroom.” It seems an odd request, but I slowly rotate my phone around, giving Isabella a complete scan of my bedroom. “Very nice.”

  “What are you up to?” I know her well enough to know that she has a motive for that request.

  “Just wanted to start fantasizing about the place I’m going to fuck you in 17 days,” she whispers into the microphone. Just those words caused a flood in my panties. Thankfully I have a bathroom and a fresh pair within reach.

  “What if I fuck you?” I challenge her and watch as her eyes close. I can imagine the quiet murmur she is releasing, too quiet for the microphone to pick up.

  “I’ll imagine that too.” I can see the desire in her eyes.

  “Me too. I don’t want to go, but I have a visitor.” Isabella smiles, but it isn’t full like the one she had earlier. “Hey, I promised you transparency, and I’m telling you the truth. Nothing has happened, nothing is going to happen.” She smiles and nods.

  “Will I talk to you later?”

  “Yes, please.” We stare into our phones for a moment, just enjoying the connection. “I’ll talk to you before bed tonight. I miss you.”

  “Miss you too.” The video disconnects but I can’t feel sad. Isabella will be here soon, and I’ll be so busy playing catch up at work that the time should fly by. I quickly clean myself up and change my panties before heading back to the den.

  “Sorry about that. I wasn’t expecting that call.” I wasn’t expecting it, but I sure wasn’t going to ignore it.

  “No problem,” Katrina says eyeing me. “That’s what the difference is, you met someone.”

  “I did,” I inform her, I can feel the smile consuming my face. I search Katrina’s but can’t determine her reaction.

  “I’m happy for you.” She says the words, but they don’t seem entirely sincere.

  “Are you?”

  “Of course I am. You’re a remarkable woman, you deserve to be happy. Plus she’s gorgeous, and that accent. So you met her in Punta Cana?” I’m still smiling like an idiot, I know I am, but I can’t help it.

  “I met her my first day there. She was working behind the bar at the resort. It was only supposed to be a vacation fling, we both agreed to it from the start, but somehow something altered the plan. I spent every moment I could with her. She showed me around the area, taught me to surf, she—.”

  “She rocked your world.”

  “Yeah, she did. She’s intelligent, caring, talented, fierce, compassionate, altruistic.” I close my eyes and picture Isabella.

  “Wow, you’re in deep.” I’ve tried to deny it, tell myself that it’s too fast, too soon, but I know what Katrina said is true.

  “Yeah, I am,” I whisper as I open my eyes. “It’s scary how much I miss her. It feels too quick. We haven’t promised each other anything but the truth. We know if we’re going to make this happen it won’t be easy. She’ll be here in 17 days for a long weekend.”

  “Wow. Bartenders there must make really good money.” I detect a certain hit of sarcasm in Katrina’s voice.

  “She isn’t just a bartender, she has an ownership share in the resort. She bartends because she enjoys it.” I deliberately leave out the fact that she is also secretly a famous painter who has more money than she could ever possibly need. I would never reveal Isabella’s secret.

  “Sounds like she has it all.” I realize then that our glasses of water are still in the kitchen. I get up to retrieve them but when I turn the corner Katrina is putting her shoes on. “I’ve got to get going.”

  “Ok.” Clearly she’s upset about the Isabella situation, but there isn’t any solace I can offer her.

  “Talk to you soon?”

  “Yeah, we’ll talk soon.” She gives me a weak smile before leaving.

  An hour later Catherine calls to inform me that they’re picking me up for a late lunch. I’m happy to catch up with my friends. When we arrive at the bistro,I see Abby and Katrina already seated with drinks. I can’t help but feel like I’m walking into an ambush, or an intervention. Katrina was clearly not happy to learn about Isabella earlier today and Catherine’s call an hour after Katrina left my place suddenly feels a bit too coincidental. Abby wraps me up in a big hug before I take the vacant seat next to her, putting me between Catherine and Abby. To my relief, lunch really is just friends catching up. Katrina looks slightly uncomfortable when I tell them about Isabella, but doesn’t say anything. It’s clear that she’s trying to be friends, which is all I want from her.

  I’m in bed reading that night when the alert finally goes off. “Hello beautiful,” I say as soon as I see her sleepy face.

  “Isn’t that my line?” she teases me. “Sorry it’s late, I fell asleep.”

  “Long day at work?” She looks so cute when she just wakes up, her eyelids heavy, her hair mussed, and her sleepy grin.

  “No, work was fine. I went for a walk and a swim after dinner, then came home to take a shower. I crawled into bed to message you, but I still smell you on my sheets, and since I miss you touching me I had to do it myself.” My body catches fire as I imagine Isabella pleasuring herself. I can hear the noises she makes in my head; like she is laying next to me making them in reality. My body responds, and I feel the wetness between my legs. “How was your day?”

  “Good,” I choke out. I clear my throat before continuing, watching Isabella’s grin grow. She knows what her confession has done to me. “I told my friends about you.”

  “You did?” She sounds surprised.

  “Of course I did. They’re excited to meet you.”

  “Even Katrina?”

  “Well, I don’t know how she feels. We talked about you after our chat earlier. She knows that I only want to be friends with her. I don’t think she was pleased, but she joined the rest of us for lunch, so I think she’s willing to try.”

  “That’s good.” I can’t tell if Isabella is worried about Katrina or not. She doesn’t press further, and there isn’t anything to tell. “What were you doing when I called?”

  “Reading, waiting for you to call.”

  “You should’ve called me.” I had thought about calling her but wasn’t sure how late she was working.

  “I thought about it, but it sounds like you were busy.” Isabella’s grin turns sinister; like I’ve walked straight into her trap. Little does she know I willingly did and hoped she would join me. “You aren’t wearing any clothes right now, are you?” She slowly inches her laptop away from her, revealing inch after inch of her bronzed body. “Oh my god,” I whisper as she leans back on her elbows, spreading herself wide for me.

  “I showed you mine,” Isabella challenges. I slide the laptop away from me, revealing the tank top and mesh shorts I have on. “Mmm, I get a strip tease tonight. Take it off…slowly.” If anyone else had ever suggested, much less demand that I strip for them on video chat I would have refused. But Isabella is different, when I see the desire in her eyes, I cannot deny her. I kneel on the bed and slowly tease the bottom of the top up my abdomen, inching it higher and higher, lingering on my breasts to run my fingers over them and tease my nipples a few times. Isabella bites down on her lower lip, and her ass presses down into her mattress, but she doesn’t touch herself. I know she’s waiting for me. I slowly lift my top off the rest of the way and let it fall to the floor. Instead of dropping my hands I lower them to my shoulders and slide them down my body, once again stopping to tease my breasts. I can see the moisture on Isabella’s slit as she refrains from touching herself.

  “You know what I’d be doing to you if you were here to remove the
se?” My thumbs hook in the waistband of my shorts, and I pull lightly on them for emphasis. Isabella quickly wedges a few pillows behind her back and allows her hands to make contact with her highly sensitive nipples. Another bout of wetness spills from me as I watch her and hear her moan. “That’s right baby,” I encourage her. When her eyes finally flutter open I slowly inch the shorts and my panties down, shifting back once they reach my knees, and unceremoniously letting them join my top on the floor. I slowly lean back the rest of the way and reveal myself to her, the cool air colliding with my moist folds. “I’m already so wet for you.”

  “Mmm, you always are. Touch yourself, imagine that I’m there and touch yourself, just like I would.” I slowly slide my hand down my abdomen and start to caress my outer folds, groaning as I inch closer to my throbbing clit, knowing Isabella wouldn’t give me the satisfaction just yet.

  “You know how I would lick and tease you, I want to watch you.” Isabella grins as she watches me rubbing myself and drops her right hand down from her breast, bypassing her outer lips to slip straight into her slit. I can see the juices on her fingers as she slowly rubs up and down, slowly circling her clit with each stroke. My own fingers slip between my folds and start teasing my clit as I watch Isabella groan and grind against her hand, her other still teasing her erect nipples. We watch each other masturbating, encouraging each other, our pace ramping up, our breathing heavy, our moans more frequent. I know we’re both teetering on the edge, but when Isabella turns her face away from the camera and inhales from the pillow next to her, my pillow, I lose the little remaining control that I had. “Fuck, Isabella,” I moan as my muscles tighten, and my heart bursts. I watch her come on the monitor as she inhales my scent from the pillow once again. A tinge of jealousy hitting me that I can’t smell her right now.

  “Do you have any idea how much I miss you?” she asks as she turns her face back toward the camera.

  “Yeah, I do,” I inform her. We both slide our laptops back into our laps.

  “You know, I wasn’t planning on that.” I lift my eyebrow, showing her nothing but disbelief.

  “What exactly did you think would happen after you told me you masturbated thinking about me?”

  “Ok, so maybe I hoped it would happen.” Isabella grins, a satisfied, proud grin that reflects the cockiness she occasionally lets free. I can’t help but grin back, while her cockiness comes out in the bedroom, it isn’t who she really is at all. We chat for another hour before I tell her I must go to bed. Her lower lip protrudes in an adorable pout, but she doesn’t pressure me to stay awake. She does, however, make me promise to message her in the morning, despite the fact that it will be 7 am there, and she would have no reason other than surfing to be awake.

  Chapter 20

  The next week flies by in a blur. I’m so busy trying to play catch-up at work that I barely have a chance to breathe. That doesn’t mean that Isabella and I don’t chat every chance we get. I wake her every morning while I’m on my way to work, contact her at lunch (if I get one), and she contacts me every night before bed, even if she’s working late at the bar. Katrina and I exchange a few messages, mostly checking to see how the other one is doing.

  Dr. Valerie Westland is a pleasant surprise, and a godsend. Not only does she help shave a few hours off each of my OR days, but she has a great sense of humor, seems to fit right in with the staff and utilizes the same approaches that I do for my operations. I’m glad we were able to snag her when we did. By the end of the first week, I’m more than comfortable allowing her to take on some of the overwhelming case load I’ve been shouldering for years.

  Friday evening we’re wrapping up the last case around 6:30. I’m exhausted and want to go home, but Abby suggests we see if Catherine and Alex want to meet up for a drink at Velvet. So instead of going home, Abby, Valerie and I head to Velvet from the hospital to have a drink or two. I park at the bar and loiter in the car to connect with Isabella. I’ve nearly given up when she finally answers. I can see she’s working and kick myself for not remembering.

  “Hey, beautiful. Everything alright?” Her smile instantly eases the tension from the chaotic week.

  “Everything’s fine. Just wanted to let you know I’m meeting some friends for a drink or two before heading home. I forgot you’re working late tonight.”

  “It’s ok baby. We’re busy though, can I call you when I finish up here?” I smile at her, knowing she needs to hang up sooner than later.

  “I hope you will.”

  “I promise I will, have fun, be safe.” The chat disconnects and I head inside to join my friends.

  I stop and order a whiskey sour from Sandra on the main level before locating everyone upstairs around a pool table. Catherine and Alex are battling Abby and Valerie in what looks to be a close game. I join them and watch the action, striking up a conversation with whomever winds up near me.

  “Hey Sara, you didn’t tell us you hired a sister.” Alex grins at me. “Abby, I think you’re destined to be our token straight girl.” Alex laughs as I choke on my drink. I look at Valerie, I had no idea.

  “Sorry, I didn’t know,” I stammer. Valerie laughs.

  “Why would you? It isn’t a big deal. I’ve been meaning to come here, so this is great. You guys come here every weekend?”

  “No. The thought alone exhausts me. Alex and Abby usually have their own Friday night dinner thing. Usually by the time the week is done, I can’t wait to get home and relax.”

  “I know how you feel. I do like knowing I won’t feel so isolated here though. I had no idea there were so many of us at work.”

  “You’ve clearly never seen those two within 10 feet of each other then.” Valerie and I look at Catherine and Alex. Even though they aren’t touching, the sexual tension between them is palpable.

  “I haven’t, but they seem pretty great together.”

  “What are you drinking? I owe you a drink for helping me get out of the OR at a reasonable hour all week. You’ve been a real lifesaver.”

  “It isn’t a problem. I’m drinking a dirty martini, but wait until you finish yours to order me another. I’m not trying to get drunk.”

  “Understood. I think you’re up.”

  “Hey girls, didn’t know you were coming out tonight.” I look up to see Katrina, a very tipsy Katrina. Abby introduces her to Valerie, who doesn’t seem that impressed. Abby, Catherine, and Alex chat with Katrina while Valerie takes a seat next to me.

  “So that’s Katrina.” It isn’t a question. I look at her, and she releases a soft chuckle. “Sorry, they sort of gave me a brief history when we walked in. Said there was some sort of mess between the two of you, but then you went on vacation and met someone else.”

  “Ouch, that makes me sound like a horrible person. I don’t know what they told you, but she lost her long time partner seven months ago. I didn’t really know her before the accident, but happened to be in the OR the night it happened. Long story short, we became good friends and the last time we were all here for a friend’s moving away party we both got really drunk, and she kissed me before running away. I thought that maybe I had some feelings for her that I had been in denial about or had been ignoring. She showed up at my place claiming to have feelings for me and trying to get me into bed, but the way she was saying things, it was clear she was looking for something casual. I was confused, frustrated and exhausted from too much work. Everything just seemed so damn impossible at that point, so I found the first all inclusive resort trip I could and hopped on the first flight out the next morning to Punta Cana for two weeks. I met Isabella while I was there.” I can’t deny the smile that always swallows my face when I think about Isabella.

  “You’re quite smitten aren’t you?” I laugh, the smile never leaving my face.

  “Yeah, I think I am. She’ll be here in a week and a half, I can’t wait to see her.”

  “Let me guess, Katrina hasn’t taken the Isabella news very well.” We both turn our eyes toward Katrina and watch
the woman she’s with seemingly hold her up.

  “I guess not. We haven’t really talked about it, but given the way she abruptly left my place after I told her and how drunk she is right now…I don’t know what I’m supposed to do about that though.”

  “Nothing you can do other than just be honest.” I see Valerie’s eyes flit over in Katrina’s direction. “Who is that with her? Is she even old enough to drink?” Katrina’s companion is a woman who appears to be all of 20. Katrina sees my gaze and pulls the woman in my direction, everyone’s eyes behind her growing in size.

  “Hey, Sara.”

  “Katrina. Who’s your friend?”

  “This is…” Katrina is so drunk I don’t know if she is holding the other woman’s waist in order to stay vertical or because she wants to.

  “Sam,” the younger woman says, extending her hand to me. I feel embarrassed for Katrina, she can’t even remember the woman’s name.