by L. A. Banks
Bolting out of bed, she raced across the bedroom and down the hallway, then ran downstairs and snatched up the envelope that she’d left on the table. Then, slowly but surely, she retraced her steps like a thief, making sure that nothing was out of order, and that all traces of Brick’s home invasion were gone. Finally back in her bedroom, she stashed the wad of cash in the safe within her large walk-in closet, and then rushed out, suddenly remembering the condom-filled tissue ball in her wastebasket.
She stopped short and froze. Douglass was leaning against her doorframe with a satisfied smile.
“Took you long enough, Sid,” he said, straightening his French cuffs beneath his navy Armani.
“Leave my bedroom,” she said, going to the telephone and calling his bluff. She picked up the receiver and held it, her fingers poised to dial, but she dared not look at the wastebasket. DNA evidence; she’d really be screwed.
“Neighbors have eyes, even in this very shrub-intense, single family, tree-lined environment.” He chuckled and pushed off the doorframe, standing just outside it.
Her heart was beating so hard it made her ears ring. But just like he could never be nailed for circumstantial evidence, neither could she. Seeing a man enter and leave was one thing, proving any wrong-doing was another. After all, Brick was a licensed investigator. He had indeed been hired and had a right to be here…now what he did once he’d arrived was an entirely different question.
Sidney lifted her chin. How many women had Douglass screwed from the month after they’d been married onward? She’d gone for counseling, then papers, because the man refused to stop. Now he was using? Fuck it, this was her house.
“You need to watch your back, Douglass,” she crooned as sarcastically as possible, after the brief pause needed to collect herself.
“Oh, my, my, is that a threat I’ve caught on tape?”
“No,” she said evenly, setting down the phone to go to the door. “He’s security because I was feeling threatened by you. The neighbors will be seeing a lot of him. Do let them know so they won’t be alarmed.” With that, Sidney slammed the bedroom door in Douglass’s smug face and flipped the deadbolt.
Shaken, she crossed the room and hugged herself and stared out the window at the moon. Whoever the neighborhood stoolie was, she was just thankful they hadn’t been able to call Douglass home sooner. An hour earlier and she would have had to leave with her tail tucked between her legs. But there was no guilt. The marriage had long been destroyed and Douglass was no angel. He was obviously still high, and didn’t need to know that she’d hired an investigator. But she did like the little lie she’d told him about Brick being her bodyguard, even though Brick didn’t do that type of work. However, she sorta liked the sound of it, and man oh man did Brick guard her body well tonight. But leave it to Douglass to even ruin her most private thoughts.
Sidney picked up the wastebasket with a sigh and headed for the bathroom to flush the contents.
Someone was banging on the front door like the police. The sun was blinding her. Sidney rolled over, glimpsed at the clock and shrieked. It was 10:00 a.m. She hadn’t called the office, hadn’t set her alarm clock the night before, and in her fury with Douglass, hadn’t set the phone back in the cradle properly—so it was off the hook.
Snatching her robe, she unlocked her bedroom door and called out that she was on her way down, yanking on the baby blue silk cover-up while still running. When she got to the door, it was the police—Leonora.
“Can I help you, officer?” Sidney said laughing as she flung open the door. “Do they teach that scare-you-to-death banging at the Academy, girl?”
Leonora’s expression didn’t change as she responded, her eyes hidden behind dark aviator sunglasses and the bill of her hat set to perfection. “I was worried. You didn’t come to work, didn’t call in, phone was off the hook. It’s not like you to just be AWOL.”
“Girl, come in,” Sidney said, breezing out onto the porch landing and hugging Leonora. “I can explain all, and if you have time for a cup of coffee…I have some really, really juicy stuff to tell you,” she added with a giggling whisper. “Ohmigod, Leo…it’s…just let me check to see if Douglass got out of here, and we have to talk and have our coffee in my bedroom, because who knows if he’s tried to drop another device in here.”
Sidney watched a slow smile come out of hiding on Leonora’s face, then Leonora took off her hat, stashed it under her arm, and nodded.
“Fifteen minutes, then I go back to chasing bad guys.”
“Okay, let me case the house,” Sidney said, feeling like she could fly as she dashed around to every room checking for signs that Douglass had left.
She couldn’t stop giggling as she buzzed into the kitchen, satisfied that he’d gone, and then quickly began making coffee while talking a mile a minute in code.
“I’ll call the office after you leave and cite a migraine. This morning, I just needed time to really sleep in and rest…and I feel sooo relaxed, more than I have in years, girl!”
She took down two huge mugs from the wall and fixed Leonora her brew just the way she knew her best friend always liked it, four sugars and black, and then she fixed hers with one sugar and lots of cream. The only thing that puzzled her was that while she prattled on, Leonora was extra quiet this morning, when normally her home-girl was as boisterous as all get out. The only thing she could chalk it up to was the fact that Leonora had obviously been so worried that Douglass had finally done her some real bodily harm, it was taking her a minute to recalibrate herself.
Leonora watched Sidney zoom around the kitchen, her robe moving over her soft, pretty skin…breasts unfettered, swaying beneath a wash of blue…the lovely, smooth lobes of her butt brushed by silk…long, gorgeous legs flashing out, graceful hands preparing coffee for two, her mouth still looked kiss punished—hair a tussle of auburn velvet all over her head. Even just out of bed the woman got her aroused. Plus, Sidney still faintly smelled like sex, and she’d never picked up that scent on her before. It was always a fantasy, one locked deeply away and never allowed near the surface where a friendship could be destroyed by overstepping bounds.
But then Brick had opened Pandora’s Box by coming into the club looking pained, no—starved was a better word…like a man who’d just been given a sniff and then sent away. It fanned the flame of the fantasy, caused a hunger that was hard to ignore.
Leonora steadied her breathing as she watched Sidney from behind. She understood what Brick was going through…knew that feeling well, that ache, that need produced by one totally unaware. And although her friend knew she was open to alternatives, she didn’t know to what degree she’d been the object of secret desire for years.
“So, let’s go where we can talk,” Sidney said brightly, coming up to Leonora and giving her a big hug. “I love you, girl!”
Leonora held her close for a little longer than advisable and nuzzled her hair. “I love you, too, lady.”
Sidney broke away. “I’m all right—now. Don’t worry.” She beamed at Leonora and handed her a mug and then danced away, crooking her finger for her to follow.
Leonora pushed off the counter. Her body still burned where Sidney’s had pressed against it. If she’d done this to Brick, she now understood her pack-leader’s condition. By the time she’d reached the top of the stairs, after watching Sidney’s bottom bounce up and down before her, she could barely breathe. But once in the bedroom, where the lingering sex scent was more pungent, even though normal humans wouldn’t have been able to detect it, the ache between her legs was so acute she couldn’t sit down.
Sidney latched the door behind them, took a huge slurp of coffee, and then set her mug down on the dresser. “Girl…” she said, her voice a hiss of excitement.
Leonora closed her eyes and held onto the mug with both hands.
“I know, I know, you think I’m crazy, Leo…but that guy, Brick, you sent over here to do the job…whew!”
“I told you he was awesome,” Leonora
said flatly and then took a long sip from her mug.
“No, no, no—you did not tell me he was all that and smack-yo-Momma fine. No. You left that out, girl. You just said he was good at what he does, and you did not tell me how good he was at that, either!”
Leonora begrudgingly smiled. “He’s good people, and yeah, the man is fine.”
“Are you blind?” Sidney rushed up to her friend and suddenly kissed her cheek. “Leo, you know I haven’t been laid in two years…you know how bad Douglass treated me before that.” She held Leonora by both arms, threatening to spill her coffee. “I was so horny last night, I thought I’d lose my mind…then he came back, and well…I lost my mind.”
Leonora’s mouth opened and closed. “You actually went all the way…and did him?”
Sidney looked both ways and leaned into Leonora so she could whisper into her ear. “Ohmigod, gurl, it was so freakin’ hot that I was in here sobbing. He gave me my money back, but somehow I wanna give it back to him for what he did last night…but I don’t want him to feel like it’s a slap in his face—like I’m saying I’m paying for that, but I also don’t want him to feel like I’m trying to get over on him…I don’t even know this man or his whole name—this guy who peels out of the shadows like he’s the dag-gone darkness itself, and can jump a tree limb from thirty feet at a dead stand.” She pulled back from Leonora, their bellies still touching and stared her in the eyes. “I know I sound crazy, perhaps I am, but now getting with him is all I can think about. Do you know what I mean?”
“Yeah,” Leonora said, her voice a gravelly rasp. “When you want something so badly, it’s right there, and you’re so hot you don’t know what to do because it’s been so long. I feel you.”
Sidney nodded. “But I have to keep my perspective. He’s here to do a job, not to get all complicated in my crazy, lonely life—I know that. What happened was probably just an accident on his part…and mine, because I was in such a bad way. But I really like this guy—although, I don’t know anything about him.”
“You’re gonna have to ask him to divulge all, because he’s my buddy, too,” Leonora said, caressing Sidney’s cheek with the pad of her thumb.
Sidney captured Leonora’s hand and pressed a hard kiss into the center of her palm. “I know. I respect that.” She sighed and broke their embrace, and went to fetch her cooling coffee. “But I’m not going to lie. I’m just so…”
“Horny right now,” Leonora breathed out and took a healthy slurp of her coffee.
“Yeah, girl,” Sidney said, laughing. She flopped down on the bed and held her cup with both hands. “I need some so bad. Just one more time. Do you hear me?”
Leonora nodded, the ache between her thighs now almost unbearable. She was so wet that she feared it would show through her uniform pants. But she tried to keep a steely grit, even though every breath made her nipples sting. “It’s been a real long time for me, too, girl. I know. I can’t even talk about it.”
Sidney sighed. “Life shouldn’t be this hard.”
Leonora didn’t move, but continued watching Sidney as she popped up from the bed and abandoned the coffee mug on the nightstand, then went to her underwear drawer. Leonora’s eyes followed her around the room as she hunted for a clean bra and panties she would wear that day after she showered. She knew the routine by heart, it had fueled so many fantasies that she’d begun timing her appearances at Sidney’s door just to be able to watch her get dressed. By rote, Sidney kept talking, the words becoming more distant as Leonora watched her disrobe.
But she could barely hold her black coffee as Sidney casually stripped blue silk away from her body, and the sunlight from the windows bathed her petite breasts in golden rays. Leonora could feel her lids lowering; it was almost too much to take in and not be able to go to touch her. Sidney’s caramel-hued nipples were relaxed and she wished for a cool breeze to make them tighten in her sight. If she could just lick them, pull them between her lips, just once…feel Sidney’s tongue against hers, taste her pretty mouth…feel her damp, silky hair as her hand slid over her mound. Just the thought of that was causing her breaths to grow shallow. Coffee notwithstanding, between every sip her mouth went dry.
Leonora allowed her gaze to slide down her friend’s flat abdomen toward the thatch of dark, silky hair that she’d do anything to taste. There was no doubt about it; she’d have to stop home for ten minutes alone in the bathroom after seeing Sidney like this.
“I’ll be out in a second,” Sidney called over her shoulder. “Or you can come in and sit on the toilet like we always do, so we can still talk—like I have a million questions—just say, ‘no, I can’t go there,’ or ‘yes, I can answer that.’ I promise to respect your boundaries, girl, really, really I will—but this man is…wow.”
“No problem,” Leonora murmured, sipping her lukewarm java. “Brick, you’re one lucky SOB,” she whispered, and then pushed off the dresser to go watch Sidney shower.
Leonora was practically panting by the time she’d gotten back into the police cruiser. Watching the water cascade down Sidney’s naked, cinnamon body…seeing her lather herself through the glass shower door, the steam a sensual cloak making her hotter as she watched…then the whole process of her girlfriend toweling off, applying cream to her skin…then putting on the sexiest, sheerest, ice pink bra and panties.
She understood Brick’s dilemma very well. Leonora swallowed hard, got out of the vehicle, and bound up the steps of her apartment building. She was gonna lose her job for sure, as she’d been where she wasn’t supposed to be all morning. She was just glad that it had been relatively quiet. By now, her normal lunch break time, she was near insane.
Fumbling with her keys, she hurried into the building and didn’t wait for the elevator. She hated being single. Her last girlfriend break-up still stung, and six months was a very long time to be solo…especially with Miss Sidney prancing around naked.
As soon as Leonora opened and slammed the door behind her, she headed for the bathroom, tossing her hat on the sofa like a Frisbee as she passed it.
Her starched, blue shirt felt like it was strangling her, and she fumbled with the tie and buttons at her neck just to get it partially opened. The moment she did, she let out a quiet groan and covered both breasts with her palms. Her nipples stung so badly that she couldn’t immediately bring her hands away from them; they’d ached to be touched for hours. As she flicked her thumbs across them, coaxing them out over the edge of her bra, the long-awaited sensation made her rhythmically squeeze her thighs together.
Panting, her hips undulating against nothing, she finally brought her hands to her belt and slacks fastenings. She was so swollen and so wet that the slightest caress, even through the fabric, made her gasp. Her bud was throbbing, agony rippled in waves up her canal—she dug her hand into her pants, fingers instantly sliding against her drenched slit, causing her to swoon against the door, and almost cum the second she touched herself.
Steadier now, Leonora leaned against the door for a few minutes, catching her breath, her eyes closed, clothes disheveled. Slowly she peeled herself away from the shut door and approached the sink to wash her hands and splash cold water on her face. She peered up into the mirror and stared at her reflection. “Damn, Brick. How’d you walk away, man?” In fact, how did Douglass West just walk away?
She splashed her face again with water and grabbed a towel, sheepishly looking at her backside to see if she’d wet her pants through. That’s the last thing she’d need, as she didn’t have time for a whole uniform change. Maybe she could just shimmy her slacks down and wipe several times with a wad of tissue.
Then it hit her as she bent over the sink to clean herself up. The only way Doug West would have been able to really walk, was if he wasn’t even into Sidney in the first place.
Leonora stood very slowly. All the cheerleaders and extraneous booty in the clubs…a cover-up. The brother was on the DL. Damn. Time to get Madame Irvinia in the mix.
Chapter Four
* * *
“Madame Irvinia is the only way!” Leonora argued, grabbing Brick’s arm.
“The woman said she didn’t want her husband hurt,” Brick yelled, wrenching out of Leonora’s hold. “You know that old lady’s got enough mojo to make a werewolf heel, so—”
“The girl said no violence, but she didn’t say—”
“She didn’t say plagues, boils, cancer, a stroke, a car accident by way of an eighteen wheeler collision off a cliff, a—”
“Okay, okay, I hear you,” Leonora grumbled. “But you oughta let her throw the bones and kill a chicken to save us some time and aggravation in finding out when and where the trail begins on West’s secret life.”
Brick stopped pacing in his Center City apartment and bristled. “What’s with the ‘us’? I thought this was my case, my kill? I thought you’d brought the alpha in on the job to bring closure to the problem, once and for all?”
Leonora looked away. “Yeah, well, she’s still my best friend.”
“She’ll always be that, but you best be clear where the line is.”
Leonora’s eyes still didn’t meet Brick’s as she spoke. “I thought you said last night that she hadn’t taken you there…permanent-like. That you were cool.”
It was his turn to look away. He couldn’t answer Leonora right now, not about this Sidney thing he hadn’t figured out. “Let’s go see Madame O,” he said in a near snarl. “We’ll pick up the trail, and get this bad guy out of the woman’s life…then later, me and you can squabble over the bones.”
Leonora begrudgingly nodded. “Fine.”
She’d been jittery at work all day. Once she’d gotten there.