The Lonely Hearts Club

by Radclyffe

  “Liz?” Bren asked, looking puzzled.

  “Hmm? Sorry.”

  “I was asking about the birthing classes? When do we start?”

  “Not until the last trimester. We’ve got a ways to go yet.”

  Abruptly, Candace finished her drink and slid from the booth. “I’m sorry, I’ve got to run.” She leaned over and pecked Bren on the cheek. “We’ll pick you up at nine tomorrow night, okay?”

  Surprised, Bren nodded. “Okay. Sure. Did you forget about a hot date or something?”

  Candace didn’t look in Liz’s direction. “Just something I need to take care of. See you both tomorrow. Then we’ll party!”

  Bren stared after her, then looked questioningly to Liz. “Is she okay?”

  “She’ll be fine,” Liz said, hoping it was true.

  *

  Candace made it to the Main Line in twenty minutes. She pulled into the circular drive in front of the elegant brick colonial and jumped from the car. Moving quickly so she wouldn’t have to think about exactly what she was doing, she hurried up the flagstone walk and rapped the brass knocker on the Wedgwood blue door. A minute later, Parker answered.

  “Hello,” Parker said leaning against the door and grinning. “Just happen to be in the neighborhood?”

  “This is a sympathy call.” Candace took in Parker’s bare feet, blue jeans, and faded blue oxford shirt. She looked good even though her face was badly discolored. Her right eye was open now and she regarded Candace quizzically. “How are you doing?”

  Parker held the door open wide. “A lot better right now. Come on in.”

  Candace took in the tasteful antique furnishings in the foyer and what she could see of the library and formal sitting room as she followed Parker down the wide hall. Parker turned into a study in the rear and said over her shoulder, “Can I get you something to drink?”

  “No, thanks.” Candace paused in the doorway. She hadn’t come to socialize, but she wasn’t selfish enough to risk interfering with Parker’s recovery. “Your face looks better.”

  “It is.” Parker turned to study Candace, who looked wired, as if she were high. Parker knew that wasn’t it. She stepped closer and deliberately surveyed the length of Candace’s body. “Something else I can do for you?”

  “Maybe there’s something we can do for each other.”

  “I’m not at my kissing best.” Parker stepped behind Candace and pulled her against her. She cupped Candace’s breasts and whispered in her ear, “But everything else is working just fine.”

  Candace leaned her head back against Parker’s shoulder, swaying as Parker massaged her breasts. “I want you to make me come.”

  Parker laughed, wondering who had gotten her so worked up and why they hadn’t taken care of her. Foolish of them. For a second, she resented whoever it was, but then, Candace was here now. She had come to her, and at the moment, that was enough. “I think I can take care of that for you.”

  “You better,” Candace panted, covering Parker’s hands and squeezing Parker’s fingers around her breasts even harder. “I feel like I’m going to explode if I don’t come soon.”

  “Let’s go,” Parker said sharply, grabbing Candace’s hand and spinning her around. She practically dragged her down the hall and up the stairs to her bedroom. Whoever had started this, she was going to finish it. And when she did, Candace wouldn’t be thinking of anyone except her.

  “Are you sure it’s all right?” Candace asked again.

  “Shut up.” Parker halted by the side of the bed and kissed Candace hard. “I’ll tell you if there’s something I can’t handle.”

  “All right,” Candace said with a predatory gleam in her eye. She put her fingertips in the center of Parker’s chest and pushed her backward toward the bed. “Lie down.”

  Wordlessly, Parker complied.

  “You’re not supposed to do anything strenuous.” Candace climbed onto the bed and straddled Parker’s thighs. She unbuttoned her blouse and dropped it by the side of the bed, then reached behind her and unclasped her bra. She let it fall from her arms and cupped her breasts. “So you can just watch.”

  “Not on your life,” Parker muttered.

  “All right then,” Candace whispered. “You can direct.”

  “Anything I want?”

  Candace smiled, trailing her fingers over her breasts. “Name it.”

  “Get naked.” Parker’s gaze locked on Candace’s face as she unbuttoned her own jeans. “And take my pants off, too.”

  Candace unzipped her slacks, then shifted from side to side to remove them and her panties. When she was nude, she grasped the waistband of Parker’s jeans and pulled them down her thighs, murmuring appreciatively when she saw that Parker wore nothing underneath. While Candace got Parker’s jeans off, Parker unbuttoned her shirt and yanked it off, then lay down with her back propped against several pillows.

  “Anything else I can do for you?” Candace asked, her breasts flushed and her pink nipples hard as marbles.

  “Sit in my lap, facing me.”

  “Butterfly. Nice,” Candace purred, settling into the cradle of Parker’s pelvis and wrapping her legs behind Parker’s hips. She tilted forward and rubbed herself over Parker’s stomach. “I’m wet.”

  “Tease your nipples,” Parker said, sweeping her thumb back and forth over Candace’s lower belly.

  Candace caught her lower lip between her teeth as she pulled both nipples between her thumbs and forefingers. She glanced down, watching Parker’s thumb move closer and closer to the base of her clitoris. Her hips undulated in a slow circle against Parker’s hard stomach.

  “Pinch them.” Parker dipped her thumb lower for a second, then skipped away.

  “Oh God.” Candace squeezed her breasts and pinched her nipples with her nails. “I want you to play with my clit.”

  “Who’s in charge here?” Parker grunted. Watching Candace become more and more excited, feeling the hot slick of her arousal paint her stomach, was making her crazy. It took all her willpower not to thrust her fingers deep inside Candace and make her come, right now, but she sensed Candace wanted to be controlled for just a little longer. She moved her hand away from Candace’s center. “You play with it.”

  “I’ll come.”

  “No you won’t. You’re not going to come until I make you, and if you do, it’s the last time I ever will.”

  “Oh come on, baby,” Candace whined, pressing two fingers to the base of her clit. “I need to come.”

  “Too bad.” Parker watched first Candace’s face, then her fingers circling between her legs, her own clitoris so hard it hurt. “Use two hands.”

  Candace’s eyes slammed shut as she tilted her pelvis and slid two fingers deep inside herself. Her fingers jerked over her clitoris, faster and faster.

  “I’m going to come,” Candace blurted.

  Parker grabbed her wrists and pulled them away. “Slide up here.”

  “Be careful of your face,” Candace gasped. “Oh God I’m so close.”

  “Play with your breasts again.” Parker cupped Candace’s ass and eased her higher up on the bed. “And watch.”

  Candace stared down, her body bowed, as she rubbed and tweaked her nipples. Parker gently kissed her clitoris and she started to come. She held herself perfectly still as Parker kissed her again, her orgasm unfurling like a flower beneath the sun, reaching, stretching, bursting with heat and life deep inside her.

  “Kiss me again,” Candace whispered.

  Parker did.

  Candace’s breath shuddered from her. “Again.”

  Parker tenderly circled her lips around Candace’s clitoris and sucked slowly until she had her all the way inside her mouth. Then she flicked her tongue back and forth.

  Candace threw her head back, pulsing against Parker’s mouth, exploding beyond pleasure, coming again and again. She fell forward, barely able to catch herself on her trembling arms. “Oh God. God. God, I needed that.”

  “No kidding.” Gri
nning, Parker stretched her arm out as Candace collapsed next to her and cradled her against her side. “Catch your breath. Then I want to come in your mouth.”

  Immediately, Candace propped herself up on an elbow, sweeping her hair back from her face with her other hand. “Fast or slow?”

  “Doesn’t matter,” Parker said. “I’m only going to last about two seconds.”

  Candace worked her way down the bed and settled between Parker’s thighs. “You’re wrong about that. I can make it last as long as I want.”

  What seemed to Parker like hours later, after she’d almost come a half dozen times but somehow Candace had stopped her orgasm before it could crest, she finally gave in and begged. “I can’t take it anymore. Please let me come.”

  “Soon, baby.” Candace eased her fingers inside her and teased the circle of muscle below with her thumb.

  Parker groaned and raised her hips, inviting Candace deeper. “I’m going to come. Oh yeah, fuck me. Fu…”

  Candace pressed deeper with both hands as Parker climaxed in her mouth. Candace didn’t think of Liz. She didn’t think of anyone or anything except how open and trusting and exquisitely beautiful Parker was in that moment. When Parker finally went slack with a long sigh, Candace nuzzled her face against Parker’s stomach.

  “So, did you get what you came for?” Parker teased, stroking her hair.

  “Oh yeah,” Candace whispered. What she didn’t say, what she didn’t even want to think about, was that she’d found more than she’d ever expected.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Reilly’s beeper went off just as she slammed her locker, finally ready to leave for the night. Grimacing, she checked the readout. She’d been on call the night before and should have gone home first thing in the morning. Instead she’d ended up working an extra ten hours because the ortho trauma service had a dozen cases scheduled for the day, and she knew if she didn’t stay and do some of them, the patients were likely to get bumped until the next day or even Sunday. And besides that, she hadn’t had any good reason to go home, other than to sleep, and she’d been too restless all week to do much of that. Every time she lay down and the quiet closed in around her, she thought of Liz. Funny, once Annie had occupied her thoughts in those moments between waking and slumber, but now it was Liz, and that was as disturbing as it was different. No, it was much better to work and keep all those confusing ruminations at bay.

  She frowned at the four digit number. It was the phone at the security station in the lobby. A visitor? Her heart rate soared. Liz. She grabbed the wall phone and punched in the extension.

  “Danvers,” Reilly said immediately, before the caller had even finished saying hello.

  “Reilly? It’s Parker.”

  Reilly swallowed her disappointment. “Hey. How’re you doing?”

  “I just had my follow-up appointment. All systems go.”

  “That’s great.”

  “Listen, how about I buy you dinner? I owe you a lot more than that, but hey—it’s a start.”

  “You don’t owe me anything,” Reilly said. “I appreciate the offer, but…”

  “You got a game tonight?”

  “No, Sunday.”

  “So then, how about dinner,” Parker insisted.

  Reilly couldn’t think of a reason to refuse, and maybe an hour or so of socializing and a drink or two would help her relax enough to sleep.

  “Okay,” Reilly said. “I’m in scrubs, though. I need to go home and shower and change. Why don’t I give you my address and you can meet me there. Have a drink while you wait.”

  “Great. We’ll make a night of it. Grab dinner, go to a club, maybe run into some interesting ladies.”

  “Sure. Why not. I’ll be right down.” Reilly hung up the phone. Maybe that was exactly what she needed, a little dose of Parker’s prescription for a good time.

  *

  “I can’t believe I don’t have anything to wear,” Liz complained, whipping the clothes back and forth along the rack in her bedroom closet in frustration.

  “We’re going to a strip club,” Candace pointed out as she lounged on the bed in tight, white hip-huggers and a navy halter top. “Jeans and some slinky little top will work just fine.”

  “My jeans are too tight and my breasts are too big.”

  “Don’t tell me you don’t have at least one pair of jeans tucked away somewhere that will fit,” Candace said.

  “Maybe.”

  “And your breasts are fine.” Candace wiggled her eyebrows. “In fact, I like the busty look on you.”

  Liz glowered. “C-cups are hardly what I’d call busty.”

  “Is this just normal pregnancy grumps or is something else going on?” Candace asked.

  Liz sat next to Candace, holding a red silk blouse in her hands. “I miss Reilly.”

  “I guess you haven’t heard from her.”

  “Not since she left Bren’s last weekend.”

  “Maybe that’s not such a bad thing.”

  “Why don’t you like her?”

  “It’s not that. Hey, I’m all for having a little fun. But from everything you said, Reilly seems way too complicated, you know?”

  “I know. I know.” Liz sighed and went back to the closet to search through a stack of clothes on the top shelf. She probably did have something that would fit. Without turning around, she said conversationally, “So, where did you run off to yesterday in the middle of lunch?”

  “Parker’s,” Candace replied.

  “How is she?”

  “In prime form.”

  Liz turned around with a pair of blue jeans that she had put away after losing ten pounds her first year in practice. They would have been loose on her three months before, but now they would probably fit just right. “Prime form as in she’s recovering or…?”

  “As in she’s much better, and she can make me come so hard I feel like I’m seeing God.”

  “Ah,” Liz said, for some reason both embarrassed and a little turned on. She almost envied Candace having someone to go to, someone she desired and trusted to take care of her physical needs, whereas she had been restless and semi-aroused all week with no options except of her own making. Not that she minded that, but it just wasn’t taking the edge off.

  “Ah, what?” Candace said, suddenly cranky herself. It wasn’t like her afternoon with Parker was anything other than convenient.

  “Nothing, I just think it’s…I don’t know, nice.”

  “Nice?” Candace laughed. “Okay, it was nice.”

  “Are you seeing her again?”

  “No,” Candace said rapidly. “Not as in seeing seeing. I did mention we were going to the Blue Diamond tonight.” Candace looked away. “I didn’t invite her or anything. I think it just slipped out when I was still a little mellow.”

  “Don’t you mean dazed and disoriented from your out-of-this-world orgasm?” Laughing, Liz tucked in her blouse and breathed a sigh of relief when she could button her jeans. Her waistline had expanded at least an inch, except now that she actually studied it, she had a little bit more of a tummy rather than a bigger waistline. “I think it’s fine if she joins us. I like her, and so does Bren. And God, it’s a strip club. It’s not like we’re going to be having any deep personal conversations.”

  “Well, if she does show up, it’s not like we’re going to be together or anything.”

  “Of course not.” Liz gave Candace a quick hug. “Stop being so afraid of having a relationship. They’re not life-threatening.”

  “How do you know? They could be lethal for some of us.”

  Liz paused by her bedroom door and regarded Candace seriously. “Do you actually believe that?”

  “They just don’t work for me. I proved that with you, didn’t I?”

  “I think the only thing you proved with me was that you were young and you weren’t ready to settle down. It doesn’t mean you’re not relationship material.”

  Candace studied her hands, unusually subdued. “I was in lo
ve with you. If I could fuck that up, I could fuck anything up.”

  “Maybe we moved too fast,” Liz said, leaning against the doorjamb with her hands behind her back. “Maybe we weren’t right for each other.”

  “We were great together.”

  “We had great sex. And we cared about each other.” Liz didn’t know herself why that wasn’t enough. Shouldn’t it be? Maybe they should try again. She wasn’t even certain why she’d said no to Candace’s kiss the day before. They loved each other. Candace was gorgeous and sexy and just about irresistible. Suddenly, Liz thought of Reilly and how when Reilly touched her, she felt Reilly in a place so deep, so fundamentally her that the connection made her ache. No one had ever made her feel quite like that, not Candace whom she had adored, or Julia whom she had wanted so desperately to love. She sighed. “And I love you to pieces, but maybe it just wasn’t meant to be.”

  Candace raised her head and met Liz’s eyes across the room. “Do you believe that? Some things are meant to be?”

  “Maybe. Sometimes I think so.” Liz smiled ruefully and shrugged. “Although right now, I’m batting zero.”

  “No you’re not.” Candace bounced up off the bed and slunk across the room, her eyes glittering. She kissed Liz soundly on the mouth, then wrapped her arm around her waist. “You’ve got Bren. And you’ve got me. And if you need to get laid, you’ve got my number.”

  Laughing, Liz threw her arm around Candace’s shoulder. “Good to know, since you’re on speed dial.”

  *

  Bren checked the time. 8:59 p.m. Candace and Liz would be downstairs to pick her up any second. She should check her make-up one last time and go downstairs to wait for them, but instead, she sat staring at her email. At exactly nine p.m. she pushed send/receive and watched her mail download. A message appeared—the same message that had appeared every night at nine p.m. for the last four nights.