by AJ Quinn
Liz took a longer look. “Maybe. One question first. Is there anything going on with her and Kellen that I should know about?”
“No. They dated once, but nothing came of it and now they’re friends. Just friends. I would think it makes them both available, don’t you think, Dana?”
Dana groaned, feeling the well-intentioned comment hit home. “Are you trying to match everyone up?”
“Always,” Lesley said dryly. “Ever since we got together, it’s like she can’t help herself.”
Annie shrugged. “I just want everyone to be as happy as I am. If this job has taught me anything, it’s that life is unpredictable, and everyone should make the most of it while they can.”
“I’ll drink to that,” Kellen said as someone handed her a beer. “Hey, Lesley. Glad you could make it. Is everyone doing okay?”
“Yes, now come and eat something before it’s all gone.”
Kellen looked at the remnants of pizza and wings and slowly shook her head. “Actually, I’m not very hungry.”
Dana didn’t like her answer. Nor her tone of voice. Kellen looked too pale, her eyes tired and flat. And she was holding her body stiffly, as if it was taking an act of sheer will to remain standing. “What is it, Kellen? Is something wrong? Is it Tim?”
“Actually, Tim’s good. I talked to the hospital just before I got here. He was awake, his skull’s not fractured, the neurological exam was fine, and the CT scan was normal. Balance, reflexes, memory, everything’s fine. They’re just going to keep him a couple of days to be sure.”
“That’s great news.”
“Absolutely. He’s got one hell of a headache and according to the doctor I spoke with he’ll be dealing with post-concussion symptoms for a while. He’s also not very happy they had to shave part of his head so they could stitch him, but hair’ll grow back.” Her voice faded and she paused as if uncertain what else to say. Or what else needed to be said.
“He’ll be chasing nurses by tomorrow morning,” someone said.
The comment made everyone at the table laugh and as they began sharing Tim stories, Dana tugged on Kellen’s hand. “Will you tell me what’s wrong?”
Kellen looked at her and shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s like everything has gotten out of sync all of a sudden and I can’t quiet the noise in my head.” She swallowed. “One millimeter, Dana. One millimeter to the left and he’d be dead.”
Dana could hear the fear still lurking in Kellen’s voice. “Try not to think about it.”
“How am I supposed to do that?”
In the corner, someone dropped money in the jukebox and punched in the number for a ballad. Dana smiled, deliberately slow and sexy. “Come and dance with me. It’ll get your mind off things.”
“Ah, Dana—” Kellen seemed nonplussed for a second and a line formed between her eyebrows as she considered her options.
“Don’t think. Just come and dance with me and, for a little while, try to forget about everything else.” She held out her hand, pleased when Kellen finally took it and allowed herself to be led away from the table to the half-filled dance floor. A few members of the team looked up, smiled as they passed, and went back to their conversations.
*
The music drifted over them as they got to the dance floor. With Dana settled in against her, Kellen wrapped her arms around her waist. Somehow she’d forgotten—forgotten how soft a woman’s body could be. How warm and inviting.
The nearly foreign sensation should have made her pull back. She should have never compromised the safety of feeling nothing. But instead, she moved them in a tight turn, a move that brought one of Dana’s legs between her thighs.
Almost immediately, a wave of heat washed over her, accompanied by a warning sound in her head. A litany she’d been repeating for a while. Or at least, that was how it seemed.
In spite of their disparate backgrounds—the wealthy East Coast doctor and the former runaway—they’d become friends. Possibly really good friends. She liked Dana. Not just her face and her body, but her sense of humor, her intelligence, her compassion. She enjoyed Dana’s company and didn’t want to do anything to jeopardize the relationship they’d developed. She needed to respect that, no matter how much her more primal instincts protested.
But more to the point, a person just needed to look at Dana to know she was made for better things. A long-term relationship. A lifetime commitment. While she was made for—just what the hell was she made for?
She licked her suddenly dry lips and heat rushed to her face when Dana slid her hands up her back, sending shivers racing through her. “Um…Dana?”
In the low light, Dana’s eyes gleamed with mischief before she burrowed her lithe body closer and pressed her lips to Kellen’s throat, licking the skin she found there with the tip of her tongue.
“Dana,” Kellen whispered, trying to stop a whimper from escaping her throat. “God, you’re so damn beautiful. And you’re killing me.”
“Really?” There was gentle, teasing humor in her voice. “Because I’d have to say you feel very much alive to me and I am a doctor. So trust me on this. But you do feel a little hot. Are you running a fever again?”
Yes. She spun Dana out to arm’s length and then reeled her back in, buying enough time to take a deep breath. But all too soon, their bodies were once again lined up, breast to breast, hip to hip, causing full-body sensory overload as they swayed to the music. And when Dana’s hand slipped beneath Kellen’s sweater and began moving in tantalizing circles on her back, it lit a fire deep inside her.
“I have a question,” she murmured.
“Yes.”
Kellen laughed. “But you haven’t heard the question yet.”
Dana tilted her head back, exposing the silky column of her throat as she stared back at her, her gaze intent. “It doesn’t matter. The answer is yes.”
The noise in the pub grew distant—the sultry blues music, the pool tables, the raucous laughter—then disappeared altogether as Kellen dropped her gaze to Dana’s mouth. How many times had she wanted to taste that beautiful mouth? How many times had she wanted to feel those soft lips moving over her own? But she could also feel the lingering doubts, beckoning her to retreat, to throw up her walls of self-defense.
“Dana…” she tried weakly.
“Yes, Kellen. Don’t you get it? It doesn’t matter how many times or how many different ways you ask. My answer will still be yes.”
Kellen blinked, taking a brief moment to align things in her mind. Only the moment didn’t seem to help. Grateful for the shadows cast by the fire pit that would help hide some of what she was feeling, she managed to mutter, “’Kay.”
Without saying another word, she drew Dana back to the group at the table and grabbed their coats. As she shrugged into her jacket, Kellen caught Annie’s eyes. Saw her smile and mouth something that looked remarkably like it’s about time. Then Dana reached for her hand again, their fingers entwined, and nothing else existed but the woman beside her. A woman who knew what she was and still wanted her.
The instant they stepped outside into the cold night air, Kellen stopped abruptly.
“Kellen,” Dana questioned softly, brows narrowed in concern. “Is there a problem?”
Unable to speak, feeling a range of emotions too strong to deny, giving in to desire and longing, Kellen pulled Dana into a narrow alleyway between two buildings and pinned her against the wall. Planting her hands, one at a time, on either side of Dana’s head, she brought her closer, pleased when she saw Dana’s eyes slowly close and her lips slowly part. And then she closed the remaining distance between their mouths, channeling everything into one singular activity. Focused solely on the amazing pleasure of kissing Dana.
Coaxing. Teasing. Hot. Possessive. Her thoughts scattered and she was enveloped by both Dana’s and her own need. But her body had no trouble staying on track as they melded. Heat against heat. She drove her hands into Dana’s hair, slanted her head for a better angle as her tongue
slipped inside and she deepened the kiss. Pouring everything she had and everything she was feeling into the play of their mouths.
*
Wrapping her arms around Kellen’s neck, Dana welcomed the wild dance of lips and tongue, returning every lick and taste until her body melted against the wall and only Kellen’s strong arms were keeping her standing. She tasted need. Tasted desire. Tasted the barely concealed restraint.
When the kissing started to intensify, to turn into something far more involved than the simple press of lips and sweep of tongues, Kellen pushed back against Dana’s shoulders, putting inches of space between them.
She looked at Kellen, at a loss to explain why the kiss had ended, while she willed some strength back into her legs. “Is something wrong?”
“I’m sorry,” Kellen said, still breathing hard.
Dana frowned. “For kissing me?”
“God, no. You’ve had me so hot for so long, I’m barely hanging on right now. But that’s no excuse for pulling you into an alley and—”
“I don’t see anything wrong with where we are.” Dana looked around and smiled. “In fact, another few seconds and I’d have started to rip your clothes off. Right here.”
“Really?”
“Yes. You’ll discover I’m remarkably low maintenance. But it is a little on the cold side, so for now, there’s only one question you need to answer. Your cabin or mine?”
“Dana,” Kellen whispered hoarsely, her eyes so dark they were nearly black. “I’m not—”
“Your cabin or mine, Kellen?”
Kellen closed her eyes and released a soft breath. “Mine. I want you in my cabin and in my bed. Does that make me too Neanderthal?”
“Actually, it sounds perfect.” A laugh slipped out as Dana grabbed Kellen’s jacket and pulled her closer. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
“What if I hurt you?”
“That’s a chance I’m willing to take.”
Kellen cupped her face for an instant and gave her another kiss. This one sweet and much too brief, but it would have to be enough to hold her over as they walked in the dark and cold toward her Jeep.
The drive to Kellen’s cabin was a blur. Dana was oblivious to everything except the pounding in her chest, the surge of arousal, and the liquid heat pooling deep inside her. So much so that she was nearly giddy with relief when they finally arrived.
Even as the front door closed behind them, they came together with greedy hands and hungry mouths. They shed jackets, tugged at sweaters, kicked off boots, and tried not to trip in the darkness.
“Bed,” she managed to say between kisses.
They moved across the room without breaking the kiss, miraculously reaching the bedroom without falling. Kellen moved away from her long enough to pull the covers back from the neatly made bed. And then they landed on it together.
Eager to touch and be touched, Dana planted a kiss on Kellen’s mouth. “Hold on a moment,” she said, as she scrambled off the bed and out of her remaining clothes in record speed.
Finally naked, she turned back to the bed only to stop short. Kellen had shed her remaining clothes as well and was lying in the middle of the bed. Gloriously naked, desire burned in bright blue eyes. She gave a throaty laugh, held out her hand, and whispered, “Come here.”
A thrill raced through Dana and her groin tightened.
She accepted Kellen’s hand and allowed herself to be tugged onto the bed so that she ended on top of Kellen. Body to body. Skin to skin.
Straddling her hips, she leaned in, her breath hot on Kellen’s neck. She gave a tentative lick to the tender skin she found there before moving to the underside of her jaw. And then she continued leaving a damp trail until their mouths met in a deep, soul-searing kiss that had their tongues touching, probing, and twisting together.
Breathing heavily, Dana finally tore her mouth away and pushed herself back. She felt more alive and charged than she’d ever experienced and she took her time, half mesmerized, drinking her fill of Kellen. From her half-closed eyes to her hot, swollen mouth to her toned, long, and lean body. Sleek and golden. Glorious.
Reaching out with a slightly shaking hand, Dana began gently to trace the contours of Kellen’s collarbone, pausing while she used her thumb and forefinger to pinch and tease nipples into hard peaks. Closing her eyes, Kellen whimpered softly.
Driven by the sound, drawn closer still by the scent of Kellen’s warm skin, and unable to further resist the allure of her small breasts, Dana captured an erect nipple with her mouth. She was rewarded by the unmistakable hitch in Kellen’s breathing, as she continued on her provocative journey. She reveled in the feel of muscles moving beneath her hands as she slid down Kellen’s chest and across her abs, moving lower, licking and placing barely there kisses.
Kellen watched breathlessly as Dana teased her, moving infinitesimally lower and lower, her hair flowing like silk against her heated skin. A part of her wanted it to go on forever. Another part wanted—
Oh God, yes. She felt the pressure of strong thumbs parting her, stretching her skin, then the welcome sensation of a flat, soft tongue. The contact was electric. She immediately drove her fingers through Dana’s hair and arched her back, seeking to increase the pressure from that tantalizing tongue.
As Dana drove her closer and closer to the edge, Kellen held her tighter, trying to hold on, then flinched when Dana’s finger tentatively started to slip inside. Dana’s finger immediately retreated. But her mouth and tongue never slowed. Alternately licking, sucking, and biting the hot, hypersensitive flesh she found until Kellen’s control began to slip away by degrees and her pulse was racing once again.
“God, Dana, if you’re trying to make me go off like a firecracker, you’re very close to succeeding.”
Dana’s laugh, hot and sexy, was nearly enough to send her over the edge. “Is that a bad thing?”
“No.” She stared at her. Awed. Not only because of Dana’s beauty, but because of her lack of pretense, and her eagerness to play. “Please. Don’t make me beg.”
“No problem…it seems we both want the same thing…”
In the next instant, Kellen threw her head back as acute waves of pleasure began rolling over her. An endless onslaught of pleasurable sensations stemming from Dana’s relentless mouth that drove her higher and higher until she couldn’t hear anything but the rush of blood through her ears, the sound of her own ragged breathing, and the scream trapped in her throat when Dana chose that moment to slide her tongue deep inside her.
She went over the edge. Willingly. Effortlessly. Hoarsely calling out Dana’s name.
*
For the second time in a few short days, Dana found herself laying in the darkness watching Kellen sleep. But for a change, she looked at peace. Happy. Sated.
And so she should be, Dana thought.
She remembered Kellen grinning as she crooked a finger. “Come here.”
As she drew near, Kellen had cupped her face in her hands and leaned closer to kiss her. She had proceeded to cover her with soft kisses, gentle touches, and whispered words of longing. “I want to touch you. I want to make you feel like you made me feel.”
“I want that too,” Dana said against her mouth.
When Kellen’s mouth took hers, it wasn’t for anything other than to ignite. Heat and desire wrapped around her. Her breathing grew irregular as Kellen’s lips trailed across her throat while her palms moved over her breasts, thumbs brushing over the already taut peaks. Returning to her mouth, she had nipped Dana’s lower lip with her teeth, while her fingers started to inch downward, ghosting over her lower abdomen. And then she had kissed her again. Hungrily. Clearly letting everything she was feeling manifest in a dance of lips and tongue, while she slid three fingers into Dana, letting her ride her hand into a screaming orgasm.
As her breathing steadied, she considered staying exactly where she was. But then she heard Kellen’s whisper, so soft she wasn’t sure she’d heard the words correctly. “We�
��re not nearly done yet. I’ve wanted to taste you since the first time I saw you.”
Seconds later, she wasn’t hearing anything.
Dana smiled as she replayed the night. Just thinking made her seek physical contact and she reached out, tracing an absent pattern over Kellen’s back with the fingers of one hand. She paused for a moment and frowned when she encountered a small scar marring the satiny skin. But as she continued to touch, she found more of them. And in the dim light of early morning, she saw that they went all the way down her back, marring the perfection of her skin.
As she moved slowly from scar to scar, she suddenly realized Kellen was awake. She lay perfectly still while Dana’s hand moved across her back. Not moving. Barely breathing.
Dana tried to think what could have caused all the scars. In a moment of clarity, she remembered Kellen saying her father had beaten her. And in a move driven by both instinct and need, she leaned closer still and brought her lips to the nearest scar. Leaving soft butterfly kisses, she moved from scar to scar until she’d kissed them all.
Several minutes passed before Kellen even moved, and when she did, she looked at her for a long silent moment. “Dana, I don’t know what to say. This isn’t easy for me.”
“Tell me why. Surely other women have found you beautiful and wanted to be with you.”
“Yes—but I didn’t care what they thought.”
Chapter Sixteen
They both remained silent for so long that Kellen wasn’t certain if Dana had fallen asleep. She was nearing that point herself, ready to fall asleep, when Dana’s voice washed over her. “You’re okay with this, aren’t you?”
She thought she knew, but needed to be sure. “With what happened tonight?”
Dana cleared her throat. “Yes…with tonight. And with us.”
“I’m more than good. But I guess it’s also fair to say we’ve got a conversation going unsaid between us,” Kellen murmured. “But not now, if that’s all right. Are you all right to wait?”