Telling Lies Online

by Miranda MacLeod

  “Cold?” Jamie asked.

  Claire nodded, then flashed a wicked grin. “I know how to fix it though.”

  It was as if being free of the gown unleashed a primal need in Claire. She pulled Jamie to her, wrapping every inch of her body around Jamie’s with a force that she’d never experienced before. Her hands grasped and legs wriggled in a flurry, attempting with every movement to bring their bodies closer. She grasped more tightly, needing to feel Jamie’s weight on her, but Jamie pulled back, leaving her fuming in frustration.

  “Patience, darling,” Jamie chastised her. “We still need to get these off.”

  Leaning back on one elbow, Jamie slipped the fingers of her free hand beneath the elastic of the purple panties. With her fingertips she traced the line between bare skin and soft down. Claire shivered, though not at all from the cold. Jamie's hand slid down further, cupping her firmly. Claire drew a ragged breath, pressing her body more fully into Jamie's eager hand. She felt Jamie's fingers spread her gently apart. She shifted her own legs wider in response, savoring the experience of Jamie's fingers exploring her hidden folds. Jamie shifted her weight onto her now, freeing her other hand to caress and tease one of Claire's hardened nipples. Claire's breath became impossibly shallow and she worried fleetingly that she might pass out before finding out what Jamie had planned for her next.

  As Claire heaved for air, Jamie lowered her mouth to the other breast and flicked it with her tongue. As this new sensation shot through her, for a moment Claire forgot completely how to breathe. Jamie closed her lips around her, sucking Claire's nipple deeply into her mouth. At the same moment, Claire felt Jamie's fingers slide lower between her legs, plunging deep inside. She gasped, every inch of her vibrating with pleasure. She felt herself clench around Jamie's fingers as pinpricks of light exploded behind her closed eyes.

  She finally remembered to open her eyes again and breathe, but could manage little more than to stare shakily into Jamie's eyes.

  “You're so beautiful,” Jamie said softly.

  Claire grinned goofily, unable to think of a response. But then a shadow of disappointment flickered across her face.

  “What's wrong?” Jamie asked in concern.

  “Nothing,” Claire assured her. “It's just… I didn't expect to be finished so soon.”

  Jamie laughed. “Finished? Don't be silly,” she said. “That was just the warm up, little goose.”

  Claire giggled as Jamie reached down again and gave the purple panties, now rumpled and soaked beyond all recognition, a practiced tug and sent them sailing to join the nightgown on the floor. Jamie grasped the lower edge of her sports bra and prepared to tug it over her head when Claire called out in protest.

  “Wait a minute. Don’t I get to do all that stuff that you did, to get you undressed, too?”

  Jamie shrugged. “I suppose. But, do you really want to take so much extra time?”

  Claire grinned broadly. “No.”

  In seconds, Jamie’s bra and shorts joined the growing heap on the floor, but the feverish need that had consumed Claire moments before flickered to uncertainty.

  “Jamie?” she said in a small voice. “You know I have no idea what I’m doing, right?”

  “You’ve managed remarkably well so far. I think you’ll be able to follow along.”

  Lost in sensation, she did what Jamie did, touched the way Jamie touched, mirroring her every action until she could no longer tell where she ended and Jamie began. They had merged into one, every movement bringing exquisite pleasure, each desire fulfilled the instant it was known, until finally, exhausted, they drifted off to sleep, their bodies still entwined.

  20

  The room was bright with sunshine when Jamie awoke, with the exaggerated brilliance of light bouncing off fresh snow. Her body felt relaxed and satisfied along every muscle and sinew. Jamie rolled over in the warm sheets and reached for Claire. Her hand came away empty. Sitting up in bed, Jamie realized that the room, too, was empty. Breathing deeply, she could just detect the scent of bacon wafting up the stairs from the kitchen. After the exhilaration of last night, she felt momentarily deflated. She had intended to make breakfast, but Claire must have beaten her to it.

  At least if the stove was working, it meant that the power had come back during the night. Though the method she and Claire and found for staying warm was infinitely preferable, Jamie had to admit that central heat had its place. And hot food. Her stomach rumbled at the thought of breakfast and she chuckled. Both she and Claire had burned off quite a few calories. They deserved the chance to refuel. And then? Well, the college was on winter break and Jamie would have the day off work because of the severity of last night's storm. We might as well both head back to bed…

  Jamie entered the kitchen and looked for Claire, but only Paul was there.

  “Did you make breakfast this morning?” Jamie asked incredulously.

  Paul shook his head. “No, Claire made it before she left.”

  “Left?” Jamie scanned the frozen landscape in confusion. Every surface was encased in ice. The roads would be treacherous, and half the coast was probably still without power. “In her car? Where on earth could she be going on a morning like this?”

  Jamie's heart raced. Oh, God. Is she freaking out about last night?

  Paul shrugged. “She didn’t say.”

  “What exactly did she say? Anything?” Jamie raked her hands fiercely through her tousled hair.

  “She asked if I wanted bacon,” Paul replied, cocking his head to one side and looking perplexed.

  “Shit. I was afraid something like this would happen after last night.”

  “After what happened last night? You mean the storm?”

  “Um. No.” Jamie's expression was one usually reserved for children who were not very bright.

  Paul nodded in sudden comprehension. “Ohhh. That’s what happened last night. Well, that explains all the humming this morning,” he said with a chuckle.

  “Humming?” Jamie repeated.

  “Sure,” Paul said. “Claire was making breakfast when I got down here, humming a happy little tune.”

  Jamie tugged at her hair, deep in thought. Claire had come downstairs happy and humming. That didn't sound like a woman filled with regret. So, this isn’t about last night? Jamie's heart lifted at the thought. But if not that, then what could it be? What possible reason could there be for Claire to rush off like she had, and without telling either Paul or Jamie why?

  The morning ticked by. At almost noon, Claire had not yet returned to the house, nor had she called to let them know what was going on. Jamie was starting to worry.

  “Paul, tell me again what happened this morning. From the beginning.”

  “I told you, she was scrambling some eggs when I came downstairs. She asked if I wanted some, and some bacon. I said sure. She made me a plate.”

  Jamie sighed, exasperated. “Okay, skip ahead a little. I don’t think this has anything to do with the breakfast menu.”

  “Fine,” Paul said, putting his hands up in the air in defense. “You said to tell you everything…A few minutes later she checked her email, then said she had someplace she had to go. That’s all I know.”

  “Wait, you didn't mention an email before,” Jamie said.

  “I didn't?” Paul replied. “I thought I did. So, yeah, she checked her email.”

  “And then?” Jamie prompted.

  Paul tapped his chin in thought. “She checked her email, got real quiet for a minute, put on a coat, and left.”

  “Where did she check her email?”

  “What? Why is that important?” Paul asked.

  “I don't know. It's probably not,” Jamie said, frustration setting in. “But it's the only clue we've got. So where did she check it, on her phone?”

  “No, she’d brought her laptop down the other day because the Wi-Fi was acting up in her room. She checked it there.” Paul gestured toward the dining room.

  Jamie spotted Claire’s laptop
on the dining room table, still open, though the screen was dark. Please don’t ask for a password, Jamie thought as she pressed a key and the computer hummed back to life. She was in luck. Claire’s email appeared on the screen, still open to the last one she had read. An icy stab of panic hit Jamie in the gut.

  “We have a problem.”

  Sometime in the early hours that morning, a very official looking email had arrived in Claire’s inbox to inform her that a certain researcher on expedition in the Antarctic had disappeared from base camp.

  “I don’t get it,” Paul said when he finished reading. “I know I deleted that. How did it get sent?”

  “Like I would know!” Jamie’s voice betrayed the agitation she felt. “It’s not like I’m any more of a computer expert than you are. Maybe it didn’t get deleted from the trash, or something got reset after the storm. All I know is that Claire read it, and now she’s gone.”

  “Okay,” Paul said, “I get that she would be upset. But why not just talk to us about it? Why leave?”

  “Oh, God, Paul,” Jamie groaned, suddenly remembering her conversation with Claire in the kitchen. “She’d be more than upset. I had no idea when you wrote this, but the way you describe what happened to Jay—the blizzard, the ice, the vehicle going off the road—it’s almost exactly what happened to her parents. It’s how they died.”

  Paul looked stricken. “Oh, God, Jamie. I didn’t mean for that to…I didn’t know.”

  “I know you didn’t. I just wish she had said something before she left. We might have been able to come up with a way to diffuse this. But knowing Claire, she's gone back into her hiding mode.”

  “But, she'll come back,” Paul said reassuringly.

  “Claire’s in a delicate state, out God knows where on dangerous, icy roads, and won’t answer her phone.” Jamie's voice cracked and her eyes stung with tears. “If anything happens to her, it’s my fault. What am I going to do?”

  “Well, you could log in to Jay’s account and send her an email.”

  Jamie wiped her eyes and turned to look at her friend. “Okay…”

  “Have Jay tell her that it was all a mistake and he’s fine. While you’re at it, he could mention that he’s moving to that island with the penguins. What was it, Borneo?”

  “Madagascar. But Paul, that’s brilliant!” Jamie’s face brightened. “Not the Borneo part, but having Jay send an email. I should have thought of that. Sometimes I forget that I'm him.” She retrieved her phone from the other room and pulled up the Tech Cupid app. “Shit. The site’s down.”

  “They're based near here,” Paul said. “It must be because of the storm.”

  Jamie nodded. “I’ll keep trying. I just wish she would come home.”

  * * *

  It was well after dark when Claire’s car skidded back into the icy driveway on Ocean Boulevard. Jamie met her at the door, gathering her into her arms before she even had a chance to take off her coat and boots.

  “I was so worried,” Jamie said as she covered Claire’s ruddy cheeks with kisses.

  “I'm sorry,” Claire said, her voice sounding as frozen as her body.

  Claire stood obediently in place while Jamie stripped away her wet clothing, then shuffled into the living room and let Jamie wrap her in a quilt, the whole time saying not a single word. Her expression was distant and hollow, as if in shock. Bundled next to Jamie in the oversize chair, Claire finally came undone, crying until her whole body shook while Jamie held her tight.

  “Claire,” Jamie begged, “please talk to me. Where have you been all day? Why did you leave?”

  “There was an accident…” Claire sobbed.

  She proceeded to tell Jamie about the email she had received from the Marine Institute that morning, informing her of Jay's tragic accident. “You hadn’t heard yet?” Claire asked through ragged breaths. “I thought your work might have sent out an announcement to everyone, since Jay’s a colleague.”

  Jamie arranged her expression in a way that she hoped conveyed spontaneous shock and concern. She’d practiced it several times throughout the afternoon. “That’s gotta be a good sign, right? Since they haven’t, there could be more to the story.”

  “He went off an icy road,” Claire whimpered. “What more is there?”

  “They could’ve found him, safe and sound, and the update just didn’t make it through yet,” Jamie reassured her.

  In fact, Jamie spoke with a confidence in her voice that suggested that this was exactly what had happened. Inside, she cursed the Tech Cupid website for still being down. She should have been able to send that email from Jay to Claire hours ago. “You still haven’t told me where you’ve been all day,” she added.

  “The local police station, state police, the Red Cross. Anywhere I could think to go that might help.”

  Jamie swallowed hard. Just how many people had been dragged into this mess?

  “I tried going straight to the Marine Institute, but they were closed,” Claire added.

  Thank God they were closed, or I would have had some serious explaining to do.

  “Of course they were closed. There’s an inch of ice on all the roads. Claire, driving around out there today, you could have been…”

  “Killed, too?” she wailed, breaking into a new fit of sobbing.

  “Claire, you don’t know that. I’m sure he’s fine,” Jamie snapped. Her breath caught at the wounded look Claire gave her. Jamie hadn't meant to sound impatient, but she was getting more than a little tired of Jay and all the trouble he was causing her. “I’m sorry, Claire. I’ve just been so worried about you.”

  “This is all my fault, Jamie.” Her tears flowed freely and it was clear she starting to lose what little control over her emotions she had gained. “If I had just remembered to set up a Christmas chat with him, he might not have been out there. How could I forget?” Claire sniffled. “It was Christmas. I'm supposed to be his girlfriend. How could I have done something so terrible?” Her tears flowed freely for several minutes while Jamie watched, helpless.

  Finally, Jamie stiffened with resolve. I don’t like where this guilt trip is going. How long before she decides this all could have been avoided if she were into guys, the way she’s 'supposed' to be? Jamie cleared her throat to speak.

  Claire looked up at the sound. “It’s my fault,” she whispered. She stared at Jamie with swollen eyes that failed to focus. “If I hadn’t gotten that fever, they wouldn’t have come home until morning. The storm would have already passed by.”

  Whatever Jamie had been about to say stuck in her throat at Claire’s words. She was no longer thinking of Jay, she realized. She was thinking of her parents. Jamie’s heart broke for the way Claire must have blamed herself ever since she was a child. Jamie pressed Claire tightly to her chest.

  “My little darling, none of this is your fault,” Jamie said gently.

  It’s completely my fault, but I’m going to fix it, I promise.

  “Why don’t you go to bed and get some rest—you look exhausted,” Jamie said. “You want me to keep you company tonight?”

  Claire shook her head vigorously.

  “I didn't mean it like that,” Jamie added. “I just thought—”

  Claire shook her head again. “I should probably just be alone.”

  “Of course,” Jamie said with a sigh. “I understand. I’m going to head up now. I have to be at work early tomorrow.”

  “Jamie, could you do me a favor?”

  “Anything.”

  “Would you ask at work tomorrow and find out what’s going on?”

  “Of course I will,” she promised, though with any luck that email from Jay would be sent well before morning.

  “The email was from someone named Alan. Alan Doehring, I think. Do you know him?”

  “Mmhmm,” Jamie mumbled.

  Do I know him? Of course she knew him. Alan was her research assistant. It was his stupid computer that Paul had been goofing off with when he wrote that email in the first p
lace. Alan, with his stupid password on his stupid post-it note under his stupid flipping keyboard.

  Claire headed to bed, but Jamie remained awake, checking the Tech Cupid site every few minutes. She intended to stay up all night if she had to in order to catch the Tech Cupid site the moment it came back online. Might as well, she grumbled, since I'm sleeping alone tonight anyway.

  The site was still down the next morning, but Jamie wasn’t ready to panic. Cursing at Alan had given her a flash of inspiration and she had come up with a plan B during the night. Since the original email had been sent from there, she would just go to work early and get onto Alan's computer before anyone arrived. It should be easy enough to find the template Paul had created, modify it, and send Claire a new message from Alan saying Jay was safe.

  It was an easy fix, as long as Alan hadn’t taken their little chat about computer security to heart. Chances were pretty good that he had simply moved his password from under the keyboard and put it in his desk drawer. The whole mess would be fixed before lunch.

  On her way to the front door, Jamie saw Claire asleep on the couch, still wrapped in the quilt from the night before. Her computer was open nearby. Poor thing. She had probably fallen asleep hoping to hear from Jay. This scene looks very familiar, Jamie thought. The only difference was that last time, the thought of running her fingers through those tangled curls had been a fantasy. Now it was a memory so vivid that it nearly took her breath away. She tucked the quilt in around Claire’s resting form, brushing a few stray curls from her face before kissing her lightly on the forehead. Claire continued to sleep. Time to go put everything right, Jamie thought. She wanted nothing more than to put this behind them and for Claire to fall asleep in her arms tonight.

  21

  Damn it, Jamie thought as she rounded the corner near her office. Alan was already at his desk, hard at work. What is he doing here this early?

  “Morning, Alan,” she greeted him in a cheery voice that she hoped masked the frustration she felt.

  The young man spun in his chair, his face turning pink. “I didn’t know anyone else would be here so early.”