Storm Surge

by Melissa Good

  A silence fell, as the waitress returned with a tray full of drinks. She set down Kerry's first then went around the table, her motions quick and efficient. "Ms. Stuart, would you like something sent to your suite? I brought your tea up last night."

  Oh. "Um.. I think I'm okay for now, thanks." Kerry finally made the connection as to why she'd been addressed first. Her waking in the palatial suite seemed to be from another time, and had happened to another person. "But do you have a dessert menu from the restaurant?"

  "Of course." The waitress smiled at her. "Here you are." She handed Kerry a leather bound folio. "I'll be right back."

  Kerry leaned on the chair arm and opened the menu, immediately gaining a dark head resting on her shoulder as Dar peered at it as well. "What do I want?" she mused.

  "That." Dar pointed at the brownie sundae. "Get it twice the size and I'll share it with you," she suggested, her shoulder bumping Kerry's. "Either that or this." She pointed next at a peach cobbler with ice cream.

  "We're going to be bouncing off the walls all night," Kerry said. She turned her head to see that tiny bit of mischief erupt in her partner's eyes just a moment too late. "Jesus. Don't say it." She sighed. "Not twice in ten minutes."

  Dar snickered, but held her silence.

  "Well," Cynthia sighed. "I'm not sure really what to do at this point. What I am truly afraid of is that some of my colleagues will use this as an excuse to put in place some ideas that might not have found wide acceptance before."

  Kerry put the menu down and sat back, picking up her Mojito and taking a sip of it. The cool minty sweetness almost hid the bite of rum and she licked her lips and put it back down on the table. The waitress came back, and Kerry pointed at both herself and Dar. "Sundae." She glanced at Andrew, who nodded, then at her mother. "Mother?"

  Cynthia frowned then shrugged. "Why not?"

  "Four." Kerry felt her second wind kicking in. Or perhaps it was her third or fourth by this time. "Dar, can you let us in on what the issue is with Gerry?"

  Dar glanced at Kerry's mother, then at Kerry. One brow twitched then she half shrugged. "Sure," she said. "Take this with a grain of salt, since I haven't talked to anyone but Gerry about this, and he was pretty vague."

  She paused, and glanced around, but they were quite alone in their corner of the bar, the television providing an irresistible draw to everyone else including the staff. "The problem is they lost all the local feeds into the stock exchanges and the banking centers down on the tip of Manhattan."

  Kerry nodded. Cynthia nodded. Andrew grunted. "Okay," Kerry added, after Dar paused. "And?"

  "And, they need to get them back online, and not let out how damaging that is to our financial infrastructure," Dar supplied.

  Everyone nodded again. "Well, that's understandable," Cynthia ventured. "But I'm not quite sure--I mean, surely everyone knows that, and by now it's being worked on," she paused. "Isn't it?"

  Kerry folded her arms across her chest. "Probably not yet," she said. "The place where all those connections were is buried under the debris from the South tower."

  "Oh," Kerry's mother murmured. "Well, then--"

  "Where do we come in to this?" Kerry looked at Dar. "None of that's ours," she added. "We've got some customers down there, sure, and I'm already working on plans to get them rerouted, but we don't touch the markets. I remember them saying how we were locked out of those contracts."

  "Someone told someone we could fix it," Dar said, succinctly. "That's what Gerry wants me to talk to that someone about. "

  Cynthia was looking from one of them to the other. "I don't understand. What is this about locked contracts? "

  "Politics," Dar and Kerry said together. Then Kerry half turned to face her partner. "They think we can fix it? Dar that makes no sense. We don't have anything down there. No contacts, nothing. You remember what happened the last time we tried to put a bid in?"

  "It doesn't make sense," Dar agreed. "That's why we need to talk to them. Find out why they think that. Alastair said I should get in and do whatever I needed to--but Ker, he doesn't get it. He doesn't know what the score is there. I think he's just not thinking straight."

  Kerry shook her head. "Well, okay," she said. "On one hand we've got part of the government pissed off because we know everything, and on the other, we've got part of the government thinking we're Thor, god of the Internets. Who knows what's going to happen tomorrow."

  "Thor, god of the internet," Dar mused. "I'm going to get a T-shirt that says that."

  Andrew chuckled. Cynthia paused, then she laughed as well, and the mood lightened a little.

  "Really, it should wait for tomorrow," Kerry's mother said. "It's very late, and I'm sure we're all very tired. I hope the morning will bring some return to normal. I hear airplane flights are resuming." She looked over at Dar. "I am glad you arranged to arrive this evening, however, Dar. I know Kerrison missed you terribly."

  "Mother," Kerry sighed.

  "Didn't you?" Dar reached over and took Kerry's hand in her own. "I sure as hell missed you."

  "Of course I did." Kerry felt a little flustered. "But sheesh--you came for other reasons." She eyed her partner, who had a faint smile on her face. "Didn't you?"

  Dar shook her head.

  "Dar."

  Dar shrugged. "I'm too tired to lie," she said. "It just so happened that Gerry's plan coincided with where I needed to be. If it hadn't, I'd have told him he had to wait." She gazed back at three sets of eyes then looked over at Kerry. "Don't give me that look. You were going to start driving for Houston yesterday."

  Kerry scratched her nose, and looked faintly abashed.

  "Anyway--" Dar sipped her coffee with her free hand, the fingers of the other tangled with Kerry's. "You and I will go down to the offices of whoever it is Gerry talked to and straighten it all out tomorrow. "

  "The other sat trucks are holding outside Newark," Kerry informed her. "Not sure if you got that on the call. They won't let anyone down into lower Manhattan yet."

  Dar nodded. "We can compare notes tomorrow morning. See where we want the plan to go from here."

  "I know what my intentions are," Cynthia spoke up suddenly. "I have decided to return home, as early as I can. We have many things back in Michigan that I'm worried about," she said. "I realize there is much debate going on here, but there are people there that might be in danger."

  Kerry nodded. "I think that's a good decision."

  "I already know what will happen here," her mother said, in a quieter tone. "I already know speaking against it will do nothing. One of my colleagues spoke with me earlier today, she's afraid even to ask questions. Everyone is so angry."

  "Ah get that," Andrew said. "Ah know what that feels like. Someone done kicked you and all you want to do is get up and kick back." He folded both arms over his broad chest. "That whole turn t'other cheek business never did much take hold in this here country."

  Cynthia sighed.

  Kerry took a swallow of her Mojito, glad of the warmth of Dar's fingers around hers. From the corner of her eye she could see ice cream heading their way, and she could sense the end of the evening coming as well, when she'd walk with Dar across the lobby and take the elevator to her-no their-suite.

  Everything was changing around her. The world, her family, her relationships with people--the one constant being the hand holding hers, the steady confidence in Dar's eyes, the knowledge that she would sleep tonight wrapped in the warm comfort of love.

  She had no idea what tomorrow would bring. But for tonight, life was doing the best it could and she was glad enough to take what she could get.

  "Want my cherry?"

  And then again.

  KERRY LAY FLAT on her back on the bed, her arms outstretched and her legs hanging off the edge with her bare feet on the floor. She wasn't doing much of anything except listening to Dar prowl around the suite, the faint snickers and sounds of things moving making her smile.

  She'd teased Dar, of course, about the
suite. Dar had scoffed at her, accusing her of blowing the place out of proportion until she opened the door and stepped back to let her skeptical partner enter.

  Dar had, stopping in the lobby and looking around with an honestly startled expression. "Holy crap."

  Kerry had merely smirked and strolled past her, securing a piece of chocolate from the waiting basket before heading for the bedroom and the waiting, already turned down, comfortable looking bed leaving her partner to explore their miniature palace. "Tolja."

  "Holy crap."

  Kerry smiled benignly at the ceiling. She was totally spaced, and totally exhausted. She studied the tiles for a while, then drifted off for a while, then started as a sound at the doorway made her turn her head and lift it up off the surface to look toward the opening. "Uh?"

  Dar was in it, leaning casually against the frame, her body now draped in a clean T-shirt and a glass of milk in her hand. "Okay, you're right," her partner said. "You're going to have to bust your ass to beat this one," she said. "It's got three bathrooms. I had an entire shower and didn't make enough noise to wake you up."

  Kerry smiled, and lifted one hand, curling her finger in a come hither gesture. "Glad I did now. C'mere."

  Dar obliged, setting the glass down on the bedside table before she launched herself into the bed next to Kerry, making the smaller woman bounce. She rolled onto her side and settled down, taking hold of Kerry's hand and bringing it to her lips for a kiss.

  Now that they were alone, and they could say anything to each other, she really didn't feel like saying anything at all. Kerry angled her head and pulled Dar closer, reveling in the tingle in her guts as Dar abandoned her fingers and kissed her lips instead.

  She looked up and found Dar looking back at her at close range, her partner's slightly bloodshot eyes expressing gentle affection that seemed to seep right through her. "I shouldn't have had that second Mojito," Kerry murmured mournfully. "I see three of you."

  Dar grinned, the skin around her eyes crinkling up and glints of mischief coming into them. She leaned forward and kissed Kerry again, then rolled over and captured her partner's body, tangling her legs with Kerry's and pulling her over until they were in an untidy squash in the middle of the bed.

  "Urgh." Kerry reveled in the heat where their bodies were pressed against each other. Dar's skin felt typically warm, and her skin held a hint of the apricot scrub from her shower. It was utterly familiar, and comforting. "You smell good."

  "Do I?" Dar bit her ear gently. "I'm just glad to get the smell of airplane off me."

  "What kind of plane did you come here on?" Kerry eased up onto her elbows, the air conditioning suddenly cold against the spot on her ear Dar had been suckling. "Did you have lots of Marines with you?"

  "Nah. It was a transport." Dar slid her arms around Kerry's waist and studied her face. "Lots of nervous looking guys in suits. I'd have rather had the Marines. The ones in your mom's office were nice guys."

  "They were,"Kerry nodded. "I liked them."

  "They really liked you." Dar's eyes twinkled. "One of them said he was going to try and get a job with us after his hitch was up, and find you again."

  "Oh for Pete's sake." Kerry started laughing. "All I did was get them freaking sandwiches." She let her head drop, and they kissed for a few minutes, ending with heightened breathing as they paused, and Kerry let her forehead rest against Dar's. "Mm."

  "Keeerrrry," Dar warbled in her ear. "I mmmiiisssed you."

  "Sweetie, I sure as hell missed you too." Kerry nibbled at her partner's neck. "I think more than anything I missed being able to talk to you."

  "More than anything?" Dar gently cupped one of Kerry's breasts, rubbing her thumb teasingly over the nipple.

  "Heheh," Kerry chortled softly. "Okay, point taken."

  "I can do that too." Dar tweaked her. "But yeah, it was frustrating as hell for me to have to listen to you on that call and not be able to just talk back however I wanted to," she admitted, closing her eyes a little as Kerry's hands slid across her hips. "I felt so far away."

  Kerry leaned forward and kissed her again, her hand slipping under Dar's shirt. She felt her ribs move as she inhaled and a warm surge of desire flushed her skin as she felt Dar's thigh ease between hers. "You sure don't feel far away now."

  Dar cupped her hand behind Kerry's neck and drew her down again. She rolled onto her side and took Kerry with her, as she felt her shirt peeled up and the cool air hit her skin. She felt flushed and the chill felt good, goose bumps raising as Kerry ducked her head down and kissed her breast. "Hope not."

  Kerry smiled. She felt the exhaustion lifting as her body reacted to her partner's touch, a burning in her guts igniting as Dar unbuttoned her shirt and slid the bottom of it up, glad she'd already shed her jeans.

  Impatiently, she ducked her head as Dar pulled her shirt off She was busy herself with doing the same to her partner. A moment of chill, then Dar pressed against her and all she could feel was a burn that felt like it was washing her clean.

  Washing the last two days out. Washing out the tension of dealing with her family. Driving aside the memories of the destruction and the accusations at her mother's office.

  Dar's hand slid over her hip and down the outside of her thigh. Kerry abandoned herself to the growing tension in her guts and simply lived in the moment, savoring the ragged edge to her breathing as the light touch became more deliberate and her body arched, wanting the release.

  Wanting that deep burn, and the knowing jolt. "God, I love you," she breathed, just as the sensations became too intense for words and her body shuddering in reaction, her arms clamping around Dar's as she let out a yell.

  Dar chuckled, breathing hard as Kerry's weight bore down on her, pushing her back over onto her back as she nuzzled the side of her neck. "Love you too." She closed her eyes as Kerry started her attack. "Specially when you do that."

  Kerry laughed on an irregular breath, as she felt tears sting her eyes at the same time. "That?"

  "Ungh."

  "Thought so."

  KERRY WAS CONTENT to lay where she was, her body relaxed as she gently traced an imaginary line across Dar's bare skin. It was hard to keep her eyes open, but the steady light stroking on the inside of her thigh was stoking a lazy desire and keeping her from dropping off into sleep.

  She didn't mind. It felt good. It wasn't too demanding, just a teasing sensuality that made her very aware of Dar's near presence and focused her on the sound of her partner's breathing and the scent of her skin.

  Dar kissed her shoulder.

  "Hey Dar?" Kerry returned the kiss, letting her fingers trace her partner's nipple. "Were you really serious?"

  Dar's eyes opened. "About what?" her voice rose. "This? Hello? Earth to Kerry?"

  Kerry leaned forward and kissed her on the lips. "No." She rested her elbows on either side of Dar's head, and gently rubbed noses with her. "About coming here."

  Dar looked up at her for a long moment. "Duh," she said. "Give me a break, willya?"

  "I feel so crummy then." Kerry ducked her head for another kiss. "I should have tried harder to go to you."

  "I was in England, Ker."

  "I can swim."

  Dar chuckled, and wrapped her arms around her partner. She felt Kerry's body shift against hers and she savored the moment. "You had a lot to deal with here. I'll cut you some slack," she advised. "Besides, if you had paddled over we'd just have had to fly right back here. "

  "I know." Kerry kissed her neck, nipping her collarbone a bit. "It's been crazy," she admitted, resting her head against Dar's shoulder as she felt Dar's hand resume its stroking. "First my family, then yesterday. Just nuts."

  "You seem to be getting on okay with your Mom," Dar ventured cautiously. "At least based on tonight anyway."

  Kerry was silent for a moment. "Yeah," she said. "Once we got a few things out of the way. It hasn't been that bad, really. I took her for sushi tonight."

  "Radical."

  "No, she like
d it." Kerry smiled, nestling closer. "I had her get the safe stuff, like what you did to me the first time."

  Dar chuckled softly. "You ended up eating most of mine that night."

  "I told her that," Kerry admitted. "I talked about you a lot." She rubbed the edge of her thumb against Dar's breastbone. "She said she was glad we met."

  Dar's eyebrows hiked up. She studied the curve of Kerry's jaw, seeing the muscles move under the skin. "You think she meant it?"

  Kerry was silent for a bit then exhaled. "You know, it's so hard for me to tell. I want to think she did, because she said that and some other stuff about how she and my father really weren't aware of stuff Kyle did--but I don't know whether she's saying it because it's true, or because she wants it to be true, and she wants me to stop being so damned pissed off."

  Dar started gently massaging her partner's neck again. "Do you want to stop being pissed off?" she asked. "You know when I finally got back together with mine that's what I decided. I'd just blow off the past thirty years of my life, and start fresh. Too much crap to dig through."

  "Is that really fair?"

  Dar shrugged. "Is life really fair?" she countered. "What makes you feel good inside, to let that all go, or just let it fester?" She felt the warmth as Kerry exhaled, her breath warming the skin over Dar's breast.

  "Well, duh," Kerry murmured. "Who'd feel good festering? It just seems so--I don't know, wussy to just say, okay, forget it, let's just move on." She pondered a bit more, feeling her body slowly relaxing again, the room around her retreating a little. "That whole turn the other cheek thing is a really tough sell."

  Dar hugged her. "For what it's worth, I think your Mom's legit," she said. "I think she was a chickenshit when your father was alive, but she's got to live with that. Life's short enough."

  Kerry remained silent for a few minutes then stifled a yawn, and wrapped herself firmly around her partner. "Save it," she said. "I just want a nice long night of listening to your crazy heartbeat. To heck with everything else."