Veritas

by Duncan, MJ

  Movement in her periphery made Grey pull away from Lauren’s touch, and she rolled her eyes when she saw a familiar blonde approaching their table with a bottle of wine in her hands. “Surprise, surprise,” Grey drawled as she pushed her chair back and stood to hug her friend hello.

  “Like you could really call Jonathan for a reservation and not have me hear about it,” Kelly Kipling replied as she returned the hug. She looked at Lauren over Grey’s shoulder, and sighed. She had spent the last week worrying about how Grey, and seeing Lauren in person did little to assuage her. Lauren was not as identical to Emily as she had feared, but the resemblance was close enough to give her pause. Kelly gave Grey a searching look as she slipped out of her embrace, and pursed her lips thoughtfully as she turned her full attention to Lauren. “Chef Murphy, it is nice to actually meet you.”

  “Ms. Kipling?” Lauren guessed, correctly assuming that the blonde was the woman who had interviewed her over the phone.

  “Kelly, please,” Kelly insisted with a small, saccharine smile. “I’m glad to see that you’re enjoying your stay in the islands.”

  Grey groaned. The jab at her…whatever it was she had with Lauren was clear, and she shook her head. “Kip, come on.”

  The comment could have been considered playful, but the caustic edge to Kelly’s voice told Lauren that the blonde did not approve of what she had walked-in on. And, knowing hard it had been for Grey to even be around her those first few days, she understood. Were their situation reversed, she knew that she would be just as protective of Grey. Lauren sighed and nodded. “I am.”

  Kelly looked poised to respond, and Grey sighed. She flashed an apologetic smile at Lauren before she turned and gave Kelly a withering glare. “Let me walk you to the bar to get that bottle opened,” she said, looking pointedly at the bottle of wine in Kelly’s hands. “We’ll be right back,” she told Lauren, wishing she could do something about the concern that was clearly visible in Lauren’s eyes as she ushered Kelly toward the bar.

  “I do employ a sommelier,” Kelly drawled as she led the way across the patio.

  “Yeah, and a wicked tongue,” Grey muttered as she sidled up to the outdoor bar beside her friend.

  “Sweet talker,” Kelly jibed as she handed the bottle to the bartender to open.

  Grey watched the bartender as he uncorked the bottle, and waited until he had made a discreet exit to respond. “Kelly.”

  The use of her first name told Kelly that Grey had had enough, and she relented. “Okay, fine. But, seriously, are you sure about whatever it is you’re doing with her?”

  Grey shrugged and ran her hands through her hair. Just the mention of Lauren had her turning to look at the redhead. “Yeah. No. I dunno. It’s just…”

  “What?” Kelly prompted when it seemed like Grey was not going to finish her thought.

  “Inevitable,” Grey murmured as she turned back to Kelly. “Look, I know you’re being all mama bear and everything and, while I appreciate it, I just…I care about her. She’s a sweet girl and she just…” Grey smiled sadly and shook her head. “She doesn’t need this shit. I was the one who kissed her first. She already knew about Emily and she gave me an out, but I didn’t want it. I still don’t want it. I know this is probably not going to end well,” she added softly, finally giving voice to the truth that lurked in the background of every moment she and Lauren had shared over the last few days, “but I can’t stay away from her. I don’t want to.”

  Kelly gaped, floored by the fact that Grey had not only said Emily’s name—something she had not done since the funeral—she had also apparently talked to Lauren about her as well. “Well…fuck.”

  “Yes, there’s been quite a bit of that, too,” Grey muttered dryly, hoping to lighten the mood.

  Kelly chuckled. “You getting laid is not the most revelatory information, Wells.”

  “Shut up,” Grey muttered.

  “You love me.” Kelly looked over at Lauren and sighed. “So, you’re boning the chef, huh?”

  Grey rolled her eyes. “I wouldn’t put it so crudely, but yes.”

  “Please,” Kelly scoffed. “You just said you guys have been fucking. How is boning any worse? But, most importantly, is the sex good?”

  “Amazing. But that’s all I’m telling you.” Grey blew out a quiet breath and smiled. “I’m a big girl, Kip. I know what I’m doing, even if it isn’t the smartest thing I’ve ever done.”

  “Yeah, well—” Kelly reached out and gave Grey’s hand a gentle squeeze, “—I’m still gonna worry about you.”

  “I know,” Grey said. “And I love you for that.”

  Kelly sighed and looked over at Lauren. Grey’s assurances that she knew what she was doing did little to alleviate her apprehension about what Grey was doing with Lauren, but she also knew that Lauren had to be something special if she was able to get Grey to actually talk about Emily. “I guess I need to go apologize for being such a bitch, huh?”

  “That would be nice.”

  “Dinner on the house?”

  “That would be even nicer.” Grey laughed softly and pulled Kelly into a fierce hug. “Thank you for looking out for me. I know I haven’t been the easiest to deal with these last few years.”

  “Yeah, well, that’s my job.” Kelly smiled as she pulled back to look Grey in the eye. “I mean, I’ve been looking out for your sorry ass since I got stuck with you as a roommate, freshman year. Who the hell else is gonna do it?”

  Grey laughed and shook her head as her gaze drifted to Lauren. “I don’t know,” she whispered.

  Kelly glanced from Grey to Lauren and back again, noting the way Grey’s eyes had grown soft when she looked at Lauren. “You wanna talk about that?”

  “Not really, no.”

  “Okay.” Kelly picked up the bottle of wine she had brought with her left hand and motioned toward Lauren with her right. “Let’s go get that apology out of the way so you two can enjoy the rest of your night.” She smiled at Grey and rolled her eyes. “God, I hate apologizing.”

  “I know,” Grey chuckled as she fell into step beside her friend.

  They made their way back through the maze of tables filling the patio, and Kelly cleared her throat softly as she approached the table where Lauren sat fiddling with her napkin on her lap as she looked out over the water. “I’m sorry.”

  Lauren looked up, her gaze flitting between Kelly and Grey, who were standing beside the table. Kelly looked perfectly contrite, though there was something about the way she held herself that said it was begrudgingly done, and while Grey did not look as relaxed as she had been before her friend had surprised them, she did have a small, genuine smile tugging at her lips. Lauren sighed when Grey’s hand landed lightly on her shoulder, and could not help but lean into it. “Yeah. Me too,” she murmured.

  It was obvious from the way Lauren had reflexively relaxed under Grey’s hand that Lauren could no more avoid Grey than Grey could avoid her, and Kelly shook her head as she silently cursed the Fates for dealing Grey yet another spectacularly fucked-up hand. “Right, well—” she made a show of checking the time on her watch, “—I should probably get going.” She tipped her head at Lauren in a small bow. “Chef Murphy, it was nice to meet you.”

  “Lauren, please,” Lauren replied with a small smile. “And it was nice to meet you, too.”

  “Grey.” Kelly looked at her old friend. “Take care of yourself, and call me later.”

  “I will,” Grey assured her.

  Kelly smiled and leaned in to brush a quick kiss across Grey’s cheek. “Be good,” she murmured affectionately.

  “When am I ever good?” Grey quipped, her tone holding the same warmth. She nodded in response to the questioning look in Kelly’s eyes, assuring her that she would be okay. “I’ll talk to you later.”

  “Yeah. Enjoy your meal.”

  Grey retook her seat as Kelly made her way across the patio and into the main dining room with long, purposeful strides, and sighed as she reached for
Lauren’s hand. “I’m sorry about that.”

  “Don’t be.” Lauren shook her head as she stroked her fingertips over Grey’s palm. “She’s a good friend.”

  “Yeah, but still. You didn’t need that.”

  “Honestly, if I were here, I would’ve done the same thing,” Lauren said. “She’s just looking out for you.”

  Grey gave Lauren a small smile as she leaned in and dropped a quick kiss to her lips. “I know.” She ran the backs of her fingers over Lauren’s jaw and kissed her again softly. “But I don’t need to be protected. I know what I’m doing.”

  “Grey…”

  “Lauren.” Grey brushed her thumb over the corner of Lauren’s lips.

  Lauren’s eyes danced over Grey’s face. Her eyes were warm and soft, her expression sure, and Lauren sighed as she nodded. “Okay.”

  “Good.” Grey stole another soft kiss, and then forced herself to pull away and sit back in her chair. She shook her head as she picked up her menu, already missing the feeling of gentle contentment that filled her whenever she touched Lauren. She looked up at the sound of Lauren’s chair scraping across the patio beside her, and smiled when Lauren’s hand slid lightly over her thigh. She held Lauren’s gaze as she reached down and covered the hand on her leg and gave it a gentle squeeze. “Kip is buying us dinner to make up for being a bitch earlier,” she shared, keeping her tone purposefully light as she tried to steer their evening back to where it was before Kip had shown up. “So I am going to order the most expensive thing on the menu. What looks good to you?”

  Lauren stared at Grey for a moment longer, and then shrugged. They both knew that their situation was far from ideal, but as neither of them were willing to put an end to things, there was really no point dwelling on the fact. All that they could do was enjoy the moments they had, and hope that the memories they made would be enough to make it all worthwhile. “I don’t know.” She picked up her menu. “What do you suggest?”

  Grey smiled and tickled her fingers over Lauren’s. “Me.”

  Lauren laughed. “Really?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “While that is an incredibly tempting idea,” Lauren drawled as she let her eyes drag over Grey’s body, deliberately lingering on the ample swell of her breasts, “I think I’ll save you for dessert.”

  Chapter 36

  As it turned out, it was remarkably easy for Lauren to pretend that the end of her tenure aboard the Veritas was not growing steadily closer with every passing second. When it was just the two of them, it was easy to imagine that the soft hiss of the swinging pendulum of Time that would ultimately tear them apart was simply the wind that was skipping over the waves and filling their sails.

  The trip from Charlotte Amalie to Hawksnest Bay had been smooth, and they rounded the rocky cape at the southern end of the bay before midday. Lauren sat up on the sunbathing mat where she had stretched out at the sound of the sails furling overhead, and let her eyes sweep over their surroundings. The water was the clear, gradient hues of turquoise and blue that Lauren had become accustomed to during her time in the islands, and the mooring field near the center of the bay was empty. Lush, rich, green vegetation cascaded down the mountains to a pristine stretch of pale golden sand that wrapped along the curve of the bay, and Lauren could already picture herself spending a lazy afternoon on the warm sand, listening to the hypnotic crash of waves lapping at the shore.

  “It’s beautiful,” Lauren said, smiling as she turned to look at Grey.

  “It is,” Grey agreed, ignoring the scenery around them as she watched the sails overhead retract with a careful eye in case any of the mechanicals that allowed her to solo-sail the Veritas malfunctioned. In reality, the bay was not that much different from any of the others they had visited over the last week, but it felt much more secluded, which was something she always appreciated whenever she visited.

  “Is it always like this?” Lauren asked, waving a hand at the empty mooring field.

  Grey bounced her head from side to side and shrugged as she powered up the Veritas’ twin engines. “It depends, really,” she said as she made for the buoy at the southernmost edge of the mooring field. “Most of the time, though, yeah. Hawkshead is too far south for charters to use as a mooring spot on cruises out of Charlotte Amalie, because it’s easier to jump from Saint John to the other islands if you go a little further north, like we did with the Muellers. It’s also too far north to use as an anchorage to dink down to Cruz for customs, so there’s none of that mess to deal with, and it doesn’t get a lot of foot traffic because there aren’t any hotels on the bay.”

  “It’s perfect,” Lauren declared, turning back toward the shoreline.

  “Yeah,” Grey murmured as she looked at Lauren, her gaze soft behind the reflective lenses of her sunglasses. She stared at Lauren for a few seconds longer before she sighed and turned her attention back to the water in front of the bow. “Absolutely perfect.”

  Lauren slipped on her deck shoes when Grey backed the engines down to a crawl as they approached the edge of the mooring field, and then smiled at Grey as she made for the stairs. “I’ll go tie us off.”

  Grey watched her go with a smile, thinking that a string bikini and a pair of Sperry’s had never looked so good together. She slid out of her chair and stood behind the wheel when Lauren knelt at the end of the starboard trampoline with the boat pole in her hand. Grey followed Lauren’s hand signals as they neared the buoy, tapping the throttle with each ‘go-go’ wave of Lauren’s hand and finally throwing the engines into reverse when Lauren held up a fist, bringing the seventy-five foot catamaran to a complete halt.

  Once the bow lines were secured to the mooring buoy, Grey turned off the engines and caught Lauren’s eye. “Well done, Ms. Murphy.”

  “Thank ya, ma’am,” Lauren drawled, bowing with a flourish. She laughed at the way Grey shook her head at her, and waved a hand beckoningly. “Come on.”

  “Down there?” Grey teased, her gaze drifting over Lauren’s shoulder to the water beyond. Her skin itched from the sun and the wind that had battered her on the sail over, and she smiled as an idea for how to remedy that came to mind.

  “Yes. Down here.”

  “Well, gee, I dunno,” Grey joked as she toed off her shoes and shucked the shorts she had been wearing over her bathing suit. She carefully removed and folded her sunglasses, and stored them in a small cubby at the helm. “What’s in it for me?”

  Lauren laughed and shook her head. “What do you want?”

  “You.”

  “Then come down here,” Lauren repeated, holding her arms out to either side of her in a ‘what are you waiting for’ type of gesture.

  Grey climbed onto the side of the bridge and balanced on the small ledge that ran along the outside of the railing. She could see all the way to the sand and coral dotting the bottom of the bay below, and she smiled as she looked back at Lauren. “Okay,” she said as she lifted her arms over her head and dove off the side.

  “Damn,” Lauren murmured as she watched Grey’s body arc smoothly through the air, her natural athleticism on display as she sliced into the water, her body in perfect alignment from her fingertips to the tips of her toes. She hurried to the edge and waited for Grey to reappear, and laughed when Grey’s head finally broke the water. “You’re nuts!”

  Grey shrugged, reached behind herself, and tugged at the strings of her bikini top. “Probably.” She tossed the wet top at Lauren and grinned as it landed wetly at her feet. “Come on, Murphy! The water’s great!”

  Lauren smiled and cocked her head to the side as she looked down at Grey, who was treading water a few feet away from her. “How great is it?” she asked, toeing off her shoes and flicking them into the center of the trampoline.

  “Amazing.”

  “Really?” Lauren teased, holding Grey’s gaze as she removed her top. She winked at her as she tossed it over her shoulder, and arched a brow challengingly as she dropped her hands to her hips.

 
; “Is that all you got?” Grey worked her bikini bottoms down her legs and flung them up onto the boat as well.

  Lauren laughed as she shucked the rest of her suit and kicked it aside. “I guess not.”

  “Get down here.”

  “What’s in it for me?” Lauren teased, putting an extra sway in her hips as she ambled toward the bow of the boat and prepared to jump.

  Grey smiled. “Me.”

  “I dunno…” Lauren tapped a contemplative finger on her chin.

  “Really?” Grey laughed, sending a splash of water in Lauren’s direction.

  “Okay, fine.” Lauren winked at Grey as she leapt feet-first off the side. The feeling of the warm water sliding over her skin was refreshing after the morning’s sail, and she laughed when Grey’s hands landed on her waist the moment her head broke the surface. Before she could say anything, Grey’s lips were on hers, both gentle and demanding, and she sighed as she wrapped her arms around Grey’s neck and yielded to the kiss.

  “Glad you decided to join me,” Grey murmured.

  Lauren toyed with the short hairs at the back of Grey’s neck. “Me too.”

  A small shiver rolled down Grey’s spine at the softness in Lauren’s gaze, and she sighed as she kissed her again. The hand on the back of her neck tightened, holding her in place as Lauren’s mouth slanted over her own, deepening the kiss, and Grey groaned when Lauren edged close enough that their breasts brushed lightly together. “Lauren…”

  “Yes?” Lauren hummed, her lips quirking up in a small smile at the feeling of Grey’s hands sliding over her ass.

  “If you’re going to keep kissing me like that, we’re going to have to get out of the water.”

  “What? You can’t do this and keep your head above water?” Lauren teased, kicking idly to keep afloat as she dropped her right hand between Grey’s legs and gave her a playful squeeze.

  Grey laughed and reached down to pull Lauren’s hand away from her. “No. I can’t.”