Intentions - SF9

by Meagher, Susan X

  Mia chuckled softly. "I'm not that bad, James. I just feel protective of her…it's weird," she said. "I've never felt like that about anyone."

  "Not anyone?"

  "Huh-uh. I was usually with guys who wanted to protect me, you know?"

  "What about women? You've been with a few."

  "Yeah, but except for Melissa in high school, they were all pretty experienced women who picked me up. There wasn't a whole lot of nurturing going on there, James," she chuckled.

  "How does it feel to be in this role, Mia? Is it weird?"

  The curly-haired woman gave Jamie a shy smile and said, "I kinda love it."

  "Really? Why?"

  "I don't know. It just makes me feel tender and sweet towards her. It doesn't just feel like sex, James…it feels like…I don't know…like more than sex."

  "More than sex can feel nice, Mia. I have more than sex with Ryan."

  She had a dreamy, faraway look in her eyes, and Mia patted her softly on the leg. "I'd love to have what you and Ryan have some day, James. You set a nice goal to aspire to."

  "The sex part isn't bad either, Mia," Jamie said with a chuckle.

  "From what I can hear from my room, you two are doing aaaaaall right!" she agreed, grinning impishly.

  The flight was short, only 50 minutes, and they touched down right at 8:30. Jamie had called ahead to reserve a car, and they trotted over to the black-suited man who held aloft the cardboard sign that read 'Evans.' Jamie ran up to the driver and said, "We're the Evans party."

  "U.C.L.A?" he inquired, looking at his dispatch sheet.

  "Yep. We need to get there on the double."

  "Follow me," he said agreeably. Friday night traffic was slow, as usual, but the driver did his very best to get them there as quickly as possible. Luckily he knew where Pauley Pavilion was, and as he pulled up to the circular drive right behind the auditorium, Jamie hopped out to see if the game was still in progress. She ran up to the door and asked the attendant, "Volleyball match still going?"

  "Yes. It's the fifth game."

  She ran back down the stairs and signaled Mia to hop out. After giving the driver a very generous tip, they grabbed their bags and ran back up the stairs to the gate. Since the match was almost over, the gentleman at the door allowed them to enter without tickets. Jamie flopped down on the bench as Mia said, "I'm going for nachos. Want anything?"

  "Jeez, Mia, let me catch my breath!" She looked up at the scoreboard and saw that the fifth game was knotted at ten, but her rumbling tummy got her attention and she handed her friend a $20 as she said, "Hold the jalapeños."

  By the time Mia returned, Cal was up 14-13 and Jordan was set to serve. Mia had not yet attended an entire game, but she got so excited when she saw the blonde woman standing at the service line that she yelled out "Go Jordan!" at near ear-piercing volume. The entire team looked up into the stands, and both Ryan and Jordan's mouths dropped open when they saw their appreciative audience. Jamie, of course, was blushing to the roots of her hair, but she quickly got over her embarrassment when Jordan got down to business and aced her serve for the win.

  Mia hopped up and screamed again and as the players congratulated each other, Ryan made eye contact one more time, her little wink punctuated by a sweet blown kiss that got Jamie an elbow in the ribs. "Ohh, she loves you," Mia teased.

  "Eat your nachos," Jamie chided as she grinned and blew one right back.

  The team was streaming out of the locker room much sooner than Jamie thought possible. When Ryan and Jordan came out it was obvious why. "You didn't take showers?"

  "Uh-uh," Ryan said as she gave her love a fond kiss. "We wanted to see our groupies!"

  Mia was standing next to Jordan, looking a little unsettled as the tall woman fussed with her gym bag. She was finally set, and she gave Mia a wide smile saying, "It was a very nice surprise to see you in the stands. I think it helped me concentrate."

  Mia beamed up at her, maintaining a respectful distance. "Maybe I'll be your good-luck charm."

  "Do you have a car?" Ryan asked.

  "Uhh, no." She held up her carry-on as she added, "We took a limo, but I let him go. That was stupid, wasn't it?"

  "We can take the bus with the team if you want to go to the hotel," Ryan suggested.

  "Well, I don't think this is the easiest place to get a cab, so I guess we'll have to."

  They hopped on the bus and greeted all of the other players. No one knew Mia, but that didn't stop her from saying, "Good game," to everyone that looked in her direction.

  The bus eventually turned onto the 405 freeway and Jamie looked up to ask, "Where are we going, anyway?"

  "Down to USC. Our hotel is within walking distance of campus."

  "But there's nothing to do down there," Jamie complained.

  Ryan cocked her head and asked, "Why do you think they put us there?"

  "Ooh…good point. Coach is pretty smart, isn't he?" Jamie asked.

  When they pulled up to the Radisson on Figueroa, the student manager hopped off and went to the front desk to sign them in. Jamie got in line behind her and asked the clerk for two rooms, trying to secure one for Mia if Jordan didn't want to sleep with her.

  "Sorry, Ma'am, we're booked solid."

  "You are?" she gaped, never having considered that possibility.

  "Yes, Ma'am. There's a big convention in town and everything is sold out. You'll have to go out to the West Side to find a room-if there are any."

  Walking over to her companions she said, "I think I screwed up again. They don't have any more rooms."

  "We can get a cab and go to another hotel," Ryan offered.

  "He says everything around here is booked. Big convention in town."

  "Let me call my dad," Jordan offered. "He's got a lot of space. We'd have to rent a car, but we could probably do that here."

  "It won't kill us to sleep together," Ryan suggested. "I'm sure we'll have two queen beds. I just want a snack and sleep anyway."

  "Mmm…I think it would be nice if we could have separate rooms," Mia said, shooting a look at Jordan, who appeared to be very uncomfortable.

  The tall woman gave her a grateful glance and took Jamie's proffered cell phone. She had to pull her organizer out of her bag to find the number, which Ryan found odd, but she found what she was looking for and dialed.

  Picking up after a few rings, Jorgen Ericsson answered, "Hello?"

  "Hi, Dad, it's Jordan."

  "Well, hello, Jordan, how are things?"

  "Good. Look, Dad, we're in town for the game, and we need a place to crash. Could you put us up?"

  "Game?" he asked. "The UCLA/USC games aren't this weekend, are they?"

  "Yeah, Dad. We beat UCLA tonight."

  "Damn! I wanted to come to that game. Why didn't you remind me, Jordan? I specifically told you…"

  She cleared her throat and said, "I did, Dad. I left a message with your secretary a month ago, and I called to remind her last week. She said she'd put it on your calendar."

  It was obvious that he was checking his calendar at that moment as she heard pages flipping and his muted mumbling. "I swear that she didn't…oh…well, I guess I blew this one, didn't I?"

  "It's okay, Dad," she responded, trying not to sound disappointed.

  "No, I feel terrible, Jordan. I swore I would get to one of your games, and here I just couldn't get it done."

  "You could come to the 'SC game tomorrow," she suggested with a timidly hopeful expression. Ryan's heart nearly broke when she saw the look on her friend's face, then heard her say, "No, don't worry about it. It's not a problem, Dad. You saw me play a few times in high school. It's the same game." Ryan couldn't bear to hear any more, so she went over to some chairs in the lobby and pulled Jamie with her.

  "Well, Jordan," her father said, "I'm happy to have you come by tomorrow. Candy and I are leaving for Europe in the morning, so you can have the place to yourselves. How's that?"

  Her heart fell to her feet, but she bit her lip and
accepted. "That's fine, Dad. Can you leave a key under the mat?"

  "Oh, no need. I have a new security system. Just key in Candy's birthday."

  "Um, I don't know Candy's birthday, Dad."

  "It's 11-15-78. Make sure you mark that down, Honey."

  "I will, Dad. Thanks for the use of your house."

  "Anytime, dear. That's what fathers are for," he said, pleased that he could accommodate his daughter.

  Jordan gave Mia a sad smile as she offered, "That was the easy one. Now I'll try my mother."

  "No, Jordan. You really don't have to," she insisted. "We can just stay here."

  "No, it's okay, Mia. It can't hurt to ask. She's got a five-bedroom house."

  Now Mia couldn't bear to watch. Jordan had just revealed more about her family than Mia could stand to think about, and she didn't have the heart to listen to this conversation. She gave her a gentle hug and trotted over to join her friends on the chairs. "God! Remind me to call my parents when I get home and thank them for caring about me!"

  Ryan shook her head slowly and asked, "Who's she calling now?"

  "Her mom. Her dad said we could come tomorrow, but not tonight."

  They all watched her out of the corners of their eyes. Jordan looked very pained, but she didn't say much, merely nodding and occasionally rolling her eyes. Letting out an exasperated sigh, she finally came over to the group and flopped down in a chair, still listening. Occasionally she would say "uh-huh," but that was all until she said, "I know how hard it is to live on so little, Mom. Yes, I understand that he lives a very nice life, but…"

  She closed her eyes and nodded for another few minutes, and when she could get another word in she said, "I've got to go, Mom. I'm on a cell phone and minutes are expensive." She nodded again and said, "It's okay, Mom. It's really not important that you come to the game tomorrow. I'll see you the next time I'm down here. No, really, I wouldn't want you to miss your aromatherapy appointment. I'm sure they're very hard to get." After another long silence she said, "I've really got to go." Then, "Umm, I'm not sure. I think I have to stay in Berkeley for Thanksgiving. We have a game the next day." Another pause, then, "Yeah, probably Christmas too. Yeah, this is my last year. Yeah. Time does go fast." She pursed her lips tightly together and blinked slowly as she said, "I love you too, Mom. Bye."

  Clicking the off button she handed the phone back to Jamie with a terse, "No go."

  Mia stood and twitched her head towards an empty area of the lobby. "Can I talk to you, Jordan?" she asked.

  The tall woman got to her feet and followed Mia to a pair of chairs. Sitting down, Mia looked over at her friend and felt her heart ache when she saw the sadness that had settled in her blue eyes. She looked at her with compassion and asked, "What would you like to do? I would never have come if I knew that we'd be forced into sharing a room, Jordan. I know you're not ready to sleep together yet, and if you're uncomfortable we'll get on the phone and find a room, even if we have to go to Orange County!"

  "I'm exhausted, Mia," she admitted softly. "I'm just not up to the stress of running all over town trying to find a place. We'd have to rent a car, and Coach would probably not be real happy about us getting stuck somewhere. If you don't mind sleeping with me, I'd rather just stay here."

  "I'd love to sleep with you, Jordan. I bet you're really cuddly," she teased, giving her a tender smile.

  Jordan looked at her for a moment and shook her head as she gave her a grateful grin and agreed. "Let's stay here."

  When the pair informed Jamie and Ryan of their decision, they accepted it placidly. Jamie knew that she could get on the phone and find a hotel somewhere that would take them, but she didn't want to make a big deal out of the issue since Jordan obviously felt bad enough already. "I'm happy to stay anywhere as long as I get to sleep with my Tiger," she said happily.

  That did more to perk Jordan up than all the reassurances they could jointly muster. "Tiger?" she asked with a luminous grin.

  "Don't start," Ryan moaned. "Don't even start!"

  The room service menu was sadly lacking, but Ryan eventually settled for cereal and toast. The others decided to order a pizza, and as they waited for delivery Jordan said, "I really need a shower. Okay if I go?"

  "Sure. I'll wait until you're finished," Ryan said.

  "If you're a good girl, I'll wash behind your ears," Jamie teased.

  "I'm a very good girl," Ryan smiled, "and you're a very good girl for coming all this way just to be with us."

  Jamie had lived with Ryan long enough to know that one little two-ounce box of cereal would not hold her, so she had also ordered a fruit salad. Ryan polished off everything but wasn't tempted by the pizza that looked like little more than cardboard with ketchup and processed cheese-food slathered onto it.

  Jamie was not really used to the vagaries of economy-class travel, and she had to admit that the pizza was one of the worst things she had ever had in her mouth-topping by a hair the goat's head stew she had been served in Sierra Leone.

  When Jordan exited the bathroom, Ryan went in to run the water for a bath. She was staring at the complimentary lilac-scented bubble bath when Jamie came in.

  "No, no, no," she said, taking the bottle from Ryan's hand "I've got something that you'll like much better." She returned a minute later with a new bottle of shower gel called Spring Rain. "This has almost no scent. It's hypo-allergenic, too."

  Ryan shrugged and squirted a dollop into the running water, pleased that it created only a gentle lather. "Nice," she smiled at Jamie as the faint scent wafted up.

  "I thought we'd find a place with a nice, big tub…maybe a Jacuzzi," Jamie grumbled. "This wasn't what I had in mind," she said softly, snuggling up against Ryan and giving her a gentle hug.

  Ryan smiled down at her and ran her fingers through her blonde locks. "It's a hell of a lot better than I was expecting. I thought I'd have old Jordan crawling in with me, hogging the bed. You are a decided improvement."

  Jamie hadn't expected to need any pajamas, so she was wearing just her panties and one of Ryan's big Tshirts. "I just couldn't stand the thought of you down here all weekend when I knew I could be with you. Are you glad we came?"

  "Couldn't you see my smile when I looked up and saw you? The highlight of every day is when I get to lie in bed with your warm body next to mine. It doesn't matter how big the bed is or who's in the room with us. It only matters that we're together." She dipped her head and placed a few lazy kisses around Jamie's tender lips, then slowly made contact with her target. As usual, Jamie was more than responsive, and the meandering kisses slowly became more focused and intense. "Maybe we had better cool it," Ryan said softly as she rested her cheek against Jamie's. "I don't think this is the ideal place to make love."

  Jamie sighed and started unzipping Ryan's warm-up jacket. She undressed her quickly, not taking her time as she usually did. Ryan climbed into the warm tub and let out a soft groan. "Oooh, this feels nice. I don't know why I avoided tubs for all of these years. I'm a convert."

  "Have we ever bathed together?" Jamie asked, cocking her head as she tried to remember.

  "Just showers," Ryan said. "I don't think we've been in the tub together. Are we going to correct that omission tonight?" Jamie was stripping out of her T-shirt, giving a fairly clear answer.

  "Why the heck not?" she asked. "We won't get to do anything else fun tonight." She surveyed the standard-sized tub, which was already full of her long, lean lover. "I think I'll get in behind you," she decided, not wanting the faucet to jab her in the back.

  "Why not sit on my lap?" Ryan asked.

  Surveying the geometry, Jamie shook her head. "No, that won't work. If I'm in back, you can keep your knees bent. You're too long for me to sit on your legs if they're extended. I think this is the only way."

  "Let's give it a try," Ryan agreed, scooting forward to allow her partner as much room as possible to maneuver. Jamie climbed in and slowly lowered herself. The only way Ryan could lean back was if Jamie's leg
s were wrapped around her, draping over her flexed legs. It was an intricate little puzzle, but it proved to be rather comfortable. Ryan leaned back against her chest and let out another sigh when Jamie started to cup her hands full of the warm water and splash it over Ryan's chest. "Once again, your ideas are top-notch, Jamers. I'm gonna lie here and soak every bit of stress out of my poor tired body."

  Jordan and Mia were sitting on the small upholstered chairs that flanked the round table near the television. The chairs were not particularly comfortable, but Mia was afraid to make the move to the bed just yet.

  "Are you really okay with me being here, Jordan? I would never have come if I'd known we'd have to share a bed. I mean, I know you're not ready for that yet."

  "Yeah. I'm glad that you're here, Mia. I hated to leave after last night…I hated the thought of not being able to speak to you for three days." She batted her cool blue eyes at Mia and said, "I'm really sorry for running out on you. That was so lame."

  "Hey," Mia soothed, "don't worry about it. It didn't bother me."

  "Come on, Mia," she scoffed. "How could it not?"

  Mia smiled and leaned forward and reached out to grasp Jordan's hand. "Let's just call it payback for one of the times I left a guy in a car with…shall we say…a pain in his lap? God, I would get guys so turned on and then decide that I didn't want to go any farther. They must have been cursing my name!"

  Jordan looked at her seriously, a question in her eyes then forming on her lips. "Is that what happened to you last night? Were you really turned on?"

  Mia tapped at Jordan's forehead with her fingertip. "Hello? Earth to Jordan…Of course I was turned on. Weren't you?"

  "Well, yeah," she blushed. "I just thought it wouldn't be as big a deal for you…You've done so much more."

  Mia tossed her feet up onto the bed and gazed at Jordan for a full minute. Finally, she asked the question that had been bugging her since Jamie brought it up. "Can I ask you a really, really personal question?"

  "Uhh…sure…I think."

  "Have you been sexually molested, Jordan?" She asked the question with as much empathy as she could muster. Still, she didn't want to make it sound like Jordan being abused was the most horrible thing in the world, so she tried to sound a little more casual than her rapidly beating heart showed.