by Bonnie Dee
I needed to watch the local news and see how the police and media were presenting the bizarre crime, or if they were keeping it hushed up. I should call Mrs. Plazier and learn more about who to thank for the miracle that had saved us all. And then there was the regular office work-- contact behind-schedule clients, pay past-due bills. I must keep busy, busy, busy and not think about this thing with Rick which frankly scared the hell out of me.
I heard Rick stirring in the bedroom and hurried outside to wait for the taxi. When it pulled up, I ran to it as if the Invictus Malus was on my heels.
Chapter Fifteen
Rick
I woke to find Amy gone and was ashamed at the relief that swept through me. In the bright light of day, I didn’t know what I would have said to her. As much as I wanted her, and I did want her, I wasn’t quite ready to deal with all these powerful emotions first thing on waking up. I wanted to take out the memories of last night and examine them like brand new presents on Christmas morning. But I wasn’t yet ready to admit what it all meant or that last night really had changed everything just like Amy had said.
I got up, showered and dressed, ate some cereal even though it was late afternoon and watched the news. New Orleans had made CNN with the bizarre story of an international sex slave ring. Dozens of people had been kidnapped and held in a secluded estate in the bayou, facing a slave auction. There was no mention of monsters among the dead bodies retrieved from the grounds. Whether that meant the Invictus Malus had somehow cleared them away, or that the NOPD was keeping a lid on it, I didn’t know.
There was video of the mansion from a distance, but crime scene tape kept the press from getting any interior footage. The on-the-scene reporter yammered on, throwing out words like ‘cult’ and ‘sex’ as many times as she could shoehorn them into a sentence. The FBI was involved now, possibly the CIA too, I supposed. It was going to be an international incident with kidnapped people from other countries involved.
I gave the New Orleans police credit for keeping the victims shielded from the press. They’d been ensconced secretly somewhere prior to being sent home and for once no one had disclosed the location to the media. I wondered what had happened to Angela Addington after Amy let her go, and how her husband was dealing with her betrayal.
I picked up my cell phone and stared at it. I wanted to call Amy, needed to hear her voice, but I was nervous. I didn’t know what I’d say. Maybe a text? But I couldn’t think what to write. “Thanks for last night” sounded too cliché.
Ultimately, I wimped out and put the phone away. I’d face her soon enough and maybe by then I’d think of the perfect words to encapsulate everything I was thinking and feeling—once I figured out exactly what it was I thought and felt about her.
And what did it mean that she’d left without talking to me? Was she regretting last night? Would we go back to the same sparring banter we’d always engaged in? What was going to happen now? I’d told her last night I hoped we were a couple and the connection I felt to her confirmed we were in my mind. But I wasn’t sure either of us knew how to be a couple.
I decided to drive to the office even though it was late in the day, catch up on some work, and maybe Amy would be there. We’d see each other in a work situation in a more casual way and take it from there. Maybe the words would come and I’d know exactly what to say. Damn, how could it be so awkward facing the woman with whom I’d had the most fantastic sex of my life, the woman that my whole body, including my heart, was telling me I was meant to be with?
* * * *
The door of the office was unlocked. I took a deep breath before entering. Amy was seated at her desk, studying her computer screen, like it was any other day. She glanced up then quickly away when I came in.
“Hey,” she said.
“Hi. How are you?”
“Good. And you?”
“Tired and aching all over, but good. How are those wounds on your arm?”
“Healing.” Amy gazed fiercely at her monitor. “I suppose you’ve seen the news.”
“Yeah. Sex slave ring. But how else could they explain it.” I couldn’t hover by the door indefinitely so I walked over to her desk. “Have you talked to Brian Addington?”
“Oh, yeah. Big news on that.” Amy looked up at me. “Brian told me Angela disappeared completely. No surprise there. He’s so grateful for our help he’s giving us a substantial reward in addition to our fee.”
I perched on the edge of her desk. “Well, you did kind of save his life. We might never have found where the auction was being held if you hadn’t been taken. So, you saved everyone.”
Amy stood and walked to the coffeemaker, distancing herself from me. “No. You did, and your mom did by calling in that coven. But anyway, Brian’s check will cover the bills for a long, long time so that’s good.” Her back was to me as she messed with the coffeepot.
I realized she was feeling as nervous and awkward as I was, and I wondered what was wrong with the pair of us that we acted like middle-school kids. I followed her over to the coffeemaker and stood right behind her so she couldn’t move away.
“Amy, about last night...”
Her hand stilled on the packets of sugar. “Oh God, I knew you were going to say that.”
“We can’t act as if nothing happened?”
“Why not? Works for me.”
“It doesn’t for me,” I said firmly, taking her by the arm and turning her to face me. “You know it was something more than a one night stand. You know that it meant something—to both of us.” I cupped her chin and tilted her face up, forcing her to meet my eyes.
“I know,” she whispered, her eyes fixed like dark beacons on mine. “But it’s scary.”
“It is. Especially the part about me being a—” I swallowed my pride and said it loud and proud, the word I always avoided in favor of shapeshifter “—werewolf.”
She frowned. “No Rick. That’s not a problem. I’m not afraid of that. Of you. Not at all. It’s just, you know, relationships in general that scare the crap out of me.”
I bent and rested my forehead against hers. “Worth taking a chance though, isn’t it?”
A single corner of her mouth tilted up and I realized for the first time it was graced by the tiny impression of a dimple in her cheek. “Yeah. It is.”
I leaned farther down and touched my lips to hers. They were soft and warm and molded harmoniously around mine. I couldn’t think why this had seemed so awkward and scary a moment ago, because it felt just fine now.
“Mm,” Amy murmured against my mouth, vibrating my lips with a pleasant, tickling buzz. She slid her hands up my chest and hooked them over my shoulders.
I slipped mine around her lower back and pulled her close.
We kissed for several long, luscious moments before she pulled away. “I’m going to have to find another job now. If we’re in a r-relationship,” she stumbled over the word, “we can’t work together.”
“Why not?” I lowered my mouth to kiss her neck, swiping a little lick over the fading bite mark.
“For exactly this reason.” She pushed my head away. “It’s unprofessional to make out in the office. We won’t be able to work together all day and still want to be together at night. It’s too much. We’ll be sick of each other. And if we have an argument here, it will follow us home.”
Home, she’d said as if she already pictured us living together. I fingered the hem of her shirt and inched it up her torso, touching her soft belly underneath. I could happily see her all day and all night without ever getting tired of her.
“Well, what if we kept it strictly professional at the office?” I said. “Hands off. Business only. Then would you stay? Amy, you know I can’t run this place without you.”
“That’s true enough.” Her dark brows drew together.
I slid my hand farther up her warm skin, underneath her top until I touched her bra. I continued to distract her with words while I cupped her soft breast in my hand. “You know my mana
gement skills suck.”
Amy pushed her breast into my hand rather than slapping me away. “Unh. But this is exactly the kind of thing we can’t be doing anymore,” she reminded me, as I stooped to kiss her throat and she arched her neck to let me.
“I know. After this one time, we’ll never ever make out in the office again.” I walked her backward toward her desk and lifted her butt onto it, pushing files and pens out of the way.
“This one time,” she echoed faintly. “And watch out for my computer.”
I moved between her legs, pushing her skirt up her thighs and finding only a moist scrap of material covering her pussy. I scraped my finger over her panties. I could feel the nub of her clit through the thin fabric and teased it with my finger.
“No sex in the office ever again,” I murmured against her mouth.
She moaned softly and kissed me. The kiss sizzled like melting butter on a hot griddle. Our tongues twined together, stroking and slippery, until I couldn’t tell where mine left off and hers began.
Amy pulled away. “One more thing.”
“Hm.” I kissed her jaw, her cheek, her ear and nibbled on her ear lobe.
“If I’m going to keep working here, I want some concessions.”
“Mm-hm.” I kissed her chest, unbuttoned her blouse and sucked her nipples through her bra.
“I don’t want to be just a receptionist. I want to take an active part in the investigations.”
“Active.” I put a hand under her thighs and pulled her closer to the edge of the desk. Through my trousers, I rubbed my aching shaft, against her crotch.
Amy wrapped her legs around my thighs, anchoring us together. “Yeah. A partnership.”
“Sounds reasonable.” I reached into her bra cups and pulled her breasts free. They plumped up over the encasing white lace and I sucked one into my mouth, ravaging the nipple with little bites.
Amy whimpered and pressed her chest toward my mouth.
I moved to the other breast as I reached down and unfastened my fly. Then I pulled down the waistband of my underwear to release my cock.
“Good.” She panted as I pressed the head of my cock against the underwear guarding her entrance. Before I could push the material aside and make my grand entrance, the phone rang. Both of us jumped at the loud interruption.
“Damn! Just let it ring.” I gasped, pressing my cock against her warmth.
She ran her hand through my hair. “Might be a client. I’ll keep it short.”
I growled in annoyance and buried my face between her breasts, listening to her rapid heartbeat.
“Good morning, Plazier and Chang, Investigations. “How may I help you?” Amy’s pleasant office voice made me smile. I lifted my head and looked up at her with a raised eyebrow.
Partners, she mouthed silently, giving me a bright, sunny smile that showed not one but two hidden dimples.
I nuzzled her breast and waited for my new business partner to get off the phone.
* * * *
Japanese lanterns glow and sway in the light breeze. Another party at Louis and Ramón’s, another family gathering with a band on the porch and Grandpére presiding like a king in his armchair.
My mother and Don Major greet relatives and smile into each other’s eyes when the family toasts their engagement.
I turn to Amy and pull her warm, compact body into my arms. We dance a slow, dreamy Cajun waltz under the starry sky. I glance up at the moon over her shoulder, only three-quarters, but I can still feel the wolf howling inside me. It doesn’t frighten me now. It is, after all, only a part of me.
The End
About the author: Bonnie Dee began telling stories as a child. Whenever there was a sleepover, she was the designated ghost tale teller, guaranteed to frighten and thrill with macabre stories. She still has a story printed in second grade on yellow legal paper about a ghost, a witch and a talking cat. Writing childish stories later led to majoring in English at college. Like most English majors, she dreamed of writing a novel, but didn’t have the necessary focus and follow through at that time in her life. It was only in 2000 that she began writing again and became a multi-published erotic romance author. You may see her backlist of books at http://bonniedee.com. Join her Yahoo group for updates on new releases at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bonniedee/. Bonnie Dee is also on Facebook and Twitter.