In Plain Sight

by R E Gauthier

  She was about to search another site when her phone buzzed. Glancing down at her phone she saw that it was Nikki. Smiling she answered in a teasing tone.

  “We Service You Escort Service, how can I help you?”

  Nikki snorted and then said, “Oh how I wish that were true, my date didn’t go as well as I had hoped and now I am frustrated sitting here in my hotel room. Want some company?”

  “Well I was about to... you had a date? You met someone already?” she didn’t get to finish her questioning when her phone’s call beep sounded in her ear. “Just a minute Nikki I am getting another call.”

  “Sure, tell you what I’ll let you go and you can call me when you’re finish with that call, okay?”

  “Okay, chat later.” She tapped the phone’s screen to switch to the new call. “Hello.” Kelsey said hoping it wasn’t another reporter hounding her.

  “Hello, is this FBI Special Agent Kelsey MacGregor?” A distinctly feminine voice asked.

  Hesitantly Kelsey spoke not wanting it to be a repeat of the reporter calling her again. “Yes it is, well it is Senior...never mind; who I am speaking with?”

  “I’m Jess Harrington of Birchwood Publishing; you were trying to reach one of our authors from our website.”

  “Yes I am. I hope you can give me a phone number where I can reach Miranda Gauthier, this is official FBI business and I need to reach her to have her answer some questions concerning an active case we are working on.”

  “Well reaching her right now may not be possible as she is somewhere where cell phone reception is quite inefficient. There are no landlines and she doesn’t have access to internet either. I could get her to call you when she calls me in a few days if that will work.”

  “You could just give me her phone number and I could keep trying until I get through.” She said trying to control her annoyance. She hoped the woman would leave her in control of contacting Miss Gauthier so she didn’t have to wait for a call from an author who sounded rather eccentric.

  “I’m afraid I cannot do that, you say you are from the FBI but without knowing for certain I will not be giving out Miranda’s private information. If you would like any personal information on her you will have to send me an official request through proper channels.” The literary agent dashed all Kelsey’s hopes of a quick conclusion to this endeavor.

  “Miss Harrington, I can assure you...” She began but was cut off immediately with Jess Harrington’s curt retort.

  “Well I am glad you think you can assure me, but I will not give you any information on Miranda’s whereabouts or how to reach her, until I have an official request.”

  “How would I go about that, may I ask?”

  “I would accept a formal email or fax, if you can send one, on FBI official letterhead requesting Miranda’s full dossier. I am not only her literary agent but I am also her best friend so I will not be giving out her information to just anyone.”

  Stifling a growl, the day she had had was bad enough and now she had to jump through hoops just to reach a possible person of interest. She had better be the woman we’re looking for.

  “Oh all right I can do that shortly, is there another email address you would like me to use or can I use the one on the website sufficient?”

  “I will give you another one,” Jess Harrington gave her the email and she wrote it down.

  “I’ll send you the requested email and I hope that we can settle this tonight,” she said wanting to yell at the pompous sounding woman.

  “I’ll await the email and as soon as I have it, I will forward the dossier on Miranda. Can I ask what this case you are investigating has to do with her?”

  “I’m afraid I cannot divulge that information at this time, it’s just imperative that we speak to Miss Gauthier as soon as possible.”

  “It was a pleasure speaking with you SENIOR Special Agent Kelsey MacGregor; if I can help you with anything else, please call me.”

  Before she could respond the call ended. Geezus seriously?, this had better be worth it.

  Kelsey called Nikki immediately, her tech-savvy outside of the FBI mainframe seriously lacking; she needed her best friend to get the required email header to send her request to Jess Harrington.

  Nikki sent her the email header and requested she call her back as soon as she had concrete information on the author. She only said she would try but if it was late she would have to wait till the next day to bring her best friend up to speed on the missing in action Miranda Gauthier.

  After some time the email she waited for popped up in her inbox. Opening the email she browsed through the usual information when she saw the words pseudonym, lesbian and erotica. Kelsey suddenly found herself scanning the page to find out more information when the name Randi G. jumped out at her but still there were no contact information she could use to reach the author. Where a phone number should have been it was blacked out and a scrolled note said: She’ll call you when she calls me. Frustration bubbled up, she growled loudly. I should call Miss Harrington back and threaten to charge her with obstruction of justice; that would certainly speed things up.

  Banging that idea around for a few moments she knew she didn’t need this added annoyance right now. The behavioral psychology side of her told her that this woman is more of a mystery than first glance. I might as well learn a bit more about what makes this elusive author tick while waiting to hear from her.

  She found an included website for Randi G. in the dossier curiously she clicked on it and she gasped when pictures of beautiful women in sexual positions, barely clothed and looking longingly into each other’s eyes, appeared. It’s an erotica site so the pictures clearly set the mood. Her heart began beating faster and her body heated as she found a long list of titles that Randi G. penned and many links to where they could be bought. She clicked on an excerpts page, where pieces of the works could be read. She clicked on one link to a short story titled ‘When She Found Me.’ When she began to read it the scene played out in her head and the heat crept throughout her body and a deep ache settled low in her belly. Had she read that right? The main character described what was being done to her and Kelsey felt like she was peeking into the woman’s bedroom.

  Allie lifted her hips to help the sexy butch remove her panties and felt the warm breath caress her wet center. She closed her eyes tightly to try and keep from screaming her frustration. She just wanted to feel that tongue on her clit and she wanted to feel it now, but the lips grazed her inner thigh in a slow pattern down towards her knee. The achingly slow pace drove her mad but she knew from the look in those blue eyes she wouldn’t have to wait much longer. The tongue started its trek back up her thigh.

  “So would you like me to kiss you some more or would you like me to do something else?” The handsome woman asked in a deep husky voice.

  “Something...else...? Ummm...oh yeah definitely something else,” Allie said while grabbing the back of...what was her name? Oh I don’t care; she thought as the tongue found her core and she bucked and whimpered in surrender.

  Her reaction was so foreign; her entire body felt on fire and her heart raced. Those words opened a floodgate of feelings and emotions. Visions of a dream she had had the past few days came to mind. What’s happening? She asked her addled brain. Her brain didn’t have an answer but her body did. As she continued to read other excerpts from the author’s work the words continued to cause her body to feel things she hadn’t felt for years. Unbidden her hands moved over her bare skin and the visions of a petite woman looking down at her filled her mind’s eyes. The woman came to her like in her dreams, she said she needed her, wanted her.

  Kelsey gave one last fleeting thought about calling Nikki back and then engulfed in the words the sensations in and on her skin caused another wave of emotions and she sunk under their depths.

  Chapter Seven

  Tuesday August 30, 2011

  “The greatest pleasures in life are not to be had but to have.”

  Waking a
t the crack of dawn, Kelsey felt exhausted. She hadn’t slept all that well because her night had been filled with dreams of erotic words and scenes and the same petite woman who had haunted her dreams the last few nights, now came to her more urgently. Trained to wake up and write her dreams down she awoke many times but the dreams were always the same; the woman spoke to her in a hushed voice; the words she couldn’t decipher but the context was perfectly clear. Her body awoke with sensations she had never woke with before. Remembering the night before and what she had done, she moaned out loud. “Why now?”

  She got out of bed and immediately dressed for her usual morning run. Running along the harbor, brought back memories of the first time she had seen the ocean. Growing up in Pennsylvania she only saw water in lakes and rivers but she learned the sea air first thing in the morning could be so refreshing and helped to clear her mind.

  She showered and finished dressing when her phone buzzed; her heart raced. Her nerves were on edge still, the run and the shower had done nothing to quell the thoughts and feelings coursing through her body. Soon as she reached for the phone and saw the name she frowned. Her best friend would chew her out for not calling her back last night.

  “Hi Nikki, did you sleep well?”

  “No dammit I didn’t,” the words sounding as she had figured Nikki would be, annoyed with her.

  “Why didn’t you? Was it because your date didn’t go well or was it because I never called you back?” She tried sounding light and teasing her friend hoping it would also keep her own mind from its musings.

  “Both” she growled.

  Kelsey chuckled because she knew Nikki was more upset she didn’t call her back last night than not having an outlet for her pent up energy.

  “Sorry but it was late when I finally got the email from the agent. Okay that’s not completely true, but she knew Nikki didn’t know that.”Why not meet me for breakfast and we can go over everything then, okay?”

  “Sure, do you want to go down to the restaurant or just go to Perks?”

  “Well by the sound of you, it would be prudent to go to Perks for a double espresso but I need a real breakfast at the restaurant.”

  “Okay why not give me ten minutes and I’ll meet you at the elevator?”

  When she arrived at the elevator, Nikki still looked annoyed.

  “What? I’m not late am I?”

  “No, but I am still upset that I didn’t hear back from you last night, so spill.”

  “Well there isn’t much to tell really. Our author is quite the recluse and ahhh...”

  Nikki noticed the color rising up Mack’s neck and onto her face. That couldn’t be a blush could it? She had only ever seen her best friend flushed one night after drinking but never saw an actual blush. But the definite red color rising up onto her face now was a blush if she had ever seen one.

  “Okay now I am really pissed you never called me.” What could put a nice red blush on her face is much more interesting than ‘Well there’s not much to tell’. Intrigued now, she had to find out what had caused this apparition in front of her.

  “Well it appears that Miranda Gauthier also writes under a pseudonym.”

  “Okay so will that help us find her? Why would that piece of information make you blush?”

  “Well ummm... her pseudonym is Randi G. and she writes lesbian erotica?” The last two words came out as barely a whisper.

  Nikki took a moment for the information to register. Too early in the morning for a revelation like this she just stood looking at her red-faced friend with her mouth open. Randi G. was a prolific and popular lesbian erotica creator; she being one of the woman’s biggest fans. I sure hope I get to meet her.

  “Okay let me get this straight, you found out our author writes lesbian erotica and that makes you blush?” Nikki knew that her friend held something back and her imagination went into overdrive.

  “Well...I sort of read some of her stuff and ummm...” Mack squirmed now attempting to tell her tale.

  I’m really intrigued now; Mack’s neither a blusher nor one to squirm. What had she read? Nikki knew the author had some pretty racy, sensual stuff. Stuff she had enjoyed reading on lonely nights.

  “By some of this stuff I can only imagine you’re talking about some potent erotica.”

  “Well Randi G. has some excerpts of her books and short stories on her website.” Mack looked like she tried to compose herself to continue.

  Nikki thought for awhile about her best friend’s reaction and came to a conclusion she had thought about several years ago when they both got drunk and she had made a pass at the taller agent. Mack acted awkward like someone who didn’t have much experience with intimate encounters. Initially she just thought she had read her all wrong and Mack just had never been with another woman but she learned much more. Her best friend had confided in her that she never had fooled around with boys or girls except a kiss once. Today she looked into the same confused eyes and she realized this thirty-four year old still hadn’t been intimate with anyone. Knowing she had to tread lightly on her best friend’s feelings she decided instead of teasing her she had better allow Mack to tell her at her own pace.

  “Okay so what I am gathering from your reaction is that you haven’t read erotica before and that Miran...I mean Randi G’s words certainly affected you profoundly and I want to hear all about it. But did you at least find a way to reach her?” The case now taking precedence over her excitement of learning more about her best friend’s other discoveries.

  “Well no we don’t have any way to reach her. The irritating literary agent and friend Jess Harrington won’t give me her number but said she’ll have her call me.”

  “Well shit that sucks how long until you’ll hear from her?” Nikki asked just as annoyed at learning they wouldn’t get to speak to the author soon.

  “I don’t know a few days, hard to say. Have I told you lately how I hate dealing with people? I’ve decided that authors and their agents are the worse.”

  “Well since there isn’t much we can do about that, tell me which stories did you read? She has some pretty raunchy stuff. Have I told you she’s my very favorite erotica author?”

  It didn’t surprise her to learn about Nikki liking Randi G’s stories she had listened politely to her best friend’s vivid descriptions of some of her dates over the years. She knew all too well Nikki’s ideas of fun. Before last night though she had never reacted by having visions those words provoked or reacted in the manner she had reading those words.

  “I can’t remember all the titles but what I am about to tell you is embarrassing and even saying that word is foreign to me. You know I don’t get embarrassed easily.”

  “Mack I know I have to say I’m shocked to see you blush and squirming here. I promise to listen to you and not judge. There is no need to be embarrassed I’m your best friend. Besides I have told you some pretty intimate stuff, that’s what friends do.”

  Kelsey thought about that for a moment. Best friends may tell each other really personal stuff but her relationship with Nikki had never been like that or at least she had never had anything THIS personal to tell her before today.

  ”Okay then, can you PLEASE let me tell you the whole thing and then let’s have breakfast without us discussing it.”

  “Sure but I can only promise not discussing it during breakfast, then all bets are off.”

  Thankfully they were still alone as the elevator crept down to the second floor. Kelsey took a few deep breaths and said it as quickly as possible. “So I don’t ordinarily talk about really personal stuff, right?” She continued when Nikki gave her a nod of affirmation. “Well as you have deduced; I haven’t read erotica before, so I have no prior knowledge of how it would or could affect me. I also told you that I have not grown up like other woman my age. I mean I haven’t had sex with anyone and haven’t been all that intimate with myself, she said in a whisper. It had been much easier talking about her virginity years ago when they had been drunk. Maybe
I need a drink or two to loosen me up some?

  Another deep breath and she soldiered on.

  “Last night while I read those excerpts; which I don’t know why I did, curiosity I guess to see what made our elusive author tick... I had feelings I have never had before and I had a strong urge to touch myself and I think I may have had an orgas...”

  The rest of her confession got drowned out by the elevator doors opening and the clamoring of several people as they entered the elevator.

  Glancing over at Nikki, she could see her friend’s mind working overtime, her eyes kept darting to her with so many questions obvious in their depths. The elevator arrived at the Perk’s coffee shop located on the second floor and the majority of its passengers exited including she and Nikki.

  Nikki stared at her and her mouth opened when she held up her hand to interrupt her.

  “You promised not a word until after breakfast,” she said as her best friend only nodded.

  Over breakfast they talked about the case and Nikki had done more research on Miranda Gauthier to which the mention of her name caused the heat to creep back into her body. Nikki behaved but she knew before long she would be bombarded with questions. As the waiter came and took away their dishes, her best friend sat back with a mischievous grin on her face.

  She searched the restaurant’s patrons and saw that Rachel was only a few tables away.

  “Oh look its Rachel, let’s go over and keep her company before we have to go back to the grind upstairs. Just don’t say anything about me locating Miranda Gauthier or anything else for that matter.”

  “So you would like me to go over and talk to Rachel but I am not to say anything, is that right?”

  “Very funny but please don’t mention last night. I’ll tell her I haven’t found her and leave it at that, okay?”

  “Fine you’re off the hook for now, but so help me god Mack you can’t leaving me hanging like this for long. I won’t tease you I promise but I need you to tell me everything when you’re ready.”