by Melissa Good
“Christmas party,” Dar had firmly insisted. “Christmas, Christmas, Christmas, not birthday.”
But Kerry had snickered, which meant she’d at least have to suffer through a cake and a chorus. Hm. Dar mentally made a note to ask, in a circumspect way of course, if the cake was to be Kerry’s double chocolate mousse, killer cake. That was worth a round of Happy Birthday to You, if nothing else was.
Yeah. Dar grinned and licked her lips at the thought.
“HOLY COW, KERRY,” Colleen rubbed her friend’s arm sym-pathetically, “what a nightmare.”
“Yeah.” Kerry was sprawled on one of the two stools in the kitchen. “You can say that again. Thanks a bunch for staying over here.”
“No problem,” Colleen said. “I was glad to do it. Chinie’s a sweetie, and Dar’s folks are great people.”
“They sure are.” Kerry smiled. “You have no idea how glad I was to see them when they showed up. Oh, my God, Col, I was literally standing in a pit full of vipers, with that bastard Kyle coming right at me when BAM! Talk about the cavalry coming over the hill.”
Colleen grinned. “Dar’s father is so hooked on you. It’s so sweet. You should have heard them when they showed the television report and we spotted you, just before they left. Man, the two of them went off.”
Kerry sighed. “That so sucked.” She rested her head on her hand and leaned an elbow on the counter. “I don’t think I’ve ever had a lousier couple of days, I can tell you that. After we got back to the hotel, Angie called and told me the staff thought it would be better if I didn’t come over to the house, because of Dar.”
“To hell with them.” Colleen snorted.
“Well, I didn’t go,” Kerry said. “And it was because of Dar, not for their benefit. She was hurting.” She paused. “God knows, I was hurting, too. We needed some space.” She thought about that night. “I don’t know what I would have done if Dar hadn’t been there, Col. I just don’t.” She could hear a faint tremor in her own voice. “That first night…Jesus. I was so sick. I got a migraine, and 198 Melissa Good I passed out in the bathroom…”
“Wow.” Colleen gave her a concerned look. “What happened?”
“Just too much stress, I guess.” Kerry felt irrational tears rising. “But then, Dar happened. She wasn’t supposed to come up until the next day, but she just dropped everything and came that night. I don’t know what I would have done if she hadn’t.”
Colleen put a hand on her arm and squeezed.
“I think that was the worst I’ve ever felt,” Kerry whispered.
“But Dar held me and made that all go away. It was incredible.”
She let out a long, shaky breath. “She saved my sanity.”
“Hey.” Colleen gently put both arms around her and gave her a hug. “You poor kid.” She patted Kerry’s back, then rubbed it.
“I’m glad tall, dark, and daunting was there to make things right, Ker. I know I didn’t start off being a fan of hers, but I’m glad this time I was so damn, dead wrong.”
“Mm.” Kerry returned the hug. “Tall, dark, and doofy sometimes. That’s how she hurt her arm again. The dork picked me up and carried me to the bed in the hotel. I was too sick to realize what she was doing.”
Colleen laughed a bit. “Oh, really?”
“Yeah.” Kerry got up off her stool, went to the refrigerator, and took out a pitcher of juice and swirled it. “Want some?”
“Sure.”
“Hey, Dar?” Kerry called into the living room. “Want some juice?”
“Does it have chocolate in it?” the droll answer came back.
“Ew. Orange juice and chocolate?” Kerry made a face. “No, honey. I’ll get you some milk.”
“Mmmmmilk,” Dar drawled in response as she appeared in the doorway, looking appealingly tousled in her T-shirt, cutoff shorts and white socks. Chino came trotting in behind her, yawn-ing. “Chino wants some milk, too.”
Colleen chuckled. “Like owner, like puppy.”
Dar paused and put a hand on her hip. She lifted one eyebrow in mock menace. “You saying I look like that dog?”
“No.” Kerry handed her a glass and leaned up to give her a kiss. “You just act like her—adorably loyal and cute to a fault.”
She watched Dar’s eyes go round in startlement, then glance at Colleen and back to her. “Oh, don’t go all formal on me now, Dar.
You were the one who was just mooing for milk.”
Dar scowled, then her face relaxed into a sheepish grin as she chuckled and accepted the glass.
Colleen put down her own glass and stood up. “Well, I’ll be getting meself back to the southern reaches of Kendall. You two Thicker Than Water 199
take it easy, eh? See you Wednesday?”
“I’ll be there, absolutely,” Kerry said. “Dar? Well, let’s see what the doctor says.” She looked at her lover, who merely lifted a brow at her. “Right? You’re not going to try teaching us flips until your shoulder gets better, are you?”
“No,” Dar replied obediently, referring to the martial arts class they were supposed to resume that week. “I’ll just make you all do the work, and I’ll watch.” She chuckled at their wry faces.
“Besides, I can use the pool a little.”
“Ah, sure.” Colleen shouldered her bag. “She floats while we sweat. Nice.” She waved a goodbye. “Later, folks.”
Kerry walked her to the door and closed it behind her, then turned and regarded Dar. She crossed the living room and sat down with Dar on the couch, and put her feet up on the coffee table at almost the same time Dar did. Then she rested her head against Dar’s shoulder and sighed.
“Nice to be here, huh?” Dar obligingly draped an arm over her shoulders and pulled her closer.
Kerry wrapped her arms around Dar’s body and snuggled up as close as she could without actually crawling into Dar’s lap. She craved the warmth of her lover’s body and the feeling of utter security that her embrace provided. Dar didn’t disappoint her.
She felt Dar’s body shift a little, and she squirmed into a cradle made from long arms and legs that wrapped around her and brought her home in a way that touched her battered soul in just the spot she needed it to.
“Tell you what,” Dar murmured as she stroked Kerry’s hair,
“I vote for a night of shameless hedonism and indulgence. You up for that?”
“Uh huh,” Kerry murmured. “But I’d be happy just to have you near me all night.”
Dar gave her a worried look. “Well, sure. Where else would I be?” She kissed the top of Kerry’s head. “Ker?”
Kerry lifted her head, revealing a tear-streaked face. She wiped the back of her hand across her eyes and sniffled. “Sorry. I don’t know what the hell’s wrong with me.”
Dar didn’t know either. It left her at somewhat of a loss to be presented with a problem she had no experience or knowledge to deal with. So she did what she could do, which was wipe the tears from Kerry’s face and kiss her gently. ”Go ahead and cry if it makes you feel better. Talk to me about it if you want to. But if all you need from me is love, you’ve got all of that I have, and it’s yours for the taking.”
Kerry blinked, scattering a few sparkles of moisture, and a tiny, charmed smile appeared on her face.
200 Melissa Good
“What?” Dar smiled back. “Do I have chocolate on my chin again?”
“Milk.” Kerry rubbed the residue off Dar’s upper lip and gazed at her with a look of utter love. “A night of shameless hedonism, huh?”
“Yeah.” Dar found the sea green eyes irresistibly fascinating.
“I figured we could start off by ordering something really bad for us from the Italian place, then sort of go from there.”
“Will this night of hedonism include hot fudge?”
“Yes.”
“Hot tub?”
“Yes.”
“Hot…mmfp.” Kerry took the kiss as an answer to that question and surrendered willingly to the plan.
<
br /> IT WAS MUCH later, when Kerry, stifling a yawn with one hand, climbed up the stairs to her office. Her hair was still damp from the Jacuzzi, and she could smell the distinct tang of chlorine on her skin. Mixed with a little fudge. Kerry licked her lips, and couldn’t quite repress a grin. Nothing like a little hedonism to brighten up one’s perspective on things, eh? She spared a moment to think about what her family’s reaction would be to their activities of the evening, imagining her mother’s face as she described just how skillful Dar was with…
“God, Kerrison, stop it. You’ll go blind.” She slapped the side of her head a time or two and entered her office.
It felt like it had been a month since she’d been in there.
Kerry paused to look around the room, the contents mostly those she’d had on her walls in her apartment back in Kendall: her certificates and awards, her professional credentials, and the first few of her attempts at photography—including a sunset shot of the Miami skyline.
Kerry walked to the photograph and looked at that, then shifted her attention to the eight by ten of Dar, the first picture she’d ever taken of her partner, before they’d become lovers. It had been at the corporate community participation day. Dar had just finished her painting tasks, and she’d been sitting on the edge of a garbage can, dotted with paint spatters and outlined in the sunset’s golden light. Kerry had impulsively grabbed Mari’s camera and focused it, attracting Dar’s attention at the very last second before she closed the shutter button.
Those blue eyes; that suddenly warm grin, aimed straight at her; the connection they’d made even with her behind the camera.
After the shot, Kerry had lowered the camera and reluctantly Thicker Than Water 201
handed it back to Mari, wishing with all her heart she’d thought to bring her own instead.
Kerry touched the framed photo, delivered to her desk in an envelope without any comment a week later. She’d been so excited, and pulled it out and looked at it for minutes at a time when she should have been working.
It had been one of the pictures she’d taken home to show Angie, because there was just something so amazingly sweet about it and even now, looking at it, she couldn’t help but smile at the love now obvious to her in Dar’s expression. Maybe she’d known all along the promise held in that look.
Kerry leaned forward and gently kissed the picture, and then she turned around, dropped into her desk chair, and rummaged inside the drawer for the packet of receipts she’d gone upstairs to retrieve. A square of glossy paper blocked her search, and she pulled it out impatiently, turned it over, and put it on the desk out of the way. The lettering was now uppermost and she sat there quietly and reread the invitation to her high school reunion.
Slowly, a smile crossed her face. She picked up the invitation, left the receipts behind, and trotted out the door and down the steps with her still damp hair bouncing along. “Hey, Dar?”
“Yeeeeeess?” Dar’s low purr answered from where she was sprawled on the couch. “Something else I can do for you, beautiful?”
Kerry’s hormones almost made it down the stairs before she did. She scooted across the tile floor, slid to a halt next to the couch, and bumped her knees right next to Dar’s arm. “I have a favor to ask.”
A lazy blue eye regarded her. “Anything.”
Kerry knelt down and offered her the card. “I didn’t realize this was on the back of that letter I got the other week.”
Dar examined the card, then looked at Kerry in some surprise. “You want to go to this? Really?”
“No.” Kerry smiled. “I want us to go to it.” She leaned on the couch edge. “There’re a lot of prissy gits I want to show up.”
“Whatever you want, Ker.” Dar clasped her fingers around Kerry’s. “Do we have to wear leather?”
Kerry’s eyes twinkled appreciatively. “Maybe we do.”
Dar edged over on the couch and pulled gently. Kerry took a seat on the edge of the cushion, then laid her body diagonally over Dar’s. They gazed quietly at each other for a minute in silence, only the air conditioning humming along in the background.
Kerry lifted her hand off Dar’s shoulder and traced the planes of her face with careful fingers. Blue eyes followed her motion, 202 Melissa Good then lifted and seemed to reach out to capture her, drawing her inward and downward until her body was pressed against Dar’s and she replaced her fingers with her lips.
“Mm.” Dar closed her eyes as she smiled, her hands coming to rest on Kerry’s sides and teasingly tickled up and down them.
She felt Kerry’s ribs expand outward under her cotton shirt as she took a deeper breath and continued her motion, enjoying the familiar contours under her touch.
She knew every inch of Kerry’s body—all its planes, all its quirky irregularities. She loved the softness of her skin, and the slowly building strength she had felt grow under it to cover the sturdy bones that had seemed so very close to the surface when they’d first met.
“You know what I was voted most likely to?” Kerry whispered. “In high school?”
Dar almost lost the question when Kerry’s lips descended on hers and their bodies pressed tighter against one another. “Bet it wasn’t that,” she rumbled softly, as they paused to breathe. “Run for president?” She took in a breath filled with Kerry’s scent and reveled in it.
Kerry chuckled, shaking her head slightly as she deferred answering for another kiss. She felt Dar’s hand slip under her shirt, warm against her skin as fingers traced slow circles across her ribcage. “Nothing.”
“Eh?” Dar eased Kerry’s shirt up and gently cupped her breast.
“Nothing,” Kerry repeated and inhaled sharply as her body reacted to Dar’s touch. “Said I’d never leave home.” She kissed Dar. “Never go anywhere.” Her voice broke slightly on the last word. “Never—”
“Never experience this?” Dar ducked her head and nibbled Kerry’s nipple, then cupped her hand around Kerry’s neck and passionately returned the kiss.
A soft groan trickled through Kerry’s throat, dusting her own lips with warm breath. “Mm…yeah.” Kerry lifted her head, her eyes half closed, nose-to-nose with Dar. She looked into the passion-darkened blue orbs beneath her. “I never thought I would either.”
“Feel this?” Dar teasingly slid her hand down Kerry’s body.
Kerry’s expression unexpectedly gentled. She kissed the spot right above Dar’s heart. “No, this. To be loved for myself.” She kissed the spot again, then shifted back up as Dar lifted her hand and laid it on Kerry’s cheek.
“Neither did I.” Dar raised her head and they kissed again.
Kerry’s arms relaxed as she eased forward and slipped one bare Thicker Than Water 203
thigh between Dar’s. “I think we both lucked out.”
Kerry hugged her, sparing a moment of passion for one of joy.
Dar hugged her back, finding peace in her choices and accepting them. Then Kerry slipped her hand down and under the waistband of Dar’s cotton shorts, and all nobler thoughts evaporated.
She grabbed the front of Kerry’s shirt between her teeth and yanked, letting out a growl as Kerry ducked out of the fabric and got under Dar’s half shirt, finding a tastier target beneath it.
“Hell with leather.” Dar gasped. “Let’s just go in our god damned socks.”
“Hehehe.”
IT WAS DARK and not quite dawn when Dar woke up. The condo was quiet, and she could hear the soft patter of rain against the window not far over her head.
It was Monday. Now that the weekend was over, she had to face the reality of the week, and the private knowledge that today might, in fact, be her last one at ILS. She’d already decided not to tell anyone; in fact, she hadn’t even talked about it with Kerry.
She would just go up to Houston on Tuesday, and then the announcement would come out and that would be that.
So today she would spend cleaning up loose ends, taking solace from the knowledge that at least she was leaving t
he company in a good position, though losing the Navy contract would be a definite blow. It would work out, though, she was sure. The company could take the hit.
Dar’s thoughts drifted a bit, coming around to her still sleeping partner. She could see dark circles under Kerry’s eyes and that led to her one real worry about the whole deal. She could leave, and it would hurt her, but she was afraid it would hurt Kerry worse, to have to take over everything now, after what she’d just been through.
Or maybe…Dar exhaled. Maybe Kerry would just chuck it all too. Maybe she should, rather than risk a health Dar was beginning to suspect was more at risk than she was willing to admit.
Troubled, she stared at the ceiling, in the rare position of being out of control of her own destiny and not liking the feeling at all. Instead of being soothing, now the incessant patter of the rain made her edgy, half of her wanting the day to start and half of her dreading it.
Her entire body started when the cell went off near her head.
She jerked to one side and reached for it, hissing at the sharp pain in her shoulder. “Shit.”
Kerry woke, her head moving and her eyes blinking dazedly.
204 Melissa Good
“Huh?”
“Phone.” Dar grabbed it and opened it, rattled and off-balance. “What?” Her heart was thundering, adrenaline pumping through her from the ominously early call. Trouble?
“Uh…Dar?”
Alastair. Dar’s throat went dry. “Oh. Sorry.” She glanced at the clock. “Good morning.”
“Ah, yes, well, thanks.” Alastair cleared his throat. “Listen, sorry to call you so early.”
Dar felt her heart settle into her guts. “It’s earlier where you are.” She was aware of Kerry’s eyes on her in the dimness, and of the light touch now on her belly, wordless comfort as Kerry seemed to sense her distress. “What’s up?”
“Well, I guess you military types are all early risers. I just heard from Washington,” Alastair said.
Dar didn’t say anything, but she felt her heart rate speed up even more.
“Fact of the matter is, Dar, I didn’t think the general was going to buy into us.”