by Jae
A hot tongue chased a drop that trailed down her spine, and Aiden had to grip the sink in front of her with both hands as her knees threatened to buckle.
Dawn's fingers slid over Aiden's sensitive sides, traced the outsides of her breasts, and then kneaded Aiden's muscled buttocks.
With a groan, Aiden tightened her grip on the sink and widened her stance.
Dawn took immediate advantage. One of her hands slipped down and brushed the heat between Aiden's legs.
"Jesus!" Aiden gasped. With all the passionate teasing in the tub, she already felt ready to explode. "This will be over in a second if you don't slow down," she warned.
"Oh, yeah?" Dawn rasped into her ear, pressing her whole body against Aiden's. "Let's see." She slid one finger into Aiden with an aching slowness.
Aiden let go of the sink with one hand and reached back to pull Dawn closer, hoping to get her to move just a little faster. She could feel Dawn's hardened nipples trail paths up and down her back as they moved against each other.
Careful teeth nipped at a tendon where Aiden's neck met her shoulder.
Aiden threw her head back, giving Dawn more access. The movement pressed her belly against the sink, and she shivered at the contrast between the cool porcelain and Dawn's heat against her back.
Dawn's tongue traced the rapidly pounding pulse in Aiden's neck. Aiden moaned as Dawn's free hand slid around her hip, followed the tense muscles of her stomach, and then tenderly cupped one of her breasts. Dawn's thumb rasped lightly over an erect nipple.
Aiden's hips bucked.
Dawn met each trust, no longer insisting on a slower rhythm. "More?" she asked, her hot breath washing over Aiden's ear.
"Yes!" Aiden struggled to get out that single word.
Dawn sucked at the skin of her neck, making waves of heat shoot down Aiden's body. At the same time, she added a second finger.
Aiden groaned deep in her throat. She felt the heat spreading. Her stomach tightened, and her legs trembled. Her eyes fluttered shut.
Immediately, Dawn took her lips off of Aiden's neck. "Aiden," she said, her voice tender but commanding, "open your eyes. Look up."
Aiden dragged open her eyes. She lifted her head from between arms that were tightly gripping the sink. Glancing in the mirror, Aiden watched herself move against Dawn with a total abandon she had rarely experienced before. Then she met Dawn's intense green eyes in the mirror.
Without breaking eye contact, Aiden let go of the sink with one hand and roughly pressed Dawn closer against her as she felt her orgasm build.
Dawn stopped the movement of her fingers. The hand that had been on Aiden's breast slipped down and softly brushed over Aiden's clit.
"Dawn!" Aiden gasped. The first wave of orgasm hit, and she collapsed back against Dawn.
For a few seconds, Dawn tried to hold her up, but the weight of Aiden's suddenly boneless body was too much for her. She gently withdrew and let them both slide to the floor.
Aiden lay with her cheek pressed to Dawn's chest. She couldn't tell if it was Dawn's heart beating so frantically – or her own. Her body was still shuddering.
Finally, her breathing calmed. She noticed Dawn was trailing her hand down her back in a gesture that was now soothing rather than arousing. She became aware of the damp bath mat they were lying on. Goose bumps covered her rapidly cooling skin. Groggily, she lifted her head and looked down at Dawn's tenderly smiling face. "I think," Aiden murmured and pressed her lips to Dawn's, lazily kissing her, "I need another shower."
CHAPTER 39
"...AND THAT WAS when the detectives and security came stampeding into the room and arrested Tracey Sheldon," Kade finished recounting Friday's events. She leaned back in her chair and regarded the two women sitting on the other side of her desk, knowing her boss wouldn't like this mess. Senior Deputy District Attorney Althea Coltrane wanted the DA's office to fight crime, not provide victim and crime scene.
But to Kade's surprise, it wasn't Althea Coltrane who spoke first.
"Great!" Stacy Ford, the DDA who would take the Tracey Sheldon case to trial, groaned. "Another lesbian who turns out to be a nutjob and a criminal, contributing to the stereotype that gives us all a bad name!"
Us? Kade mentally echoed. It was an open secret that Stacy was a lesbian, and Kade was a little disconcerted, feeling as if Stacy was putting her in the same category. Calm down. She wasn't talking about you. She couldn't possibly know, could she?
The Senior DDA didn't pay Stacy's comment any attention. She fixed Kade with a stern gaze. "Can you please explain to me what Dawn Kinsley, a former victim and key witness in one of your cases, was doing in your office?"
Internally, Kade grimaced. She wanted to bring me something to eat is probably not a good answer. She looked at Stacy, hoping she would maybe provide a harmless explanation for her.
Stacy just looked back at her with a neutral, if mildly interested expression.
Does she know Dawn is Aiden's girlfriend? Kade wondered. With the very effective courthouse rumor mill, it seemed unlikely that she hadn't heard. Then again, Althea seemed clueless about it. If Stacy and Althea didn't already know, Kade didn't want to out Aiden by telling them Dawn was her lover. Not only was it Aiden's and not her decision to make, but she also didn't want Stacy and Althea to start wondering why one lesbian had been trying to kill her while three other lesbians had come to her rescue.
"Yeah, Kade," Stacy agreed with their boss. "That's something we need to know. I don't want it to hit me from out of left field in court."
Traitor, Kade silently grumbled. Of course she knew that she would have said the very same thing if she were in Stacy's place. In fact, she had said the very same thing to Del when she had first met her and Del had wanted to testify against Gary Ballard. It seemed like a million years ago to her. On the surface, nothing had changed, but Kade knew her life would never again be as it had been just a few months ago.
Kade looked from one woman to the other. They were still waiting for an answer.
Should I lie? Come up with a plausible excuse? She shook her head at herself. Is that how you want to live your life? Do you really want to spend your life in the closet, always afraid to be outed? Always hiding, lying, making excuses? Kade knew it wasn't what she wanted, but neither did she like the consequences of the alternative. Still, there was more than just her job, her career, and her reputation at stake. Do you want to force Del to live like that too? Del deserves so much better than that – and so do you. If a life trapped in the closet was what you wanted, you could have stayed in your family's golden cage.
She took off her glasses and looked directly into Althea's eyes. "Dawn Kinsley is my friend," she answered simply.
"Your friend?" Althea repeated. It was easy to see that she wasn't very pleased with that answer. Her chair creaked under her as she leaned back and regarded Kade with irritation. "Kadence –"
Kade held up her hands. She didn't want to hear this. She already knew what Althea wanted to say anyway. "I know you think it's not 'appropriate' or professional." Frankly, Althea, I've come to realize that in the grand scheme of things, propriety is overrated, Kade thought. She was smart enough not to say it to her boss, though. "She became my friend long after her case was closed and the trial ended. There was never a conflict of interest," she told Althea.
"I'll meet with her to discuss her testimony if the case should go to court," Stacy said before Althea could answer.
Dawn will have to testify. Kade swallowed. Of course she will. You're a lawyer. You should have thought of that. She clearly remembered how scared but determined Dawn had been the last time she had been on the stand. She didn't want to put her through that a second time. "If you can get Sheldon and her lawyer to accept a plea bargain that doesn't let her off with a slap on the wrist, do it," she ordered.
Stacy stared at her. "Are you sure you want me to do that? You have a couple of very reliable witnesses and –"
"Stalking is never easy to prove," Kade i
nterrupted. She didn't want her private life or that of her friends paraded around in open court for a conviction that wasn't guaranteed.
Stacy looked at Althea, waiting for her decision.
Finally, Althea gave a tense nod. "The DA's office doesn't have any interest in making this public knowledge either," she said, obviously guessing Kade's true reasons.
The two women stood and headed to the door. With her hand already on the door handle, Althea turned back around. "For what it's worth, I'm glad Ms. Kinsley came by at just the right moment." Before Kade could react to the unexpected sentiment, Althea added, "I would have hated having to take over your caseload."
* * *
Kade looked at her watch again.
Del was late.
Del had never been late to one of their "dates."
Kade knew perfectly well that a thousand things could have happened to make Del late, most of them totally harmless. One last report to review, one last form to log, a last-minute request from another unit to help out in an arrest or an investigation... Del is a lieutenant. She has a career and a life of her own. She doesn't have to explain being five minutes late to you. In the past, Kade had always hated the possessive behavior of her boyfriends or the men she dated. She didn't like the feeling of owing them an explanation for what she did and when she did it. In return, she had never been overly interested in how they spent their time away from her. If one of them had been late for a date, she would have pulled one of her files out of her attaché and put the time to good use, or she would have just gotten up and left.
With Del, there was no thought of leaving or working. Kade glanced at her watch again, then at the phone.
She jumped when it began to ring. Blowing out a breath, she reached for the phone. "Hey," she said with a relieved grin. "You stuck at work?"
Her caller cleared her throat. "No," came the surprised answer.
Kade rubbed her temples. That'll teach me to answer the phone without even glancing at the caller ID. "Hello, Mother. I thought you were... someone else," she said.
"Yes, that was quite obvious," her mother said haughtily. "If you had known it was me, you wouldn't have picked up the phone."
Kade sighed. She didn't defend herself, because they both knew her mother was right. "I would have called you when I thought you were ready to talk."
"I am ready to talk. Why else would I have called you?" Sophie objected.
"You might be ready to talk, but are you ready to listen?" Kade asked frankly.
"I'm ready to listen to reason," Sophie said. "And I hope you are too."
Reason? Kade thought about the implications for a moment. She had lived her life listening to nothing but reason, rules, sensible expectations, and rational plans. It had made her content but not happy. "Mother, my attraction to women isn't something that can be changed by listening to reasonable arguments. It's a part of me."
"It's never been a 'part of you' before," her mother said, repeating Kade's words with a distancing sarcasm, "and it doesn't have to be now."
"That's what I believed for a long time too. But life is too short to ignore whole parts of yourself. I almost died without ever having the chance to explore this part of me," Kade said, mostly talking to herself. With all the chaos Tracey Sheldon's attack had created – having crime scene specialists wander through her office, explaining things to her boss, and giving statement after statement – it had taken a few days until she had finally found enough time to think about what had happened – and what could have happened.
"What?" Sophie's refined detachment was gone. "Did you just say...?" She let out a strangled gasp.
Kade sighed. She hadn't intended to tell her mother. She had stopped telling her mother anything about her life when she had been a teenager. There was no way back now, though. If she didn't tell her mother, Sophie would hear it from one of the many friends she had in high places. "I've been stalked since October. Last Friday, the stalker attacked me in my office," she said as matter-of-factly as she could. I don't think telling her the stalker is a mentally unstable lesbian who deluded herself into thinking she's in a relationship with me would help here.
For a few seconds, there was only silence on the other end of the line.
Kade leaned back against the couch. Resignedly, she waited for the inevitable "Why didn't you tell me sooner?"
"Are you... are you all right? Are you hurt?" Sophie asked instead.
Kade blinked in surprise, then lowered her gaze to the bruises on her wrists, where Tracey Sheldon had grabbed her. "No, Mother. I didn't get hurt. I'm fine." She tugged on the sleeve of her blouse until it covered up the bruises again.
"That never would have happened to you if you had gone into private practice," Sophie blurted out.
There it is – the "I told you so" I've been waiting for. "This had nothing to do with my job," Kade protested. "Even if it had, it's not your choice to make. This is my life, not yours. If you're not prepared to support me in my choices –"
"How can I support you if you don't tell me anything?" Sophie interrupted. "You spent almost a week at home with me and yet you never thought it necessary to tell me your life has been threatened."
Kade knew her mother was right, but she refused to feel guilty about it. "Well, considering how my other revelation went over with you, I thought I'd leave that for the next visit," she answered.
Sophie was stunned into silence again. "I don't recognize you anymore," she said after a few moments of tense silence.
"How could you recognize me? You never knew me, Mother," Kade said quietly. "You only saw the things about me you wanted to see."
"I can only see what you let me see," Sophie defended herself.
That much was true, but it didn't take into account that Sophie's lifelong behavior toward her was the reason Kade had never been comfortable enough to be herself around her mother. "After some less than stellar reactions from you and Father when I did let you see things that are important to me, I quickly learned not to bother. You didn't like me taking the job with the DA's office; you didn't like me moving to Portland, and you certainly didn't like finding out I'm bisexual."
"How can I like it if I don't understand it? I don't think any of these choices was in your best interest, Kadence," her mother said.
For now, Kade chose to ignore her mother's lumping in of her sexual orientation with the other things as a choice. Understanding the finer points of sexual orientation was clearly beyond her mother right now. "You don't have to understand it, Mother, but a little bit of motherly support would have been great. Trust me to know what's in my best interest and what's not; that's all I'm asking." It was the first time in her life Kade had ever openly demanded support and respect from her mother.
She heard her mother sigh into the phone. "I'll try, but... all of this feels so wrong... so surreal to me."
Surreal? Try living my life, Mother! Starting a lesbian relationship, being outed to my mother, and almost being killed by a crazy admirer... all within a week! That's surreal! Kade didn't say anything. She knew her mother needed time, and getting into another argument wouldn't help.
"Do you... do you want me to come to Portland and stay with you for a few days?" Sophie asked carefully.
Kade removed the phone from her ear and stared at it in shock. "No!" she said quickly and then added more politely, "No, that's not necessary, Mother. I'm fine, really."
"Do you have someone to... someone who stays with you?" Sophie asked reluctantly.
Del was right. She's worried I'm alone and lonely, like she is, Kade realized. It was a strange, yet nice feeling to suddenly have some motherly concern in her life. "I'm fine on my own," she said. "If I don't feel like being alone, I'm sure Del would stay."
"Oh." That effectively silenced Sophie.
She doesn't want to think about what Del staying at my apartment might mean. Kade knew it didn't have to mean sleeping together. Not if she didn't want to. Del wasn't putting any pressure on her, and it gave Kade t
he freedom to explore her own feelings.
Sophie awkwardly cleared her throat. "Delicia... she's a good person. Very loyal and genuine," she said softly.
What? Kade hadn't expected that. She had been sure her mother would blame her sudden interest in women on Del and wouldn't have anything even remotely positive to say about her. Instead, Sophie had described Del very accurately. "Yes, she is," Kade answered cautiously, not sure where her mother would go with this.
"I'm glad you had a friend like her be there for you while you were dealing with being stalked," her mother said. It sounded sincere, not like one of the well-chosen, polite phrases Sophie usually delivered so smoothly.