Hart & Stocker

by Max Ellendale

  When we parted, Dax's expression remained serious, with a smoothed brow and pursed lips. She didn't say anything, but she took my hand and led me through the stacks to the vacant tables in the back of the store. When I was a kid, these tables held desktop computers, then laptops later on. Now, they were empty tables with power outlets, USB ports, and Ethernet jacks. Dax sat at the table in the farthest corner under an antique brass sconce with a tiny lampshade.

  "You used to sit here at this table by yourself." Dax pulled her feet onto the chair to sit cross-legged. "Like this." She snatched a book from a nearby shelf and let it fall open against her shins. "With a book. For hours."

  I laughed as I watched her, sitting down across from her at the small square table. "I did. You saw me?"

  "Every day. I wasn't joking when I said I had a crush on you. Neither was Kellee," she said, placing the book on the table between us where I put down the Sarah Waters book. "It was seeing you here that did it. Coming in every day a little after three. Buying a coffee or hot chocolate and a lemon danish. Then you'd sit back here and read half the book before you'd buy it."

  "Mom allowed me to buy two books a week." I smiled at the memory she churned up. "At my mom's house before she sold it, my entire bedroom was like a library for all ages. Hundreds of books from kids to young adult, then some college as well."

  "What happened to them all?" she asked, leaning her elbows on the table the same way as me, tucking us closer together. Under the dim light, her eyes nearly twinkled and the light in them nearly stole my breath. She'd been so alive, so whole over the last twenty-four hours.

  "When she sold the house, we donated most of them to the public library here. Whatever they didn't want went to the schools. I kept some which you saw on my shelves at home."

  "Nerd." She ran her finger over my nails as her thoughtful gaze followed. "I've always liked that about you."

  "About me being a nerd?" I rested my chin on my hand while I watched her, an endless smile playing across my mouth.

  "That you're smart and you think things through. Everything you do is carefully thought out. Everything you say, you mean."

  "It's just how I am. And thank you for the compliments, honey." I linked my pinky finger with hers. "Know what I've always liked about you?"

  "I don't…" She gave my finger a squeeze.

  "You're authentic and, even though you don't like people to know it, very sensitive. I like that you hold my trust." I paused, considering my words. "I can be trusting at times, but not with my heart."

  "I was always sensitive until Mom took me away from here. I hardened up. I wasn't a nice cop. I was angry a lot," she admitted. "I felt like I got what I deserved when things happened."

  "No one ever deserves something like that."

  She nodded, her eyes on my hands again. "I trust you, too."

  "Did you mean it when you said you've never told anyone you've loved them?" I asked.

  "I never did."

  "What about family? Your parents?"

  "No." She met my gaze, her brow narrowed. "They never told me either. Dad showed me he loved me and used to say that I was his whole heart. But the words 'I love you' belong only to you…"

  "Well, I mean them."

  We spent a few seconds just looking at each other. Never in my life had such a silent moment felt so full.

  "This weekend, Sage wants to take a fishing trip on my dad's boat. Would you like to come?"

  "You fish?" Her brows lifted with her question.

  "I do. Do you fish?"

  "Of course. Yes. I'll join you."

  "Yay." My heart gave a great leap.

  "So...what did you used to do after you came here and bought a book?" she asked, the corner of her mouth turning up with a smirk.

  "I'd go home, order takeout, and watch musicals. A day in the life." I tapped the book on the table. "Sometimes read in place of movies."

  "Every night?"

  "Not every. I would go to Sage's a few nights a week or we'd go to Rooney's. What about you? What'd you used to do?"

  "Before everything happened, Wildrose or one of the cop bars downtown. After?" She shrugged. "At first, came out to stay with my dad. I never went back to my old place. Left all my stuff. It's probably still there. Who knows if my mother ever took down the crime scene tape."

  "That's horrible, Dax." I took both of her hands in mine. "Let's go burn it down."

  She laughed at that, and it met her eyes for once. "Then I'll lose you to the bitches in a women's prison. Stay away from arson."

  "Yes, ma'am." I pretended to buck up and she grinned. "What'd you do after you stayed with your dad?"

  "Bounced around hotel rooms in between my marshal gig. Lived in my car. It had me all over the place. Still went to Wildrose, but usually to get drunk or hook up with someone sometimes."

  "You picked up guys at Wildrose, too?"

  "Not often."

  "So why Drew?" I asked, shaking my head. "I'm not asking to be judgmental, I'm just curious."

  She shrugged again, her gaze flickering to the place where my shirt hung lower between my breasts. "When I came back here, I knew I wasn't going to find a place like Wildrose where I felt like I fit in. Rooney's is the only place. So when Drew rolled around, I knew him from when we were kids. I trusted him sort of, knew he wasn't a sociopath. Seemed safe enough."

  "Drew is probably the safest bet around here, second only to Jake and Hugh."

  "Yeah." She met my gaze again.

  "How come I wasn't a hook up?"

  "Because you're beautiful." Her hands squeezed mine. "Inside and out."

  I brought her hands to my lips and kissed them. "If I asked you to dinner tonight, at the restaurant across the street, would you say yes?"

  "You're asking me out on a date?" Her brows lifted with her smile.

  "I am."

  "Well…" She glanced down the row of bookshelves then back to me. "I would say yes."

  "Dax…" My chuckle interrupted the declaration. "Would you go on a date with me tonight? In five minutes?"

  "Yes." She grinned, giving my hand a swat. "Turning me into a syrupy sweet small town girl."

  "No complaints." I stood, tugging her with me as we headed toward the door. The books lay forgotten on the table in our wake.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Unlike the beginning of my puppy and kitten filled week, it ended with half a dozen visits in the field. A horse with a sprained ankle, a cow with a mild respiratory infection, and chickens losing their feathers. Birds were not my thing so we had to call in a specialist from the city to come in for them. In the busyness of the week, Dax and I spent only one additional night together.

  By the time Friday came around, however, my clearer schedule matched hers. After hosing myself down from the cow dung that soiled all the way to my knees, a shower, and clean outfit, I headed to her place in hope of losing myself in the weekend the way we had during the last. On my way, I called Sage to let her know we were in for the fishing trip tomorrow.

  I parked in my usual spot beside Dax's SUV, and the moment I made it through the fence, the fruit basket of goats greeted me. They chased my ankles, bleated, and hopped about. I laughed as I bent down to pet them, scooping up the youngest one for a snuggle.

  "I can't remember who any of you are, except you little Apple head." I smooched his head then set him back down. All five goats adorned cute collars with bells on them.

  In the early evening sun, my skin warmed as I walked into the setting rays, with the goats still following me, toward the space between the barn and the house. I started when a roar of an engine broke the quiet. The putt-putt sound after told me it was a motorcycle. My brow furrowed and I headed around the house toward the attached garage.

  The door hung open and I found Dax beside a black-on-black tricked out Harley Davidson motorcycle. The sheen of the paint sparkling in the sun, and the silver rims and metal work, it appeared ethereal in its own right. Beside it, Dax crouched, her jeans pulling a
way from her shirt to reveal the corners of her vast tattoo that stretched around her hip and lower back. In a white T-shirt, her black bra evident in the bright light. She gripped a wrench, her hair hanging down and covering the side of her face, shielding me from view. The image of her, in a perfect dichotomy of sexy and strong, brought a lash of arousal to my core, and made my mouth water with want.

  I snapped a picture of her, before the goats rushed in to announce my presence. They bounced around her knees, one hopping onto her shoulder. She didn't move or fuss with him, like she'd grown used to their mountain climbing. The small female, the only one with a pink collar, hopped onto her thigh.

  "Is Willa here?" she asked them, as if they would answer. One of them bleated. "Go get her."

  "They already did," I said, grinning at her as I approached. The garage smelled of old gasoline and oil, the way a garage should. Though unlike normal ones, Dax's tidy workspace stood out.

  She stood to greet me, the goats hopping off her. "Hi," she said as I approached. I caught her in a kiss, my hand on her cheek, but she didn't touch me back.

  "I didn't know you had a motorcycle," I said, ending the kiss to bite my bottom lip. My clit demanded attention endlessly from the moment I first saw her crouched beside it. The physical reaction to her presence was new for me. No one had ever driven me to arousal so quickly before just from looking at them.

  "You smell good," she said, and it made me smile. "Been a long time since I've worked on it." She showed me her oily hands. "Sorry."

  "It's okay." I drew in a deep breath, as the mist of perspiration tightened my shirt.

  "You look flushed," she said, her brow wrinkling with concern. "Long day?"

  "Yes." I gulped, fighting the urge to stare at her supple breasts that rounded the curved V-neck of her shirt.

  "Well, come sit while I finish up." She gestured to a stool beside the bike and I pushed myself up to sit on it.

  She crouched down again, her elbows on her knees while she stared at the side of the bike. I pulled my hair back into a ponytail, hoping to fight off the heat of the arousal that brought on a tad of perspiration. Dax made my mouth water, and the burn between my thighs continued to ache.

  "Just put in a new carburetor," she said, pointing at something. "Know anything about bikes?"

  "Literally nothing. Except the fact that you look fucking sexy as hell doing whatever you're doing." I waved my hands at her. "Keep doing it."

  Dax turned her head, looking at me from over her shoulder with a wry smirk curving her pink lips. "You like me dykey?"

  "Don't say that. I like you as you are in all ways," I said, unable to draw my gaze from her lips in those few seconds.

  "Why not? It's our word."

  "I know, but I'm not a big fan of labels or sub-labels. We are who we are. Femme, butch, lipstick, whatever. We don't need it."

  "True," she said, turning back to whatever she was doing to the bike. Metal met metal, though I couldn't even begin to describe what tool she used on what thing of the bike. "You're pretty femme though, blue jean femme."

  "So are you, with some sporty-chapstick moments." I laughed at the stupid notion. "See what we do to each other? Why do we need to be anything?"

  "We don't."

  "Yeah, but in our mind we already slap labels on."

  "It's a human character flaw." Dax's bicep flexed when she turned the tool in a firm revolution.

  She grunted and I gulped down my want. Since when did I become such a dude about things? I crossed my legs, and my face heated when I thought about Dax's comments about wet panties.

  We continued on in quiet for a bit, Dax working while I stared.

  "You're really quiet," she said, glancing at me. "Are you upset?"

  "No, honey." I laughed softly, shaking my head. "I'm enjoying watching you. Maybe a little too much."

  She stood, setting the tool on the table before grabbing up a blue towel to wipe her hands. When she approached, she tossed the towel on the floor, and placed her hands on both of my knees after I shifted my position. "Too much?"

  I nodded, gnawing my bottom lip as she gripped higher up my thighs when she came to stand between my knees, her faithful gun dragging against my jeans.

  "Yes." I snatched her into a kiss, and the way she pressed against me told me she shared my sentiment. Her fingers dug into my hips, and when I reached up to grab handfuls of her breasts, she nibbled my bottom lip.

  "That's a lot," she said in a breathy whisper. "Are you horny, Willa?" Her laughter against my lips made me whimper.

  "Teasing me."

  "A little." She ran the knuckle of her index finger between my legs against the seam of my jeans. I started when she pressed against my clit.

  "So much more than a little," she said, her lips against mine as she dragged her fingers around me in slow, firm circles.

  "Dax." I held on to her shoulders, the heels of my boots caught on the bar of the stool. The fact that she could do this to me, fully clothed and in broad daylight with goats bouncing around the place, both freaked me out and perpetuated my arousal.

  She closed the space between us, claiming my mouth. One hand snaked around me, pressing my lower back while she moved faster against where my pants covered my clit. My toes curled in my boots, and I cried out against her mouth as I came in a sharp, shivery climax. I melted against her, my arms falling around her torso as I dropped my head on her shoulder.

  Dax's soft chuckle made me smile as she rubbed my back, her lips against my neck. I closed my eyes, and just held on to her.

  "C'mon," she whispered, urging me from the stool with her hands under my arms. I tensed as I gripped her shoulders. "Legs around me."

  "You'll get hurt…"

  "I will not." She urged me forward and, with caution, I hugged her and lifted my legs. She shifted them around her middle and I crossed my ankles behind her. Without so much as flinching, she patted my rear and toted me off toward the house.

  "Esteban, consigue las cabras," she called out when he emerged from the barn after bringing in Carol.

  "Si. Buenas noches," he called back, chuckling when I waved to him.

  The back door hung open so Dax carried me right in. All the while, I nipped and kissed her face and neck. The raging desire she'd stoked burst back to the surface as she squeezed my rear. We made our way through the kitchen and into the living room where Dax dropped me down on the sofa with a bounce. I kept her face in my palms while holding her in a kiss. Her tongue prodded and swam with mine as she wrestled me out of my belt. I kicked off my boots, and she tore my pants down after unfastening them.

  "I can't touch you," she ended the kiss to say, both of us panting. She held up her hands to show me her grease-stained nails and skin. "But I know what you want."

  All I could do to prevent my own death by embarrassment was cover my face and laugh. "Oh my God."

  She joined my laugh, and bent down to kiss my bare stomach. "Take your shirt off," she said, grabbing my thighs and urging them apart as she slid down the sofa to kneel between them.

  "Bossy." I gasped, but listened to her as I tore my T-shirt off my head, my bra followed.

  She gazed down at my pussy, heavy-lidded with arousal, before meeting my gaze again. "I think my fetish is seeing you dripping."

  "My God, Dax. I'm...just." I shook my head as desire burned so bright that I thought I might come before she even touched me.

  "I know." She disappeared between my thighs, her mouth on me a second later.

  I moaned under her, writhing and bucking against her skilled mouth. She held my hips, but didn't touch me anywhere else as she took me. My fingers tangled in her hair as I held her to me. Dax played with me, teased me, and made me laugh like no one else ever had in my life. My heart appreciated her just as much as my body. She was a treat, a gift even, in more ways than she knew.

  When her tongue parted my folds, I cried out and exploded against her lips as hot, molten pleasure melted around me like magma from a volcano. It casca
ded from my pussy to the farthest reaches of my body. Even my scalp tingled with pleasure so deep that goosebumps followed the release.

  Dax sucked my clit, and I squeaked when she stoked another wave of bliss. That didn't stop her though as she bent my leg, and kept at me, thrusting against me while I nearly screamed out my lust. My fingers tangled in her hair and when she finally released me after another deep, heavy explosion, I was a thrashing mess on the sofa. My legs quaked, hands trembled, and guttural moans left my lips.

  She crawled back up my body, holding herself over me as she lashed her tongue over her bottom lip. "Yum."

  "Are you sure you're bi? Because...fuck." I panted while tucking her hair behind her ears.

  She laughed and pretended to bite my wrist. "Not totally sure these days."

  "I love you," I told her, freely for the first time, letting my hands stroke the place between her breasts.

  "I love you back." She kissed me again, then leaned up, gnawing her bottom lip for a moment. "I'm going to shower, but I want you to stay here. Just like this."

  "Okay." I nodded, stroking my knuckle down her cheek. "But I don't care if you're sweaty."

  "I know, but I'm covered in gasoline and garage gunk." She nipped my hand again. "Stay here. Just like this. Don't move."

  "Okay." I laughed that time, and shivered when the heat of her no longer sheltered me. In the cool air and open space, I felt exposed and vulnerable, but in an excited manner.

  She pulled her gun from her pants and set it on the table, then tugged her phone from her back pocket. At first, I thought she was checking it until I heard the shutter sound.

  "Dax! You did not!"

  She cracked up, then pointed at me when I made to move. "Stay there. You promised."

  "Oh my God. Delete that!" I whined as I covered my face.

  "Nope." I heard the shutter a few more times, but when I dropped my hands, she had already disappeared down the hall, a wave of snickers in her wake.