Winds Of Fortune Part 27

"I'll have Bri drive you." Reese lifted up the yellow crime scene tape which Bri and Allie had hastily erected around the scene when they answered the call. "I've got a jacket in the car. You must be freezing."

"I'll take you up on tha-" Nita fell silent as Deo materialized from the small crowd of onlookers that had gathered outside the tape while she had been working. "What are you doing here?"

"I thought you might need a ride," Deo said. "This weather is getting worse by the second."

"According to all reports," Reese said, "we're looking at a lot worse in the next fi ve days. Big storm coming up the coast."

"Bad for fi s.h.i.+ng," Deo said, glancing out toward the harbor before moving closer to Nita. "My truck's just up the street."

Nita turned to Reese. "Thanks, Sheriff, but your offi cer doesn't need to taxi me anywhere. Deo can take me home."

"All right. Thanks again." Reese touched her cap and headed back down to the scene.

"How long have you been here?" Nita asked, aware of people watching her as she made her way up the beach.

"A few minutes." Deo slipped her arm around Nita's waist. "By the time I got to my truck it was really coming down, and I knew you were walking. Do you mind?"

"I wish you hadn't seen this. Are you all right?"

"Yes."

"No bad memories?"

Deo hesitated. "I don't remember all that much." She opened the Defender for Nita and held the door as she climbed in, then went around and got behind the wheel. "I remember people shouting and I remember being cold. So cold that I thought I'd never get warm."

* 194 *

Winds of Fortune Nita slid as close as she could and put her hand on Deo's thigh.

"You're cold now, too. And soaked."

"I'm used to it." Deo started the truck and pulled out onto Commercial Street. "The lights were in my eyes, red and blue and white fl ashes, and I couldn't see anyone clearly, just shapes. It almost seemed as if I might be dreaming. I hoped I was. One of those bad dreams that feels so real while you're having it, and then you wake up and you're so happy it was just a dream." She took a shaky breath. "But I didn't wake up. Gabe was gone and everything changed."

"I'm sorry. So sorry," Nita murmured, stroking Deo's hand where she clenched the steering wheel.

"Thanks," Deo said roughly, grasping Nita's hand and threading her fi ngers through Nita's. "My condo is right around the corner. It might be July, but I think a fi re would be nice right about now." She glanced at Nita. "After a hot shower."

Nita's stomach quivered and she forgot about being cautious. The specter of death, so fi nal, so brutal, still hovered around her. She was cold and sad and Deo offered her heat and a moment's forgetting. It was enough.

"Yes." She leaned across the s.p.a.ce between them and kissed Deo's neck. "That sounds perfect."

y "First things fi rst," Deo said, closing the door to her condo. She pointed across the living room, which was furnished with a tan sofa, matching chair, and a low gla.s.s table in front of a slate stone fi replace.

"The bedroom is up those stairs-fi rst door on the right. You can take your clothes off in there."

Nita raised an eyebrow.

"Your wet clothes." Deo pulled her own dripping polo s.h.i.+rt from her jeans. "I'll bring you something dry. You can shower in my bathroom up there. I'll use the one down here."

"If you take that s.h.i.+rt off now," Nita warned, "neither one of us is getting a shower."

Deo hesitated, her s.h.i.+rt pulled high enough to expose her stomach and the curve of her b.r.e.a.s.t.s. "That sounds like a dare."

"No," Nita murmured, smoothing her palm over Deo's stomach.

* 195 *

RADCLY fFE "That's a promise. G.o.d, I love your body."

Deo s.h.i.+vered as Nita continued to caress her. "Nita. I'm wound up like a top."

"Really." Nita wrapped her arms around Deo's neck and kissed her. They were both soaked, but the heat of Deo's mouth and the promise of her touch warmed her all the way through. When Deo ran both hands down her back and then cupped her a.s.s, she felt herself surge dangerously toward the boiling point. She didn't want it to be that way, fast and furious and desperate. Not tonight. Not for this one night.

Tonight she needed it to be different. Despite all her instincts crying out to sate her desire, and quickly, she drew back. "I'm going to get out of these clothes."

Breathing hard, Deo nodded wordlessly.

"Maybe you can start the fi re after you shower." Nita kissed Deo lightly.

"Fire's already started," Deo muttered.

Laughing, Nita headed for the bedroom. When she found it, she closed the door, half wis.h.i.+ng that Deo had followed and grateful that she hadn't. Her hands were shaking as she unb.u.t.toned her blouse. They were going to have s.e.x. She knew that. She knew that Deo knew it.

It wouldn't be the fi rst time she had kept an appointment for s.e.x. She had gone places to have s.e.x before, so many times she'd lost count.

Roadside motels. Borrowed apartments. Abandoned on-call rooms.

a.s.signations for pleasure that left her feeling empty and alone.

Sylvia was almost always there fi rst, and she would often take Nita the instant Nita walked in-a second's frantic coupling against the door and then Sylvia would be inside her or on her knees, claiming her with her mouth. Nita was usually already so aroused just from antic.i.p.ating Sylvia's onslaught, hungering for the connection during the days and weeks when they had no contact-not even a phone call- that she would rarely be able to hold back for more than a minute or two. She would come screaming, all the while wondering why she felt no satisfaction. Once was never enough for either of them, and for half an hour or forty-fi ve minutes Sylvia drove her relentlessly through one o.r.g.a.s.m after another until Nita was too weak to move. All the while, Sylvia insisted that Nita was hers, that Nita was everything she needed, everything she wanted-her heart and her soul. And Nita let herself believe.

* 196 *

Winds of Fortune Sighing, Nita slipped into the shower and prayed that the heat would penetrate to the cold place deep inside. She didn't want to think of Sylvia, not tonight, not ever. When she stepped out, she found a thick white robe folded on the vanity and wondered when Deo had placed it there. She wondered, too, if Deo had looked at her through the steam-streaked gla.s.s doors and ached for her the way she ached. She fi nger-combed her hair and pulled on the robe, tying it loosely at the waist.

Halfway down the stairs, Nita felt the heat. Inside a fi re blazed while outside the storm raged, wind driving the rain with such force it sounded as if stones pelted against the skylights and gla.s.s doors. Deo lounged in the chair in front of the fi replace, two gla.s.ses of wine on the table beside her. Her short black robe came to mid-thigh and dipped into the valley between her legs. Trying to pretend she wasn't going out of her mind waiting for Deo to touch her, Nita strolled to the chair, leaned down, and kissed Deo.

"Thanks for the robe. And the fi re."

Deo tilted her head back and held out her hand. "You're welcome."

She tugged Nita around to sit on her lap and nuzzled her neck. "I love it when your hair is down."

"I can't do anything else when it's wet like this, but I like the way it feels." Nita caressed Deo's neck and traced the curve of Deo's breast underneath the material that slanted between her b.r.e.a.s.t.s. "I like the way you feel too."

Nita lowered her head to kiss her just as Deo tilted her face up, and they came together with a hungry clash of mouths and tongues.

Deo's hands were on her shoulders, then her waist, then inside her robe stroking her belly and her hip. Feasting on Deo's mouth, answering her teasing tongue with strokes of her own, Nita was very quickly almost as far gone as she had been that night outside the bar when she hadn't been able to stop herself from coming in Deo's arms. Another few minutes of Deo's tongue thrusting inside her mouth or the barest brush of Deo's fi nger between her thighs, and she was going to climax.

"It's too soon," Nita gasped. "G.o.d, too soon."

"You need to tell me now," Deo murmured, parting Nita's robe a few inches and kissing the center of her chest, "if you don't want to make love." She groaned as Nita's fi ngertips glided over her nipple.

"And you might need to get off my lap, too."

"I understand. I'm sorry." Nita gripped the wide arms of the chair * 197 *

RADCLY fFE and pushed herself off Deo's lap. Watching Deo's expression falter, she quickly knelt between Deo's legs and pushed the robe open with both hands. Leaning to kiss the inside of Deo's thigh, she murmured, "Maybe I'll be safer down here."

"I don't think so." Deo caressed Nita's face, her fi ngers shaking.

"I'm really in trouble."

"No you're not." Gently, Nita spread her fi ngers along the taut muscles that framed the vee of Deo's s.e.x and kissed her. She tasted sweet and rich and Nita licked delicately along the furled folds to the prominent ridge in their center. When she found a spot that made Deo twitch and moan, she played with it, pressing with the very tip of her tongue. Back and forth. Back and forth. Back and forth and around.

"Please," Deo whispered, her legs twisting as her muscles clenched tighter and tighter. "Please stop. I can't take you doing that any more.

I'll come right in your mouth."

Nita gripped Deo's thighs fi rmly to stop her from pulling away.

Deo was hard, throbbing, hot, and Nita needed more. She sucked, sliding Deo's c.l.i.toris in and out between her lips, and Deo groaned, a broken, hopeless, unbelievably beautiful sound. Reaching up, Nita caressed her tense belly and said with her mouth against Deo's c.l.i.t, "I can't believe how hard you are. Stop fi ghting it. I want you to come."

When Nita slipped her fi ngers just inside and went back to sucking her, Deo jerked forward, clutching Nita's shoulders. "I'm going to come. Don't stop. Jesus. Jesus, lick right there, oh...just don't stop."

Nita wrapped both arms around Deo's waist as Deo rode her mouth. She wished she could still her own heartbeat so nothing interfered with her absorbing every sound and movement of Deo's body as she climaxed. Finally, Deo groaned and collapsed back into the chair. Nita couldn't let her go, but covered her s.e.x with light kisses until Deo pushed feebly at her face.

"Give me a minute," Deo murmured. "Too sensitive right now."

"You are so amazing." Nita gazed up the length of Deo's body. Deo was golden in the fi relight, her skin s.h.i.+ning with sweat and pleasure.

Nita was aware of time pa.s.sing, of the night hurtling toward dawn, and she needed more. Carefully, she eased inside her, moaning when Deo closed down around her fi ngers. "That's it. Beautiful."

"Nita, G.o.d, what are you doing? I don't...oh G.o.d...I can't..."

"Shh," Nita soothed, pulling out and pus.h.i.+ng back in a little at a * 198 *

Winds of Fortune time, carefully avoiding Deo's swollen c.l.i.toris. "Just relax. Just hold me inside. You don't have to do anything."

Deo stared down at Nita helplessly. "Feels so good."

"I can tell." Nita smiled, watching Deo's face as she slowly f.u.c.ked her. "I want to make you come all night."

"Can't," Deo muttered. "Want to, but..."

"Stroke your c.l.i.t. Show me what you like." Nita kept her tempo slow, her strokes gentle.

"Let me make you come," Deo protested, grasping Nita's wrist.

"Not yet. I'll come fast, and I don't want to. I want this. Please. I want you."

Deo relaxed and pressed two fi ngers against the base of her c.l.i.t.

"It will take me a while."

"That's all right. I've got all night." Nita winced inwardly at the irony. All night. All night, and she needed every minute and so many more. Her c.l.i.toris pounded, and she was wet, so wet. But it wasn't her o.r.g.a.s.m she wanted as she watched Deo circle and stroke and pinch her thickened c.l.i.toris. Deo's pleasure was sweeter than anything she'd ever experienced. "Does it feel good?"

"Yes," Deo hissed through gritted teeth. "Getting so hard again."

"Are you going to come?"

"I...don't...know."

Nita matched her strokes to the speed of Deo's hand, picking up as Deo circled faster. Minutes pa.s.sed and Deo moaned, her motions frantic. Sensing Deo's need, Nita ma.s.saged Deo's other opening with her free hand and slid a fi nger through the fi rm muscle.

"Oh G.o.d," Deo cried, her body bowing. "Oh G.o.d you're going to make me come."

"Yes," Nita whispered, thrusting with both hands as Deo fi nished herself with a low, tortured moan. "Yes, yes, yes."

Deo's head fell back against the chair, her arms dropping limply to her sides, her b.r.e.a.s.t.s and stomach heaving as she fought to breathe.

Nita gently withdrew and pillowed her cheek against Deo's stomach.

"When you come, I feel like something inside me is going to burst.

You're so beautiful I can't stand it."

"I want us to go to bed," Deo groaned. "I want to touch you. Please Nita. Please let me touch you."

"I need you to." Nita kissed Deo's stomach. "I want you to."

* 199 *

RADCLY fFE Deo reached for the wine beside them and handed a gla.s.s to Nita.

She drank deeply from her own and rose, hoping her legs would carry her upstairs. She gripped Nita's hand and drew her along beside her to the stairs. "I've never come like that before."

"No?" Nita circled Deo's waist as they climbed the stairs. "I've never made love to anyone that way before. I'm so hungry for you."

"You sound sorry," Deo whispered, pus.h.i.+ng open her bedroom door. Just inside, she turned on a small table lamp that left most of the room in shadow.

Nita shook her head fi rmly. "No. Not sorry at all."

Deo emptied her wine gla.s.s and put it on the bedside table. She held out her hand for Nita's and placed it beside her own. Then she untied her robe and let it fall. She watched Nita's gaze travel over her body and her nipples hardened at the heat in Nita's eyes. "Will you take off your robe?"

"Yes." Nita untied the sash and shrugged it from her shoulders, willing her body to quiet.

"Oh," Deo murmured, resting her hands on Nita's shoulders. "So much more beautiful than I dreamed." She traced her thumbs along Nita's collarbones and then smoothed her palms over Nita's chest until she cupped her b.r.e.a.s.t.s. Nita's nipples were hard, dark shadows against her smooth light brown skin. Lifting Nita's b.r.e.a.s.t.s in her palms as she had imagined so many times, she licked fi rst one nipple, then the other.