“I need a shower. Do you have one of those?”

Loren tipped her head toward the bathroom. “In there. It’s small, but the water’s hot.”

“I suppose since you and I are supposed to be having monkey sex right now that I’ll have to wear the same clothes back to the bar.” Sky made a face. “I’m clearly out of practice at the one-night-stand thing.”

Loren looked her over, while avoiding the question as to why it mattered to her whether Sky had a busy sex life or not. “I’ve got a T-shirt that shrank up when I dried it the first time. That will fit you. The jeans…” She lifted a shoulder. “I don’t think I can help you there.”

“A clean T-shirt would be great. Thanks.”

Loren pointed to the bathroom. “Clean towels are on a shelf in there. Help yourself.”

“Thanks.” Sky walked toward the bathroom, then turned. “Really, Loren. Thanks. For last night and today.”

Loren could’ve asked her for what, but she knew. Sky had felt it too. The moments they’d been together hadn’t been about the job. She didn’t know what those hours they’d spent holding one another were about, but she knew they were different. Special. “No problem.”

Sky regarded her another long moment as if waiting for her to say something else before finally turning away and disappearing into the bathroom. Loren waited to hear the water come on, liking the sound of someone else in her space. Another feeling she shouldn’t be having. Another feeling that was too right.

An hour later, they pulled up in front of the Rooster.

“You sure about this?” Loren asked.

“I’m sure.” Sky turned off the engine and stepped out. When Loren came around to join her, Sky slid her arm through Loren’s and pressed against her side. “You said yourself I had to get this audit over quickly. I can’t do that unless I get started, and since that’s why I’m supposed to be here, the sooner the better.”

“Okay, but remember, they’re going to be watching you when you’re doing the books. Make sure you don’t give them anything to worry about.”

“I can handle this, Loren,” Sky said. “Don’t worry about it.”

As soon as they walked into the bar, Sky pulled off her skimpy leather jacket and sashayed across the room to Ramsey, who was sitting at a back table with a couple of other members. She leaned down, giving him a good look down the front of the borrowed T-shirt that she’d slit down the center so it gaped between her breasts. The fact she wasn’t wearing a bra would have been obvious even without the revealing gap. The thin cotton draped the curves of her full, firm breasts like a second skin. Loren remembered the warm weight of Sky’s breast resting against her forearm as she’d held her a few hours before, and she thought about Ramsey running his eyes over Sky’s breasts now, probably getting a hard-on thinking about how they’d feel in his hands.

A flash of heat so intense Loren nearly jerked shot straight to the top of her head. She’d never believed in the saying that someone could see red, but she was about there now. The rage stopped the breath in her chest. She wanted to drag Ramsey out of his chair and beat the hell out of him. All because he was looking, exactly as Sky wanted him to do. Sky was distracting him, diverting his suspicion. It was a smart move and it was making Loren crazy. She stalked to the bar and straddled the stool.

Grady pushed a beer in front of her and she drank half of it down just to cool off.

“What’s doing?” Grady smirked as if he already knew the answer.

“Not much.” The sound of Sky’s laughter and Ramsey’s satisfied growl set Loren’s teeth on edge. She wanted to break something. Ramsey’s face came instantly to mind.

“The Prez seems to have taken a liking to your squeeze.”

Loren eyed Grady. Maybe his face would do.

He must have read her thoughts because he backed up. “Not me. Hey. I’m not going there.”

“Just give me another beer and shut the fuck up.”

Three hours later, Loren was still sitting there, staring at the dusty bottles lined up on the shelves and trying not to be obvious about watching the thin black hands of the Budweiser clock as they slowly crawled around the flickering face. Sky was somewhere in the back, still reviewing the club’s accounts. Armeo had to be back there watching her. Ramsey wandered in and out from the back from time to time, and she pretended she didn’t notice him. She didn’t want to appear anxious, but as more time passed, the crawling sensation in her stomach mushroomed. No matter how good Sky was, she was alone back there.

Loren hadn’t had to be responsible for anyone else in a very long time. Even when she’d been deployed, she usually worked alone. Procuring contraband or spiriting supplies and replacement parts destined for noncombatants to her base, where they could be put to use supporting the troops who were actually doing the fighting, was a solo mission. The fewer people who knew what she was doing, the safer for everyone concerned. Sure, she’d had troops under her command, but the dangerous jobs she did herself. She’d preferred it that way. If someone got caught doing what she was doing, the penalties extended far beyond a demotion in rank. Battlefield justice was swift, and often lethal, just like here. If Ramsey suspected Sky was not who she claimed to be, he’d kill her and ask questions later.

Loren drained her third beer and decided she’d waited long enough. Sky was her old lady. She was going after her.

A small cool hand curled around her bare forearm. “Hey, Lothario,” a breathy voice crooned in her ear. Warm lips skimmed her earlobe and a touch of tongue teased along the edge of her jaw. Firm breasts, too firm to be real, pressed against her arm. Loren turned slightly on the stool and scanned the little blonde in the halter top and low low-riders. Despite the frigid weather outside, Candy was dressed for summer. Her augmented breasts spilled out over the top of the whisper of red silk that stretched across her stony nipples. Her flat stomach was bare all the way down to within an inch of her clit. Her hips flared in her skintight jeans. She had a cheerleader’s body and the IQ of a rabbit. The interest of one too. She’d fuck anything in leather, male or female. Pretty and predatory, she’d been trying to get Loren to fuck her for six months. Loren had never been tempted. Candy wasn’t her kind of woman, and since most everyone in the club had had a taste, she could decline just on the excuse she wasn’t interested in leftovers.

Candy rubbed her pelvis against Loren’s thigh and pushed her breasts harder against Loren’s arm. Her bright red lips pursed into a pout as the tip of her pink tongue skated over her lower lip. “You’re so mean. You keep avoiding me and all I can do is think about you. I love a hot mouth on my pussy.”

“Well, you’ll just have to love someone else’s mouth, sweetheart,” Sky said from a few feet away, “because Loren’s isn’t going to be on anybody’s pussy but mine.”

Candy turned while somehow managing to keep her breasts against Loren’s. “I don’t think you have anything to say about it. And I’m having a private conversation with Loren. Sweetheart.”

“Let me set you straight,” Sky said with a dangerous smile. “You’re poaching on my territory. If Loren had wanted to fuck a Barbie doll, she probably would’ve done it already. Why don’t you get the message and get lost.”

“Why don’t you go fuck yourself.” Candy threw a straight right punch that caught Sky on the left cheek and snapped Sky’s head back.

Loren made a grab for Candy. “What the fuck, Candy!”

Candy twisted away from Loren and hauled off with another punch. Sky caught Candy’s wrist and twisted it sharply, forcing Candy to turn with it to relieve the pressure. With her other hand, Sky grabbed the back of Candy’s head and pushed her face down onto the bar, hard enough to break her nose if she hadn’t turned Candy’s head at the last second. She locked Candy’s wrist to keep her still and leaned over until her mouth was close to Candy’s ear. She didn’t lower her voice. “Listen carefully, you little bitch. Touch me again and I’ll break your arm. Touch Loren, and I’ll break even more than that.”

Candy whimpered.

“What?” Sky asked.

“Okay. I…hear you.”

“Good.” Sky straightened, pulling Candy up with her, and pushed her away so hard that Candy caromed off a nearby table. She turned to Loren and poked her in the chest, hard. “I can’t leave you alone for a couple of hours without finding some slut crawling all over you?”

“Come on, baby, let me get some ice,” Loren said. Sky’s left lower lid was purple and her upper lid rapidly closing.

“Fuck ice.” Sky planted a hand in the center of Loren’s chest and pushed, nearly knocking her backward off the stool. “I said, why can’t you keep your nose out of strange pussy?”

“I’m telling you,” Loren protested, aware they were being watched from all corners. She held her hands up. “I didn’t do anything.”

“This one time I’m going to believe you.” Sky’s voice vibrated with fury. “But if you don’t keep your hands and your mouth where they belong from now, you’re gonna be missing out on the best pussy of your life.”

A couple of guys hooted and a few girls clapped. Loren looked around the room and grinned. “Anything you say, baby.”

“Remember it.” Sky grabbed her T-shirt in both fists and kissed her.

Loren forgot they had an audience. She gripped the back of Sky’s neck and sank into the kiss, careful of the bruise on Sky’s face. Sky’s breasts against her chest were nothing like Candy’s had been. The heat and soft pressure kindled fire in her belly. Sky twisted her hands in the material of Loren’s shirt until the cotton abraded Loren’s nipples, sending shock waves to her clit. Sky’s tongue explored her mouth until her breath fled.

Loren moaned, aching to touch her. She pulled away, gasping. “Let’s get out of here.”

“I don’t think so,” Sky murmured, her voice thick and sensuous. “I’m ready for a beer.”

“You okay?” Loren asked, trailing a finger down Sky’s throat.

“Never better.” Sky’s eyes glittered, fever hot. She ran her fingers through Loren’s hair. “Never better.”

Chapter Twenty


Blair stood in a small square of moonlight by the living-room window, watching the trees sway in the park beyond the wrought-iron fence. Time hung suspended—even the streets were empty—as if waiting for a giant hand to start the hands of some celestial clock moving forward again. She almost wished the gears of time would protest, demand a respite from the inexorable march of change. Right now, she had everything she could ever want, except the promise she would never lose it. Never lose Cam. Foolish wishes that would vanish with the dawn.

“Can’t sleep?” Cam said from behind her.

Blair wrapped her arms around herself, chilled even though the loft was warm. She’d woken shivering. “Sorry. I didn’t want to wake you, and I was restless.”

Cam joined her by the window and put an arm around her. Drawing her into the warm haven of her body, Cam kissed her temple softly. “What’s on your mind?”

“Nothing, at least nothing I can put my finger on. Just…nothing.” Blair shook her head, leaning her cheek against Cam’s shoulder. Asking Cam for something she couldn’t give would only hurt her, and Cam had always been honest about who she was. Blair loved her for all the things that scared her to death. She kissed Cam’s throat. “I love you.”

“Still angry at me?”

Blair laughed, her melancholy drifting away like mist at sunrise. “It’s a lot easier to be angry at you when you’re not next to me. When you are, I forget almost everything except how much I love you.”

“Then I’ll have to stay close more often.”

“You won’t get any argument from me.”

Cam took Blair’s hand. “Come on, let’s go back to bed. You’re cold.”

“I’m not really, or at least I shouldn’t be.”

“It doesn’t matter what should or shouldn’t be.” Cam tugged her hand. “All that matters is what is. Come on.”

Blair followed Cam down the hall and into the bedroom. She crawled under the covers and into Cam’s arms again. The cold vanished. Cam provided all the heat she needed, and she curled up against her, her head on Cam’s shoulder. “How long will you be here?”

“Are you staying?”

“I thought I might. I like New Year’s Eve in the city.”

“Mmm. I like your birthday in the city.” Cam stroked her back. “Let’s celebrate with Diane. Or would you rather it be just us?”

“I wasn’t sure you’d be here.”