Ineffable (30 page)

“I’m sorry, Goti.”

“What? Why?”

Steele dropped her gaze, looked down at the floor. Her shoulders dropped and with shock and awe Margot realized she was crying.

Margot hugged Steele to her breast so hard she could hardly breathe. “It’s okay,” she whispered. “It’s okay,” she repeated, stroking her friend’s hair.

“He was gonna kill you, Goti. You saw him. He had his finger on the trigger.”

“I know. You saved me.”

Steele broke away, began to pace. With a shaking hand she pulled a joint from behind her ear and lit it.

“Where’ve you been? Reiko and Esai been lookin’ for you everywhere. Lemme hit that. I didn’t get a chance to reup yesterday,” she teased.

Steele had been on her way to her with a load when everything jumped off.

Her friend harrumphed and passed the joint. “Is anybody else lookin’ for me? Police?”

“No. Reiko either. I think we might be alright. Lado said the police canvas came up dry. My neighbors aren’t used to the sound of gunshots, apparently. One lady thought it was a car backfiring. She was planning to make a complaint about the noise.”

Steele laughed softly. “Of course.”

“You wanna drink?”

“Yeah.”

“You eat?”

“Nah. I wasn’t hungry.”

“You goof. You can’t walk around all day starving and worrying. Sit. I’ll make you something.”

They sat in the kitchen drinking Moscato while Margot scrambled eggs and made bacon and toast.

“Where did you go last night? Reiko said you didn’t go home. She camped out in front of your house ‘til this morning.”

“Shit. I figured I should give this whole area a rest, so I holed up in one of those hotels off the highway in Homewood. I probably shouldn’t even be here. God knows what I picked up in that flea pit. But I had to come back to get my car.”

“You didn’t have your car last night? How did you get away?”

“I walked to the train, then I took a bus. I didn’t want anyone to associate my car with the gun shots. I figured no one would look at someone just walking down the street. If you shoot somebody you usually flee, you don’t stroll.”

“That makes sense. Did you sleep at all?”

“Nah. Couldn’t seem to shut my eyes. I kept –”

There was a pregnant pause as Margot put a plate down in front of her.

“What?”

Steele shook her head; she didn’t have to explain. She’d probably kept replaying things over and over and it hadn’t let her rest. Who could? It’s not every night you take someone’s life.

“What’s Nori saying?”

“Nothing. He’s just worried about you. He’ll be glad to see you.”

“I’m surprised he’s not here.”

“He met up with Lado after work. Business.”

“How’s the new thing coming?”

“Good. The office build is ahead of schedule. Things are moving along. I’ll need your help soon.”

“Yeah, sure. Whatever you need.”

Steele drained her glass, refilled it, topped up Margot’s.

“You talked to Reiko?”

“Yeah. Right before I got here. Let her know I was alright.”

“Good.”

They sat silently, drinking.

“Eat,” Margot ordered. But though Steele lifted her fork, she didn’t use it.

“I, I need you to know, I’m sorry, Goti,” she whispered, her voice breaking. “I had to make a choice. He’d already fired once and missed. He was too close to miss again. I couldn’t take that chance. You didn’t have no gun. Reiko was nowhere to be found. I had to put him down,” she whispered. “It was him or you. I had to make a choice,” she repeated. “I didn’t want to end that stupid nigga. I had to.”

Their hands gripped, fingers linked.

“I know. I know you did. It’s okay.” Margot raised one of her girl’s hands to her mouth and kissed it. “It’s okay,” she repeated, gripping her other arm. “You made the right choice.”

“Yes.”

“You had to do it.”

“Yes.”

“There was no other way.”

“No,” Steele shook her head.

“I’m gonna take care of this, of you,” Margot promised. “You understand?”

Steele nodded, her big eyes awash with tears.

“You’re my girl. You believe me, right?”

More nodding.

“We’re gonna get through this.”

“Yeah.”

“I love you.”

Steele just hung her head as tears continued to drip. She sniffed, made an effort to pull herself together.

Margot broke away. Swiped the tears from her face with an impatient hand and rose to fill their wine glasses. “Eat.”

Steele ate.

“Baby,” Nori called.

Margot appeared.

He smiled, opened his arms the way he did each evening when he came home. He sighed contentedly when she walked into them.

“How are you? You have a good day today?”

“Steele came by. She just left not too long ago actually. I think she waited ‘til it got dark so no one would see her.”

“Wow. I’m sorry I missed her. How is she?”

“Upset. She thought I was gonna be mad at her, Nori. Can you believe that? She saves my fucking life, and she thought I was gonna be pissed.”

“Well, now she knows different, right?”

“Hell, yeah. She spent the night in one of those hotels off the highway out south. I know she didn’t sleep. She damn sure didn’t eat. She inhaled the food I made her. She left her car on the street all night. Said she didn’t want anyone to associate the gunshots with her driving away.”

“Smart girl. Really smart. Not many people could be so clear headed after something like that.”

“Steele’s a tough cookie.”

“I wish she’d waited. I need to thank her.”

Margot leaned back to look into his face.

“She kept you safe,” he said simply.

She shook her head at him.

“I do,” he insisted. “She had to make a horrible decision. But it was the right one. It’s a burden she shouldn’t have to carry, but I’m in her debt. I –” he paused. “I don’t know if I could live without you, darling.”

Margot began to cry.

“Shhh. What’s wrong, baby? Talk to me.”

She shook her head as she walked on wobbly legs to the couch. “I just keep thinking about it, replaying it in my head, you know? She did the same, all night, said she didn’t sleep a wink. She looked so tired and defeated.”

They’d slept. Not long, but they had slept, wrapped up in each other’s arms.

“I made her eggs and toast. I didn’t cook. You mind eating breakfast for dinner?”

“Of course not. But don’t bother. We’ll order in. What would you like, pizza? We could try that new Thai place Tommy recommended.”

“Sure.”

He went to fetch the menu. When he returned he paused in the doorway. She seemed small, sitting there, and she looked so sad.

She laughed softly. “It’s been one thing after another with us, huh?”

He smiled. “Yeah. Our lives together have certainly not been uneventful. Things’ll calm down, Margot. We will get through this.”

“I know. Before you know it, we’ll be a boring old married couple looking back on all our adventures.”

“Yeah. And then you and your merry band of troublemakers will undoubtedly find some more trouble to get into.”

She rolled her eyes. “Oh, no. Not me. I’ve had enough trouble to last me a good long awhile. And so have you.”

Weeks went by. No one came forward or mentioned Reiko or Steele in connection with that horrible night. The police searched George’s house and found the cache of guns and enough evidence of wrong doing to conclude he’d been killed by someone after money, while he was busy stalking her. The case remained open, but Lado reported via a friend on the police force that detectives were no longer looking very hard for his killer.

“Thank God,” she breathed. “Steele’s in the clear. I gotta give her the news. You think it’ll be okay if we have them over?”

“Sure. Why wouldn’t we? They’re your friends. As far as anyone else is concerned, there’s nothing amiss.”

“Right.”

“But, I’d rather we didn’t have company tonight, okay?”

“Okay, but why? You said no one would think anything of it.”

“And I meant it. I want us to be alone because after dinner? I want to make love to you.”

She laughed softly. “Ah.”

“Indeed. We didn’t make love last night.”

“That’s right. We didn’t.”

“First time we haven’t since we were married.”

“Holy shit, you’re right. Well, then I say to hell with dinner. We gotta make up for lost time.”

He laughed. “I like where your heads at, but I need dinner. I haven’t eaten a thing since breakfast.”

“Working too hard I suppose.”

“We are starting a new business,” he reminded her.

“I know that, smart guy.”

“You’d rather I was dumb?” he teased.

Margot rolled her eyes at him. “I’d rather you ordered that food so we can eat and then get down to the real business. Never let it be said that Margot Temple-James neglected her marital responsibilities.”

He grinned and swung her into his arms for a hard long squeeze. “You just hyphenated your name.”

“So? I am a married woman.”

“Yes, you are, my girl. You most certainly are. And I love you,” he whispered.

“And will you love me forever?” She’d asked the question before when he professed his love, always in a teasing voice, but tonight she was serious.

“At least.” It was his standard answer, but he too was serious.

“I love you, you know.”

He nodded, nibbling at her lips as he walked them toward the bedroom.

“What about food?” she asked, as he began to quickly remove her clothes.

“Let’s work up an appetite first.”

Margot just laughed. “So much for you not having eaten today.”

“There are all kinds of hunger, my love. Right now, this one is far more important.”

They came together in a rush, as though it had been 100 days since they’d last touched instead of only one. Margot ran feverish hands over the long, creamy male limbs that now belonged to her, and arched her back as he returned her heated caress.

When they finally connected, when he slid gently but firmly inside her body, she began to cry. Nori knew they weren’t tears of sadness, for he smiled, and kissed them away. His body never stopped its gentle eclipse of her. His hands never stopped stoking the love that bloomed between them. His lips never stopped worshipping and speaking to her damp, hot flesh.

They’d been through so much since they first met, but they’d stayed the course and remained true to themselves and to each other. Now as they rocked sensuously together toward that special place where passion and life mixed in a near heart stopping way that was only theirs, Margot knew that she was happy.

For the first time in her adult life, she wanted nothing. She had it all. Even better, she knew that Nori was happy, and that their future, even when it was bumpy, even when death or dishonor threatened their peace, would be bright and loving as long as they were together.

The end

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Check out these snippets:

Fiona Love

Fiona never intended for Dane to be more than a one night stand, but then morning came, he was still there, and she no longer had any desire to get rid of him. Still, it was nothing serious. She was on vacation. What better way to relax than in the company of someone as beautiful and sexually exciting as this cover boy with his New York accent and flashing green eyes?

Then she started back to work and began to spend more time with her baby Flora. Daney – he’d acquired a nickname by this time – was still around, and people started to notice. Fiona was famous, so the relationship brewed a load of evasive, paparazzi dodging trouble, but she couldn’t let him go, and Daney wouldn’t have let her anyway.

But trouble waits to separate the two lovers in the form of a co-star doppelganger who resembled Daney, sans most of his character, and a new love enters the picture.

Natty is handsome, sexy, and her music producer, so they have tons in common not to mention they’ve known each other for ever. Falling into bed feels natural as well as amazing, but Daney’s not down for the count yet.

Then tragedy strikes…

…“I’ve been thinking about you,” he said softly, tracing the curves of her face with the back of his hand. “Wondering what I could do to you and still have you remain silent. I never would have guessed you’d be here crying like a mope from an almost accident. Flora’s perfectly all right, and you’re acting like she had a finger chopped off. My uncle Darcy says that’s what having a baby is like. It’s all one big game of, ‘Okay. It’s your turn to try not to kill the kid.’”

Like most sensualists Fiona knew instinctively when her mate wanted to dominate. So she pouted and flirted with him beneath her lashes.

“I thought about you on and off all day today,” he repeated, leaning to nip at that poked out bottom lip. “You haven’t even kissed me hello.”

Why is it most men never think to play these kinds of games? Fiona wondered, pressing herself against his broad chest. She knew he was trying to distract her, and she was more than willing to let him, so she kissed his plump pink mouth in thanks. She forgot being grateful as she licked her slow, catlike way between his lips and sucked until he thrust his tongue into her mouth and moaned.

Daney rolled her under his body, pushing her up by the arms until their dangling legs were on the bed. He nuzzled the cleavage spilling out of a sexy black bra. Web thin and lacey, it did absolutely nothing to conceal her succulent brown flesh. His mouth actually watered.

“Take that off,” he ordered. “If I touch it, it’s done.”

Fiona tried to hide it but a smile stretched slowly across her face as she wiggled out of her underwear.

“Hurry,” he whispered, licking his lips as he watched her flesh tremble as she moved.

“Yes,” she whispered back. “Yes.”

She doubted he was aware of the way he was looking her, the way his hands clenched and unclenched, but it excited her so much she was shaking.

Calm down
, she told herself, tossing her panties over the side of the bed.

“Get inside me, please.”

“What?” he whispered, hungrily kissing his way around her neck and ears.

It wasn’t enough. “Please, pretty. You can tell me what to do as long as I stay in this bed, and I’ll do it, but come here first.” She leaned back and rubbed herself between the legs, watching him with sultry, half-closed eyes. She was so wet her clever fingers slipped, rhythm interrupted and just as quickly picked up.

His scowling mouth suggested he wanted to resist, but the way his dick jumped at her words gave him away even before he moved to put on a condom.

“You’ve got 10 seconds to get on before I take over.”

Fiona yanked his clothes out of the way, clambered on and managed to lower and raise herself like nerve-filled lightning twice before he flipped her onto her back and sank in.

She expected to have to hold on but he tricked her. He worked her slowly, made her tease and cajole, begging for his touch in breathy whispers.

“Make it tight around me, Feef.” He’d heard Cleo say the nickname his first morning over and now liked to use it when he was inside her. He groaned when she complied. “That feels so good.”

Yes, it does
.

She licked the side of his neck. He thrust slowly, groaning like she was killing him. He couldn’t help surging forward a few times, but then he slowed it way down like he was stretching.

Fiona was half gone, back arched, hips rolling. Her hands moved over his flesh, grabbing and squeezing him closer to her soft damp heat. Her body knew what was waiting for it, and selfishly enjoyed every snug stroke and wet glide on the way there.

It was crazy how she reacted to Daney. He had only to get near her and her insides shifted. Her body literally prepared itself to be fucked. Her heart rate accelerated, body grew moist, all over, not just where it counted. Every pore opened up and called out to him. When they got close enough to touch her eyelids got heavy. She couldn’t keep her legs or lips together. Her mouth watered to taste his, to suck and bite anywhere he’d allow.

“Daney,” she said, but it sounded like, how could you do this to me when I love you so?

In reality Fiona was thinking, come on, baby, just a few more hard strokes, fuck it, these slow little undulations would work, and it’ll be over for –

“Aaa-ahhh–”

“Fiona, damn it,” he said, her orgasmic sighs pushing him to convulse and shudder suddenly in her arms as he came. “Shit! You always take over.”

“Sorry,” she rasped. “Can’t help it.” She sighed gustily and turned automatically to snuggle. “You weren’t so good I wouldn’t be so greedy.” Her skin tingled happily when he curled long, protective arms around her. “Every time I see you,” she lifted her face for his kiss, “I get so hot, I can’t wait. My skin starts to itch like it’s been peppered or something. Below my waist,” she whispered, a properly raised young girl confiding in her high school gym teacher. “Below my underwear.”

“You’re a naughty little girl, Fiona Love,” he said, a ghost of laughter in his deep voice. “How could you say such a thing? Where did you learn these filthy ideas? I think I need to spank your bottom. In fact, I think it’s mandatory to get some of that devil out of you. Well?”

She stared at him and blinked innocently. “Sir, I guess you can do anything you want to my bottom.”

Daney grinned and sat up on the edge of the bed. Fiona pressed her naked body against his back and reached around to hug his middle, but he pulled her hands away.

“Get up and walk across the room. I wanna see you move for me. Then walk back and lay yourself over my lap.”

Fiona obeyed. This was a new game. She’d kind of felt like sucking his dick, but she’d play along.

“Bring me that bottle of water on the desk over there by the phone. And a piece of candy from the dish.”

Fiona strolled naked to fetch the items, resisting the urge to spread her knees in his face or turn and twitch her ass in front of his nose. She’d never realized how much she liked to play the submissive. She placed the candy in his hands.

He unwrapped it and put the mint on her tongue. “I’m going to check after your punishment, and it better be there or it will go worse for you. Do you hear me?”

Fiona nodded.

“Have some water.”

She drank deeply, knowing he was watching her chest move while she swallowed. She paused then drank some more before she handed him the water.

“Put it back on the desk then lie face down over my lap.”

Fiona felt twice as naked the second time she walked from the table. Her breasts shivered with her excitement, and by the time she knelt to crawl over Dane’s bare lap she was breathing audibly.

“You’re looking forward to this aren’t you? You’re a bad little girl, Fiona,” and he slapped her really hard three times.

Fiona was shocked at the speed and heat of the blows. The sound of his hand hitting her ass was thick and solid. It stung madly, but somehow it wasn’t painful. She hadn’t really expected him to go through with it. Ouch! Another pop. Now that she was into it, it did hurt, but it was a weird pain, more good than bad.

She’d declined to participate in this sort of play with other men, some light hair-pulling as far as she went on that route, but now she was so wet she had to clamp her legs together. This move proved to be a mistake as the pressure made her clit throb harder. Then he pinched the heat, one of her cheeks, and the throbbing spread.

Daney began to paddle her again, rhythmically, slower and slower, and harder and harder. He built the heat up until she was writhing in his lap, wanting to pull away but somehow squirming into the blows and the pleasure/pain that spread in waves after the sound. She cried out, close to coming, and suddenly Daney lifted her and cradled her close. They clung, their hearts beating wildly together, the warmth from her bottom pulsating with the rhythm. He was the first to move, and then it was only to kiss her deeply, until her bottom began to wriggle restlessly.

“Wait,” he said when she would have squirmed down onto his dick.

He yanked open the bedside table, and she felt him being responsible beneath her. She wanted to inhale him in that moment. In the thick of things, when her brain had nearly short-circuited from lust, he cared enough about her body to protect them. Even if he was only protecting himself, she found it incredibly arousing. He’d barely begun to move when she grew tense as a wire and came violently in his lap. She went limp on his chest, and he laid her down and uncurled her limbs.

He laughed softly as he tucked her under the sheet. “I’m letting you nap for a second, then you’re mine. You ate that candy too.”

Fiona just grinned and closed her eyes…

A Willing Slave

Some things you just count on. Chris counts on her neighbor Charlie. He’s always good for a laugh, occasionally for a meal, and he’s easy on the eyes. She’s successfully hidden her crush on him, and as a result has been able to enjoy his company regularly since she moved into their building.

Then she got laid off from her job, and over breakfast one morning, Charlie decided to make her a little bet that would change the course of their friendship forever…

… How on Earth had she gotten into this? Why had she agreed? Her brains had oozed out like gas through a leaky pipe somewhere between being told to strip and feeling Charlie kiss her inner thigh. Good grief. It was one thing to entertain sexy dreams about a man, to quietly stoke a crush in the privacy of your own thoughts. It was quite another to end up jaybird ass naked in the crush’s kitchen holding a sponge and a can of comet.

And what the hell had gotten into Charlie? He’d never looked at her like this before, never. It was one of the things she liked about him, the complete absence of those pork chop looks men have a tendency to give when they were thinking about fucking, and you just happened to be in their line of sight.

He’d always been respectful, a tease, sure, but there had never been anything overtly sexual in it. Now, he was practically sweating pheromones, and she felt sick with nerves as she realized how quickly her hazy, daydream-like attraction to him had morphed into something tangible under his new found attention.

Don’t even start. This is just a bet. Some warped game he’s playing because he’s a man, and I’m a woman, and I walked right into it.

There was a noise in the hall, and guiltily she began to run water for the breakfast dishes. Suddenly she smiled. Man, she was an idiot! This was all a gag. Charlie was just playing with her, kidding around. He’d probably worked this joke up to teach her a lesson. He wasn’t the type to lecture against the perils of gambling and looking for an easy way out. Instead he’d come in any minute now laughing and making fun of her.

She grinned as she realized how readily she’d made a fool of herself. She’d never live this down.

He’ll probably crack all sorts of dominant/submissive jokes and tease me about my romance novels coming to life until I want to pop him upside the head. Bossy ass jokester
. She decided to play along.

There weren’t many dishes. Soon she started on the counters and stove, her large breasts swaying gently as she reached and rinsed and wiped things down.

“Payday is Friday,” he said suddenly.