Secret Worlds (87 page)

Being re-invited to the party was arousing on its own. Now that I know I have an exclusive pass, I don't want to waste a moment of it. I lead her to the couch and pull her onto my lap.

“How's it going?” She leans in for a kiss and straddles my lap without moving her head. 

I'm already straining against my zipper. Her arms slip under my shirt and lift it over my head. Then her head lowers to my chest and her teeth sink in. 

Wasn't expecting that, but damn.

She lets go, moves down a few inches, and does it again. My body flinches, but I kind of like it. Her hands slide down my abdomen and massage through the crotch of my pants.

My head tips back on the couch, and I close my eyes, praying she's not going to leave me hanging. Not like she ever has, but I want no one else. Ever.

Her fingers undo the button, and then the zipper. She reaches inside, freeing me. The warmth of her hand makes me want to wrap her legs around my waist and nail her against the wall. I nudge her shoulder with my knee and give her a little motion to stand.

She resists, smiling up at me with the most amazing pair of eyes that have ever been in this position. 

“I want to watch you,” she says.

The request makes me nervous and harder at the same time. She continues to stroke me, but with a slow, leisurely motion. 

“My God, Syd.” I clench my jaw and dig my fingers into the couch arm.

She says, “I want to know every part of you, Dim.”

The fading logic in my brain tells me this is bedroom talk, but that lingering desire aches in my chest. I really do want her to know me, but we mean different things.

Her tongue trailing up me puts a sudden halt on those thoughts. She swirls her tongue around, then goes back to using her hand.

“On the couch.” I lean forward to start unwrapping her.

She shimmies out of her clothes. I expect her to straddle my lap, but instead she settles on the couch on all fours.

I scramble out of my pants and crawl over her from behind. As always, there's no waiting. I reach my hand around her waist and touch her in the way that makes her gasp until she shudders. Her hand clenches the back of the couch at her side, bracing herself up until the end. Her body relaxes, but I slip my arm around her, holding her up. On the last thrust, I fall against her and pull her down next to me.

Our naked bodies fit tight together. My face rests against the back of her head. She smells of coconut and I-can't-wait-to-do-that-again.

We doze until sometime in the afternoon, when we fumble toward the bedroom and take to the bed for round two. She is on top and acts like we have been apart for a year. The rest of the day is spent like that: sleeping and taking turns rousing the other into raging lust, and then satisfying it in every direction.

I've never been so enthralled with someone, or so terrified of the power they have over me.

***

In the evening, Syd says goodbye, leaving a trail of kisses from head to head. I lie under the covers for a while after the front door closes, gazing though the darkness at the ceiling. I could sneak in so many more days like this with her, if only I could loosen Karl's hold on me lately. Maybe I'm not supposed to have my own life, but that doesn't keep me from wanting one.

I just don't understand what has changed.

The first in the series of subsequent asshattery was kidnapping an opinionated little girl. Hopefully she is back with her family again. After that was my good pal, Phil Ballantyne. There's putting a bullet to good use if ever. Then Karl sent me on that dungeon quest through the downtown office, which ended in defeat.

Next up, I chased Counselor Robert through the northern Arizona forests. And now I just returned from blowing up a lab. 

I have no idea how these fit together with each other or the one and a half million dollar donation to the hospital. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe Karl is just doing some spring cleaning, a few months late.

My phone vibrates. I pick it up from the nightstand and check the text message.

It's from Syd.
I lost my ring over there. Can you keep an eye out for it? It has a big blue square stone. 

I reply,
Okay, good, I won't confuse it with my ring with the big purple stone.

Her response is a tongue-out emoticon.

I grin and put the phone aside. Her ring could be anywhere between the living room and bedroom. And the sooner I find it, the sooner I have an excuse to meet up with her again.

That's motivation enough to drag my ass out of bed. I check around the mattress and pull the blankets.
Nada
. 

I amble out to the living room, ignoring the burning cuts and scrapes on my arms and shoulders from my high-dive out of the lab. The couch cushions are hiding a few quarters, nothing else. So I yank the couch from the wall and peer behind it.

The corner of a book pokes from underneath. I reach down and pull it up.

The book has a gold colored spine. It must have slid under the couch when I hit the crate into the end table. 

Intention is everything and the hum is gone, so screw Karl. He obviously didn't care about this particular volume.

I cross to the bookshelf and wedge it between some novels I've never read and probably never will. Interior decorators love filling up space with crap.

If Karl asks for the rest of the golden-spined series, I'll drop it off, but I'm in no rush until then. He didn't spend quality time with asphalt obtaining it.

I turn around and spot Syd's ring on the coffee table. She must have taken it off when she stripped down. My eyes hadn't been exactly on her hands at that moment.

I shower and dress, then text her to tell her I found the ring.

She replies,
I'm with Coleen at a cafe. Wanna swing by?

My last encounter with Coleen didn't end so well. Maybe Karl will hold off on the summonings long enough for me not to look like a donkey hole this time. 

Sure, where is it?

She sends me the address.

Be there in twenty,
I reply, then grab her ring and head out.

When I pull into the cafe parking lot, Syd and Coleen are sitting together at a table outside. Syd waves as I approach.

I lean over the rail to hand her the ring and kiss her forehead. 

“Gonna grab some coffee,” I say.

She kisses me on the cheek. “I was going to get a refill. What do you want?”

“Whatever you're having is fine.” I hop over the railing and take the third seat at the table.

Coleen is busy poking away on a tablet. Syd scoots out her chair, and Coleen glances up like she had forgotten other people exist.

“Oh, hey, Dimitri.” She smiles and goes back to her digital world.

Syd trails her hand across my shoulders as she heads inside the cafe.

Coleen takes a sip of her coffee, then locks the tablet screen and leans back. “How's the personal security business going?”

“Secure,” I say with a grin.

She nods, and her serious expression doesn't break even the slightest. “So, you've been working out of town?”

I shrug. “Same ol', same ol'.”

Life as a normal person must be boring. There would be nothing worth hiding.

“Yeah, I guess.” She glances through the tall cafe windows.

I turn to see Syd standing in line. She is texting in rapid fire with a scowl creasing her forehead.

I turn back to Coleen. “She okay?”

Coleen takes another sip of her iced coffee before replying. “Not really. She's been having a hard time with her family.”

I glance at Syd again. She doesn't see me watching, her eyes fixed on the phone in her hand. The unabashed anger and sadness on her face leaves me grappling for a reaction.

“It's out of my jurisdiction to talk about,” Coleen says, “but Syd is my best friend. She's stubborn, but I'll just say, you make her happy.” She pauses, like I'm supposed to comment, but I can't figure out what. So she adds, “Please don't let her down.”

I look away to nothing. How am I supposed to answer that? At the rate I'm going, being with me is a series of disappointments waiting to happen.

Syd returns with our drinks, her usual mild expression plastered back on her face. My insides cringe. Coleen knows what Syd is hiding, so this facade is for my benefit. 

I have no idea how to approach the situation. If I ask what's wrong, she might tell me the truth. I can't help her. My time belongs to Karl. 

But Coleen thinks I make Syd happy, and maybe I do. I like the thought. So Syd can continue to pretend nothing is wrong, and I can continue to pretend I don't know any different. For now. 

Syd looks at me as she takes her seat. “What are your plans for today?”

I shrug. “Hope work leaves me alone. That's about it.”

“Don't you ever get a day off?”

I scoff, but manage to keep my thoughts on the matter to myself. Instead, I drink my coffee.

“We should get going.” Coleen glances up from her tablet. “We have ten minutes to get to Larry's house. Where does he live?”

Syd nods, sipping on her straw. “He's just right around the corner. Like, right around. As soon as you exit the parking lot, take a left and just follow the street. It's like four houses down.”

Coleen locks her tablet and places it in the bag at her feet. 

Syd turns to me and gives an exaggerated frown. 

“Sorry. We did tell my uncle we were coming by, and he hates when people are late.” She leans over the table and pecks my lips. “I'll call you later, okay?”

I bring her face in for a heavier, coffee-flavored kiss then push to my feet. Syd and Coleen gather their bags and head into the parking lot. They stop next to Syd's car to talk, then part ways and disappear out of sight.

It's hot out, and I have nowhere to be so I head home.

Silvia calls just as I let myself through the front door. The only assurance I have she isn't actually spying on me is that she hasn't found out about Syd. 

I sigh into the phone. “What do you want, Annie Wilkes?”

Silence. 

Then she says, “I don't know who that is.”

“It's from a book. Never mind.” I shove the couch back into place. “Does your dad know you keep calling me?”

“Yes, actually,” she says. “I told him I'm going to start having you protect me when you're not on assignments. That way I can spend time in Phoenix.”

I drop onto the couch. “Ugh. You don't actually mean that. Right?” 

“I don't know. Anyway, I have more information about the donation.”

I roll my eyes and lay my head back. “Just forget I asked.”

I should have known better than to involve Silvia. She's as useful as a bag of ice on a sinking ship, and now she's apparently deemed researching the donation our quality time. 

“I'm almost to your house,” she says.

I groan. “Why don't you ever give me more than a five minute warning on anything?”

“Fifteen,” she says, unbothered. “Can you be presentable this time?”

“I'll pick up my suit from the dry cleaner,” I say and then hang up. My hand falls to the couch, clutching the phone.

I'm still sitting on the couch when a vehicle pulls into my carport. A car door slams, and footsteps thud on the porch.

I make no effort to get up, but raise my voice before she hits the doorbell. “It's unlocked!”

Silvia pushes open the door and peers inside, then steps over the threshold. “What are you doing?”

“Trying to spontaneously combust.”

She shuts the door like she's late for church and takes a seat in the chair across from me. 

I don't know what she's expecting. Probably for me to be angry. I would be, but it's not worth the energy. Besides, I just want her gone before Syd shows up unannounced.

Silvia has her knees together and places her hands on them. “I talked to Glenn.”

“I had coffee.”

She scowls. 

“Oh, I thought we were sharing random things about our day.” I sit forward. “Who the hell is Glenn?”

“The infirmary doctor.”

“It's not talking if he's sticking an eight-inch tongue depressor down your throat, Silv.”

She purses her lips. “I asked him about the donation. He said he didn't know anything about it, but then Mattie overheard us. You remember Mattie, right? She's been there since we were kids.”

“I don't think I was ever on first name bases with any of the infirmary, but continue.”

“Mattie said the doctor before Glenn, she had gotten in a fight with my dad. Bad enough to have her escorted out.” Silvia looks down at her hands and frowns. “Mattie said the infirmary has been scared of Daddy since.”

“Hate to break it to you, Princess,” I say, “but everyone is scared of your dad. I don't see what this has to do with the price of rice.”

“Think, Dimitri. Doctors work at hospitals.”

“No shit? So, what's this doctor's name?”

She frowns, still not looking at me. “Glenn didn't know, and Mattie wouldn't tell me.”

“Alright.” I shove to my feet. “We'll just check the Internet and call everyone in Arizona with an M.D. after their name.”

“I think it was bad, Dim.” Her voice is small. “They seemed really scared.”

“It wasn't that bad, or I would have been sent to whack her already.” 

She looks up at me. “How do you know you haven't?”

I halt—she has a valid point—then I shrug. “If that's the case, then the doctor is useless. I'm pretty thorough with the making-dead thing.”

I head toward the kitchen. 

She follows behind me. “What's it like killing someone?”

My stomach plummets. She becomes a little more strange every day.

I pull open the fridge door and pass her a root beer. 

She takes it, sliding onto the stool at the breakfast bar, and watches me as I uncap a water bottle.

“It's nothing like the movies.” I take a drink to give me a chance to figure out what to tell her. “It's messy and smells terrible.”

She continues to stare up at me, hand on her soda. “Do you ever think about them afterward?”

My insides churn. “Can we talk about something else?”

She shrugs and opens the can. 

“I got an idea.” I sit the water bottle on the counter on my way to my bedroom.