Thirteen Hours (17 page)

“Hey.” It was Laurel, and she sounded sexy as hell. “Busy tomorrow?”

Dana collapsed back into her chair, exhausted with relief. “I’ve got a proposal to write, but it can wait. What are you offering?”

T
HE
D
ATE

L
aurel flitted around her apartment nervously, feeling more like a teenager trying to get ready for the prom than the cool, confident woman she prided herself on being. She was still in her bra and panties, having tried on and discarded at least a half dozen outfits in the past thirty minutes. Isis sat on the bed, full of feline gravitas, watching her descend into full panic mode. The thought of seeing Dana again had her mood swinging crazily from sharp anticipation to guttwisting fear that their time together was a fluke.

Their weekend had been perfect. Hands-down, without-a-doubt perfect. If she could, Laurel would have chosen never to leave Dana’s apartment, to stay forever in the fantasy world they’d created. For an entire weekend, only the two of them existed. The sex was a revelation, the companionship even more so.

But now they were back to the real world, and Laurel had no idea if they could pick up where they left off. She stopped in front of the mirror on her closet and looked at the anxiety written all over her face.

Nothing so wonderful could last. After two relationships, one of them serious enough to have left her brokenhearted when it failed, Laurel knew one, inalienable fact: Life was bigger than one night in an elevator car, and it never hesitated to pull the rug out from under you.

Sighing, she tried on another pair of jeans. “What’s wrong with me?” she asked Isis. “And here I was worried that Dana would freak out.”

The black cat lifted her head and yawned.

“Just goes to show you how much I know.” Laurel looked back at the mirror. “You think she’ll like my ass in these jeans?”

Of course Dana would like her ass. That wasn’t really the question.

What Laurel really wanted to know was whether Dana would like her enough to overcome her solitary tendencies on a longer-term basis. And if the answer was yes, was she ready for another relationship herself?

Unable to resume the search for the right top before she had a good heart-to-heart, Laurel stepped away from the mirror and plopped onto the mattress next to her beloved feline.

“When we were in that elevator, I was just sure that everything would work out,” she said, giving Isis a tender stroke. “I could see she was scared, but I thought—well, of course she was scared. She was practically a virgin.”

Laurel closed her eyes, smiling as she played back images from Saturday night, their first in a real bed. Somehow, impossibly, Dana was the best lover she’d ever had.

“I swear,” she murmured. “If I hadn’t known it was almost her first time, her performance never would have clued me in.” Isis meowed, and Laurel took that as a sign of protest. “I know, I know. More information than you needed.”

She scratched Isis’s head and stood to return to her closet. Gazing at her assortment of tops, Laurel selected another to try on. This one was a favorite, hugging her breasts in a way that made her feel like she could conquer the world. When Dana saw her, they would probably be lucky to make it to the restaurant. The thought made her knees go weak. Feeling unsteady, she immediately returned to her spot on the bed.

What the hell was she doing? Laurel dropped her face into her hands and exhaled. She was in the middle of her last clinical rotation, only months away from graduation. Her dream of helping animals was finally coming to fruition. And now, after all the years of struggling, dancing to pay her bills, studying whenever she could grab a moment alone, she had managed to launch herself headfirst into something that threatened to sweep her away entirely.

What if it didn’t work out? Was she strong enough to deal with another heartbreak, with everything else she had going on? Did she want to invite complications by falling for Dana?

“I wasn’t supposed to be the one who gets scared,” Laurel whispered, as though reminding herself. “I told her I wanted to be more than her memory of a spontaneous sexual encounter, and I meant it. Why am I doing this now?”

It was a silly question. She was scared because she was absolutely positive that she could fall in love with Dana, given half the chance.

And when she already felt the way she did, after only one weekend, she wasn’t sure she wanted to risk the inevitable heartache if this didn’t work out. There was a reason she hadn’t been out looking for a relationship right now, and it was because she didn’t want to be stupid just when her life was really starting. Other people had let her down often enough that she had to be able to rely on herself.

“But I told Dana to be brave, so I have to do the same, right?”

Laurel searched Isis’s wide golden eyes, looking for the answer. “I’m the one who called her. I can’t just run away now.” She tried to imagine what Dana would think if she backed off now, and cringed. “No, I like her too damn much to do that.”

Isis blinked, offering little in the way of advice.

“Right,” Laurel said, and exhaled in a burst of air. “So here’s the plan. We’re not going to have sex tonight.”

Isis flopped onto her side and stretched out languidly. Laurel chuckled and rubbed her belly.

“I can resist, I swear.”

If sex was all this thing with Dana was about, then she needed to know now. A connection that was purely physical was probably not worth the distraction level right now. But if it was more, if there was a possibility that this could turn into something as serious as she thought it might, there was no way she could let herself do anything but close her eyes, take a deep breath, and plunge in.

The truth was, she craved a real relationship with all the trimmings.

She wanted the romance, the urgent desire, as well as the comfort of the unconditional friendship she imagined the right woman had to offer.

If there was any chance that Dana was the woman of her dreams, she couldn’t afford to let her go.

“Tonight’s a test,” she said. “We’ll go out to dinner, talk, and see what this feels like in the real world, without letting sex confuse the issue. If, after this date, I still feel like I’m drowning every time I think about her, well—” She exhaled. “Then I guess I’m just going to have to suck it up and let myself fall in love.”

With that, she stood up and walked back to her closet. It was a good plan. Sticking to it would be the hard part. Images of all the ways they had made each other come kept flashing through her brain, and she worried that the mere sight of Dana would make her lose control.

At the bottom of her underwear drawer, she found the rattiest pair of panties she owned. Baggy and with an unflattering cut, they were reserved for days when she felt bloated or when she let the laundry go far too long. Laurel slipped out of her jeans, tugged off the silky blue panties she felt sure Dana would love, and replaced them with the granny panties. She checked herself in the mirror, grinning in satisfaction at the hole in the fabric over her left hip.

“Just a little insurance,” Laurel told Isis. “There’s no way I would
ever
let Dana see me in these.”

———

By the time they were halfway through dinner, Laurel wasn’t nearly as certain that Operation Granny Panties was going to work.

From the moment she’d opened her apartment door to find Dana holding a bouquet of purple irises to right now, watching her chase around a lost mushroom in their fondue pot of coq au vin, her willpower had been constantly undermined. With every word, every look, and every funny, sweet moment, she could see why she was so damn attracted to Dana in the first place.

It wasn’t just her thick auburn hair, her porcelain skin, or even the supple curves that made Laurel’s mouth water. It was a thousand intangible things, from her wicked sense of humor to the way she rushed ahead to open doors for her. Laurel was a sucker for the freckles sprinkled across her face, the keen intelligence in her eyes, and the way Dana hung on every word she said. Laurel felt the same desire, wanting nothing more than to keep talking with her forever.

Chewing a bite of ravioli, Dana lifted her gaze and gave her a shy smile. She was wearing a deep green blouse that showed off the barest hint of cleavage, a fashion choice that Laurel knew had taken a great deal of courage. Try as she might, she couldn’t keep her eyes off Dana’s chest, imagining what lay beneath the sleek fabric. She flashed on Dana in a lacy black bra and felt her heart rate increase.

Maybe she could endure the humiliation of letting Dana see her ugly, oversized panties, after all.

“Laurel?”

Laurel tore her eyes away from Dana’s breasts, dragging her gaze up to the full lips that repeated her name. “Yes? Sorry.”

“Like what you see?”

Laurel grinned. “Busted.” She used her fondue fork to spear a piece of chicken. “I told myself I was going to be good, but…you’re looking gorgeous tonight.”

“Thanks,” Dana whispered, and glanced down at the table shyly.

“It might be a bit late to try and preserve my virtue, though.”

“That’s an understatement,” Laurel murmured.

Their eyes met and Laurel knew instinctively that they were both remembering the passion they had shared the last time they were together. She tried to rein in her hormones.

“I want tonight to be about something other than sex,” she said.

“So I promised myself I’d be good.”

Dana looked mildly perplexed. She settled back into her seat, as though preparing for a serious conversation. “Any particular reason? I mean, beyond not wanting to scandalize everyone in the restaurant?”

Laurel hesitated, unsure how to explain her logic out loud. She knew this conversation would have to happen, but now that the moment had come, she wasn’t sure she was strong enough to resist temptation.

Did the no-sex decision even make any sense? They’d already had sex, for hours on end, so what would one more night hurt? Immediately she shook the thought off, remembering that she needed to be strong no matter how difficult it might be. She was more experienced than Dana.

It was up to her to show some common sense or they could both have regrets.

“I want you so badly I can hardly see straight,” she said quietly.

“It’s like I can’t think about anything else, and that’s…not good.”

“It’s not?” Dana asked, with an expression somewhere between flattered and crestfallen. “What’s not good about wanting me?”

Laurel opened her mouth to respond, but found that she didn’t know how to say this without risking Dana’s feelings. She searched for the right words, then finally admitted, “You make me want to throw caution to the wind.”

“I thought that was your motto.” Dana took a drink. Rather than seeming upset by Laurel’s show of honesty, she almost appeared to relax. “Throw caution to the wind, live bravely.”

“Yes. Well.” Laurel paused to gather her thoughts. She had never been so tentative with a woman before. But had she ever felt this strongly? Dana was her opposite in so many ways, and yet there was something about her reserved, controlled exterior that drove Laurel wild.

“I’ve been a little nervous, too,” Dana said casually, biting a piece of pasta off her fork. “I had just about written the weekend off as a onetime thing when you called.”

Laurel blinked rapidly. It was one thing to try and put the brakes on her own feelings, but hearing that Dana had done the same made her a little uneasy. “Would you have called me if I didn’t call you?”

“Uh…” Dana looked down at the table, avoiding her gaze. “I don’t know. Maybe. Probably. After a while.”

“I think it’s good we’re talking about this. It sounds like we’ve both had a lot on our minds.”

Dana met her eyes. “I’m really happy to see you again.”

“Me, too.” Laurel reached across the table and took Dana’s hand.

The idea that Dana might never have called made her chest ache with an almost unbearable sadness. It felt a lot like a preview of the heartbreak this relationship could cause if it didn’t work out. Struggling with how to explain what she was feeling, she hedged, “I really, really like you.”

Something about the tone of Laurel’s voice must have sounded ominous, because Dana’s eyes filled, and her face took on a look of pure sorrow. “Wait. Are you…is this…?”

She thought she was being dumped, Laurel realized. And the last thing Laurel wanted was for this to end tonight. Dread seized her throat and she shook her head wildly, giving Dana’s hand a squeeze. “No. I’m just trying to explain what’s going on with me.”

“Don’t scare me like that,” Dana said, and slid her hand up to Laurel’s wrist. “God, you just scared the hell out of me.”

“Really?” Laurel found Dana’s reaction almost comforting. Was it possible she felt just as strongly as Laurel did?

“Really,” Dana said. “Last weekend was magical. The thought of never experiencing that again is too much to bear.”

“I know,” Laurel said. “I feel the same way.”

“I’ll admit, I wasn’t sure if we really intended to try and keep this going.” Dana stroked her finger across Laurel’s wrist, sending a shiver of pleasure straight between her legs. “We both talked about needing this experience to be more than just a crazy one-time thing, but it was easy to say that in a bubble.”

“You’re right,” Laurel said again. “I meant it, though.”

Dana gave her wrist a gentle squeeze. “So did I. I just hope you’re not disappointed once you get to know me better.”

“That’s one reason I told myself I wasn’t going to sleep with you tonight,” Laurel said. She wanted Dana to understand that there was a rationale behind her self-discipline. “I thought it would be good for us to make sure that this is more than just a sexual thing.”

“It’s more than just a sexual thing.” Dana’s words were sincere, and her eyes burned with an intensity that Laurel had never seen before.

“To me, at least.”

“For me, too,” Laurel murmured. She didn’t need to finish their date to know that. Everything about Dana made her feel breathless, and alive. Being able to admit her fears, and having Dana address them directly, was exactly what she needed. “Getting ready tonight, I realized that you’re going to have the power to really break my heart. When I commit to something, I put everything I have into it. That includes relationships.”