Thirteen Hours (8 page)

“You can keep going, if you want to know what happens,” Laurel said. “You looked like maybe you were getting into it.”

“That’s okay,” Dana returned the book. After a moment of indecision, she leered at Laurel. “Maybe later.”

Laurel’s surprised delight made her glad she’d decided to be playful.

“All these dares are making me horny,” Laurel said. “I’ll have to go with truth for a while.”

Dana released a shaky laugh. “Now you’re just trying to make me blush.”

“Maybe.” Laurel lay back so she could prop herself up on her elbows, stretching out across the fleece blanket. “Is it working?”

Snorting in amusement, Dana shifted so that she could join her.

“Is this seat taken?”

Laurel scooted over, patting the space next to her. “It’s all yours.”

“Cool.” Dana settled down beside Laurel and gave her a sidelong grin. “So…when was the last time
you
had sex?”

“About eight months ago. I started seeing someone not long after Mom died. We slept together a few times, but…”

“But what?”

Laurel shrugged. “I was looking for comfort. She was looking for someone to fuck. Period.”

“Oh,” Dana said.

“I don’t like just being a fuck.” Cracking a small smile, Laurel added, “Don’t get me wrong, she was good. Great, even. That whole dirty-talking thing…” She shivered and allowed a brief, naughty grin.

“God, she was good at that.”

“Oh.” Dana wondered if she could make Laurel shiver like that with her words. Did she like being told she was a dirty girl? That it felt good to fuck her tight pussy? Blushing, she forced her attention back to what Laurel was saying.

“I can’t deal with being one of many. I didn’t even realize I was until I went over to her place one evening and found her with someone else. If she’d made it clear what the situation was, it would’ve been one thing. But she didn’t, and that kind of surprise…it’s no fun at all.”

“Her loss,” Dana muttered.

Laurel let out a surprised laugh. “I’ve had the same thought, more than once.” She gave Dana an affectionate smile. “Truth or dare, my defender?”

“Truth again.” Dana’s insides warmed at being called Laurel’s defender, even jokingly. “I’m ready.”

Laurel’s smile turned tender. “Have you ever been attracted to another woman?”

Dana swallowed. She had known this question was coming, had felt it deep in her bones, but plunged onward in the game anyway.
And I can’t lie.
A sharp stab of fear made every muscle contract, and she wondered if the slight jolt was visible.

It must have been, because Laurel placed a hand on her thigh.

“Don’t be afraid. There’s no reason to be, okay?”

Dana nodded. “Yes.”

“Yes, okay? Or yes, you’ve been attracted to another woman?”

“Yes, I’ve been attracted to another woman.” The admission made her hyperaware of their closeness. Laurel’s thigh brushed against her own. The heat almost overwhelmed her. “I’ve been attracted…to other women.”

Just when she thought she might implode with nerves, she was drawn into a tight hug against Laurel’s warm body. Too emotional to push her away, Dana felt her eyes sting. Embarrassingly, she wept hot tears she couldn’t hide. In a move that rendered her speechless, Laurel pressed a soft kiss to her neck.

“Was that the first time you told somebody?”

Dana nodded, swiping at her damp cheeks with the back of her hand.

“I’ve got to tell you, I’m glad,” Laurel said. “When you told me you were straight, all I could think was that if that were true, what a waste.”

“You don’t have to say that.”

Laurel caressed the side of Dana’s face with her hand. “Of course I don’t
have
to say it.” Her blue eyes were sincere. “I mean it. You’re a very attractive woman. I told you that before, and I didn’t like you nearly as much then as I do now.”

Red-faced, Dana managed a quiet, “Thank you.” She concentrated on the coolness of Laurel’s fingers against her heated skin. “I find you very attractive, too.”

“Thank you.”

Laurel’s hand lingered. Dana wanted to clap her own over it to prevent its withdrawal. The feel of that warm palm pressed against her cheek made her yearn for so much more. Her control seemed tenuous at best, no match for the intimacy of Laurel’s touch. She wanted to give in to the impulses that tugged her common sense away. No amount of rationalization worked. This was probably how people felt trapped together on a desert island, far from the real world and the rules they made for themselves. If she were honest she felt weirdly liberated, like she’d just exchanged a heavy suit of armor for a thin, shimmering skin.

She wondered if Laurel had fallen under the same spell or if she was simply being herself because she didn’t have to have anyone’s permission for that. Not even her own. Dana couldn’t imagine being so unguarded.

“Did you really know that I was a lesbian?” Dana asked.

“I thought you looked like someone who appreciated other women. When I was on your lap, I felt thoroughly appreciated.” She smiled.

“You know, before I got thrown off.”

Dana nodded. “Scott must have figured it out, too, huh?”

“Given that he hired me to dance for you, yeah, I think he probably knows. You never told him?” Laurel finally took back her hand, leaving Dana’s cheek wishing for a return of that soft warmth.

Feeling bereft at the loss of contact, Dana said, “No. I…don’t talk to him about stuff like that.”

“Well, I guess he knows you better than you realized.” Laurel hesitated a moment, then asked, “Do you still want to play?”

Dana gave her a brave nod.
No reason not to at this point.

Laurel didn’t waste any time. “What’s one of your favorite sexual fantasies?” she asked directly. “Not necessarily something you’d do, but something you like thinking about?”

Dana pressed her palms to her face. “I’m never going to go back to normal, you know. This blushing thing? I’m starting to think it’s permanent.”

“Listen, woman, you watched me pretend to get myself off.”

Laurel gave her a playful shove. “Asking you about a harmless little fantasy is hardly unfair after that.”

Dana released a long-suffering sigh, raising her eyes to the ceiling of the elevator. There were so many to choose from. Fantasy, and the Internet, had been her only sexual outlets for so long, it was hard to know where to start.

“I think about women, usually.” She conceded Laurel’s I-knew-it grin with a wry look. “Most of the time, actually.”

“Specifics,” Laurel coaxed with her hand. “Give me specifics.”

Dana cleared her throat. “I meet a woman—I don’t know where, that’s not really important. She takes me back to her place. When we get there, she pulls out these leather cuffs and gives them to me. She asks me to restrain her. And fuck her.”

Laurel sat forward in eager attention. Her eyes sparkled. “Then what?”

“I cuff her to the headboard. And then as she waits for me on the bed, I go to the drawer where she has the cuffs and some other… toys.”

“Like?”

Embarrassed, Dana could only manage to grin. “Like a strap-on.”

“Ah.” Paying rapt attention, Laurel said, “What does the fantasy woman think about that?”

“Oh, did I forget that part?” Dana gave a wolfish smile. “She’s blindfolded. She doesn’t know until I’m on top of her. When she realizes, though, she’s not complaining. First, I make her come with my mouth. Then—”

“You slide your cock into her.” Laurel’s voice was very soft. She almost seemed to be talking to herself.

Dana couldn’t speak. It seemed as though Laurel found her strapon fantasy as exciting as she did.

Laurel pressed a hand to her chest, forestalling more words.

“You’d better stop. If you don’t, I might just put on a show for real.”

The threat did little to discourage Dana, but she wasn’t sure she could keep going with Laurel’s intense gaze on her. Feeling as though she were moving underwater, she managed a nod.

“Ask me something.” Laurel’s voice was husky.

“Okay.” Dana asked a hard question that would probably come back to her. “What was your most embarrassing moment?”

Laurel’s smile faltered. “Well, that’s not a very fun one.”

“Bad?”

“To me, yeah. It’s pretty bad.” She seemed hesitant to continue, and Dana felt the genuine shame this story triggered. “I was dancing one Friday night in my first year at vet school. A guy called me over to his table and when I got there, I realized one of his buddies was a graduate student instructor for a physiology class I was taking.”

Dana winced. That was definitely embarrassing. She touched Laurel’s arm. “What did you do?”

“I took one look at my instructor and told the group I was going to send over another girl, that I was going on break. The guy who asked me over asked if I would do a lap dance for the birthday boy, first. Of course, he just happened to be my instructor. And my instructor’s buddy grabbed my ass, right in front of everyone.” Laurel rushed to finish the story. “My favorite bouncer saw the guy groping me and it turned into this big scene. Anyway…that was really embarrassing.”

Dana’s chest felt tight. “Did your instructor ever say anything about it?”

“Not to my face. But he looked at me differently in class after that night. It really bothered me.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I was glad to get out of that class, believe me. Do you want to tell me your most embarrassing moment?” Laurel asked, as though she knew that Dana was expecting it.

“Probably about as much as you wanted to tell me yours.”

“I wanted you to know that I trust you.”

Dana felt her breathing quicken, and was glad not to be standing.

The words made her feel weak. She wanted to show Laurel the same thing, that she trusted her. “Junior year of college, I fell in love with my best friend,” she said before she could change her mind. “We’d been friends for a couple years, and I’d been wanting her most of that time.”

“Was she the first woman you were attracted to?” Laurel asked.

“The first one in real life. I thought she was beautiful. She thought…well, I don’t know what she thought. That I was a good friend, I guess.”

“She was straight, right? Falling in love with a straight girl—always very embarrassing.”

Dana wished it had been that simple. “No, that’s the
really
humiliating part. She was out and proud, and very open about it. I was in awe of her.” She took a deep breath, unable to believe that she was about to share this story. “One night we were watching a movie in my dorm room, sitting next to each other on my bed. It was totally innocent, and it was driving me crazy. I was so attracted to her, it hurt. Stupid me, I decided that I was going to let her know how I felt.”

“It didn’t go well.” Laurel’s face was drawn and nervous.

Dana stared down into her lap. “No. I just remember that at one point we were laughing at something in the movie, and I leaned over and tried to kiss her. And she pulled away before I could even get near.”

Dana was still mortified by the memory. “She told me I just wasn’t her type, that she liked me as a friend, but—”

“That must have hurt.”

Dana nodded at the understatement. “It hurt even worse when she stopped speaking to me after that night. Nothing too obvious, but suddenly she always seemed to be busy and we never seemed to be able to get together, until a few months later I never saw her anymore.”

“Her loss.”

Dana couldn’t help but grin at Laurel’s obviously genuine reaction. It inspired another confession. “After that, I decided to just concentrate on school. Once I graduated, I focused on work. Thinking about relationships, or meeting women, scares me. I don’t want to go through that again.”

“All because of one clueless college girl a long time ago?” Laurel’s voice was tender, and a little sad.

Looking back, Dana was puzzled, too. Everyone had formative experiences in their teens, including humiliation and heartbreak.

Somehow hers had assumed greater proportions than it should.

“I felt much more for her than my high school boyfriend in the year and a half we dated. That scared the hell out of me, I suppose,” Dana admitted, as much to herself as to Laurel.

“Getting your heart broken sucks,” Laurel said with an understanding smile. “But it would be a shame if you never put yourself out there again.”

“It’s been easier.” Dana hated to admit to her cowardice. Now that she thought about it, she realized she’d missed out on the kinds of experiences that put college crushes in context. Hers had inhibited so much, her withdrawal had become a safe, comfortable habit.

“Don’t you get lonely?” Laurel asked.

“Of course.” Dana stared at Laurel’s legs, feeling that loneliness acutely. “I cope. I buy embarrassing amounts of porn, read stories, talk to women online.”

“Do any of them know your real name?”

“I don’t talk to anyone regularly.”

Laurel touched the side of Dana’s face again. “Don’t you want something more?”

Blinking back stinging tears, Dana said, “Of course. I want so much that I don’t know how to get.”

Laurel’s gaze was full of something Dana had never seen directed at her before. “Do you think you would ever consider breaking your self-imposed isolation?”

“Yes,” Dana whispered. For someone like Laurel, in a heartbeat.

“Under extraordinary circumstances, maybe.”

Laurel looked around the elevator car. “Think this qualifies as extraordinary?”

“Maybe,” Dana said. “Why?”

“May I take you to dinner sometime?” Laurel asked. She played with a lock of Dana’s hair as though satisfying some long-standing desire.

“You mean—”

“Like a date,” Laurel finished.

Was this kind of like the pity fuck she was talking about earlier?

As if the worry and doubt were displayed clearly on Dana’s forehead the moment they flashed through her mind, Laurel frowned.

“Don’t even go there. After the way we started out, do you really think I would express an interest in getting to know you outside this elevator if I didn’t really want to? You make me laugh, I like talking to you. I think we get along pretty well.”