Venus in Love (17 page)

The primal need in Morgan’s eyes surged through Lee’s entire body. Morgan began to sit up, but Lee stopped her. Lee raked her eyes from Morgan’s face down to her breasts then lower to her belly and finally to where their bodies joined. As Lee stared, Morgan began to unbutton her own shirt for Lee. Starting at the top button, she slowly made her way down, releasing each one and exposing the soft swells that heaved against the lace of her bra. Lee only watched as Morgan removed her shirt and dropped it to the floor. Lee slid a finger over the curve of exposed flesh and brushed her thumb over a hidden nipple, causing it to tighten instantly. Morgan grabbed Lee’s hand and slid it from where it rested on her breasts down the valley of soft skin and over her stomach, stopping at the top of Morgan’s skirt.

“Dammit, Lee, please touch me.” Lee had been trying to maintain the power over herself. But the sound of Morgan’s need snapped her from her trance. Lee bowed her head and pulled down the fabric that covered a hard nipple and took it into her warm mouth. “Oh, yes.” Morgan moaned. It felt so good to taste Morgan. Morgan ran her hands through Lee’s hair and pressed herself deeper into Lee’s mouth. Lee slid her other hand down the fabric covering Morgan’s thigh. She reached the hem of the barrier between them and pushed the material up as she exposed the smooth skin beneath. Morgan raised her hips in offering. Lee stopped just shy of Morgan’s pulsing center. Lee was on fire. “Please?” Morgan begged. Lee quickly obliged. She flicked her finger across Morgan’s peak through her panties. Lee could feel that Morgan was more than ready.

“I want to feel you, baby,” Lee said before she kissed Morgan.

“I need you to feel me. Now.”

With the confirmation, Lee pulled Morgan’s panties down to her knees, and Morgan’s head dropped back. Morgan leaned onto her elbows as Lee slipped her fingers through Morgan’s satin folds with one hand while the other cupped one of Morgan’s breasts and twisted a hard nipple between her fingers. Feeling Morgan’s excitement, Lee slid two fingers inside while her thumb circled her swollen and sensitive peak. Morgan rocked against Lee’s hand. In and out, Lee pulsed her hand between Morgan’s legs. Lee curled her fingers inside and stroked relentlessly. Lee felt Morgan begin to tighten around her fingers. She was close.

“I’m so…please don’t stop. Oh God…” Morgan bucked against Lee’s hand as she thrust deeply in a rhythmic cadence that pulled every ounce of pleasure from Morgan until she contracted and cried out Lee’s name. It wasn’t a rumor any more.

Lee held Morgan close. Lee didn’t want to let Morgan go but knew they couldn’t stay entangled awkwardly on the edge of her desk. Although at the moment Lee couldn’t think of anywhere else she’d rather be. She heard Morgan sigh.

“Hey, are you okay?” she asked as she ran her hand through Morgan’s hair.

Morgan cleared her throat.” Yes. I’m…. just fine.” She tilted her head back and looked into Lee’s eyes and smiled. “But I, uhh, I should get home.” Morgan shifted away to smooth her skirt back down. Lee let go and stepped back a little, burned. She didn’t know why that remark stung. It wasn’t rude. Maybe it wasn’t the words as much as it was hard to let Morgan out of her arms. When Morgan smiled at her and grabbed her hand, the sting disappeared.

“Do you want me to take you home?” Lee asked.

“Uhm…what time is it? Morgan looked at her watch. “It’s only eight thirty. I can walk.”

“Are you sure? It’s no trouble. I’ll take you. Let me get my keys.”

Morgan smiled. “Okay. I’d like that.”

While Lee got her keys from her desk and turned off her computer, Morgan stood by the door straightening her disheveled hair and clothing. Lee looked up and watched. Morgan was so beautiful. She could stare at her for hours and never lose the overwhelming sense of wonder at her classic grace and beauty. “You are a goddess.”

“What?” Morgan asked.

“What, what?” Lee blinked out of her trance. “Oh. Nothing. You ready to go?”

Morgan smiled and Lee melted. “Yes. I’m ready when you are.”

As Lee passed Morgan to open the door, Morgan grabbed her hand and entwined their fingers together. Nothing had ever felt so right.

*

Lee and Morgan made their way through the gallery to the parking garage. Everything seemed different to Morgan. She held Lee’s hand in hers and reached over and clutched Lee’s bicep with the other. When they got to the car, Lee held open the door for Morgan. She started to get in but stopped. “Wait,” she said.

“Did you forget—?” Lee began to say before Morgan jumped up, wrapped her arms around Lee’s neck, and kissed her. Morgan’s heart was racing, and her knees were shaking so badly she didn’t know how she was still standing. But she had to taste her; she had to feel her arms wrapped around her. Lee pushed Morgan against the car and gave Morgan whatever she asked for. Morgan’s entire body was on fire, and if she didn’t stop, she was going to melt into a puddle in Lee’s arms. They kissed relentlessly for what seemed like hours, yet Morgan couldn’t get enough.

Morgan wasn’t sure how long they’d been standing there wrapped in each other’s arms when they both heard a clang and quickly jumped away from each other. Morgan felt like they were two guilty teenagers when she saw someone exiting the stairwell. It was a night guardsman who didn’t seem as surprised to see them as they were of him. “Good evening, Ms. Dencourt, Ms. Blake. It’s nine o’clock. Time for rounds.” He tipped his ball cap at them, poorly attempting to hide his knowing smirk.

“Right, Peter. Nine o’clock. I should get you home,” Lee said as she guided Morgan into the passenger seat.

Lee made her way around the back of the car and looked at Peter who was checking the other doors. She gave him a “what the hell look,” and he laughed as he pointed to the security camera positioned with a perfect view of her parking spot. “Oh Jesus!” Lee laughed.

Morgan saw Peter point to the camera and her stomach lurched. Now the rumor was caught on camera. She slapped her hands over her face as Lee got into the car, still giggling. “He saw everything, didn’t he?” Morgan asked through her hands.

“Everything outside of my office, yes.” Lee laughed.

“Well so much for that meeting tomorrow.” Morgan let out her own laugh.

*

Before Morgan got out of the car, Lee cupped her face and pulled her in for a sweet kiss good night. Lee was both relieved and disappointed that Morgan didn’t invite her in. But she knew they both needed to absorb what happened between them this evening, and one thing was certain, tomorrow was going to be different. “I’ll see you tomorrow,” Lee said as both a statement and a question.

“Yes, you will,” Morgan replied with certainty. Morgan leaned down and looked out the windshield toward the streetlights. Lee looked as well.

“What is it?” Lee asked.

“Just checking for cameras before I do this…” And Morgan kissed Lee sweetly at first and then deeply as she dug her fingers into Lee’s shoulders.

“I could do that all night, but I should go. Yes. I’m going. Good night. I’ll see you tomorrow.” Lee sat stunned as she watched Morgan practically run from the car to her door. Lee couldn’t help but smile at how sexy Morgan was when she was flustered.

As Lee drove home, she resisted the urge to turn around at every intersection on her way. She could wait to see Morgan the next day, but until then she’d have to be content to see her in her dreams, as she almost always did.

*

“Pick up. Pick up.” Morgan paced around her living room urging her call to be answered. Her heart was racing, and she had to talk to someone or she would scream. She felt like a smitten teenager. The call went to voicemail so she hung up. “Nooo!”

She set the phone down and cursed Freddy for not answering. She wandered to the kitchen and opened the refrigerator. She wasn’t hungry or thirsty, it just seemed like a comforting movement to distract her from the urge to run around the house in an elated panic. She stared into the freezer for an unknown number of minutes smiling blindly at the memories of the evening. When her phone rang, she screamed. “Ahhh!”

She slammed the door closed and ran toward the table where she’d left her phone. When she turned the corner from the kitchen to the living room, she tripped over the leg of the end table and went headfirst in the direction she was running. Pain ripped through her skull and she fell to the floor. Her eye burned and her head pounded. “Oh!” Morgan grabbed her forehead just above her eye and felt nauseous when she pulled back a hand covered in blood. “Breathe, Morgan.” Her phone continued to ring. She managed to get to her knees and fumbled around the tabletop blindly for the phone. When she found it, she tapped the screen hoping to get it to pick up. “Hello? Hello? Lee? Mom? Hello?”

“Morgan, it’s me. Morgan?”

“Freddy? Shit, Freddy, help. It hurts so freaking bad.” Morgan started to cry from both fear and pain. She couldn’t see. Morgan didn’t know if it was from the blood in her eyes, the searing pain, or something worse. She wasn’t sure.

“Morgan, calm down. Honey, please breathe. What’s wrong?” Freddy’s voice trembled.

“I tripped…fell…head blood…help…” Morgan tried to talk through the sobs. “I’m gonna throw u—” Morgan vomited.

“Call nine one one, Morgan. I’ll call for you. Shit, I can’t. How will they know it’s for you?”

“I’ll call…see you in a few.” Morgan hung up on him. For a second, she forgot what she needed to do, but the pain quickly reminded her and she called 911.

Morgan tried to tell the operator what happened, but she was getting weak and delirious. “I need to unlock the door.” She crawled to the door and managed to turn the lock before collapsing in a heap on the foyer.

*

Lee pulled into her spot in her complex and began to get out when she noticed a black lump on the passenger floorboard. She grabbed it and realized it was Morgan’s purse. Lee had never been so excited to have someone leave something in her car. Her first thought was to race it back to Morgan right away. Then she thought that would be silly since she would see her in a few hours at work. “I’ll just call her and tell her I’ve got it, so she doesn’t worry.” Lee dialed Morgan’s number, but it went straight to voicemail. She left a quick message telling Morgan that she found her purse. She started to get out, but something stopped her. She sat with the purse in her lap and felt that she really should take it to her now. “What would it hurt?” Lee started the car and made her way back to Morgan’s.

As Lee pulled up to the condo, her heart sank. Several emergency vehicles with flashing lights were stopped on the road before Morgan’s apartment. Once Lee realized that they were, in fact, at Morgan’s building, she felt sick to her stomach.
This can not be happening.
What did she do to deserve always having her happiness ripped away from her? Lee pulled over and leapt from her vehicle, running toward the emergency personnel. A police officer stopped her before Lee got to the door. “Ma’am. Can I assist you?”

“Morgan! Is it Morgan?” Lee asked. Before the officer answered, she saw the paramedics bringing out a stretcher with Morgan on it. Lee pushed her way around the officer and ran toward Morgan.

There was blood covering Morgan’s clothes and a blood-stained bandage covering nearly half of Morgan’s beautiful face. “Morgan.” Lee touched Morgan’s arm, but she didn’t respond. “What happened?” she asked the attending medics.

“The patient was found unresponsive with a large laceration to the right side of the brow and forehead. The area appears swollen and bruised with active, uncontrolled bleeding,” the paramedic answered mechanically.

“What? I just dropped her off…” Lee covered her mouth.

“Ma’am? Excuse me, miss?” The officer had returned. “Miss?”

“What?” Lee asked the offending officer.

“I’m Officer Kirkpatrick. You said you just dropped her off?”

“Yes.” She looked from Morgan to him. “Twenty minutes ago. She left her purse in my car.” She held up Morgan’s bag to show it to him. “I was bringing it back.” Lee was once again watching as they began to load Morgan into the ambulance. “Her ID…insurance…it’s probably all in here.” She showed him the bag again.

“I can take the—” the officer began to say.

“No.” She snatched it sharply back. “No. I’ll take it. I’m going with her. We…I’m her…I’m her boss.” Lee made her way toward the ambulance.

*

Morgan’s head pounded like a tympani drum. She was afraid to open her eyes because she knew any light might make her head explode. She tried to open them slowly, but one refused. Through the cooperating eye, she could see that the room was mostly dark so she opened her eye the rest of the way. She slowly turned her head to the side and realized she wasn’t home. She tried to focus through the pounding in her skull. It looked like a hospital room. Morgan could see a curtain and hear the steady beeping of machines. She turned her head to the other side and saw a familiar and sleeping face. She was no longer as nervous. She moved her hand toward her face, feeling the bandage that covered her forehead and right eye.

“You don’t want to touch that.”

“Lee?”

“Yes, sweetheart. It’s me.” Lee grabbed Morgan’s hand.

“What the hell happened?” Morgan asked.

“The medics said you fell and hit your head on the sofa table.”

“Wow. Are you serious?” Morgan was so embarrassed. “I have got to be the biggest damn klutz on the planet.”

Lee laughed. “Well, so far all signs are pointing that way.” Lee smiled.

“Hey!” Morgan winced from a jolt of pain.

“Sorry. Too soon?”

“Yes. Too soon.” Morgan stuck out her tongue at Lee. “Oh shit! Freddy!” I’ve got to call. He was on the phone when—” Morgan tried to sit up.

“Whoa. Wait.” Lee put her hand on Morgan’s shoulder to keep her down. “I talked to Freddy. Four times actually. He is persistent.”

Morgan chuckled. “Yes. Like a mother hen. I must’ve scared the shit out of him. Is he okay?”

“You scared both of us nearly to death. And he’s fine. Said you ruined his evening though.” Lee grabbed Morgan’s hand and held on.

“Of course I did. It’s what I do.” Morgan attempted a smile. “How did you know…know I was here?”