Lorie O - Strong, Sleek and Sinful

He didn’t approach her, didn’t offer to help with her luggage, and didn’t pull out of the parking lot when she finally decided on her overnight bag and laptop, then disappeared into her room and closed her door. Like she would be able to sleep with him sitting out there.

After pacing the room for fifteen minutes, sitting on the edge of the king-sized bed when her leg started throbbing and peeking out the closed curtain half a dozen times to see him still sitting there, she finally opted for a hot bath. When she got out, still nervous and feeling more out of sorts than she had when she climbed into the hot water, Perry’s patrol car was gone.

A part of her left with him. Kylie climbed into the too-large bed, cuddling into a fetal position, and let the tears fall.

On Wednesday, Kylie had been in Mission Hills for two days. Her laptop was online, available for instant messages, but none came. Her cell was fully charged, and she got several phone calls. None of them were from Perry. She’d forced herself to go to the mall, trepidation over running into one of his nieces bringing on another of her annoying panic attacks. But when she saw no one she knew, even when she drove to the grocery store and purchased a few things to eat in her motel room to give herself a break from restaurant food, the overwhelming emptiness threatened to consume her.

Perry couldn’t make his message clearer if he yelled it in her face. He was no longer interested. No matter the intimate words they had shared on the phone a couple months ago before she lost service and spent two months in the jungle, enough time had apparently passed that he no longer felt that way.

“So what to do now?” she asked her reflection, standing with her hair in a towel and her bathrobe hanging over her naked body. She’d lost a lot of weight. “That appointment is this afternoon. You go or cancel.”

Her reflection stared back at her dumbly, not answering. She shifted her attention to the phone in the room and the phone book she’d put underneath it when she’d ordered delivery the other day. Maybe she was just more bullheaded than most, but this wasn’t enough closure. It could be that she was more of a masochist than she cared to admit. She needed to be yelled at in the face to get the truth to sink in. And there was only one way to make that happen.

Sitting on the edge of the bed with the phone book, she flipped through it, surprised but pleased that Megan Vetter, Perry’s sister, was listed in the book. Using her cell phone, while a small part of her insisted that seven thirty in the morning wasn’t the best time to call a household with children when they were probably all scurrying to get ready for school, Kylie dialed the number before she lost her nerve.

She had no idea where the powerful special agent, with nerves of steel, had disappeared. But she wasn’t anywhere near while the phone rang once, twice, and a breathless girl answered with a cheery hello.

“Hi,” Kylie said, licking her dry lips. “Is Megan there?”

“Who is this?”

“This is Kylie.”

Silence. Kylie waited it out.

“Kylie who?” the girl asked.

Kylie sucked in a breath. “Kylie Donovan.”

“I knew you weren’t a college student and you insisted you were. You lied to me.” Dani hung up on her.

“Crap,” Kylie said, hanging up on her end and dropping her head into her hands. Her towel fell forward, twisted around her hair, and weighed heavy as it hung to the floor.

Her cell phone rang and she struggled to untangle the towel, then tossed it on the bed as she grabbed her cell and stared at the name on her phone. She’d never deleted Dani’s cell phone number and it was calling her now. Apparently the teenager felt she had a right to chew Kylie out more.

“Hello,” Kylie said, and headed to the bathroom for her brush before her hair dried in a tangled mess.

“Why did you lie? And you left without even saying goodbye? Do you have any idea how badly you hurt my uncle?”

“Dani, I came back here for him. But he won’t come see me. Do you have any idea-”

“You came back here for him?” Dani interrupted.

Kylie swallowed, realizing she was dumping everything she had held in the last few days on the teenager, or at least was ready to until she’d been interrupted. “Yes,” she admitted.

“Then why are you calling here?”

“Dani, he knows I’m here. He knows what hotel I’m at and what room I’m in, and since the night I arrived he hasn’t sought me out. He talked to me the night I arrived and he was so cold to me. I thought I could talk to all of you. If it is true that he isn’t interested, I’ll leave.”

“You need to tell my uncle that. He’s stubborn but not stupid. I have to go. The bus is here. Bye-bye.” Dani hung up without waiting for Kylie to tell her goodbye.

It took a teenager telling her what she knew all along. Kylie dressed quickly, keeping it simple with a pair of jeans and a sleeveless blouse, and left her hotel before she lost her nerve.

It was already hot outside but she wasn’t ready to show off her scar yet by wearing shorts. Hiding in her room wouldn’t resolve anything. She had an appointment at four o’clock this afternoon. Time was running out on determining her future.

A calm came over her as she pulled into Perry’s driveway. One way or another, very soon she would be able to lay out plans for her future, maybe even the rest of her life. No more riding in limbo. No more hiding and trembling. Her resolve returned to her as if a dam had broken inside her, returning her confidence and determination. She’d gotten this far in life reaching out and taking what she wanted. There was something else she wanted, and now was the time to take it.

Kylie parked her car, turned off the engine, and got out. His Jeep wasn’t in the driveway. She looked at her watch: eight AM. He either had left for the day or wasn’t home yet. She hoped it was the latter. It would suck if she had to break and enter and wait for him for eight hours. Kylie smiled, imagining a concerned neighbor calling Dispatch to inform them that the good cop Lieutenant Perry’s home was being broken into.

Testing the doorknob on the back door where he’d entered with Kylie before, she wasn’t surprised that it was locked. The garage was locked, too, as was the front door. Kylie would have been surprised to learn otherwise, but checking helped her kill time. She walked around to her car again, glancing at her cell phone to see the time. Fifteen minutes had passed. If he worked the night shift, he would be here in less than half an hour.

Unless he had someone else in his life now and possibly would go to her house .

Kylie kicked the thought out of her head. The connection they had was too strong. From the moment they’d met up until her leaving, the feelings between them were so intense they created charged currents in the air. It was more than a sexual attraction. At least she knew it was for her. More than once while she was in the hospital, the last thing she could have done was made love, yet she still craved being with him. Too many times she wanted to call him. And she’d chickened out.

Her chickenshit days were over.

Kylie leaned against the back of her Toyota, crossing one leg over the other, and watched large green leaves rustle in the trees, as a warm breeze seemed to bring everything around her to life. Why was she just now noticing how gorgeous this part of the country was?

Eight fifteen passed, then eight twenty. She studied her fingernails, the way her shoes looked on her feet. She stared up and down the quiet street. Maybe he did work the day shift, even though he’d worked the night shift a couple days ago. She would give him five more minutes.

She heard the engine before she saw his Jeep. Perry came around the corner slowly, their eyes locking immediately. Her stomach twisted into so many knots she couldn’t breathe. But nor could she take her eyes off his. Perry wasn’t wearing a hat any longer. He didn’t have on sunglasses. She locked gazes with his, drowning in that dark, commanding stare that never left hers.