Radclyffe - Love On Call

Glenn lifted up on her elbow, gave Mari a long look. “Whatever you just thought, stop thinking it.”

“How did you know?” Mari asked softly.

“You shivered, and your pulse jumped.” Glenn kissed her, a tender kiss that grew firmer, claiming her even as it soothed. “And we agreed not to do that today.”

Mari didn’t have to ask what Glenn meant. Glenn always seemed to know what she needed, or at least what she said she needed. The now. That’s what she’d asked for. She couldn’t offer more, even though she couldn’t live in the now. She never had. She’d always counted on the future, planned for it, and once faced with the reality that a future might never exist, she’d reluctantly accepted that life held no promises. And that she could make none. “Can you do that? The now?”

Glenn traced soft circles on Mari’s skin, trails of fire and tears. “When you wake up every day knowing the sunrise might be the last you’ll ever see, you learn to stop thinking beyond the moment. After a while you forget things were ever any different.”

“I know something about that.” Mari covered Glenn’s hand, ran her fingertip the length of her oh-so-sensitive fingers. She didn’t have to explain. Glenn understood what she’d faced during those long months of treatment, the uncertainty and, finally, the resignation. Only a fool would trust to fate. “So you know what I mean, about not plan—”

“Right now,” Glenn said gently, brushing another kiss over her lips, stealing her apology, sealing the guilt away, “I’m going to find you something to eat. Can’t have you losing strength just yet.”

Mari laughed, surprising herself. Maybe Glenn really could hold her in the now. She certainly had made her incredibly happy for the last few hours. “Are you really hungry?”

“You have no idea.” Glenn’s voice was husky, her gaze the stormy gray of a coming gale.

“I am too.” Mari wrapped her legs around Glenn’s and pulled her completely on top of her, fitting their bodies together, breast and belly and thighs. She arched under her, inviting, wanting, wanton. “Don’t go anywhere.”

“Never.” Glenn’s lids fluttered half closed and she groaned. Bracing herself on her arms, she rocked between Mari’s thighs, firmly, rhythmically, steadily building, unbearably taunting, ceaseless demanding. “I can’t get close enough to you.”

Mari gripped Glenn’s shoulders, matched her lift and thrust, giving herself over to the heat and the power. When she needed more, she swept the bunched muscles of Glenn’s back down to her ass and pulled her even closer, reaching, climbing, clawing her way to the peak. When she exploded, she cried out, and Glenn gathered her up with unbearable tenderness.

Mari buried her face in the curve of Glenn’s neck, gasping for breath. “I can feel you everywhere inside me.”

Glenn held back the words she desperately wanted to say. Let me stay. I need you. She shuddered, a need far different than any she’d ever known roaring through her.

“It’s all right,” Mari whispered, for the first time misunderstanding Glenn’s body language. “Let me make you come.”

Glenn jerked in a breath, focused on the now. She knew the terms of engagement. This moment, no more. “Touch me.”

Mari pushed on her shoulders, rolling her over, rising above her.

Glenn stroked her breasts, her abdomen, the curve of her hips. “You’re beautiful.”

Mari swept her hair back with a hand, smiling down at her. “You have a wonderful way of distracting me, but not just yet.” She slid her hand between Glenn’s thighs and squeezed, fingers already knowing exactly where to press.

Glenn’s spine bowed and white heat lashed her brain. Her teeth clamped tight on a strangled groan. Somewhere light laughter cut through the sweet torture. Mari didn’t take her over quickly this time. She stroked and teased until Glenn couldn’t breathe.

“Please,” Glenn gasped.

Mari bent down, her breasts brushing Glenn’s, and kissed her. “Please what?”

“Please now.”

“Oh yes,” Mari whispered, stroking as she filled her, sliding in, gliding out, never stopping. “Now. Now you’re mine.”

Another lifetime later, Glenn groaned and tried to sit up. Boneless, she gave up and contented herself with stroking Mari’s back where she lay curled against her. “I’m done.”

Mari laughed and rubbed her cheek against Glenn’s breast. “I thought you soldier types had more stamina.”

“Clearly out of practice.”

Mari grew still. “I never asked, I just assumed…”

“There’s no one.”

No one. Mari knew what that was like, to be alone. Had known. Knew in her heart that was no longer true. She sat up, smiled brightly. “Someone promised me food.”

Glenn felt the change, the click of distance settle between them. Two in the afternoon. They’d had three hundred and sixty minutes, twenty thousand seconds. Enough of a gift to compress into a lifetime.

“Cold pizza? Scrambled eggs?” Glenn sat up, giving Mari the space she’d silently asked for.

“Sounds perfect.”

Glenn committed the light in Mari’s eyes to memory. She’d remember the happiness of this moment, knowing the truth of it. “Both?”

Mari kissed her. “Yes, both. Everything. I need another shower.”

“So do I,” Glenn said, letting Mari decide.

“Come with me.”

*

Glenn called Flann a little after one a.m. When Flann picked up the phone, she sounded as if she was wide-awake, just like always. All told, married life hadn’t seemed to change her all that much, only the restlessness was gone.

“Why do you never call me with good news?” Flann asked.

“What fun would that be?”

Flann chuckled. “What have you got?”

“Believe it or not, a gunshot wound to the hand.”

“Member of the service?” Flann said quickly, referring to those in uniform—law enforcement agents, firemen, first responders.

“No, a ten-year-old boy who for some reason was up long after his parents had gone to bed. Apparently there was a party and they weren’t paying too much attention. He found—get this—his mother’s twenty-five caliber in her purse and decided to take it apart to see how it worked.”

“Jesus. How bad is it?”

“Not bad enough to need ortho. Metacarpal is fractured, but looks like a washout and a splint will take care of it for now. You want me to call them?”

“Nah,” Flann said. “If you do, it’ll take until dawn for them to get there and then the OR will be backed up tomorrow. You and I can have it done in an hour. Call the OR.”

“Already done. Consent’s signed and he’s in the holding area with his grandmother. His parents—well, I didn’t think they were quite in any state to sign consent.”

“Pretty sure I was coming in, huh?”

“Never known you to pass up a case.”

Flann laughed. “I haven’t heard from you at night for a while.”

“Yeah, well, I wasn’t doing much tonight.”

“Saturday night.”

“Like I said, the OR’s ready.”

Flann must’ve taken the hint. She didn’t even bother trying to get a rise out of her. “See you there in fifteen.”

Glenn hung up and looked around the empty surgeon’s lounge with its outdated, cracked vinyl sofas and mismatched end tables littered with cups and takeout containers, and felt more at home than in her apartment. She’d sat there a thousand times before, just like this, and the only thing that had changed was her. Mari had left soon after their shower and cold pizza meal, and she hadn’t been able to do anything since except think about the way Mari had felt stretched out above her, the way Mari had taken her and allowed herself to be taken. By the time she’d decided she was going to make herself crazy if she didn’t stop, it was already dark, and the best place to be on a lonely Saturday night was the ER. A couple of the nurses gave her a knowing look when she walked in and scanned the board for a case to evaluate, but everyone welcomed her back. Old home week.