Radclyffe - Oath of Honor

“No, she and Paula went to the range. They’re meeting me here a little later and we’re going out to breakfast. I thought I’d try to catch my father. Is he up yet?”

“I imagine he’s in the gym.”

“Thanks. I’ll go hunt him up.”

“Congratulations again, by the way. The wedding was lovely.”

“Thanks. It was everything I wanted, only I never knew it.”

“That’s the wonderful thing about love,” Lucinda murmured.

“So how much time do we have before we travel?”

“He starts his first campaign sweep the first of the year.”

“Oh good—I’ll be able to spend my birthday on a train.”

“Things have changed in the last few years,” Lucinda said dryly. “We’ll fly.”

*

Wes woke, twisting in the unfamiliar, too-small bed—senses alert to danger. As the remnants of sleep fled, she became aware of the body pressed close to hers. Evyn. Evyn’s back was curved against her chest, her ass tucked neatly into the curve of Wes’s hips. Wes’s cheek rested on the pillow an inch from the back of Evyn’s neck. When she breathed in she could smell the faint hint of lemon in her hair. She’d never awakened next to a woman before, and she lay very still, cataloging every sensation. The front of her thighs rested gently against the back of Evyn’s, the delicate melding of skin to skin a fragile connection she didn’t dare sever. Her breasts grazed the arch of Evyn’s shoulder blades, her nipples electrified by the whisper of contact. The moments they’d spent making love kaleidoscoped through her mind, one after the other, in vivid breathless images. Carefully, so as not to awaken her, she slipped her arm around Evyn’s waist and gently spread her fingers over her abdomen. Evyn pushed back against her, setting their bodies more firmly together.

Wes held her breath, but Evyn only murmured, “Stay,” as she grasped Wes’s hand and pressed it to her flesh. Wes’s heart hammered harder, a wave of tenderness and unanticipated heat strobing through her. She wanted Evyn again. Her body vibrated with the urge to stroke, taste, savor. The only thing keeping her from waking Evyn was the exquisite pleasure of holding her just exactly the way they were. She nuzzled her face in the curve of Evyn’s shoulder.

Evyn drew Wes’s hand higher until her nipple nestled in Wes’s palm. “You fit.”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake—”

“No.” Evyn turned in Wes’s arms and kissed her. She stroked Wes’s back, cradled her ass. “I want you too.”

Excitement blossomed in Wes’s depths and she groaned.

“Oh yeah,” Evyn whispered, tugging on Wes’s lower lip. “You tired?”

“No,” Wes gasped. “God, Evyn.”

Evyn slipped her hand between them, brushed her palm down Wes’s abdomen. “Shoulder hurt?”

“What shoulder?” Wes ached, blood thundering in her clit, her body awakening to desire.

Laughing, Evyn murmured, “All right then,” and moved her hand lower. “Here?”

“Yes.” Wes held on, breathless.

“Here?”

“Yes, please. Right there.” Spinning, tumbling, drowning in need.

“More?”

“Yes. Almost. Almost.” Wes arched, pressure building, lungs bursting, exploding—lost in pleasure, eyes wide open and unafraid.

The next time Wes opened her eyes she was alone. She skated her hand over the place beside her where Evyn had been not long before. The sheets were cool. The air in the room was equally cool and smelled faintly of industrial cleanser. Soupy gray light trickled through the slats in the blinds. Evyn might have been gone five minutes, or an hour. Wes pushed herself up on her elbows and looked around the room.

Relief surged through her at the sight of Evyn’s go bag sitting next to hers on the floor. Evyn hadn’t left. But then Evyn wouldn’t disappear in the night—no matter how she felt about what had happened between them, she would never walk away. She was far too responsible for that. Maybe she’d gone out because she hadn’t wanted a repeat of the night before. Maybe she’d gone out to let the distance say what she didn’t want to—that what they’d shared was only one night and nothing more.

The idea that the night was over, never to be repeated, sliced through Wes with unexpected pain. She didn’t know what she wanted to happen next, and she had no point of reference, other than the scent of Evyn in the dark and the silky glide of Evyn’s skin beneath her hands. Those memories and the clear and certain knowledge that she wanted both again were all she had. Pushing the covers aside, she climbed out of bed and grabbed her sweatpants and a heavy gray cotton pullover out of her bag. The hot-water radiator in the corner rattled but didn’t seem to be throwing off much heat. Dressing quickly in the cold room, she sat on the end of the bed to put on her socks. The door banged open and Evyn hurried in, bringing a gust of frigid wind and scattered snowflakes. Her face was flushed. She wore the jeans and T-shirt from the night before. She carried a cardboard takeout tray in her right hand with two large cardboard cups of coffee and a grease-stained brown bag.

Wes wanted to kiss her. “Say it’s hot and strong.”

“Oh yeah. Believe it.” Evyn grinned. “Thought you might be ready for this.”

“I am.” Wes concentrated on her socks so she wouldn’t jump up and touch her. “Have you been up long?”

“No.” Evyn set the tray down on the dresser. She shed Wes’s jacket and draped it over the back of a lone wooden chair. Water dripped from her cuffs onto the floor. She stamped snow from her boots and kicked them off, leaving them on a square of threadbare carpet that served as a doormat. She crossed to the bed opposite Wes and held out a cup of coffee.

“Black, right?”

Wes took it. “Right. Thanks. How’s the storm?”

“Dying off. The pizza place across the street doubles as a deli in the morning. There’s doughnuts there too.” She waved in the direction of the brown paper bag propped in the cardboard container. “Glazed. And cinnamon.”

“Perfect.”

“I’m having trouble making a call—I think everyone’s using the cell lines. I’m guessing it will be afternoon before we can get a flight out of here. The storm is moving up the coast. Sounds like DC is getting hammered again.”

“I guess I’d better try to call the unit and make sure there’s enough coverage.”

“Good luck. I just managed to get my neighbor across the hall to feed my cat. I couldn’t get through to the House or Tom’s cell.”

“Well, I’m sure whichever doc is around will see that we’re appropriately staffed.”

“I wouldn’t worry too much. They all know what to do.” Evyn sipped her coffee and watched Wes pull on her socks. The bed behind her was rumpled, the sheets and blankets askew. They’d given it a workout. Thinking of the way Wes had made her come, more times in a row than she could ever remember, made her stomach clutch. The sex had been great—awesome—but the sleeping together had her out of sync. She didn’t usually do that—even when she spent the night with someone, she didn’t curl up with them, didn’t turn to them in the night and need to be closer. Didn’t need to be inside them the way she’d been crazy to be inside Wes.

“You okay?”

“I’m sorry, what?” Evyn was aware she hadn’t heard a single thing Wes had said for the last few minutes. Wes looked great in faded sweats that hugged her ass and thighs. Evyn fought the urge to tackle Wes and pull her on top of her. She wanted Wes’s hands on her, wanted to be under her, wanted to come for her. That wasn’t her either. She was all turned around and—

“I asked if there was anything I could do—you’ve been taking point all morning, it seems.” Wes’s gaze traveled over Evyn’s body, glinting with a hunger to match Evyn’s.