Radclyffe - Wild Shores

Austin laughed. “I think I get the picture. What about you? What do you do here?”

“This is going to sound exceedingly unsexy, I’m afraid,” Gem said, opening the next door down the hall and revealing a standard laboratory setup—several benches running lengthwise down the center of the room, an isolation hood against one wall, incubators, racks of test tubes, Petri dishes, pipettes, beakers, all the things Austin remembered from biology and chemistry labs in high school and college and never thought she’d have to think about again.

“Gem,” Austin murmured, “everything about you is sexy.”

Gem halted and the lab disappeared from her awareness. She caught Austin’s scent—fresh air, the sea, and a subtle hint of spice. Gem resisted the urge to press her face to Austin’s neck, to breathe her in, to lick her. Lick her? What was happening to her? Whatever it was, she wasn’t in the mood to fight it. It felt too good. “You might want to reserve that line for dinner some night, when I’m not wearing mud-caked boots and shapeless clothes.”

“I don’t see why.” Austin captured Gem’s hand. “You’d be beautiful in anything you were wearing, and at the risk of being crass, I already know how beautiful you are when you’re not wearing anything at all.”

Gem freed her hand and slapped it to Austin’s chest, keeping two feet of distance between them. “Ground rules. You are not to say anything provocative, suggestive, or seductive for the rest of the afternoon.”

Austin’s smile widened. “And why is that?”

“Because I’m trying to maintain some degree of maturity and decorum. And every time you flirt with me, all I can think about is being in bed with you.”

“Would that being-in-bed be past tense, present, or future?”

“All of the above.” Gem was breathing quickly, her palms were slightly damp, and desire churned in her middle. Austin was the sexiest woman she’d ever seen and just being near her scalded her, inside and out. Some ferocious, all-consuming lust had been released the night before and the short leash Gem’d kept it on all morning had snapped. She wanted to kiss Austin again, right here in the lab.

“I can read your thoughts,” Austin said softly.

“You cannot.” Gem closed her hand on the front of Austin’s shirt, tugged her a little closer. “At least, I sincerely hope you can’t.” She kissed Austin for the second time that afternoon, but this time it wasn’t light and it wasn’t fleeting. She nibbled Austin’s lower lip, sucked it lightly between her teeth, tasted her, probed and teased.

Austin groaned and gripped Gem’s hips, drawing her close until they were touching everywhere. She made a sound at the base of her throat, a soft growl, and Gem turned liquid inside. She wound her arms around Austin’s shoulders, angled her mouth to take her deeper, her fingers gliding through Austin’s hair, her breasts pressing hard to Austin’s.

Distantly, she heard a squeak and “Oops. Sorry.”

Gem peered over Austin’s shoulder. Emily stared wide-eyed from the doorway. Gem pulled away but kept her arms on Austin’s shoulders. “Hey, Em.”

Emily slid both hands into her back pockets, faint spots of color high on her cheeks, her blue eyes sparkling with amusement and undisguised interest. “Well, I’d say I’m sorry again, but really, I’m not. You could just carry on—”

Austin laughed and turned in Emily’s direction. “Hi. I’m a friend of Gem’s.”

“Oh, I figured that out,” Emily said lightly, holding out her hand. “Emily Costanzas.”

“Austin Germaine. Nice to meet you.”

Emily gave Gem a pointed look. “You are in so much trouble.”

Gem swept her hand down Austin’s back. “I know, I know.”

Emily backed out into the hall and waved. “Well, I’d love to continue the observation—I mean, conversation, but you know—”

“Bye, Em!” Gem called after her.

Laughter followed as Emily disappeared.

“Sorry about that,” Austin said.

“Really?”

Austin grinned. “No, not really. I’m sorry we were interrupted, though.”

“Ah, probably just as well.”

“It’s not a problem, is it?”

“What, Emily? No. We’re all adults, after all.”

Austin’s dark eyes trapped hers. “She’s not a special friend?”

“You mean girlfriend?”

“Yeah, that’s what I mean.”

“No, Emily’s a good friend, a colleague. But not an intimate friend.” Gem hesitated. “We didn’t talk about any of that last night. It didn’t seem that there was any reason to.”

“We both agreed what last night was,” Austin said. “Last night was a thing unto itself.”

“And today?”

Austin cupped her face, kissed her gently. “Today is a new day.”

“Then perhaps we should take that walk.”

“We should. Okay. But first, you were going to tell me what you do in this place.”

“Part of what I do is study the possible transmission of pathogens from wild to domestic birds.”

“Right, like bird flu.”

“Yes. So when I come across a sick or, occasionally, dying bird, I’ll do the necropsy in here and culture various organs, isolate blood specimens, and sample other biological tissues for organisms.”

“Like a mini morgue.”

“Yes.”

“That’s fascinating.”

“Sometimes it’s the most routine things that lead us to a breakthrough.” Gem rarely discussed the specifics of her work, and almost never that part of it. Most people, Kim being one of them, did not like to hear about the less picturesque side of things. Austin’s interest, however, was clearly genuine, and Gem warmed to the praise. “I enjoy the methodical routine of it all.”

“So the sanctuary is really your laboratory—not just this room, but all of it.”

“Yes, in a way. Would you like to see it?”

Austin grabbed Gem’s hand. “Very much.”

❖

Austin almost hadn’t come, but Eloise’s mandate had given her the excuse to see Gem again, and she wanted to. She’d wanted to see her as soon as she’d disappeared that morning. If she’d been able to banish the storm and cancel her job and abandon her responsibilities, she would’ve spent the day in bed with Gem, naked and absorbed in her. Exploring, savoring, reveling in the pure pleasure of being with her. Walking beside her down a narrow trail through knee-high marsh grass and evergreens dripping rainwater in tiny droplets fractured by sunlight into millions of miniscule rainbows was almost as satisfying as those moments she’d spent entwined with her. Gem’s enthusiasm, her clear love of nature and her work, suffused her with an ethereal beauty Austin itched to draw. She despaired at being able to capture the passion and energy in her eyes, but she ached to try. They spent an hour wandering through the marsh, with Gem pointing out where she’d set up cameras and planned to watch the birds as they arrived. They finally emerged on the far end of the island and walked back along the shore. Once or twice they passed sandy patches isolated with yellow caution tape.

“Nesting areas?” Austin asked.

“Yes, but not for the birds. Turtles.” Gem pointed to the screens covering sections of the beach. “Emily’s been busy already, setting screens to protect the buried clutches from predators. Once the babies emerge, most of them under unprotected conditions will never make it to the sea. They’ll be eaten by birds or crabs. Sometimes out of a clutch of a hundred and fifty eggs, not a single baby makes it to the sea.”

“No wonder they’re endangered.” Austin gazed out over the ocean. Right now, the rig was invisible, fifty miles out, but she could see it as clearly as if it floated just offshore. The sea was clear and calm with low waves breaking intimately against the beach and running in frothy rivulets back to the water’s edge. Despite the placid surf, the signs of yesterday’s storm were everywhere, with deep gullies cut into the sandy beach leaving nothing but chains of rocks in furrowed trenches. “It looks like this stretch took quite a beating.”