Offensive Behavior (Sidelined #1) (17 page)

He was
outside Lucky’s ten minutes before closing time. He parked in a no fly zone
directly in front of the alleyway in case she didn’t use the front door. He
didn’t like to think of her using the alley, any of the girls. He didn’t like
to think of her dancing in there without him watching, but he’d promised, and
hard as it had been to stay away, it was easier than risking her favor. He was
more in awe of her after reading up on her than he had been last weekend. She
was a champion athlete, the real deal, and she’d been so young when it all unraveled
around her. She knew more about success and failure and trying again than he’d
ever considered when he’d fallen for her pole act. She knew more about
rebuilding herself from nothing than he could’ve imagined, and she made him
ashamed that he’d wasted himself for a month when he should’ve been fighting
back.

He
leaned against the bike and watched the bar. He willed her to come through the
front door so he could start breathing without tension again. But when she did
he almost choked. She wore jeans and a plain white t-shirt, sneakers on her
feet, her glossy raisin-brown hair tumbling all over her shoulders and across
one eye as she hoisted that big bag of hers onto her shoulder. Her cheeks were
pink and her lips were shiny. He’d seen more glamorous women; women who worked
their assets harder had thrown themselves in his path. He’d never seen anyone
he liked watching more than Zarley.

She
cleared the door and came to a dead stop when she saw him. Then she licked her
lips and the tension spread from his lungs to all regions below the belt.

“You do
have a bike.”

“You
didn’t believe me.”

“I
don’t know you.”

“Yeah,
you do. Better than most, Zarley.” He’d been different with her, because of
her. He’d been less the man who lost his way and more a man who’d found a new
way of being.

“I’d
like to know you.”

His
skin got hot. It was the way she looked at him. Her eyes traveling from his
face, down his chest to his cock.

“I went
too far with the.” He made a rough gesture down his body.

She
closed the distance between them, dumping her bag on the sidewalk, walking her
legs around his outstretched ones, till she stood across his thighs. “I liked
how far you went.” She put both hands on his shoulders. “I liked it a lot.”

He kept
his hands on the bike. “You need to get on.”

“Don’t
I get a kiss?”

“You
need to get on, or it won’t be the kind of kiss you’re looking for.”

She
titled her head. “How do you know what kind of kiss I’m looking for?”

“I
don’t think it’s one where I have you up against the wall in the alley, my dick
buried so far into you we both see stars.”

She
laughed. She didn’t object. He groaned. “You need to get on the bike.”

“We
could walk to your place from here.”

“Do you
know how many dark places I could drag you into along the way? Hundreds, there
are literally hundreds. You said you needed sleep. This is the only way you’re
going to get it. On the bike, Zarley.”

He put
his hands to her arms and moved her back, coming to stand and bending to pick
up her bag. He lifted the helmet off the handlebars, bought for her, the
smallest size he could get, and put it in her hands.

He
straddled the bike and kicked it into life, gave her his hand and helped her
mount behind him. They took off with her bag at his back, her arms around his
chest. With no traffic they’d be at his place in five minutes instead of the
fifteen it would’ve taken to walk. He heard the siren and pulled over to let
the cop car through. On the cross street he saw the flashing lights of two fire
engines and Zarley pounded on his shoulder.

He
raised his visor and turned his head to hear her.

“Go
back.”

Her
visor was up too and she was twisting around, making it hard to steer. He
pulled over. “What’s wrong?”

“Go
back, back there. That’s my street.”

Shit
. He pulled out and turned, went back to the cross and drove down
it, slowing as they reached a barricade. Zarley was off the bike, helmet in her
hand, running toward the engines before he had a chance to pull over again. He
watched her avoid an inattentive policewoman, duck under the barrier and keep
running. Another cop caught her and he abandoned the bike and his helmet, but
hefted her bag and went after her. By the time he reached the barrier, Zarley
had been escorted back to it. She was gesticulating wildly trying to bargain
with the cop.

“My roommate,
she’s inside. Cara, Cara Douglas. First floor, you have to check.”

Fuck. Her
apartment above the Korean restaurant. He could smell the fire, but not see
flames.

The cop
held his arms wide to stop Zarley darting past her. “Everyone’s out. Your roommate
is out. She’s safe. But you can’t go close, it’s not safe.”

“Where
is she?”

“I’m
here, Zar, I’m here.”

They
all turned as another girl limped across the road. She was laden with bags, her
arms full of clothing. Reid and the cop both moved to relieve her of her
bundles and she fell into Zarley’s arms.

“What
happened?” Reid asked the cop as a stream of other refugees from the building came
around the barricade. They were all in various states of dress and carrying
bundles of hastily snatched possessions. He saw a young guy wearing only pajama
pants with a goldfish bowl in his arms.

“Explosion
in the restaurant, started a fire, we’re not sure what the chief cause was, but
the building has been evacuated. No one is allowed back in until the fire
brigade give the all clear.”

“When?”
said Zarley.”

“Not
tonight,” said the cop. “From the damage, probably for a week and even then,
you said first floor, above the restaurant, there’ll be water damage. You’d be
best to find somewhere to stay for a few weeks.”

“That’s
what the fireman said,” said Zarley’s Cara. She was tiny like Zarley, but a
rusty blonde with milky skin and freckles that stood out. Wearing a coat over a
nightgown with slippers, she stood awkwardly, as if in pain.

“Are
you hurt?” he said.

Her
eyes swung to him. “No.” Then back to Zarley.

“That’s
Reid. Cara, Reid. Reid, my roomie, Cara.”

He’d
have shaken her hand but his arms were full of her stuff. “You’re limping.”

Cara
waved a hand. “It’s old.” She focused on Zarley again. “I got all your costumes
out. Whatever clothes I could find. The laptop, I don’t know, I grabbed stuff,
they were yelling at us to get out. It was so loud, the explosion.” She touched
the side of her head. “My ears are still funny.”

Zarley
patted Cara down. “You’re sure you’re not hurt?”

“I’m fine,
bit of a headache. We can go to my brother’s. I’ll call him. I need to put some
clothes on.”

“You’re
welcome to stay at my place tonight, for however long you need,” Reid said. He
could put them both up, there was a bed in the spare bedroom now.

“You’re
Reid. Lost your job, sent Zarley a dick pic, Reid.”

“It was
a dick pic. I’m not an axe murderer and I have an apartment five minutes away.”

Cara
shook her head. “I’m going to Gavin’s. I just want to be away from here. I can
use Jessie’s sewing machine. I can wait it out there. You can come with me,
Zar.”

Zarley
sighed. “Gavin and Jess are an hour out of the city.” She glanced at Reid. Was he
going to lose her? “The traveling will kill me and with the new baby, it’s too
much to ask.”

“I
can’t think of anything else. Will they make us pay rent still? They said we
might be allowed in Monday to collect more stuff, but what if—”

“I’ll
stay with Reid like I was going to, and on Monday I’ll be here to see what we
do next.”

“You’re
sure?”

Zarley
glanced at him again and he nodded. “I’m sure. Worry about the long term when
we know what we’re in for.”

“Let me
get you a cab.”

Cara’s
big eyes flashed at him. “To San Ramon, are you kidding?”

“You’re
in PJs, you have,” he shook the stuff in his arms, “luggage. It’s some ungodly
time in the morning and you just got made homeless. If you won’t stay with
Zarley and me tonight, let me help you get to your brother’s. I’d drive you but
I only have a bike.”

“Oh my
God, my bag.” Zarley exclaimed, head snapping around in the direction of the
bike.

He
pivoted to show Zarley her bag slung over his back and she put her hand over
her chest and breathed out in relief then said. “Let him help, Cara. It’s not
going to break him.”

That
got him reluctant agreement from Cara. The two of them got sorted while he
called the car service. They argued over the laptop. They shared it apparently,
but Cara could borrow her brother’s. Cara who was bright-eyed, but very pale
and moving stiffly.

Fifteen
minutes later, she was in the backseat of a town car surrounded by the stuff
she’d pulled from the apartment that Zarley wasn’t keeping. It was precious
little in the scheme of things.

Ten
minutes later, he had Zarley inside the apartment and he’d shown her the spare
bedroom where they dumped all her gear.

“Thank
you,” she said. “For letting me stay, for helping Cara.”

Was she
going to cry, it seemed like a reasonable thing. Normally when a woman cried he
left the room, because that was the only thing he could think she’d want him to
do. He’d made a lot of women he’d worked with cry. He’d left a lot of rooms
because of it. Zarley stood by the bed looking at her feet. He was in the
hallway outside. A halfway left the room position, which seemed sensible.

“You
can stay as long as you like.”

Her
head shot up. “No, I can’t. But I’ll stay tonight. She looked at the bed. “This
is everything I own. If we don’t get back inside, this is all of it. I have to
start again. It’s worse for Cara, she already lost her job this week.”

“I can
help you.”

“This
is not cab fare. You can’t help. I don’t need your help.”

He took
a step back.

“What I
need is a hug. What I need is something to drink, a hot shower and your arms
around me in bed.”

“What
would you like to drink?” It was leaving the room still, but with purpose.

“A
glass of milk like when I was a kid. But I want the hug first.”

She
stepped up on the bed and faced him. He moved into the room and she leapt at
him. He caught her around the waist but he needn’t have. She latched on with her
arms and legs and he buried his face in her neck. She smelled of smoke but she
wasn’t going to cry and come Monday when they knew more, he’d find a way to
help her and Cara that she’d accept. They’d be wise enough together.

He
carried her to the kitchen and they sat side by side on stools and drank their
milk. She was amused by the stools but she was exhausted as well. He left her
to shower in the en suite and used the other bathroom himself, meeting her in
bed. She came tumbling into his arms, searching for his lips, pulling at his
t-shirt till he doffed it, stripping out of her own until they were skin to
skin, just his boxer briefs and her panties between them.

She was
draped across his chest and had her hands in his hair. “I want you, but I need
to sleep.” She shook his head about as if to shake the notion of sex out of her
own head.

“So
sleep. I’m not the one who started this.”

“You
started it when you arrived on that big sexy chromed-up machine, looking all
hungry. When you didn’t forget my bag, when you called the car service. You
started it when you didn’t try to manage me. You bought furniture.”

“I sent
you an embarrassing picture.”

“Two
seconds before I was going to send you a full frontal.”

He
pushed hair away from her face to check her expression. “For real?”

“I’ve
still got the photo.”

“I get
to see that.”

“If
you’re good. If you can let me lie here like a dead fish while you do rude
things to me.”

He
could so do that.

He
rolled them so she was beneath him. “Is there an art to this doing it with a
dead fish thing you want?”

She
smiled up at him. “No sudden movements. Make me feel good.”

He
kissed her neck, smiling into her clean skin when she rolled her head on the
pillow to expose it further to him. “Do I get to come?”

“Only
if I do.”

“And you’re
going to do nothing.”

She let
go his shoulders and her arms flopped out to her sides on the bed. “If I fall
asleep don’t wake me.”

She
didn’t get to fall asleep. She got slow tender kisses, and a languorous
exploration of her body with his hands and his tongue that made her moan. She
got wet before he tried to make her that way with his fingers. She trembled
when he moved inside her and arched her back and her hands clawed in the sheet.