Sheltering Dunes (22 page)

“If you keep that up, I’ll come.”

“Good.” Mica kissed her way down Flynn’s stomach and nibbled on the taut circle of her belly button. She raked her fingers over Flynn’s lower abdomen and confidently cupped her sex. Flynn thrust against her hand, knowing she was getting her wet.

“You’re in a bad way,” Mica muttered, sounding entirely pleased with herself.

Flynn gasped, circling her hips, desperate to ease the pressure in her clit. “You have no idea.”

“I think I do.” Mica stroked Flynn’s shaft between her fingers. “I think I know what you might be feeling right now.” She continued to caress her, steady and firm.

“You’ll make me come,” Flynn warned. Her eyes were open but she couldn’t see a thing. She was blind with pleasure.

“How soon?” Mica sucked Flynn’s nipple and circled faster between her legs.

“A minute,” Flynn gasped.

Mica tugged on her nipple and sucked it hard into her mouth. The electricity turned into a shock wave and Flynn’s clit exploded.

“Now,” Flynn exclaimed. “Right now.”

And then she was coming all over Mica’s hand, groaning and writhing and totally helpless.

Mica threw one leg over Flynn’s and rubbed her clit against Flynn’s leg while Flynn was coming. Feeling Flynn orgasm, hearing her sobs of relief, made Mica need to come again. The little bit of pressure against her clit was enough to set her off, and she cried out against Flynn’s breast, her mouth brushing Flynn’s nipple. Flynn’s arm came around her, holding her tight, keeping her close.

“Don’t stop,” Flynn gasped. “Keep going, I’ll come again. Oh yeah, just like that. I need you.”

Mica lay half on top of Flynn, quivering, still stroking her. She’d never felt so powerful or so out-of-control in her life. “Come. I want you to come again.”

“I am. So good. So, so good.” Flynn pulled Mica on top of her, settling Mica’s thigh between her legs against her still-pulsing clit. The pressure kept her hard just the way she needed it. She stroked Mica’s back. “You do amazing things to me.”

“You do pretty crazy things to me too.”

Flynn closed her eyes. “I’m so glad.”

Mica sighed, as if she was suddenly weary, and rested her head on Flynn’s shoulder. Flynn wondered how long she had before Mica started to regret what had just happened between them.

*

Allie got home a little before six a.m. She’d tried to be quiet coming in and undressing, but she knew Ash was awake. She could feel her presence in the dark, waiting for her. She crawled into bed, rolled onto her side, and nestled against Ash. Resting her cheek on Ash’s chest, she brought one leg up over Ash’s and wrapped her arm around her. Ash’s hand came into her hair and Allie sighed. She loved being totally connected like this.

“Flynn okay?” Ash asked.

Allie nodded and kissed Ash’s breast. “Pretty banged up, but she’s okay.”

“Get the guy?”

“No. Probably won’t either. At least not right away.”

“Random?”

“On the surface, it looks that way. But—I’m not sure.”

Ash stroked her back and massaged the tightness between her shoulders and Allie snuggled closer. “How do you always find the spot where the knots are?”

“Because you’re mine,” Ash murmured lazily.

“Yeah, yeah.” Allie melted every time Ash said that. She loved being hers. She loved that Ash belonged to her too. Hers and only hers, in all the world. “Reese thinks there’s a gang connection, somehow, with Mica. And I’m pretty sure Flynn is involved with her.”

“Really. I wouldn’t have called that.”

“What? Flynn being involved, or her being involved with that kind of girl?”

“Babe”—Ash tilted Allie’s face up with a finger under her chin and kissed her—“I can see Flynn with a girl, no problem—just as long as it’s not you. I guess I’ve been thinking of her as the stereotypical priest—unadventurous, introverted, traditional.”

Allie laughed. “That’s not Flynn.”

“Guess not.” Ash tucked Allie’s head back under her chin. “So what do you think about Reese’s theory?”

“I’ve been doing some research. If Mica is part of La Mara, it’s bad news. I found a couple of reports of members who tried to get away, and they never made it. One girl turned informer and they tracked her down across three states. Killed her. Same thing for a guy.”

Ash stiffened. “You think that might be what’s going on here?”

“Maybe. I have to talk to Mica again.”

“And Flynn is involved with her?”

“Oh yeah. They went home together.”

“How are you with that?”

Allie caressed Ash’s belly, smiling to herself when Ash sucked in a breath. “That Flynn’s seeing a really cute girl?”

Ash’s hips lifted into Allie’s hand as Allie caressed lower.

“Uh-huh,” Ash gasped.

“Mmm. Doesn’t bother me.” Allie let her fingers drift between Ash’s legs. Ash was hot and wet, unbelievably sexy. “Oh yes.” Leaning up on one elbow, she kissed Ash, stroking with her tongue in time with stroking between her legs. When she stopped to breathe, she said, “But I’m not real happy about Flynn getting mixed up in things.”

“You’ll be careful, right?” Ash turned Allie onto her back and fit her hips between Allie’s thighs. Allie wrapped her legs around Ash’s hips and Ash worked her hand between them and inside her.

“Oh God, baby,” Allie moaned.

“You’ll be careful, right?”

“God yes, yes. Just fuck me.”

Ash pushed deeper and did exactly as Allie demanded. Allie lifted her hips, took her deeper, and forgot about everything except Ash.

Flynn watched Mica move quietly around the room, gathering her clothes in the gray light of dawn. When she slid her hand across the sheet to where Mica had been a few moments before, the spot was already beginning to cool. She doubted they had dozed for more than an hour.

“Where are you going?”

“Gotta get home. Have to work in an hour or so.”

Flynn slowly pushed up on the bed, protecting her still-sore side. “You’re going to try to work today?”

“Not like I have any choice,” Mica said with her back still turned.

“I think considering what happened, your boss will give you the day off.”

Mica, nude, spun around with her T-shirt gripped in her hand and partially covering her breasts. Flynn’s heart plummeted at Mica’s sudden wariness. They’d been so close, so united, when they’d been making love, the distance now flamed like an open wound.

Mica glared. “When are you going to get that the rules you live by are different than how most of us live? Maybe you never had to worry about losing a job because you had to take your kid to daycare or your grandmother to the doctor and were ten minutes late.”

“You’re right.” Flynn pushed the covers aside and swung her legs over, halting halfway through as another tearing sensation lanced through her side.

“You hurting?” Mica pulled on her jeans, not bothering with panties.

“I’m okay.”

“Doesn’t look like it. Stay there. You got aspirin or something?”

“There’s a bottle of Motrin in the medicine cabinet in the bathroom,” Flynn said. “I wouldn’t mind having four of them. What about you? You’ve got to be sore.”

“It’s not bad.” Mica shrugged and pulled on her T-shirt.

“You’re a little bit hoarse.” Flynn didn’t mention the chain of faint red blotches on Mica’s neck where their attacker had gripped her. Mica would undoubtedly shrug it off, and reminding her of what had happened just seemed cruel.

When Mica disappeared into the bathroom, Flynn got up, found her jeans, and, bending carefully, pulled them on. Shirtless, she held out her hand for the glass of water Mica brought back, along with four ibuprofen. “Thanks. Did you take some?”

“Yeah, yeah. Jeez.” Mica’s gaze trailed down over her chest and Flynn’s nipples tightened. She couldn’t remember ever having been so sensitive to another woman’s attention. Maybe because she suspected Mica didn’t give her attention easily. She wondered if Mica had a girlfriend. The idea of someone else touching her, pleasuring her, made Flynn agitated and uneasy. There was so much she didn’t know about Mica, so much she wanted to know. And after last night, so much she needed to know.

“Okay, so,” Mica said, “you ought to go back to bed. Didn’t the doctor say you should take it easy?”

Flynn pulled on a cotton shirt and buttoned it halfway up. “Mica, I know last night was crazy,” Flynn paused and grinned, “and part of it was amazing, but you told me you would talk to me. I need for us to talk.”

“I never said we’d talk.” Mica backed up as if Flynn had threatened her.

Flynn stood still, willing to give her space, but not willing to let her put up walls. “I don’t want you to go.”

Mica took another step back. “I’m gonna be late.”

“Maybe you don’t remember, but I’m pretty sure you said we’d talk.”

“There’s nothing to talk about.”

“How about us sleeping together?”

“Is there something about it you didn’t understand?” Mica slipped into the flip-flops she’d kicked off inside the bedroom door a few hours earlier.

“Oh, I think I understand what happened pretty well,” Flynn said. “Like I said, it was amazing.
You’re
amazing. I pretty much lose it the minute you touch me.”

Mica went very still, her face hard to read, but her eyes lit up from within. “You mean that.”

“I do. If I had any choice at all, I’d want you back in bed with me right now. I’d want to keep going, do a million things we haven’t had a chance to do yet. I told you I’d be hungry. I didn’t realize I’d be starving.”

“I don’t know if I can do that for you,” Mica said quietly. “Take care of that hunger.”

“We won’t know, will we, until we try? What about you? Are you hungry at all?” Flynn felt as if she were poised on the edge of a precipice. This wouldn’t be the first time she’d been the only one to need, the only one to want. She’d misjudged completely with Evelyn. She’d been so blinded by her own passion she hadn’t realized Evelyn was afraid. Afraid of censure, afraid of losing her social status, afraid of losing her position in the church. Evelyn had been willing to sleep with her but not commit to her. She’d chosen the safer route, one that Flynn had never seen coming. Evelyn had chosen her twin, who looked almost exactly like her, except that he was male and therefore acceptable. Her heart hammered wildly, as if she were waiting for judgment. “Mica? If it’s only one time, tell me now.”

Mica closed the distance she’d created between them, pressed her hands flat against Flynn’s chest, and kissed her. Her kiss was open-mouthed, hard and demanding. Her breasts crushed against Flynn’s, her pelvis molding to her. Everything about her was hot and possessive. The ache in Flynn’s heart vanished. Even the pain in her injured side receded to a distant throb. She wrapped her arms around Mica’s waist and lifted until Mica was standing on tiptoe, straddling her thigh, riding her. The movement hurt, but Flynn didn’t care. Mica seemed to be the only medicine she needed.

When Mica pulled away, Flynn had lost her train of thought, and that never happened to her. She fought to steady her breathing, her fingertips resting on the outer contours of Mica’s hips. “Was that a yes? Please tell me that was a yes.”

“Yeah, I’m hungry,” Mica said. “I want you to do everything you did to me last night and more. You’re so hot when you come—I want to make you do it over and over. I can’t stop thinking about it, and I don’t know if I’m glad about that or not.”

“I’m here,” Flynn murmured. “This can be the beginning, not the end. If you let me, I’ll stay.”

Mica pushed away, the hot light of passion in her eyes turning to a blaze of anger. “Don’t say that. You don’t know that. You don’t know anything.”

Flynn caught Mica’s hand before she could retreat again. “Then tell me. Help me. Please.”

“What do you want to know? What do you think talking will prove?”

“Tell me about the tattoo on your back,” Flynn said.

Mica jerked. “What?”

“The tattoo. It’s beautiful, but I wonder what it means.”

“Forget it.” Mica turned and strode out of the room.

For half a second, Flynn contemplated letting her go. She was pushing, maybe pushing too hard. Mica might have a very good reason for keeping her silence. If the attack in the alley wasn’t random last night, then Mica was in danger. But if Mica was in danger, Flynn needed to know why. She couldn’t help her unless she did.

Flynn went after her. The only way to show Mica she wasn’t going to treat her the way everyone else had was not to live up to her expectations. Mica expected her to let her go. And she wasn’t going to. Flynn made it to the living room just as Mica reached the front door. “I could use coffee. How about you? I think I might have some bagels or something too.”

Mica stopped, paused for seconds that felt like eternity, and finally spun around. “I could do with some coffee. But you are not making it. You sit your ass on one of those stools at the counter over there and tell me where all the stuff is. Then I’ll make it.”