Society Girls: Matisse (7 page)

I’ve never called anyone by their nicknames,
because I was trying to maintain my distance from them. Now that
I’m with Matisse, it’s time for me to loosen up a little with
everyone else. I’m not even close to as uptight as I made them
think I was, but I had to set a precedent. I tried to set
boundaries, but the husbands, led by Matt Corrigan, were having
none of it. I’ve gone out with them, but I pretended to keep that
stick firmly planted in my ass, only letting out my fun side with a
sarcastic comment or two.

I’m not alone here, though, and how much I
let go isn’t up to just me. I need to talk to Waverly, so I head to
the therapy center. She doesn’t have anyone she’s rehabbing right
now, but she’s been helping some of the recruits with anatomy and
kinesiology, as well as workout plans to complement their other
lessons.

Sure enough, she’s got Sierra, Jenysis, and
Harlow in the room with her when I enter. They’re all studying a
model of a foot she’s holding as she manipulates it, and points out
each bone. I smile, because I’m proud of her for being here when
she never thought she could do it. She sees me walk in, but
finishes her tutoring before acknowledging me.

“Hey, what’s up?” she asks, causing everyone
else to turn my way.

“I was hoping to speak to you for a few
minutes. Since the recruits have the day off, I didn’t realize I’d
be interrupting.”

“You’re just talking, right?” Sierra
asks.

“As opposed to what?” Waverly responds
before I can.

“Look, he took our friend to his bed last
night, and no one knows exactly what’s going on between the two of
you, so of course we’re going to ask,” Harlow tells her.

“We’re
friends
, and it seems we do need to
talk. Keep quizzing each other on the foot, and I’ll be back in a
few minutes.”

Waverly walks past me, and I wave meekly to
the other girls as I follow her into the hall. “They’re already
calling or texting her, you know.”

“She knows you’re my friend.”

“You went ahead and did it.”

“Six times.”

She makes a gagging face. “Just because
you’re my best friend, doesn’t mean you can share sex stuff with
me.”

“Maybe I need a pat on the back.”

“I’m sure the pat she gave you on your dick
was better.”

“Well, yeah.”

“You don’t need to check in with me. I’m the
one who convinced her to give you another chance.”

“Your cupcakes from Drago Sisters will be
here later today, but that’s not why I wanted to talk to you.”

“Then please impart your true intentions on
me.”

“I want to be like this with everyone. I
want to stop pretending to be uptight.”

She looks at me hard for a minute and then
nods. “Okay,” she tells me in a small voice.

“We’re almost there, Wave. Everything’s
coming together.”

“Which is why things should stay the way we
are. But, I understand why you want to be yourself with your girl,
and your friends.”

“You have friends, too, and this won’t mess
anything up. I promise.”

“You deserve to be happy.”

“So do you, my friend.”

“I believe that could happen.”

I smile wide, because this wonderful girl in
front of me wouldn’t have said that two years ago. “It will. I know
it. We can both be happy.”

“I love you, Ken.”

“Love you too, Wave.”

We hug for a minute, and when I step back, I
see we have an audience. “Ladies, I know you have better things to
do than spy on me and my best friend,” I say and walk back to my
office.

I know they weren’t standing there for the
whole conversation, but I’m still annoyed. Despite all of the spies
and their sexcapades in my medical ward, there are boundaries.
Personal conversations should stay just that—personal. I press the
button for Reina’s office before I think too hard and stop myself.
This isn’t my old “persona” reacting. I deserve the same respect
those women ask of me, even if I know they’re just trying to
protect their friend.

Matisse

I texted Kendrick to ask him if he had a
good talk with Waverly, but he hasn’t answered me. I keep checking
my phone in between reading Physics chapters on my tablet, but
there’s nothing, and I need to concentrate on my reading. We’re
farther into our Physics lessons than the other sciences, and in
fact, my friend Neveah used some of what we learned when she went
off on her own last year. Going rogue is frowned upon in the
Society, but she did what she had to do, and I respect her for
that. We all do.

I hide my phone under one of my couch
cushions, and get up to grab a snack. A knock comes at my door, and
I yell for whoever it is to come in. I know Kendrick is still as
work, so I’m not surprised to see some of my friends enter the
room.

“Hey, what’s up?” I ask.

“Your boyfriend got us in trouble, that’s
what,” Jen says.

“What did you do?” I ask, my heart
sinking.

“How do you know we did something?” Sierra
asks.

“You wouldn’t be in trouble if you didn’t do
anything wrong.”

“We eavesdropped on the last part of his
conversation with Waverly. He saw us, and told Reina,” Harlow
admits.

“Why would you do that?” I ask, panicking.
Now I know why he’s not responding—he probably thinks I told them
to listen in.

“We wanted to make sure he wasn’t playing
you both,” Jen tells me.

“She’s his best friend,” I
screech. I know I sound crazy, but I
feel
crazy right now, so it
fits.

“Calm down, Teesy, we just have to apologize
and man the security feeds of the parking lot for the next week,”
Sierra says.

“I don’t care about your punishment.
Kendrick hasn’t answered the text I sent earlier, and now I know
why.”

“Oh shit! Do you think he thinks you asked
us to do it?” Harlow asks.

“I don’t know what he thinks since he’s
ignoring me, but I think it’s a pretty safe bet that, yeah, he
does.”

“He said he loved her, and then hugged her,”
Sierra says.

“Again, they’re best friends. I’ve told
everyone in this room ‘I love you’ but I’m not romantically
interested in any of you. I can’t believe you did this! Especially
the three of you—you all guard your privacy, and yet here you are,
invading someone else’s.”

“We’re training to be spies,” Jen reminds
me.

“That doesn’t give you the right to spy on
your friends.”

“You’re
our friend,” Sierra tells me.

“Didn’t Kendrick patch you up—more than
once?”

“Well, yeah.”

“And Waverly helped Joel get back to
playing, didn’t she?”

“Yes.”

“You don’t consider them your friends after
all that?”

“We suck.”

“Yeah, I’m not gonna lie, right now you
do.”

“We’ll tell them you didn’t know,” Harlow
offers.

“You just go talk to Waverly and make sure
she’s okay. You know, since we’ve hung out with her a few times,
but now you’ve treated her like she’s not our friend.”

“I hate us right now,” Jen says. “We totally
overstepped.”

“Yeah, but you had good intentions. They’ll
forgive you.”

“Are you going to make nice with the good
doctor for us?” Sierra asks, the smile finally returning to her
face.

“I’m going to try and talk to him. I’m not
sure he’ll be interested in anything else.”

“Maybe talk to him while just wearing your
knickers,” Jen suggests.

I roll my eyes. “Just because you refuse to
give Wayne anything more than sex, doesn’t mean we all want that. I
need to talk to him with my clothes on.”

“And hope he asks you to take them off
afterward,” Harlow adds.

“Yeah, that.”

“We’re sorry,” Si tells me.

“I know. Just go take care of Waverly.”

We hug it out, and I abandon my snacks to
retrieve my phone from the couch. I take a deep breath and
type.

Me: I had no clue about what Si, Jen, and
Harlow did until right now. I told them it was wrong. I would never
ask anyone to spy on you and Waverly.

I’m not expecting a quick response, so I’m
not surprised when I don’t get one. Nervous and stressed out, but
not surprised. It’s almost two minutes later when my phone
vibrates. I’m clutching it so hard that I almost drop it when I
relax my hand.

Hot Doc: I’ll be home in a couple of hours.
We can talk then.

Me: Okay.

That’s it, nothing more. He
doesn’t say anything back, and I’m not going to make myself look
even more desperate by texting again. Time to get back to my
studies, because that’s something I
can
control.

* * *

Kendrick

It’s been a long day, and I’m really ready
for a beer. I’m on-call tonight at a local hospital, so that’s
unfortunately not an option. I keep the privileges at the facility
in case one of the women or men I look after gets admitted there.
It happened with Matt when he almost got killed in Mexico and was
flown back here, but that’s one of the few times my “moonlighting”
has come in handy. Who knows when we’ll need my access again, but
it’s not like I can just quit and apply again. So no beer for me,
and probably not much sleep. The glamorous life of a doctor.

I go straight to Matisse’s apartment when I
get home to the Corrigan apartments. Most of the Society lives
here, and so do all of the recruits, as well as myself and Waverly.
I stand outside of her door too long, so I’m not surprised when it
opens and she’s staring at me from the other side.

I can tell she’s been studying, not just
because she’s in a loose t-shirt and leggings, but because she’s
got a little bit of pencil smudged on her cheek. I can’t help but
smile as I reach out to rub it away and kiss her there. “What are
you studying today?”

“Physics.”

“Not my specialty, but I can help,” I tell
her as she steps back to let me in.

“I thought you were mad at me.”

“I was mad at the situation, and yes, I was
annoyed because it wouldn’t have happened if we weren’t
together.”

“I can’t control what other people do, even
if it’s because of me.”

“I know.” I
do
know. “I was unfair to
you.”

“Yes, you were,” she’s standing there, with
her arms crossed, looking angry and hurt at the same time.

“I’m sorry, Tees.”

“I accept your apology,” she says, relaxing
her stance.

“Thank you. I’ve got a few hours before I
have to report to the hospital. What can I help you with?”

“You can go take a nap like you do every
night you have a shift. I’ll save you some dinner.”

“I do need a nap,” I tell her, not hiding
the regret in my voice.

“I know. You can sleep in my bed if you
want.”

“I want.”

“Go on, before I make you forget you need
your sleep.”

“I’ve already forgotten.”

“Tease.”

I kiss her hard. “Just being honest, but I
have to get that sleep, or I’ll be no good to the patients who
might need me.”

I’m not used to doing 30 hour shifts
anymore, or even 16, so I have to get a little bit of sleep. I
could catch some time in one of the on-call rooms, but I never
sleep well in there because I know I might have to get up at any
time for an emergency. So, naps before, if I can squeeze it in, and
normally I’ll take the day after off, unless we have someone in the
ward. Tegan went home before I left, and Jade doesn’t start her
next mission until tomorrow night, so I’m good on that front.

“Goodnight, Doc. Sweet dreams.”

“Now who’s being the tease?”

I give her one more kiss, before heading
into her bedroom. The recruits have apartments that are more basic
than the rest of ours, but Matisse still had some input in hers,
and it’s most evident in here. When I carried her upstairs a couple
of weeks ago, it wasn’t completely decorated yet, but now it is,
and it’s just as sexy as the woman it belongs to.

Red satin walls with black lace accents
complement the sexiest bed I’ve ever seen. It’s black, and the
headboard it a mix of tufted fabric, and slats, giving me all kinds
of ideas. There are a few red pillows, but the comforter is black
with a brocade design going down the middle. The red bench at the
end of the bed has a black faux fur thrown on it, and yeah, I’ve
got lots of ideas running through my mind. Sleep first, and then
some play before I leave.

I wake up three hours later, having
completed two full cycles of deep sleep, feeling well-rested, and
horny. Post-nap wood is a thing, especially when I know I was
dreaming about the hot woman in the other room.

I kept my briefs on and slept with just the
throw over me, because I want the first time I’m naked and snuggled
into this bed to be when Matisse is in here with me. I need a
shower, but I need to fuck my girl even more.

I slip my briefs off, grab the throw, and
walk back into the living room naked. I can smell something
wonderful coming from the kitchen, but I ignore it for now. That’s
not the hunger I’m looking to satisfy right now.

Matisse is bent over her coffee table
studying her tablet and writing on those notecards she loves.
There’s an empty plate of food on the table; I’m glad she had a
chance to eat, since I’m about to help her work off some
calories.

I walk up next to her, and her eyes darken
when she sees that I’m naked. I take her hand, pulling her to her
feet as I kiss her. Walking her away from the couch, I place the
throw down in front of her floor to ceiling window. I can see the
lights of the city in the distance, and it feels daring, even
though I know the glass is treated so that no one can see in.

When I turn back to her, I pull her leggings
and thong off. She goes to take her shirt off, but I stop her. “Bra
only.”