Thirteen Hours (11 page)

“It’s not pathetic,” Laurel said. “It’s flattering.”

“No, it’s pathetic.” Dana fastened the front closure of her bra with a wistful resignation that tore at Laurel. “I’ve never reacted to anyone like I do to you. It’s crazy. You’re so easy to talk to.”

“So are you,” Laurel said, distracted as she watched Dana rebuttoning her shirt. “What are you doing?”

“Putting my shirt back on. I feel strange sitting here half-naked while we talk.”

Laurel pouted. “So you’re going to punish me by hiding those delicious breasts away?”

“Don’t think of it as punishment. Besides, I’m not going to sit here topless while you have a T-shirt on.”

Laurel looked down at her own chest. “The T-shirt is negotiable.”

“Not unless you want to get ravished right here on the floor,” Dana said.

“Right. So about getting to know you better—”

“Ask away.” There was a defeated note in Dana’s voice. “Hell, I have no secrets left. For whatever reason, it seems I’ll tell you anything.”

“What’s your favorite meal?”

“Starting easy, huh?” Dana thought for a moment. “The ‘Big Night Out’ at the Melting Pot.”

“Duly noted. That’s where I’m taking you for dinner, by the way. When we go out.”

“Cool. So how about you? What’s your favorite?”

Moaning, Laurel answered without hesitation. “Sweet potatoes.”

“Sweet potatoes aren’t a meal.”

Laurel laid a hand over her stomach, which growled in sudden protest. “Shit, I’m hungry. How about we split that chocolate bar now?”

“Brilliant idea,” Dana said. “Your breasts made me forget all about dessert.”

“You like to blame my breasts for everything, don’t you?”

“Well, no. Your ass shares part of the blame. It’s also fantastic.”

Grinning, Laurel searched through her backpack. “You’re so easy to please.”

“You’re modest.” Dana ogled her ass unabashedly. “I go a little brain dead when I look at you.”

Laurel laughed. “Well, that’s nice.” She found the Hershey’s bar, unwrapped it, and broke it in two.

Accepting her half, Dana said, “If you’re going to give me chocolate every time I tell you how much I love your body, I’ll weigh eight hundred pounds in no time.”

“Ooh.” Laurel popped a square into her mouth. “And the girl just keeps the sweet talk coming.”

Dana ate one of her own squares, moaning in pleasure at the flavor.

“Anything for chocolate.”

“Trust me, I’ll keep that in mind.”

Dana watched Laurel’s lips as she chewed. “What’s going to make you feel like you know me well enough to sleep with me?”

Laurel almost choked at the blunt question. “I’ve always appreciated a woman who can be direct. Could you wait till I’m not eating next time?”

“I’m sorry. You can’t get me that worked up and expect me to just get all mellow at the drop of a hat.”

“Oh, I don’t really ever think I’ll see you “mellow,”” Laurel said. “I guess I just wasn’t expecting sex-crazy, dripping-with-desire Dana.”

Dana flushed deep pink. “Neither was I. Do you like her?”

“Very much.” Laurel stared at Dana’s face and then somewhere in the vicinity of her breasts. “Maybe too much.”

“Why are you so diffident about this?” A trace of tension altered Dana’s voice. “You seem pretty sexually open to me.”

“I am.” Laurel could read the confusion and disappointment in Dana’s eyes. She’d sent mixed signals, Laurel realized. One moment stripping and coming on to her, the next backing off like
she
was the one on sexual training wheels. “I can only imagine what you must think.”

“Does it really matter what I think? I practically called you a whore for doing your job.”

“Yeah, it matters.” Wanting to make her point more clearly, Laurel said, “If I didn’t want to see you after tonight, it wouldn’t matter at all. But tonight is just a beginning for us.”

Dana smiled. Her face seemed unburdened suddenly. “I had no right to judge you earlier,” she said. “I only did it because I was feeling bad about myself.”

From Dana’s tone Laurel guessed she’d been indulging in self, recrimination. Maybe she thought Laurel had backed off for fear of being seen as a slut after the fact. “Why would you feel so bad about yourself?” Laurel asked gently.

“Sometimes I feel like the biggest prude in the world, so naturally I set about trying to make you feel like the biggest slut. It’s not what I think at all. I hope you can forgive me.”

“I already did,” Laurel said. “But thanks for saying it again, anyway.” She thought for a moment as she savored one of her last pieces of chocolate. “Do something for me.”

“Anything.” There was no flirtatiousness in Dana’s tone. She gazed into Laurel’s eyes as though she wanted to see deep inside her.

“Let’s just talk for a little while. Like we’re on a date and we’re just finding out about each other.”

“A date. I like that idea.” Dana smiled.

“Let’s assume you’re not working,” Laurel said. “Tell me about your ideal Sunday, starting from the time you wake up in the morning. No work.”

“Well, on Sunday mornings, I generally don’t get out of bed until I’ve…spent a little time with myself.” Dana attempted a nonchalant leer, which didn’t quite come off. Her cheeks flushed and she immediately averted her gaze, looking slightly uncomfortable with the admission.

“A woman after my own heart,” Laurel said. “A Sunday morning without a self-induced orgasm is like a day without sunshine.”

Dana brightened and met Laurel’s eyes. “After that, I like to take a long, hot bath. Usually a movie on the couch in the afternoon. Grocery shopping, if I need to go. Reading. Something nice and explicit, usually, lesbian in nature—”

“You shit,” Laurel said, chuckling. “‘I’m straight,’ you tell me. I
knew
you weren’t straight, but with the way you blushed when I started talking about lesbian erotica, you almost had me convinced. So shy, so
scandalized
by the idea of a little literary porn. Now I find out that you’re a lesbian erotica connoisseur?”

Dana grinned. “Well, I don’t usually have to read it out loud to an audience.”

“But you’re so good at it,” Laurel said. “Okay, going back to your morning. Do you sleep naked?”

Dana’s grin faltered slightly, becoming shy.

“I do,” Laurel offered. “Naked as a jaybird.”

“Naked as a jaybird?” Dana tipped her head back and released a loud guffaw. “Nice expression.”

“Blame my mother. Now answer the question. Naked?”

Dana nodded. “Naked.”

“Good,” she said. “Do you make noise when you come? You know, when you’re spending time with yourself?”

“Did we somehow stumble back into truth or dare without my knowing?” Dana asked.

“You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to. Of course, I was
hoping
I’d be able to confirm the answer for myself soon enough.”

Dana shook her head, dropping her gaze to her lap. “Not usually,” she said. “Sometimes I can’t really help it, but most of the time, I’m quiet.”

“I’ll have to do something about that,” Laurel said.

Dana reached out and took her hand. She stroked the slim fingers with her own, studying the intricate lines of Laurel’s knuckles. “I think part of the reason I’m quiet is because I grew up in a house with my brother in the room on one side of me and my parents on the other side. Years of masturbating in secret taught me to come like a ninja, silent and stealthy. It’s a hard habit to break.”

“Come like a ninja? Oh my God, that’s
priceless
—”

“It’s true,” Dana defended. “Plus, I think I sound
weird
, you know? All breathy and out of control.” She shuddered. “Ugh.”

Laurel chuckled. A sense of humor was a definite turn-on, and this wasn’t helping cool her down. “Oh, Dana…
God
, I like you a lot.”

Dana wore a stupid grin. “That’s the idea.”

“And by the way, I’ll be the judge on how you sound when I make you come,” Laurel said. “I doubt ‘weird’ will be the first adjective I’ll choose.”

“You’re killing me here.” Dana slumped onto Laurel’s blanket, lying on her side, staring over at Laurel’s knees, her arms curling around herself.

Laurel joined her, stretching out to lie with her head on her upturned palm, one elbow propping her. She stretched her other hand out toward Dana’s stomach, stroking her lightly through her shirt.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m not doing a very good job getting us away from the whole sex thing, am I?”

“Understatement,” Dana replied.

“I’m sorry.” Laurel traced lazy circles around her belly button.

“It’s difficult. I’m trying so hard to be noble here, and responsible.”

“I know.” Dana’s gaze slid over Laurel’s face and down her throat.

“It’s impossible not to want you right now.”

She leaned in, pressing a gentle kiss to the side of Laurel’s neck.

Laurel tilted her head to grant better access, gasping when Dana nipped at the soft skin of her throat. “It almost seems useless to try and resist what’s happening here,” Laurel whispered, to herself as much as Dana.

“Almost?” Dana pushed her hand beneath the hem of Laurel’s T-shirt, skimming her palm up the curve of her waist. “Try completely useless.”

“Goddamn it.” Laurel rose up and leaned over Dana, licking at her bottom lip. “I’m supposed to be the voice of reason.”

“Why?” Dana asked just as her hand found Laurel’s bare breast beneath her shirt. She gave the firm flesh a gentle squeeze. “I don’t need to be protected, Laurel. I need to be touched.”

Laurel whimpered as her nipple was pinched. She pushed her tongue deep into Dana’s mouth, kissing her long and hard. Like that, all of Laurel’s resistance melted away. Who was she kidding? She wouldn’t last even another half hour in this enclosed space without giving in to her need—to both their needs.

As they kissed, she maneuvered both Dana’s hands to the floor above her head. Holding her flat on her back, both wrists captured in a firm grasp, she checked her face for nervousness, but found only excitement.

Feeling foggy with passion, Laurel nodded. “All right,” she whispered. “Then let me love on you.”

H
OUR
T
EN
—4:00 A.M.

D
ana stared up into Laurel’s intense blue eyes. She tested the grip on her wrists, gasping when Laurel tightened her hold.

“Will you let me?” Laurel murmured, and bent to suck Dana’s bottom lip into her mouth. Holding it between her teeth, she mumbled, “Make love to you?”

Dana exhaled shakily, glad she was already on her back. Surely her legs had stopped working by now. “Wow, it sure didn’t take long to convince you.”

Laurel retreated, swiping her tongue across Dana’s upper lip.

“You’re very persuasive.” She released one of Dana’s wrists and stroked the back of her hand over Dana’s cheek. “I admit it, I’m powerless against those beautiful green eyes.”

Dana smiled triumphantly. “I’m glad I was able to seduce you.”

“I’m glad, too.”

“I’m twenty-eight years old.” Dana flexed her fingers beneath the hand that still held her wrist, inhaling at the sensation of being restrained. “It’s high time I start making questionable decisions where sex is concerned.”

Laurel chuckled, but her eyes were serious. “Do you think this is a questionable decision?”

Dana grinned. “No. But I know it’s supposed to be one.”

Biting her lip, Laurel returned her free hand to Dana’s unrestrained wrist. “You promise this won’t…I mean, that you won’t—”

“I won’t freak out,” Dana interrupted. “And I’ll still respect you in the morning.”

“Well, then.” Laurel pushed her hips against Dana’s and ground their lower bodies together. “I guess there’s really no reason for me not to tear your clothes off and make you a woman right here and now.”

“I guess there’s not,” Dana agreed. “So commence with the tearing.”

Laurel began to laugh but stopped after only an instant, narrowing her gaze at something in the upper corner of the elevator car. “Oh, shit.”

Dana twisted her shoulders, craning to see what Laurel was staring at. “Oh, shit, what?”

“Um…do you think that camera is still working?”

Dana sat up fast, dislodging Laurel from her position atop her body.

She planted her hand on the blanket so she could stare open-mouthed at the surveillance camera mounted next to the row of buttons over the elevator door.
How the holy hell did I not remember that thing?

“Uh…” With a pounding heart, Dana went through a mental checklist.
Let’s see: we’ve got me lying on the floor with my head in Laurel’s lap, Laurel half-naked and dancing, me making out with another woman…and my bare breasts.
Her mind spun as she started thinking about how to convince Rocky the security guard to hand a potentially embarrassing tape over, sight unseen. “Oh, shit.”

As if sensing Dana’s rising distress, Laurel laid a calming hand on her arm. “It probably doesn’t work. If the elevator isn’t working, how could the camera work?”

The same way the emergency lights are working.
With growing horror, Dana continued to gape at the camera lens that stared them down. “Oh, shit.”

Laurel gave her arm a gentle squeeze. “No, it’s okay. You have beautiful breasts.”

Dana shot Laurel an incredulous look. “Do you really think that makes me feel better? I
work
here.”

“People see my tits in my workplace all the time,” Laurel said with a teasing smile. “No big deal.”

Dana managed a half-laugh, half-groan, burying her face in her hands. “Oh my God.” That sealed the deal. They couldn’t have sex now. She could do a lot of things with Laurel, but starring in their own lesbian porn wasn’t one of them. At least not on the first date.

“Oh!” Laurel exclaimed. “I know!”

Dana uncovered her eyes and watched Laurel root through her backpack. “Please tell me you’ve got a handy-dandy videotape-erasing machine in there that you forgot to show me earlier.”

“Almost as good.” Laurel withdrew the can of whipped cream and held it aloft, smiling big.

Dana shook her head in fierce refusal. “There’s no way I’m licking that off your breasts now that we’re reality show material.”

Laurel scoffed as she stood up, and shook the can before uncapping it. “No, silly.” She rose onto her tiptoes, aiming the nozzle of the can at the camera lens. “I’m eliminating the problem.”