Cruising the Strip (12 page)

“Who has the invitation?”

The Latina made eye contact with Tess. “Do I know you from somewhere?”

Tess shrugged. “Probably from around.”

“Is that your girlfriend?”

Tess tucked Brandy’s hand under her arm. “Yep.”

“She looks really happy to see you.”

Brandy blushed to the roots of her hair. All the women were giving her the once-over now. “I’m always happy to see her.”

“Lucky her,” the Latina said. “Maybe I’ll get a dance later?”

“We’re not—” Brandy realized they’d missed their floor. The doors opened to a blast of music and the women poured out of the elevator with delighted whoops. The security guard looked helpless as they pushed past him.

Caught up in the rush, Brandy found herself jostled along to the parquet dance floor that had been laid out in the suite’s living room. It was packed with women, some of whom weren’t wearing much, not that Brandy minded.

“Do you want to stay?”

“Why not?” Tess tucked her little purse down Brandy’s capacious front pocket. “Dance with me, baby.”

It was heaven. They hadn’t been on vacation in so long, and even when they did get to dance, they were almost always still on the clock—being a tour guide meant there was no “off.”

She swayed in Tess’s arms, pulling her close, and closer still. Other women were making out as the music pulsed around them, so Brandy felt perfectly natural pulling Tess down to her for the first of a dozen long, luscious kisses.

“You always wind me up,” Tess said. “I’m so torn. I want to dance all night with you, but I also want to…” Her hand moved between them and Brandy shuddered as she felt Tess gripping the toy through her pants. “What a wonderful dilemma.”

“Just because we’re getting older and wiser doesn’t mean we have to be silly.” Brandy took Tess by the hand, leading her away from the dance floor.

“If we leave we might not be able to get back in.”

Brandy veered past the impromptu bar. Where there was a penthouse there had to be bedrooms. Before Tess, she’d had women in the fitness room storage closet, behind the pool house, once even on the back of a Sea-Doo. Sneaking into a bedroom for a not-so-quickie was positively tame.

“Oh, you are in a mood tonight, aren’t you?” Tess didn’t seem the least bit displeased when she figured out what Brandy was thinking.

The first door was locked, the second revealed another couple with the same idea. If they were even aware of the door opening, they didn’t show it. A third bedroom was equally occupied, and the bathroom was usable only if one could ignore the noises coming from behind the glass shower doors.

Brandy sighed with frustration.

“Over here,” Tess said. She pulled Brandy behind a not all that large potted palm.

“Baby, anyone can see us.”

“Ask yourself who here is going to arrest us?”

Brandy’s pulse reached a boil. “I see your point. So I’ll fuck you right here?”

For an answer, Tess gave her a slack-jawed look and undid the neck of her dress. In moments it was puddled around her ankles.

“Baby.” Brandy was stunned. Tess was in one of her moods, and she loved those moods, but this was more than…beyond even… She might have stood there, mouth hanging open, but fortunately a little voice inside her shouted, “Shut up and fuck her, you idiot!”

Brandy unzipped. “All for you.”

“Now,” Tess said, spreading her legs.

It felt like the first time all over again. Tess made a sound that had Brandy’s head spinning. She pushed harder, paused when Tess reached down. “Is it okay? Damn, I forgot the lube.”

“It’s fine, just something…there. Oh fuck, yes, Brandy, please.”

Tess’s hands went down the back of Brandy’s pants, squeezing and massaging Brandy’s bare ass. The surge of erotic adrenaline drove every other thought out of her head.

She bit Tess’s neck and fucked her. Held on, fucked her, lived all their nights and days over again, felt that electric current of memories that culminated in the promise of a future that went on like this, full of love and passion and play—fucked her through her first climax, knew there would be a second, and relished that knowledge. She loved this woman, loved being with her, and knowing her body the way she did only deepened the magic.

Tess said her name, gorgeous in her abandonment. “Don’t stop.”

“You know I won’t.”

“Damn it, it’s filling me up, Brandy, you know, please…”

Their words danced back and forth, no pattern or reason anyone else would understand, but four years and more of working on their own language meant Brandy knew Tess wanted hard, deep, steady strokes now, then short ones, softer while she hovered on the edge of climax again. She listened, heard the sharp whimpers. She pinned Tess to the wall and fucked her, hard, fast, relentlessly, and Tess came again, words and little noises all jumbled together.

*

They drifted in each other’s arms on the dance floor, Tess covered, Brandy zipped.

“That was incredibly fun.”

“It was,” Brandy agreed. “Want to do it again?”

“In our room. In just a little while.” Tess ground against Brandy with no rhythm that matched the music, and it was perfect.

A woman paused next to them as they swayed. Brandy recognized the attractive Latina from the elevator. With a direct look at Tess, she said, “Mind if I cut in?”

“As a matter of fact, I do.” Tess arched one eyebrow at the woman that plainly said, “Go away.”

“Sorry. I know you already got some of what she’s packing, and you may have noticed that she’s the only one. But if you’re not sharing, that’s cool.”

“She’s not for borrowing.”

The woman shrugged expressively and walked away.

Brandy looked up at Tess, not exactly confused, but feeling like she wasn’t sure why Tess had put it quite that way.

For a moment, Tess wouldn’t meet her gaze, but then she did with her serious, open expression that Brandy had always found brave and wise. But at the moment it was tinged with chagrin.

“I didn’t even ask you if you wanted—”

“I didn’t,” Brandy assured her. “I really didn’t and I don’t. You’re right. I’m not for—”

“I want to make it permanent,” Tess said, all in a rush.

“Are you sure?” Brandy’s heart melted in her chest.

“No borrowing. No sharing. Just us. I want to be yours.” Tess kissed her softly. “And I want you to be mine.”

“Yes.” Brandy kissed her back, then nuzzled at the pulse point of Tess’s throat.

“I know it’ll be the same old, same old, boring and…” Tess’s voice trailed away.

Brandy stepped back to give her an incredulous look. “You’re kidding, right? Boring? You?”

Tess shrugged a big fat it-really-doesn’t-bother-me lie.

It was no time to be shy.

“You just let me fuck you in public, you got naked for me to do it, and we’ve done a lot of things, but that was the hottest so far, and if you think I’ll ever be bored with your body, you’re crazy, and right now I want to take you back to our room and do about five hours worth of the same-old-same-old, until we’re both sore and exhausted and this new, very lucky toy, is worn down to a nub. Then I’m going to get out the lube so I can fuck you again because the favorite thing I love to hear you say is ‘honey, I’m done’ and that’s what I live for, Tess, that’s what I want, you, in my bed because you are every woman all in one, and I love you.”

Brandy ran out of breath. Tess blinked tears out of her eyes.

Several women nearby had paused in their dancing, openly smiling. Brandy ducked her head in embarrassment.

“Time to go.”

Tess didn’t protest. She tucked her hand under Brandy’s arm and nodded.

Once in the elevator, Tess slid her hand down Brandy’s arm to intertwine their fingers. “Know what?”

Brandy risked a look and found Tess gazing at her with eyes like stars. “What?”

“I think today really is our anniversary. From now on.”

“Are you Harmony Kincaid?” A woman with a shock of short red hair paused at the open office door, looking flushed and nervous. “
The
Harmony Kincaid, Assistant Director of Convention Services and She Who Makes All Happen?”

Harmony immediately knew who it had to be. The hair, wire-rimmed glasses, and gamine smile fit the description of the one person she’d been hoping to see since yesterday. “Yes. And you’re Leona Madsen, Meeting Planner Extraordinaire. Come in. I can’t believe it’s finally the big weekend.”

She’s as cute as I thought she’d be, Harmony told herself. A million words in e-mails for the last fourteen months to set up the International Librarian Association’s convention had let her form an impression of her primary contact. They’d never exchanged photos, but over time personal details, like Leona’s needing a trim of her short cut every four weeks and Harmony’s euphoria over a steal on a new pair of shoes, had leaked into their correspondence. Leona sent links to quizzes and personality tests and Harmony forwarded online questionnaires. She knew quite a lot about Leona, in an odd way, for someone she’d never met.

“I’ve been going flat out since we got here. I meant to stop in yesterday to see you, but your minions are many and efficient. It was non-stop till I dropped.” Leona set a heavy satchel bulging with papers on the floor. “But I’ve finally got a break.”

“Well, so far the staff loves librarians.” Harmony got up from her desk to perch on the edge closest to Leona. It was friendlier and she could go on studying the fascinating reality of the woman she’d been talking with for over a year online. God, she was cute, all cherub. “I’m told they read their materials, show up to sessions on time, leave their rooms long enough so they can be cleaned, and they drink more than firefighters. Apparently they’re too smart to play keno, though.”

“That’s my people!” Leona smiled brightly. “They’re really a fun bunch, and I have to say, it’s all about information with them. Access to information. Equal access for everybody. Books especially, but maps and notes and—sorry.” Leona grinned. “For someone who isn’t a librarian, I can get all worked up about it. I like doing their meeting planning.”

“How long is your break? Can I take you to lunch?” Harmony glanced at the clock on her desk. She could sneak off for an hour now that she didn’t have to cover for Jennifer at the VIP check-in.

“I’ve got about thirty minutes.” Leona relaxed in the chair, and Harmony realized Leona hadn’t yet really looked her in the eyes, as if she was nervous.

Well, she was nervous, too. They’d been mostly business-like during their correspondence, especially on their company e-mail addresses, but their hair had come down, so to speak, a little bit in the last month or two, when details grew overwhelming and Leona had been working night and day and at times resorted to her personal e-mail when the work server was unavailable. During the past twelve months they’d both gone through a break up, agreed that women could be shits, in the last month shared that dating wasn’t really a priority, and then last week…

“I need to ask you something,” Leona said abruptly. “I was, um… I e-mailed that stack of beverage order documents last week? And…”

Harmony wished Leona would look at her. “Do you mean that, um, word processing document I’m not sure you meant to enclose?”

“Did you read it?” Leona’s cheeks flamed with color.

“Yes. Every last word.” Harmony squirmed slightly on the desk. No girlfriend for months now, and a red-hot erotic story in her inbox had been too hard to resist. “I didn’t want to embarrass you by telling you I’d gotten it in error.”

Leona finally looked up. “It wasn’t a mistake. I wanted you to know.”

Harmony’s corporate uniform was suddenly way too tight. “That you like to read erotica? Who doesn’t?”

The blush was still very present, but the bright brown eyes were dancing. “Did you like it?”

“Yeah. Um, well, I’m not sure how you knew I liked that kind of story.”

“Little things you said—especially after what’s her name dumped you for that little bitch. Sex was the only decent thing you had left, and you predicted her new girlfriend would end up rather disappointed if she thought she was getting a hard-core top. Ergo, you were disappointed that she hadn’t been that for you.”

Harmony flushed. She hadn’t realized she’d revealed her predilections quite so clearly. She went for a distraction. “They broke up last week—a friend told me yesterday. I feel vindicated. This time what’s her name got dumped, and for a guy.”

“Ouch.” Leona grinned.

“I suppose that’s not very evolved of me, delighting in her misfortunes.”

“She fell for someone else and then went around saying you’d cheated on her.”

“Oh yeah.” Harmony laughed—she was nearly over it. Nearly. “I knew I hated her for a good reason.”

Leona slid down in the chair slightly and crossed her ankles. “So I got the story right?”

Harmony swallowed. “Why do you want to know?”

Leona took a deep breath. The expression on her face transformed from a cherubic teddy bear to a sensual dyke whose gaze slowly caressed every inch of Harmony’s body. “You have made me laugh every day, sometimes several times a day, for the past year and more. Because ultimately, we want the same things out of life, remember? You sent that fifty-things-your-friends-don’t-know questionnaire that was making the rounds. I read yours, carefully.” She undid the top button of her pristine white shirt. “And most of all, because I’m likely a better top than your ex, and you deserve being made to feel very,
very
good.”