Winds Of Fortune Part 33

"Darling, no, of course you didn't." Tory smiled shakily. "Put your gun away, darling."

Reese stared at the weapon gripped in her hand and Tory's fi ngers clenched around her wrist so tightly they were white. "I'm sorry. G.o.d.

What was that?"

"I don't know. Maybe a tree coming down." Tory released her hold on Reese's arm. "It doesn't matter. Everything is all right."

"No it isn't." Reese pushed away, re-holstered her weapon, and slumped back against the sofa, not looking at Tory. "Did I hurt you?

I'm sorry."

Tory sat up in the narrow s.p.a.ce between the sofa and the coffee table, which had been pushed aside when Reese had pulled them off the sofa and onto the fl oor. Her hip ached from landing on it, but that wasn't what hurt her. Reese looked haunted, tortured, and she simply couldn't stand it anymore. She got to her knees and straddled Reese's lap. She held her lover's face in both hands and forced Reese to look at her. "You are not to say that to me anymore. You have never hurt me.

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RADCLY fFE You never will. You have nothing to be sorry for. You're exhausted.

That was instinct. Your instinct to protect me. To protect those you love and are responsible for. I love you for that."

Reese's eyes were bruised with uncertainty, and Tory slid her hands higher, into Reese's hair. She leaned down and kissed her. "You did your duty. You served when called. You have nothing to be ashamed of just because part of you questioned why you were there." She stroked Reese's face. "I let you go, because I knew that you had to, but I'm not ashamed that I didn't want you to go. I won't apologize for that, and I won't apologize for saying that I don't want you to go again."

"Tory," Reese whispered, circling her waist. She laid her cheek between Tory's b.r.e.a.s.t.s. "If I didn't have you I'd be lost."

"No you wouldn't," Tory murmured, brus.h.i.+ng her lips over Reese's forehead. "But you don't have to worry about it, ever. I promise."

"I have to go to work soon."

"I know. So do I."

"I wish you weren't going to be here for this." Reese kissed the base of Tory's throat, then lower between her b.r.e.a.s.t.s.

"I can't be anywhere else. You're here, and I won't leave you. And I have a responsibility too." Tory reached between them and opened the b.u.t.tons on her blouse, then cradled Reese's cheek against her breast.

"Listen to my heart. It beats for you. You and only you, for all my life."

Reese shuddered and Tory felt tears on her skin.

"I know you'll be careful," Tory said, "and so will I. And when this is over, we'll make love and I'll make sure you know just exactly where you belong."

"As if I could forget," Reese whispered, tilting her head back and grinning weakly.

Tory smiled. "Well, I'll enjoy reminding you just the same."

y Nita curled up in the big chair in Deo's bedroom and watched Deo dress. She loved to see her move, especially naked. When she stretched to pull pants off a hanger in her closet, the muscles in her back and shoulders bunched and rippled. Her a.s.s tightened, and Nita had a quick * 234 *

Winds of Fortune memory of running her hands over those muscles and digging her fi ngers into them as Deo thrust between her legs. She must have made a small sound because Deo turned in her direction.

"What?"

"Nothing."

Deo narrowed her eyes and studied Nita in the soft light from the bedside lamp. Nita's skin held a hint of heat beneath the smooth tan surface. "You're thinking about s.e.x."

"No I'm not."

"Uh-huh." Deo stepped into her briefs, then pulled on her pants.

Naked from the waist up, she walked toward the dresser on the wall behind Nita. She stopped by the chair, leaned down and kissed Nita soundly, then kept going. "Yes you are. Why don't you want me to know?"

Nita was about to make a fl ip reply about preferring to take her by surprise, and then the entire building shook, rattling the windows in their cas.e.m.e.nts. The room dimmed as the scant light from the cloudy gray sky disappeared. Rain hammered against the skylight. A small TV on Deo's dresser was turned down so low the sound of the weatherman's words were barely audible, but the map behind him with its large red arrows and heavy black circles centered over the New England coast told the story with dramatic effectiveness. Nita appreciated, as she hadn't until that moment, that before the day was out they were all likely to be in deadly danger. "I can't look at you or think of you without wanting you, and that makes me uncomfortable."

Deo jerked a white T-s.h.i.+rt over her head, then grabbed a clean khaki work s.h.i.+rt from a pile in her dresser drawer. Leaving both untucked, she settled onto the arm of Nita's chair and regarded her contemplatively. "Desiring me doesn't feel good."

"Actually," Nita said softly, "it feels wonderful."

"But."

"If I forget it's just s.e.x, I feel vulnerable. I don't like that feeling."

"Just s.e.x." Deo nodded, then lifted Nita's hand and pushed it under the bottom of her T-s.h.i.+rt, against her bare belly. Nita gasped and Deo's muscles quivered. "That's s.e.x. Your skin, my skin, our bodies.

It feels good."

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RADCLY fFE Nita said nothing, but inside she was burning.

Deo drew Nita's hand away from her stomach and clasped her fi ngers. "Sylvia hurt you with s.e.x. I won't."

"I know."

"My cousins are all volunteer fi remen, and so are half of my construction crew. I'll probably be lending them a hand if they need heavy equipment, and then if it's even half as bad as the predictions, it'll take us weeks to clean up." Deo kissed the back of Nita's hand, then released it and stood up to fi nish b.u.t.toning her s.h.i.+rt. "I'm going to be thinking about you while I'm out there."

"I'm afraid I'll be busy too," Nita said softly, sensing more behind this almost ordinary conversation because Deo's eyes were so intense they seemed to be on fi re.

"Thinking about you, wondering where you are, worrying if you're all right-that's not s.e.x."

"Don't, Deo," Nita said, rising quickly, her heart beating so hard in her chest she almost couldn't breathe. The door to the hallway was just behind her, and she had a frantic desire to fl ee. "Don't. Don't make it any more than it is."

"Why not?"

Nita shook her head. "I'm just getting used to trusting my body around you."

"You gave Sylvia your body, but you wanted her to want more."

Deo picked up her keys. "Why don't you want me to?"

Because, Nita thought, because I've already given you more than I gave her, and she almost killed me. When Nita said nothing, Deo just shrugged and smiled wryly. She pushed open the bedroom door and held it for Nita to walk past her into the hall.

"I said I wanted to come inside you," Deo said when Nita drew alongside her. "I love the way it feels when I start to come and you wrap your arms and legs around me so tight. Then I'm coming and I feel myself pouring into you."

"G.o.d, Deo, don't do this now." A pulse thundered between her thighs, and she s.h.i.+mmered inside, silver-hot like molten steel. "We can't."

"I know," Deo rasped, "but I have to say this. When I said I wanted to come inside you, I thought I just meant I wanted you to hold me inside your body." She rested the tips of her fi ngers over Nita's heart * 236 *

Winds of Fortune and kissed her very gently on the mouth. "I think I was wrong."

Nita covered Deo's hand and pressed it harder against her breast, leaning into her, shamelessly drawing on her strength. She couldn't give her what she asked and she feared the coming storm. It wasn't the angry rain and brutal winds that threatened to take Deo away, but the bitter clouds that shrouded her own damaged heart.

"Please be careful," Nita whispered.

"I'll call you." Deo smiled a little sadly and pushed a folded piece of paper into Nita's front pocket. "Or you call me. This time, Nita, it has to work both ways."

When Deo turned and walked away, Nita followed, afraid that she had no idea how to give what Deo needed or take what Deo offered.

Maybe that was the reason she had never said no to Sylvia. Maybe she'd been a coward and taken the easy way out. Deo deserved more.

Much more.

Nita raced through rain that beat against her skin like a thousand needles and wrestled open her car door. Before diving inside she turned and saw Deo standing beside her truck, staring at her with the wind and rain las.h.i.+ng her hair. Waiting.

"I don't want to lose you," Nita shouted into the wind. The words fl ew back into her face, and as the sky howled, she heard Sylvia's voice, felt her pounding inside her. You're mine, I'm not going to lose you.

You're mine. You're mine. You're mine. Frantically, she gripped the top edge of the door as it threatened to blow off the car or slam her back into the metal frame. She wasn't Sylvia. She wouldn't be her. Taking, taking, never giving. "Deo! I don't know how to let you inside!"

Deo grabbed the door handle, her body shuddering. "I'll be back!"

As Deo yanked open her door and threw herself into her truck, Nita surrendered to the onslaught and almost fell into her front seat.

Even with the winds.h.i.+eld wipers on, she could barely see. Drenched, s.h.i.+vering from more than the icy rain, she was aware of Deo's truck backing out and disappearing. Then she was alone in the raging storm.

* 237 *

* 238 *

Winds of Fortune

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE.

h.e.l.lo? h.e.l.lo?" Tory strained to hear through the static.

"h.e.l.lo?"

"Tor...it's me," Reese said. "Time for...close...clinic. We've...

wash outs...all up and dow-"

"I know. No one can get here anyhow. We're on our way in to town."

"... careful."

"You too. I love you. Reese?" Tory shook the phone as if that would bring Reese back, and pressed it to her ear so hard it hurt. "Reese?

Darling?" She slammed the phone down. "G.o.d d.a.m.n it."

"Anything I can do?" Nita said breathlessly, brus.h.i.+ng water off her face with both hands. Her lab coat was soaked from the shoulders to thighs.

"You're doing it. Did you and Randy get the emergency supplies into the Jeep?"

"Yes. Everything we can reasonably move."

"Sally will come into town with you and me. I think we should send Randy home."

Nita nodded. "Where are we setting up?"

"Emergency aid center will be at Town Hall. Between the two of us and Sally, the paramedics, EMTs, and some of the locals who have medical training, we should be okay in the short term."

"I just heard on the radio that we're three hours from maximum winds, but even after that it's going to blow pretty hard for another twelve. Who knows how much fl ooding we'll get." Nita draped her dripping lab coat over the hook on Tory's offi ce door.

Tory scooped up her keys. "We can pretty much plan on being at Town Hall until tomorrow night. Did you bring a change of clothes and things?"

* 239 *

RADCLY fFE "Another set of these." Nita gestured to her jeans and T-s.h.i.+rt, far more casual than her ordinary work attire. "When I got home this morning, I had a feeling I wouldn't be getting back there anytime soon.

I came prepared."

"This morning? Meaning you were out all night?" Tory asked as they hurried down the hall.

"Uh-huh." Nita held the door open for Tory, who gripped the handrail to steady herself on the slick stone landing as the wind threatened to upend her.

"Must have been something special to get you driving around in this last night," Tory shouted as they linked arms and dashed towards the Jeep where Sally and Randy huddled in the back seat, waiting.

"I didn't plan on it," Nita shouted back. "But she is special."

Tory spared Nita a quick glance as she pulled open her door.

"Deo?"

"Yes." Nita bolted for the other side of the car and clambered into the pa.s.senger seat.