“What?”
“Can I get dressed now?”
27.
Callie Carpenter.
Cincinnati.
THE PHONE RINGS five times before Dani answers.
“Hello?”
“Sorry I’m late calling you back,” Callie says.
Dani yawns. “That’s okay. Can we talk a minute?”
“Yes.”
“Um…where are you?”
“Down the hall.”
Callie hears her take a deep breath.
Then Dani says, “You want me to come to your room?”
“No. I’ll come to you.”
28.
Callie and Dani.
“I ALMOST GAVE up on you,” Dani says.
“I was tied up.”
“Not literally, I hope!”
As she enters Dani’s room, Callie picks up the scent of perfume. She notices a capless tube of toothpaste on the sink, a wet toothbrush, and a makeup case whose contents are scattered across the counter as if a bomb exploded nearby. Her room has a king bed, a utility desk, and a table with two chairs.
Dani sits at the foot of the bed. Her lips are glossed, her hair freshly-brushed. She’s wearing a man’s white dress shirt and, from the glimpse Callie got when Dani plopped onto the bed-white cotton panties. Callie slides one of the chairs directly in front of her, and sits in it. From the way the bed’s been hastily made, Callie concludes Dani had been sound asleep when she answered the phone. The call ended a minute ago, which means in that small space of time Dani managed to throw the bed together, brush her teeth and hair, and apply perfume and lip gloss, though she had to dump all the makeup out to find the lip gloss.
Callie’s in jeans and a scoop-neck tank top, no bra. Their knees are two feet apart.
“How did you know which hotel?” Dani says.
“I started with the closest ones to Sal’s house and called till I found you.”
“How many did you call?”
“Four.”
“I’m impressed.”
“What happened tonight?” Callie says.
“We had a fight.”
Callie nods. “You want to talk about it?”
Dani smiles. “You’d do that?”
“What?”
“Listen to me rattle on and on about some meaningless fight?”
“If it would make you feel better, yes.”
“I wouldn’t put you through that.”
“Thanks.”
Dani laughs.
They’re both quiet a minute, Dani staring at her hands in her lap, Callie, staring at Dani. Callie, reading all the signals, knows a slam dunk when she sees one. This incredible creature, Dani Ripper, is primed and ready. All Callie has to do is…
Dani suddenly blurts, “I’m not quite sure how this sort of thing works.”
The smile in Callie’s heart spreads to her face as she thinks,
Callie silently studies the flawless, insanely desirable woman sitting on the bed a few feet away, who represents everything Callie has ever wanted in a woman, or hoped for. This is Callie’s wildest fantasy coming true.
Only Dani’s not just ready, she’s ready to explode! Her face and neck have bloomed to a crimson flush of passion, even as she struggles to overcome her natural shyness. She wants it, Callie knows, and wants it bad. And what makes the situation even more thrilling and intoxicating is they both know Dani wants Callie to ravage her, and take her to places she’s never been. She’s not looking for goose bumps. She’s looking for a multi-orgasmic crescendo.
Callie can tell Dani’s ready to surrender her body to pure passion and desire, that she fully expects to be rendered physically and emotionally spent, like a wet wash cloth that’s served its purpose and been wrung so thoroughly there’s not a drop of moisture left in it. A wash cloth that, moments after being hung up to dry, drops to the shower floor and stays there, content to steep in the remnant puddles.
Callie understands. She’s spent her whole life searching for someone she can touch and be touched by who makes her feel warm and safe inside. Someone who’s been through the same hell she’s endured. Someone who’s experienced the brutality of a man first hand. Someone who, like Callie, had her childhood ripped from her at a tender age.
Dani raises her head and looks at her, and Callie wonders how it’s possible for a woman to have such enormous eyes, and why they look beautiful instead of freakish.
Dani places her hands a foot behind her on the bed, for support, and leans back. The sudden movement shows Callie that Dani’s braless.
She scoots her chair back a foot to give her something to do besides jumping Dani’s bones. But Dani’s legs are slightly apart, and from this vantage point a wet spot on her panties comes into view.
29.
CALLI’ES PULSE QUICKENS. Her breathing gets heavy. She notes every movement Dani makes is more seductive than the previous one, leaving her to conclude Dani isn’t half as innocent as she presumed.
Under normal circumstances, Callie would be on this woman like smoke on an oil fire. But the circumstances aren’t normal, and Callie feels inexplicably conflicted.
Because of two words Creed uttered.
And because she slapped him.
This morning Callie told Creed she knew what she wanted for her birthday, meaning sex with Dani. Now it’s hers for the taking. But she also asked Creed if he’d ever been with a woman as gorgeous as Dani, and Creed looked at her with a twinkle in his eyes and said, “Not yet.”
His expression. His words. His tone of voice made it clear he was talking about Callie, not Dani. Yes, he was flirting, as he always does, but this time it was different. It was just two words, but they stuck with her.
And it’s these two words that are holding her back even as her body screams at her to get up close and
