“Yow.” Andy blinked and ambled over. “They got anything that ain’t the macarena?”

“I’m working on it.” Ceci fiddled a moment more, then the speaker produced a much softer, lighter sound. “Better?”

“Mmph.” He slipped his arms around her tentatively and she turned, laying her hands against his chest. “It’ll do.” He paused, and she smiled a touch, then closed her fingers and tugged the dark cotton shirt he had tucked into his jeans out.

He slid his hands around her neck and down under her collar, stopping at the top button on her white, lacy shirt, then with a small, precise motion, undid it. A touch slid down beneath the fabric and separated it.

“You smell nice.”

Ceci trailed fingers over his ribs and leaned close. “So do you,” she whispered, getting her hands under his waistband and unbuttoning it.

“Only cause you made me use that pink soap this mornin’,” Andy teased. “Making me smell all like coconuts. Good Lord.” His jeans dropped loosely around him, and he undid the rest of her buttons, then slipped the pale fabric down her shoulders as she tugged at his under-shorts.

“Mmm.” Ceci felt the soft fabric. “I think I like you in silk.”

“Don’t you start.” Andy ducked his head and kissed her, as their bodies slid together. They worked the rest of their clothes off and spent a moment reacquainting themselves to each other. His hands closed around her and lifted. “Need to feed you, woman.”


216 Melissa Good

“Look who’s talking,” Ceci retorted, as she was lowered into the tub, followed by a mass of ex-SEAL. The water was warm, but not hot, and pleasantly bubbly. “Here. This is a start.” She picked up a piece of chocolate and offered it to him. “So. How do you like the tub?”

Andy chewed very thoughtfully as he glanced around. “I do believe I like this,” he approved with a nod. “Stock some fish in it, it’d be perfect.”

Ceci laughed. “Andy!”

“Heh.” He stretched long legs out across the bottom of the tub and relaxed, turning to find gray eyes inches from his. “This here tub getting smaller?” His breathing caught as her hands explored below the surface, and he half turned, kissing her as he started his own touch.

Well. It certainly was one of the few things he’d never tried underwater before.

But it was as good a time as any to try.

IT WAS MUCH quieter down the hallway. Kerry glanced around as they strolled, peering at the bulletin boards, which featured announce-ments and posters about current school events. “It’s different.”

“I bet.” Dar pointed. “That’s the PE area. Everyone had to take it and I think the locker room was one of the true character building moments for any high school girl.” She poked her head inside the alcove and tried the door. “Ah.”

Kerry followed her amiably inside. The lockers were painted in viru-lent shades of red, white and blue, and there were encouraging paper banners plastered on the walls for various team sports. The floor was tile over concrete and the whole place smelled rather like…

Hmm. Rather like an old gym sock. “Nice atmosphere,” she commented.

“What teams were you on?”

“None…well, that’s not true. I ran track, and did field events like high jump. But I wasn’t in any team sports.” Dar strolled over to a plaque and viewed it with a mixture of nostalgia and regret.

Kerry stepped up next to her and tilted her head back, reading the records hammered into the insets, made to be changed if the school records were. Her eyebrows lifted at a familiar name, in several places.

She looked at Dar. “I always envied people who could actually do the broad jump.” Her hand traveled over and patted Dar’s thigh. “My one shining moment in high school sports was during an archery competition.”

“Really?” Dar turned and cocked her head. “Didn’t know you were into bows.”

“I wasn’t.” Kerry assumed a wry look. “I shot our head mistress in the butt.” She laughed at the expression on her lover’s face. “I was grounded for six months, but let me tell you, was I ever famous in school.” She followed the laughing Dar back out of the locker room, into the mustier scent of the hallway. “I played on all the teams, though. It was sort of expected.” They walked down a long ramp, towards another Eye of the Storm 217

section. Other guests were also roaming, and occasionally, one gave Dar a nod, or waved. “Softball, field hockey, the usual.”

“No field hockey here.” Dar climbed up a set of steps. “Soccer, sure.

Softball, football, swimming. I did a little swimming and diving too.”

They exited into a long hallway, with classrooms on either side, which opened up into a center almost lab like area set up for larger groups, with audio visual screens. “This was my AP English classroom.”

Kerry regarded the small chairs and old, wooden desk at the front, and tried to imagine a teenage version of her tall lover there.

It was tough. “Did you like school?”

Dar shrugged and led her down the hall, towards a set of stairs that led back to the cafeteria. “I didn’t hate it, but it didn’t really challenge me,” she admitted. “I left here and went to work, or went home and hung around with the other brats. What was going on at the base always seemed more real to me.” They ambled down the steps, moving to one side as a group of people started up them.

“Well, well,” the tall redhead in their midst said, looking directly at Dar, “look who showed up.”

Some people, Kerry decided, really did just have “Hi, I’m a bad attitude” tattooed on their foreheads. Following some primal instinct, she hesitated, falling a step behind Dar as her lover turned, tilting her head slightly to peer out over her sunglasses.

“Hello, Cathy.” Dar’s voice was neutral and brief. “Have a nice tour.” She continued on down the stairs.

“Whoa, whoa. What’s your rush?” The taller woman edged over, blocking their path. “Been a long time.” Her friends watched in silence.

Cathy’s eyes roamed over Dar’s body, starting at the boots. “Don’t you look butch?”

Dar let her glasses slip down a little, so the redhead’s eyes met her own icy ones when she reached that level. “Yeah, but I can take these clothes off. What’s your excuse?”

A snicker came from the watching crowd, and Kerry suddenly felt like she was back in school herself, as the attitudes around her devolved into an adolescent tenor. She put a subtle hand on Dar’s back, feeling the tension beneath her fingers, and scratched the bare skin gently.

“Smart ass.”

“Yep.” Dar circled around her and continued down the stairs.

“Always was.”

Kerry felt the eyes on her and she kept her attention on her friend’s back as she followed her, closing her ears to the sarcastic comments on her body. “That was pleasant,” she muttered, as they exited the stairwell and gained the relatively cheery safety of the cafeteria. “I take it you and her weren’t buddies?”

Dar ducked around a pylon and edged up to the now crowded bar.

“Actually, we were.” She ordered a soda. “You want a beer?”

“Sure.”

Dar paid for the drinks and handed Kerry hers, then pointed 218 Melissa Good towards a table near the rear of the steadily filling room. “C’mon. I’m sure I’ll have to suffer more of Patricia. We might as well sit down.”

They took a seat and Dar tossed her glasses on the table, riffled her dark hair back and took a sip of her soda. “Cathy and I hung out together for a couple of years. She was all right. Not too many brain cells, but she was into partying and having a good time.”

“And?” Kerry was secretly delighted at worming out a little more of her sometimes enigmatic lover’s early years. She eyed the glass she’d been given, then wiped her beer bottle neck off and swigged directly from it.

“She got drunk and tried to kiss me and I beat the crap out of her.”

Kerry spit a mouthful of beer halfway across the table, and started coughing. “Jesus, Dar.” She received a penitent slap on the back. “You’re kidding, right?”

“No.” Dar tossed her napkin and Kerry’s on the table and wiped the beer up. “I was not a nice person in high school. I was very full of myself and I had the skills and the brawn to back it all up. Not a good combination.”

“Mmm.” Kerry set her bottle down and cleared her throat. “Did you fight a lot?”

Dar’s eyes flicked over the room, in an oddly tense movement. “I did my share.” Her hands flexed.

“Dar?” Kerry deliberately closed her fingers around one of her partner’s and waited for the blue eyes to flick in her direction. “You’re not in high school anymore, remember? You’re the Chief Information Officer of the largest IS company in the world.”

Dar paused and blinked, then exhaled, and leaned back. “Yeah, I know.” She gently withdrew her hand and folded her arms over her chest. “Just reliving some not so nice memories.”

Kerry sighed. “Next time, we just go rent a movie, huh?” She was now definitely sorry she’d coaxed Dar into this. “Wonder what your folks are up to?”

That nudged Dar off her dark train of thought. “Oh. Walking on the beach, maybe.” She released the old memories. “Exploring the island, maybe trying out that hot tub.” She spotted her cousin across the room and sighed as she was identified.

“You think so? I didn’t think they’d mess with that. I guess your dad could get a suit at the market, but—”

Blue eyes blinked at her. “It’s indoors, Ker, they don’t need suits.”

Dar chuckled a little. “I bet they enjoy that big bed, too.”

Kerry’s brows creased. “Um yeah, it looks comfortable.”