Love On Call

“How come you can read mine?” Mari shot back gently.

Glenn glanced at her. “I don’t know. It just happened.”

Mari nodded. “I know what you mean. Maybe some things there are no answers to.”

“What do we do, then?” Glenn mused, trying to see over the horizon and finding only shadows. “When there are no answers?”

“Maybe we just believe.”

“Can you do that?”

“I wish I could,” Mari said softly, striving for honesty because Glenn deserved that. “Until a year ago, I believed without question in so many things. In the unconditional love of my family, in my place in the world, in my future. Now all those things have changed. I’m not sure when or if I’ll be able to believe again.”

Glenn hadn’t really expected anything different. Mari had said in a million ways that she’d lost faith, lost trust, lost believing. Two years she’d said, as if setting some kind of milestone that she needed to reach, as if when she got there all those feelings would suddenly be switched on again. Glenn didn’t think that would happen. She’d thought her faith and trust and hope had been switched off forever, but Mari had changed that. She didn’t mind as much as she thought she might. She might not be happy about that tomorrow, but today was all that mattered. For now.

“I’m going to need to take a shower,” Mari said as she walked down the alley to Glenn’s apartment. “I came straight from the hospital and thought I was going right home. Do you mind?”

“No,” Glenn said. “I’m not going anywhere either.”

“Good,” Mari said softly. She paused at the landing outside Glenn’s door. “What changed your mind?”

“A lot of things.” Glenn leaned against the building next to the door, put her hands in her pockets, watched the heat waves rise off the blacktop in the parking lot. “I didn’t get a whole lot of sleep this week—I couldn’t stop thinking about how much I wanted to see you. How much I wanted to touch you again.”

Mari wanted to smile. She liked hearing Glenn had been almost as miserable as she’d been. “Is that why you stayed away from the ER?”

“Partly.” Glenn shrugged. “I figured you didn’t want to see me.”

“You were wrong.” Mari leaned close enough to tap a fingertip to Glenn’s chest. “I was hurt at first—”

“Cripes, I’m sorry,” Glenn said.

“At first. I’m fine now—I understand why you backed off. I probably would have too, right then. I did tell you I didn’t want to get involved, and under the circumstances, you respected that.”

“And today?”

“Today is today.” Mari tapped her again. “Can we agree on that right now?”

Glenn nodded. “I don’t plan on changing my mind either.”

“Good.” She shivered despite the blazing weather. “Can we go inside?”

Glenn grabbed her hand. “Hell, yes.”

Once inside, Glenn showed her where the bathroom was and handed her clean towels. “Take your time, there’s plenty of hot water.”

Mari gave her a long look. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to make this part quick.”

Glenn’s heart did that rapid-fire machine-gun thing in her chest again and she actually had to work to catch her breath. “Do you need anything else? Something to drink? Something to eat?”

Mari held the folded towels against her chest and moved closer, wrapping her free hand around the back of Glenn’s neck. She tugged her head down and kissed her, a slow, smoldering, smoky kiss that scorched Glenn’s nerve endings all the way to the tips of her fingers and the soles of her feet. She was surprised she didn’t burst into flame like a rocket flare. She groaned against Mari’s mouth.

“I don’t need anything except more of that,” Mari whispered against Glenn’s lips.

“Then it would be good if you’d hurry,” Glenn murmured.

Mari paused at the door. Should she invite Glenn into the shower with her? Wasn’t that what people did when they were trying to seduce a new lover? She didn’t know, but for some reason, she wanted their first touch to be in bed, when they were stretched out beside each other, when they wouldn’t have to stop and move again until she’d been able to explore every curve and plane of Glenn’s body. Until she’d had Glenn on top of her, touching her everywhere. Summoning her courage, she said as firmly as she could, “I’d like it if you waited for me in bed.”

“I can do that.”

“Naked.”

The top of Glenn’s head was about to explode. Her hands trembled as she slid them around Mari’s waist and kissed her throat. “I’m going to be going crazy until you come back.”

Mari tilted her head back and laughed. She loved the control Glenn gave her, and she’d never had the slightest idea that was a possibility, that she wanted to have a woman go crazy for her. Nothing she’d ever read, nothing she’d ever heard, nothing she’d ever imagined had been so wildly freeing and so incredibly empowering as Glenn’s desire for her. Her nipples tightened and she throbbed deep inside. She needed to hurry as well, while she could still think. “Two minutes. You can time me.”

Glenn chuckled. “Starting now?”

Mari gave her a little push toward the bed. “Start counting.”