Lethal Affairs (15 page)

C
HAPTER SEVENTEEN
L

uka’s solid presence in her apartment helped Hayley relax, and she actually dozed for a while. But her sleep was restless, and at two a.m., she was wide awake and thinking about the nearest and best distraction from her worries—the sexy woman asleep in the next room. The memory of how Luka’s mouth had felt on her neck at the theater warmed her from within.

Suddenly, she heard talking…no, not talking…Luka was shouting something, but she couldn’t make out what it was. She leapt to her feet and hurried into the living room.

Luka was sprawled on the couch, caught in a nightmare. Her rantings were indistinguishable, but she was clearly upset. As Hayley approached to wake her, she noticed Luka was still fully dressed—even down to the boots on her feet. She had eschewed the offered sheets, pillow, and blanket, which were folded in a neat pile on the coffee table.

Who sleeps with their boots on?
Why couldn’t Luka relax entirely? Was it customary, or was she different under a stranger’s roof, with the threat of danger near?

Stooping to sit on the edge of the couch, she intended to wake Luka, but the instant her body settled onto the cushion beside Luka, she came awake—wide,
wide
awake. An instant later Hayley was suddenly on her feet again, propelled there by Luka’s blur of motion and her elbow suspended in mid-air—seemingly forever, though actually only a second—hanging there half an inch from Hayley’s throat.

Hayley didn’t have time to feel frightened. But then she slowly began to wonder what sort of secrets Luka was hiding behind her guarded expressions, lightning reflexes, and ability to skillfully avoid personal questions.

Domino stood in the dark, her eyes adjusting and her mind still fuzzy, panting because of what she had almost done. “Damn it, Hayley. I almost k…hurt you,” she said shakily, as she slumped onto the couch. She tried to calm her pounding heart.

“That was unbelievable.” Hayley shook her head. “I’ve never seen anybody wake up that fast. Or react and move so fast, like a soldier in a foxhole. God, Luka! Don’t you ever unwind? What
is
it with you?”

“I guess our earlier conversation got to me,” she replied vaguely, looking up at Hayley. It was the best she could do. Then, in the scant moonlight from the window, she realized Hayley was wearing only skimpy briefs and a short tank top that hugged her breasts. The view did nothing to help calm her racing pulse.

In the long silence that followed, she could hear Hayley’s loud, accelerated breathing and see the rapid rise and fall of her chest, and she knew Hayley could see hers. They couldn’t hide their acute mutual arousal.

Somehow she was on her feet and Hayley was in her arms. Her hands tightened around Hayley’s waist as Hayley’s entwined her hair. As their bodies pressed together, she found Hayley’s neck, the skin soft and warm, and at the base of her throat, her pulse was pounding so fast Domino could feel it beneath her mouth.
Her mouth trailed up and along Hayley’s dimpled cheek toward those wonderful lips, and when Hayley groaned, the urge to kiss her tightened into a fist in her belly.
The kiss began as a wisp of an idea, a glancing whisper of lips, the final delicious delay of anticipation. Then, when they met again, it was still the lightest, sweetest kiss she had ever experienced. Hayley’s full lips were exquisitely soft and her tongue maddeningly light as it teased her own lips with slow, light caresses.
The fist inside coiled tighter, and the rising passion engulfed her. She deepened the kiss, unleashed some of the coil, her mouth claiming Hayley’s with a sudden flare of heat. Hayley kissed her back with equal ardor, their tongues stroking deep, making clear the mutual depth of their attraction.
She lost herself in the kiss for several minutes, the mission forgotten.
Hayley’s body began to move against hers, and she was powerless to resist. She thrust a muscled thigh between Hayley’s legs and felt her answering moan of pleasure as a vibration in her mouth. The rocking of their bodies together increased in intensity and pressure, and Hayley’s nails raked the length of her back, descending rapidly to urge their pelvises tighter together.
Her resistance evaporated as Hayley began to roughly massage her ass—she’d always been particularly sensitive there, and the sensation sent her arousal into overdrive. She got wetter as she pressed her thigh more firmly against Hayley’s center.
Hayley took her tongue into her mouth and sucked hard, and her clit responded—rock hard in an instant and ready to blow.
Christ.
She slipped her hands beneath Hayley’s tank top, reveling in the softness of her skin. Hayley moaned into her mouth, and the encouragement was too much. She stripped off the tank top and simply stood there, mesmerized by the sight of those wonderful breasts and erect nipples.
“I need you to touch me, Luka,” Hayley whispered, as she took Domino’s hand and placed it against her breast.
Beyond thought, she explored Hayley’s breasts with both hands, caressing, dancing lightly over the nipples and delighting in Hayley’s answering moans and sighs. Then she took one of those incredible nipples into her mouth.
Hayley pushed against her and raked her nails down her back again, beneath her shirt. She kissed her way up Hayley’s body and back to her mouth, and they clung to each other, furious with need.
Hayley pulled away to unbutton her shirt, quick and urgent, continuing to the button of her pants. Then the zipper was down, and Hayley was inside her jeans, cupping her over her thong, and she was so ready she thought she might come instantly.
“You’re driving me crazy,” she told Hayley, before roughly sucking the skin at the base of her neck, bruising her.
“I want you so much.” Hayley’s voice was breathy, anxious. “I know you want to take this slow, but this isn’t just about sex, you know.”
The words cut through the fog of arousal that had enveloped her. No, it wasn’t all about sex. Hayley had feelings for her, and she had feelings for Hayley. Amazingly, for her, it wasn’t about the job. How had this happened? She was angry she’d let herself fall, and feel, and forget that she was supposed to remain detached. Guilt poured through her and over her, crushing desire. She couldn’t do this to Hayley. Or herself.
She pushed Hayley away, almost roughly. “We have to stop.”
Hayley fought the urge to slap Luka silly.
Fucking tease is what you are
. But she could see how Luka was struggling. She clearly wanted this as much as Hayley did, but something wouldn’t let her, and the conflict was eating her up inside. It was the first time she could read something in Luka’s expression, and she almost hurt for her, for the pain there. “Okay. Although it’s everything but okay,” she said, her throat tight with frustration. “I only came in to ask if you were comfortable. Good night, Luka.”
Hayley remained where she was for a few more seconds, hoping something would break Luka’s inertia and allow her to give in to what was between them. But when Luka didn’t move, she strode into the bedroom and shut the door, wishing like hell she knew what haunted Luka in her sleep and kept her from acting on her desires.
It had been more years than she could remember since she had cared so much what made someone tick.
Domino remained rooted where she was long after Hayley had closed the door between them. Her body was on fire and she couldn’t focus. She’d been trained to operate according to her mind, never her heart, and she had never had a problem doing so. Sex for her was always without emotion. Either a quick and anonymous encounter in some dark place to satisfy a need, or part of a job, as this was supposed to be.
She felt totally inadequate, ill-equipped to deal with this overwhelming guilt and her less-than-honorable intentions toward such a woman. She had no right to take, when she had nothing to give.
Standing before the window, she stared out into the night. Her need to crawl in bed with Hayley was strong, and she wondered whether she could escape her nightmares there.
She watched as the sun came up and cast a warm glow on the building across the street, and gradually she began to realize how difficult it would be on the outside again looking in, watching Hayley on this very spot. How would she cope with constantly seeing what she could never have and, even worse, with what she had never even known she needed?

C
HAPTER EIGHTEEN
Friday

 

H

ayley roused herself with difficulty after hitting the snooze button on her alarm for the fourth time, coming fully awake only when she remembered the feel of Luka’s body, and mouth, the night before. She couldn’t have stopped what was happening between them, but Luka apparently had reason to pull away. What could it be? The question had kept her tossing and turning half the night, and she hoped today Luka might be more ready to volunteer what was holding her back.

She threw on a robe and went into the living room, only to find it vacant, the pillow and blankets she’d left for Luka still in a neat pile, unused. On top of them was a note.

Sorry about last night. Had an early appointment and didn’t want to wake you. I’ll call you later.
Luka

Hayley crumpled it and tossed it into a wastebasket en route to the shower. Talk about poor timing
.
Here she was, on the precipice of what could be the biggest story of her life, when she should totally focus on the job, and what was keeping her up at night was some mysterious near-stranger whose kisses left her breathless.

As she showered and dressed for work, she forced herself to replay her conversations with Manny Vasquez, to see whether she might have missed anything that could help in her search for more information about the EOO.

All she had to go on was the name Timmy Koster—the tape specialist whose business card she’d glimpsed in his apartment, and she wasn’t optimistic that would lead anywhere. She’d looked at the Guerrero tape so many times she was convinced there were few clues there. The assassin’s face was too well obscured throughout, and she didn’t think any technical enhancement could do much to change that.

Still, it was all she had for now, so during her break at the office she searched online phone databases, focusing on the New York area. She discovered nothing relevant in the business directories, but she came up with five possibilities in the white pages: two Timothy Kosters and three T. Kosters. She found the one she was looking for on the third call.

“Hello, my name is Hayley Ward and I’m trying to track down a Timmy Koster who’s a videotape specialist. Do I have the right number?”

“Who did you say you were?” the man on the other end replied. “Hayley Ward, Mr. Koster. Manny Vasquez gave me your name.”

Or he was about to. Before he was killed.
A few seconds of silence elapsed before the man spoke again.
“Manny, eh? Are you a cop?”
“No, I’m a reporter. Following up on a case similar to one you
helped him with.” She glanced around to make sure no one could
overhear her. “I have a black-and-white security tape Manny said you
might be able to enhance.” She realized she would be taking a hell of
a risk letting this man see the video. The content was self-evident, and
Koster was known to work with law enforcement. Who was to say he
wouldn’t immediately turn her over to the authorities? She had to trust
that if Manny had suggested using him, he would be discreet. “I’d have to see it first to tell you if I can give you anything. What’s
on the tape? And when do you need it?”
“The tape shows a crime in progress,” she replied vaguely. “And I
need it as soon as possible.”
“I can work on it tonight, but a rush job isn’t cheap. I get one-fifty
an hour to enhance video. Two hundred if you want the audio done
too.”
“You can enhance audio, too?” She pictured the inaudible exchange
between the assassin and her dying co-conspirator. “Amplify it enough
to hear a whispered conversation, maybe?”
“Entirely possible, but like I said, I can’t promise anything before
I see the tape.”
Hayley wasn’t looking forward to driving to New York and back again. And the cost of gas plus Koster’s fee added up to a nice chunk of change if it yielded nothing of value. But possibly something could come of it. She wished her mysterious benefactor would send her another clue or two. She was rapidly approaching a dead end. “Okay, Mr. Koster, you’ve got a deal. I can drive up after work and be there any time after eight, if that’s all right. Where would you like me to meet
you, and when?”
After they’d made arrangements, she dialed her brother’s cell
phone. “Hey, Ted. I need the envelope I asked you to put in your
safe. Any way you can drop it by my office?” Since the intruder in
Manny’s apartment had taken her DVD copy of the tape, she needed
to make another to give to Koster. That was one benefit of working
in a newsroom. Though the
Dispatch
was a print entity, it was well
equipped with the latest audio/video equipment.
Koster estimated it would take him an hour or so to enhance the
tape. That would give her enough time to run by Manny’s apartment
again and maybe find out whether the police or relatives had been by
to go through his belongings. The fact she hadn’t found the Frankie the
Fox interview tape he’d promised her, or his “short list” of suspects,
haunted her. So did the trauma of her encounter with the intruder, but
she told herself surely no one would be in the apartment this long after
Manny’s death.
I should have stayed and looked around some more
. She was fairly
certain she’d interrupted the intruder, since she’d gotten to the file in
Manny’s bedroom first. And it would have been risky for her assailant
to return to search further, not knowing whether Hayley might contact
the police.
The evidence could still be there. Fear and shock had driven her
from the apartment, but with time, that fear had begun to dissipate,
replaced by curiosity. Yes, it might be worth another visit. She was
certain the landlady would let her in again.

Domino flipped the bone absently between her fingers as she waited, enjoying the ivory’s smoothness against her skin. She relied on her old friend whenever she had a problem to resolve or job scenario to figure out.