Strangers with Benefits (Siren Publishing Classic) (20 page)

“Over there.” She pointed to a blue late model car.

“Just wait by the car, I’ll get my kit out of the back,” he said to the older woman as she wrung her hands together.

When the woman walked away, he looked back at Sidonie. “Duty calls. I’ll text you later.”

“Okay, Officer McTavish, be safe.”

Sidonie climbed into her car and before she pulled away, she watched him grab a black bag from the trunk of his car and when he looked up, she blew him a kiss.

Yet again, he caught it and stuffed it in the breast pocket over his heart.

Yeah, she was a goner.

When she arrived back to work, her phone chimed and she looked down expectantly.
Don’t forget… tomorrow afternoon

Of course not! TTYL

The rest of her day went smoothly. She watched Katie’s cheer practice and she got to see Mark’s home game on the varsity basketball team before they went home and called it a night.

Mark was excited about the weekend he would spend watching the college team practice, and then their home game that Saturday. He had already chosen a couple of schools he liked for undergrad. Katie hadn’t made a choice yet, but she wanted to try a program out of the country, although, Sidonie was uncomfortable with the idea.

Her baby, continental at eighteen? That was a little much. More than she was ready for at any rate.

When she was finished for the day, she went to bed, excited about the idea of having Den to herself for another weekend. Maybe this would go off without a hitch.

When Friday afternoon rolled around that week, she was on pins and needles as she drove across town to the place Den suggested for their STD checkup.

It wasn’t as bad as she thought. In fact, the place catered to women and it made Sidonie a bit uncomfortable as they checked off boxes on the form together.

“You’ve never been here before?” she asked as she watched him fill everything out.

“No. I didn’t want to take you to my doctor, I didn’t think you’d be comfortable there. The staff is entirely male, except for the receptionist. And a lot of the officers go there. So I found this place, they cater to women especially and I thought you might like it a bit better.”

“Thank you, that was really thoughtful.”

“That’s what I do.”

She couldn’t help but to take a peek at the form as he checked off his boxes. He was allergic to bee stings. Hmmm, she didn’t know that.

She didn’t have any allergies, but she did have palpitations, due to an odd valve that didn’t grow in correctly as a child. But she didn’t have it repaired as the issue rarely came into play and was discovered by accident.

“So you have palpitations, huh?”

“Yeah. And stop looking at my form.”

“You told me what was good for the goose was good for the gander right? Well, I’ve watched you take a gander at my forms since I started writing.”

“You caught me.”

“Sure did.” He laughed.

Then a lovely girl came into the lobby. “Dennis?” She was too attractive and wholesome in appearance to boot.

Den stood up. “That’d be me.” He looked back at Sidonie and winked. The playful gesture dispelled her worries about the adorably freckled brunette with a killer body in the pink scrubs.

Just a moment later, her name was called.

“Mrs. Clark?” It seemed like people had a hard time when they saw her name.

But the pronunciation was just like the Australian city.

“That’s me.”

The nurse, Paula, took her information and checked her blood pressure and other vitals. “Okay, you can change right here and the doctor will be in shortly to take the cultures. I’ll be right back to take a couple of vials for blood testing.”

“No problem.”

When she had changed her clothes and put on the supersize pink T-shirt, she wondered what the nurse had McTavish wear. As perfect as his body was, likely nothing hid his rippled frame from every woman who wanted a peek at him.

But he’s fucking you and you’re here to get tested so you can have that fucking without a condom.

That quelled any of her doubts, even as she sighed over the number that popped onto the scale. She was only a heartbeat away from two hundred even. And he probably outweighed her by twenty pounds of sheer muscle.

Once the nurse returned, Sidonie was fitted with a tourniquet and had a bit of blood taken.

When the woman smoothed a small bandage over the prick, Sidonie grinned. “Will I live?”

“Well, I can’t promise that. But I can promise the doctor is on her way now to help you out.”

“Okay, I can live with that.”

“Good,” Paula quipped and with a wink popped out again.

There was a knock at the door. “Come in.” Sidonie called out.

“Hey, I’m Dr. Garcia. So I see that you are coming in for an STD checkup is that correct?”

“Yep.”

“Well, you’re in the right place.”

“Glad to hear it.”

Dr. Garcia chuckled. “So you and your boyfriend decided to come down and be responsible? I like that.”

“He’s notmyboyfriend,” Sidonie huffed out in a rush, embarrassed.

“Really? Hmm, does he know that?”

“Yeah? I would assume so.”

“I think he has a slightly different take on it. All he did was talk about you. So much, in fact, that I was in a hurry to meet the lady that could have a man like that agog.”

“We’re just friends.”

“With benefits, hah? Well, I have to admit, out of every couple that’s passed through here for testing, I’ve never had two come together if they weren’t in a serious relationship. That’s a new one.”

Sidonie looked down at her hands.

“It’s complicated, hmm?”

“Something like that.”

Dr. Garcia grinned. “Okay, so I assume that you know the drill. Spread ’em and sit low on the table.”

When all was said and done, the doctor had jacked her wide open with a speculum and rubbed her with several large cotton swabs.

“You can clean yourself off with these moist wipes and get dressed. I should have some results from the swabs back in a bit if you want to wait. Otherwise, we can call you when they are ready.”

“How long will it take?”

“The blood can take the longest as the lab can take two weeks for some types, like herpes or syphilis, as they look for antibody reactions. The HIV will be the fastest, that takes about twenty minutes or so and the more common types like gonorrhea should be ready around the same time frame.”

“Okay.” Sidonie sighed.

“Don’t worry about it. It is what it is. But based on the sexual histories that you put on the paperwork and the fact that the two of you use condoms, you should be okay. Most diseases have symptoms within the length of time you have been celibate up until recently.”

That was true. If she hadn’t found anything in the last few years, then she probably wouldn’t have anything. But it was still scary, the idea of finding out something was wrong with her. But her ex was a decent enough man, he would have said something.

When she walked out, she had a clean bill of health for almost everything. The only thing she had to worry about were the longer antiviral tests the bloodwork would require.

Den already sat in the waiting room and when she walked out he stood up.

“Here.” His test looked exactly like hers. He gave her the results from his last two physicals, faxed over from his doctor’s office to Garcia’s.

“We are required to have checks for insurance purposes and if we are exposed on the job to something risky, we have to go and be checked out to make sure that we didn’t contract anything.”

“Okay. Well, I can have my last test sent. But its years old, from after I divorced and I haven’t had sex or engaged in risky behaviors since.”

“Good to know that I haven’t been cavorting with a junkie, huh?”

“Right?” Sidonie chuckled.

“So the question is, do you trust me?”

She looked at Den, a man that she knew for only a handful of weeks and thought about his sense of integrity. In that moment, she knew she trusted him.

She nodded. “But the question is, can you trust me?”

“If I didn’t, we wouldn’t even be here in the first place.”

“All right. Well, I have to go home and check the luggage for their away trip. I’m doing the carpool and dinner before they go.”

“Then I’ll see you later, lady.”

“Later.”

When she got home, she looked over the duffels that would hold her children’s belongings while they travelled the road. Katie was missing her bonnet and an extra pair of underwear and Mark had forgotten a T-shirt and hoodie in case it was cold.

Neither of them had any lotion, so she added a small bottle of cocoa butter into the bags along with a small snack pack with something to munch on while they were in the room. The last thing was the bus food, a bag of random eatables they group could eat while they were on the highway.

She would supply pizzas for the team to have for dinner, but those were to be picked up on the way to the academy. The other parents would reimburse her for their portions when she dropped the children back home.

She grabbed everything and dragged it into the SUV.

The carpool was a godsend. It allowed her to be active without being worn out travelling. She drove a group of six to the games and the other parents would rotate out as well. At the end of the day, she had to make the kid laden trips maybe twice a month. And it let her ensure that both kids were taken care of at once.

She couldn’t be in two places at the same time, so if Katie had one function, but Mark had another, she didn’t have to worry about how they would get there.

Plus, it gave her time that she wouldn’t have had if she had to go it alone.

Once the kids had eaten their fill and she helped load a heap of duffel bags into the car, she drove across town to St. Andrew’s Catholic Church.

When everyone dove from the car, she grabbed Mark’s hand. “Love you, honey bear.”

“Love you, too.” He grinned lopsidedly and burst from the SUV in a flurry that left the passenger door halfway closed.

Sidonie chuckled and shut the door. It was time for her to meet her lover and she certainly wanted to be ready for that.

She drove home and showered. Sidonie wanted to linger, but really all she had time to do was make sure she was clean and hit up her fuzzy regions with a razor before dressing again.

The phone rang as she slid in a pair of earrings.

“You ready?”

“Yeah.”

“I’ll be there in a few minutes. Want me to come up?”

“I’ll probably be downstairs when you arrive, so nah-hh, I’ll make it.”

“All right.”

When the elevator opened, he was already standing in front of it. “Miss me?”

“Yes, how did you know?” she joked.

“Because I missed you.” He winked.

“Well, aren’t we a sorry pair?”

“Not at all.”

By the time they drove to his place, he parked and looked at her. “I forgot to ask, but did you want to eat first?”

“I could eat, but not hungry at the moment. Not for food at least.”

His nostrils flared.

“Come on. I’ll get your bag later.”

“But it’s tiny.”

“I don’t want to deal with it while I’m trying to get under that skirt you’re wearing.”

“When you put it like that? Let’s go.”

They made it into the back door, but no further than that.

He gripped her skirt at the side and lifted it as she leaned into the cabinets along the wall. The skirt rucked up around her waist and he whistled.

“No panties? You’re a bad girl.”

“Am I?” she asked.

“The worst,” he said as she wrestled with the heavy belt that came with his uniform.

The pants opened, but the Kevlar trapped his underwear and she stopped her attempts to remove the shorts altogether, instead pulled his cock out from the flap.

He was already at full mast and she got wetter just looking at the naked pillar of erection.

She didn’t get to look at it for long however, as he pressed the fleshy head against her shaven skin.

“I wish I had the patience to get naked. But damn, woman the more I have of you, the less patience I have.”

“Me, too. Give it to me.”

He did, with a press of flesh on flesh that she didn’t even realize was missing until he touched her bare again.

“Good lord, so hot this way.” He gasped and shoved his cock into her heated core.

“Yes! Oh, fuck yes!”

He forged within, dug deeper until he was seated entirely within her.

Her nails scratched the surface of his shoulders, but the extra gear and fabric actually made real contact impossible.

He tugged her back and forth as she tilted her head back.