“While my first reaction was what the hell she was doing on that street by herself, it was quickly replaced with something else, because rather than distract her, I watched.”
His expression became even more distant, yet Rachel felt almost as if she stood next to him on the Amsterdam street. “Now, mind you, I could only see her from the back. She was wearing a pair of trim black slacks, a sky-blue long-sleeved shirt tucked into it. Short heels. Her form of casual wear, nice enough to have drinks with her father’s clients, but not as dressed up as she’d been for the earlier, more formal meeting.
“Her blond hair was twisted up on her neck, and I’m glad for that, because she conveys so much through the set of her shoulders, the tilt of her head, the tightening of the muscles in the back of her neck. From those things, I could tell she was utterly absorbed. Mesmerized, even. I began to walk toward her, one slow, quiet step at a time. When I was three steps from where I wanted to be, right behind her, she put a hand on the glass.”
He twisted his half-finished whiskey around, one circle, on the square cocktail napkin Rachel had placed beneath it earlier. The other men were listening to him as attentively as she was. From the way Jon had asked him about it, she knew they knew the story, but she wondered if they knew it in this detail. Dana, despite her unreleased state, appeared to be caught up in the tale as well, her head cocked to listen. Peter had moved his hand from her sex to her thigh, and was idly stroking the slim column.
“It was as unexpected as an eclipse,” Matt said, lifting his gaze back to Rachel’s face. “Savannah was different then. Every movement precise, disciplined, thought out. Pressing her palm to the glass, something she was not supposed to do, was the least of it. It revealed something inside her that wanted to connect to those two women. She told me, much later, what had captured her attention was how genuine these two women were. They were obviously lovers, as well as co-workers, because there was an intimacy to their lovemaking, as if they were unaware of anything but one another.
“And yet, though Savannah wasn’t supposed to touch the window—a sign next to it said not to do so—it was as if those women recognized she had acted purely on the feelings they’d evoked in her. So, as the women began to climax, the one on the bottom reached out and pressed her palm to the window, right beneath Savannah’s. They stayed linked that way for a few vital seconds before the woman took her hand away and looped her arms around her lover’s bare shoulders.”
Rachel wet her lips. “What did you say to her?”
“Nothing,” Matt said. “When she took her hand away, I was standing directly behind her. My breath was stirring some of the strands of that gorgeous blond hair. She tilted her head down, her chin angling, so I could see the fringe of her lashes, the soft press of her lips. She knew it was me. I knew it.” His jaw tightened. “But then she moved, and was walking away, as if she hadn’t seen me, hadn’t been aware of my presence.
“Up until that moment, I hadn’t realized how much I wanted her, that she wasn’t just another woman who’d captured my interest sexually, intellectually. But it was as if a curtain drew back, and behind it was every experience and thought I’d had with and about her. All of it came together in a way that told me I was in love with her, and needed to find a way to open her heart to me.”
That raptor look returned to his gaze, the intensity that could wash heat over any woman’s skin. “I knew I had to convince her of what I knew from that moment forward. That she was mine.”
“Which, in a legal environment, sounds like the opening of a CSI episode,” Ben commented. “The one that starts with the bad guy in the basement, sniffing the strands of hair he pulled out of her garbage.”
Rachel hid a smile as Ben ducked the peanuts Matt fired his way with the accuracy of grapeshot. “Ow.”
“Time to fulfill Matt’s wish,” Jon told her quietly. He slid his fingers between her legs, stroking the damp lips of her sex as her legs quivered and loosened for him. “Are you ready, Rachel?”
She nodded. He raised his voice, directing his next words to the K&A CEO. “I think it’s time to give our bad girl a chance to tease our good one.”
“Absolutely,” Peter agreed, as Matt nodded.
It brought to mind some of Rachel’s most vivid fantasies about Dana. The former Army sergeant pushing her down on a bed, laying upon her… Much like Matt had just described.
Peter lifted Dana back onto the table, knees first. As she dropped to her palms, he bent down to kiss the sole of her dangling foot. He had the clit shield in one hand and laid it on the table before he told her his bidding. “Go find that good girl, Sergeant. Center of the table.”
Dana smiled faintly, her head cocked to his voice, and then she started in the indicated direction. Her expression was intent, the erotic movements of her body almost like that of a prowling female cat.
Jon had lifted Rachel back onto the table, too, so Rachel met her at the center, reaching out to touch her so Dana knew where she was. Dana caught her wrist with unsettling accuracy before Rachel made contact, her grip strong. She pressed against Rachel, an undeniable requirement that Rachel sit back on her heels, as Dana did the same, the two of them knee to knee.
The terms were Dana would be on top, but her actions suggested Dana was taking that further. Being the top. Dana was a submissive, but she had an alpha side to her, cultivated by her Army rank and ministering to urban youth who needed a tough hand. However, since Rachel was used to the other side of her, the reminder of that harder edge caught her by thrilling surprise now. Rachel’s natural, soul-deep submission responded, settling under Dana’s hold, waiting for direction.
“Been wanting to take you over all night, good girl.” Despite the sensual threat, Peter’s wife took her time, using her other hand to trail her fingers along Rachel’s hair and face, her throat, teasing the delicate lines above and below Jon’s collar. Rachel raised her chin in response, and Dana’s expression became more intent, her thumb sliding down the column of Rachel’s windpipe to rest in the pocket between her collarbones, where the sapphire pendant teased Dana’s knuckles.
At length she leaned forward to rub her cheek against Rachel’s. She spoke softly, but with a tone that commanded Rachel’s attention.