Quid Pro Quo

by Sherryl Hancock

  “I’m getting you wet,” Kai said at one point, because Scarlett was half lying on her by that time.

  “Yes, you are, sugar,” Scarlett said. “Touch me.”

  Kai did as she bade.“Yes, just like that…” Scarlett said, her voice a low moan against Kai’s lips.

  Kai felt herself getting excited by the sheer insanity of what they were doing. They were out in the open, and even though it was very quiet on the beach, it didn’t mean they couldn’t be caught.

  The continued to touch until they were both completely satisfied. All the while Kai was sure they’d get caught.

  Afterward Kai lay panting, her face pressed against Scarlett’s shoulder. “That was…” she began, but she couldn’t think of the appropriate words to express how incredible the feeling had been.

  “Yes, it was,” Scarlett agreed, grinning.

  “This isn’t your first time, is it?”

  “No.” Scarlett shook her head, smiling softly.

  “Is that why you talked to me?”

  Scarlett looked back at her for a long moment, then smiled again. “I talked to you because I think you’re very different—you’re a butterfly in a sea of June bugs.”

  “Do I look strange?” Kai asked, her true insecurity coming to bear.

  “You look butch.”

  “Butch?”

  “Yeah. You have a little bit of a masculine look to you—it’s neat.”

  Kai considered the thought. She’d always been referred to as a tomboy because she didn’t wear makeup or dresses like other girls did. “Butch,” she repeated, testing out the phrase.

  Scarlett nodded, then smiled. “Definitely butch.”

  “Wow… So she’s the one that told you that you were butch?” Cassiana asked when Kai had finished the story, just as she turned onto her street in Brentwood.

  “Yep.”

  “Very cool,” Cassiana said, smiling. “And holy shit—you live around here?”

  “Language…”

  Cassiana sighed. “What do you do for a living again?”

  Kai grinned. “Well, a few things at this point, but mostly I’m a personal trainer.”

  “Like helping fat people get skinny?”

  Kai chuckled. “Or helping people like Remington LaRoché get ready for a fight.”

  “You know Remington LaRoché?” Cassiana asked, her expression agog.

  “I know a few famous people.”

  “Like who?”

  “Xandy Blue, who”—Kai pointed to a house as they passed it—“lives right there.”

  “No lie?” Cassiana said, craning her neck to look at the house.

  “No lie. And I know Wynter Kincade too.”

  “Well, yeah, she’s like dating Remington LaRoché, isn’t she?”

  “Yes, she is,” Kai said, nodding.

  “Will I get to meet them?” Cassiana asked as Kai steered around the curve and reached for the remote for her garage door.

  Kai grinned. “Probably.”

  “O… M… G!” Cassiana exclaimed as the garage door opened at the top of the drive to Kai’s house. “This is yours?”

  Kai nodded.

  “Is that a Navigator?” Cassiana asked, seeing the large black SUV in the garage.

  “Yeah. I use it for the boys.”

  “The what?”

  Cassiana found out a couple of minutes later when they walked into the house. Two very large dogs came running around the curve of the entryway.

  “Hold!” Kai commanded, even as she turned off the alarm to the house. “Sit!”

  Both dogs halted immediately and their butts hit the floor at the second command.

  Cassiana stared in fascination; she’d never owned a dog before. One was large pit bull with a massive head; the other dog was larger than the first and had the oddest coloring Cassiana had ever seen. His body was beige, but there was darker hair around his ears and his muzzle had dark spots on it. His eyes were almost white, they were such a light blue.

  “That’s Digger,” Kai said, pointing to the dog with the light eyes. “And that’s Chip.”

  “Chip?”

  “For the chip on his shoulder when I rescued him from the shelter,” Kai said, grinning.

  “And Digger?”

  “From the hole he dug in my arm the first time we met.” She held out her right arm, showing Cassiana the scar on the inside of her forearm.

  “Ouch,” Cassiana said.

  “Yeah. We’ve forgiven each other since then,” Kai said, winking at Digger.

  “What kind of dog is he?”

  “He’s an Afghan Shepherd, or Kuchi—they’re herding dogs in Afghanistan.”

  “Can I just…” Cassiana started to say as she stepped toward the dogs.

  “Wait,” Kai said calmly, gently putting her hand on Cassiana’s shoulder. “You have to approach a dog differently than you would a person. It’s actually very poor dog behavior to approach a dog head on—it’s a challenge to them.”

  “Okay,” Cassiana said, her eyes slightly wide.

  “Now, these two are well trained, but even the best-trained dog is still a little bit wild at heart, so you never know, and it’s always better to be safe. So, what you do is turn to the side.” Kai demonstrated. “And hold your hand out to the dogs from the side, so they can sniff you.”

  Cassiana did as she was told, putting her hand out to Digger first. Digger sniffed her fingers and licked them. Cassiana laughed.

  “Now, before you approach him, since he’s with another dog, you need to make sure the other dog is okay with you too,” Kai said. “So do the same thing.”

  Cassiana did, and Chip sniffed her, putting his nose under her hand and pushing his head against it.

  “What does that mean?” Cassiana asked.

  “It means ‘scratch my head, it itches,’” Kai said, grinning. She stepped toward the dogs and went down to one knee “Okay,” she told them, and they both converged on her with licks and tail wags.

  “Now you just approached them directly—why’s that okay?” Cassiana asked. There was no attitude in her voice—it was obvious she was curious.

  “Because I’m the leader of their pack,” Kai said as Digger licked her face again.

  “Pack?”

  “Dogs travel in packs, like wolves. That’s what they want most in life—to be part of a pack. Digger, Chip, and I are our own pack.”

  “Can I be part of your pack?” Cassiana asked as she petted Digger. He rubbed his head against her leg.

  “Looks like you already are,” Kai said, smiling.

  After a tour of the house, Kai showed Cassiana the bedroom where she could put what little stuff she’d brought with her.

  “This place is amazing, Kai,” Cassiana said, gesturing around her.

  “Wait till you see the view in the morning in the backyard—it’s why I paid a fortune for it,” Kai said. “I’m going to go take a shower and change. Make yourself at home, okay?”

  “Okay.” Cassiana smiled. “Thank you, Kai,” she said, reaching out to hug her half-sister. “Thank you for being so awesome.”

  Kai hugged Cassiana fondly, kissing the top of her head. “You’re my little sister—what else am I gonna do?”

  Cassiana squeezed Kai extra tight for that, happy that she thought of her that way.

  Twenty minutes later Kai emerged from the master bathroom, dressed in her usual sleeping attire for the winter—a white tank top and black yoga pants that hugged her slim hips and outlined her thighs then belled at the calves.

  “Now there’s a sight…” Kathy said from the bed where she was lounging.

  “What the fuck are you doing in here?” Kai snapped in surprise.

  “Your sister, is it? She let me in,” Kathy said, smiling smugly.

  “Well, you can let yourself out.” Kai put her hands up on the door frame between the master bath and the bedroom.

  “I don’t know why we have to play this game, Kai,” Kathy said as she got off the bed, her blu
e eyes sparkling.

  “It’s not a game, Kat,” Kai said, her lips twitching at the fact that Kathy was walking toward her. “You need to leave.”

  “I’m not leaving. Not until you let me fuck you…” Kai reached out to touch Kai’s stomach.

  Kai stepped back. “That’s not going to happen.”

  Kathy laughed sarcastically. “Really? When you’re afraid to even let me touch you?”

  “Does it occur to you that maybe I don’t want you to touch me?”

  “Not really, no.”

  Her tone was so casual that Kai was lulled for a moment, so much so that she wasn’t expecting Kathy to step forward, so close that Kai couldn’t have avoided her without literally leaping back. Kathy’s hand was immediately sliding up under Kai’s tank top, moving over her abdomen seductively. Kai’s body lit up like a Christmas tree, making her crave what she knew Kathy could supply—mind-blowing orgasms.

  She had no true idea how or why the other woman had such an incredible hold on her sexually, but the fact was she did. And in capturing Kai’s libido so completely, Kathy had also captured her heart, and then thrown it away time and time again.

  As Kathy reached up to slide her other hand around Kai’s neck, intent on pulling her head down to kiss her, the way she always closed the deal, Kai pulled her head back and took a long step away, holding up her hands when Kathy tried to follow.

  “Don’t!” Kai practically yelled.

  Kathy stopped, in sheer reaction to the vehemence in Kai’s voice. A sudden scratching and canine whining could be heard at Kai’s closed bedroom door. The door started shaking with the force of the two dogs throwing themselves against it in an effort to get to their master. Kai knew they’d heard the warning in her raised voice, and they were responding to it.

  “Kai?” Cassiana queried from the other side of the door. “Should I let them in?”

  “Yes,” Kai said, her eyes on Kathy; she knew she was not the least bit fond of dogs.

  Kathy’s eyes widened as the door opened and the dogs bounded in, immediately moving to Kai’s side, taking up flanking positions next to her in the bathroom hallway. Kai couldn’t help but grin as the boys stood looking up at her in concern.

  “Make them sit, Kai,” Kathy said, her nervousness obvious.

  Kai curled her lip in derision. “You make them sit,” she said disdainfully.

  “You know I can’t.” Kathy backed up a step as the boys responded to her nervousness and stepped toward her. “Kai!”

  “Hold,” Kai said, and both dogs stopped their forward movement.

  “Get them out of here,” Kathy said authoritatively.

  “They live here—you don’t,” Kai said. “So just turn around and leave, or I’ll give them the command to attack.”

  “You wouldn’t do that,” Kathy said, her tone a little less sure.

  “Wanna bet?” Kai asked, her dark eyes sparkling maliciously.

  “Okay, I’ll leave,” Kathy said, her expression far from defeated. “But when I get to you—and I will get to you, Kai—you’re going to beg me to fuck you, and you’re going to wish to hell you hadn’t played games with me.”

  Kai nodded, far from worried. Kathy backed up to the door as Kai walked forward and gave the dogs the hand command to heel. Each dog took up a side as Kai followed Kathy out to the front door and closed it behind her. Kai turned to put her back to the door, banging her head against the hard wood a few times, making the intricate stained-glass pieces artistically set within it rattle.

  “Who was that?” Cassiana asked, walking into the foyer and seeing what Kai was doing. “And why are you banging your head like that?”

  Kai looked over at her sister. “That was my ex, and do not ever let her in this house again, okay?”

  “The dogs went nuts when you yelled.”

  “Yeah, they heard the tension in my voice and responded to it.”

  Cassiana grinned. “Pretty cool.”

  “Yeah, it is,” Kai said, grinning too. “I’m headed to bed. Good night.” She went over to hug Cassiana and kiss the top of her head.

  “Good night,” Cassiana said, hugging her back.

  Chapter 2

  When Cassiana woke the next morning, she looked around her room and smiled. The bright California sun was shining through the windows. The room itself was beautiful with its sage green walls and bright white crown molding and framed windows. The happiest thing of all was that she was there with her half-sister, the one person she’d come to rely on over the last two years to make her feel better.

  She remembered well the first email she’d sent to Kai; she had queried cautiously if it was okay to write to her there in California. She still had Kai’s response. It had said simply:

  You are the daughter of my father, and therefore my family. Of course you can write me. I would love to get to know you. ~Kai~

  Cassiana had been so happy to receive that email. It meant that at least someone in the Temple family didn’t consider her some kind of trespasser in their lives. The fact was, she’d had no say in the matter. Her mother, who’d always been somewhat distant with her, had handed her over to the Temples and taken off on her next assignment in Turkey. At first Cassiana had been happy, not having to go to yet another foreign country where people treated her like she was strange. Her entire high school career had been achieved online. At least in Washington DC she would get to go to a regular high school with other American kids. It had been heaven at first, but she’d quickly felt stifled by the slower pace of a regular brick-and-mortar school. When she asked her father if she could switch back to online school, he’d nodded without any real consideration. It had been Kai who’d talked to her about it in a chat session.

  Cassie: Asked to go back to online HS today

  Kai: Why?

  Cassie: This school is too slow for me!

  Kai: Okay, but you said you liked interacting with other students.

  Cassie: I do, but my God it’s going to take a thousand years just to get through algebra!

  Kai: LOL too smart for your own good

  Cassie: You think so?

  Kai: Oh I know so, I had the same problem, that’s why they switched me to Emerson

  Prep

  Cassie: What’s that?

  Kai: It’s a private high school. Didn’t they give you that option?

  Cassie: Nope, never mentioned it.

  The cursor for the chat session had blinked more than a few times before Kai answered her. Cassiana had no way of knowing that Kai had been cursing their father for not giving this girl the same benefits she’d been given. Whether he liked it or not, the girl was his blood, and she should be given every advantage of that. Kai didn’t like that Marou Temple was treating Cassiana as if she weren’t valuable to him. She knew that feeling well; he’d always treated her the same way. She wasn’t a boy, so she wasn’t what he’d wanted.

  Kai: Ask Dad about it.

  Cassie: Kai, I don’t want to be a pain.

  Kai: You want a good education, Cassie, trust me on that. With a good education you can do anything you want in life.

  Cassie: Okay

  Kai: Will you ask, or do I need to call our father?

  Cassiana had smiled at that. Kai Marou Temple wasn’t the kind of person to sit back and wait, or take whatever someone was willing to give her.

  Cassie: Is Emerson where you learned to be so brave?

  Kai: LOL No, I learned that later.

  Cassie: I hope it’s genetic!

  Kai: I will talk to our father if you don’t want to.

  Cassie: I will ask them about it.

  Kai: Them?

  Cassie: You know, our father and your mother

  Kai: Don’t bother including my mother, she doesn’t get to make decisions.

  Cassie: That’s harsh

  Kai: That’s reality, Cass. Just talk to our father and let me know what he says.

  Cassie: Okay I will. Thanks!

  Cassiana talked to their father
that night, and Marou had been non-committal about the option. Later he had decided that Cassiana should just continue with online classes to finish her high school degree. It had cemented in Cassiana’s mind the idea that she wasn’t even important enough to her father to receive a good education. Kai had been furious. It had been the first of many fights Kai had had with him over Cassiana.

  Cassiana pulled on her sweatshirt and jeans and walked out of the bedroom. Standing in the long galley kitchen, she looked out the kitchen window at the view of the canyon and the hills surrounding the house. She heard barking outside and realized Kai must actually be awake and outside. It was only six in the morning on a Saturday—the woman woke up that early?

  As Cassiana walked toward the back door, she heard music playing and saw Kai sitting in one of the patio chairs, her long legs bent at the knees and in a wide stance. She was leaning forward with her elbows on her knees, her head down. She had a cigarette in one hand, the smoke curling from the tip. Watching her, Cassiana could see she was singing along to the music. Cassiana focused on the words of the song. It was Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep.” Kai sang the bridge and chorus with relish, and Cassiana was sure that she was thinking of Kathy. The lyrics talked about how the other person had left her scarred, and how she’d had her heart played with mercilessly.

  “Was she that bad?” Cassiana asked as she walked out the back door.

  Kai turned her head, looking at her half-sister. “Yeah,” she said, the emotions clear on her face.

  “You smoke?” Cassiana asked, sitting in the chair next to Kai’s.

  Kai leaned back, taking a drag on the cigarette and blowing the smoke out a few long moments later. “Only when I’m stressed,” she said, setting the cigarette aside.

  “What did she do to you?”

  Kai shook her head. “Long story. But suffice it to say that she really did a number on me.”

  Cassiana nodded, not liking that anyone had hurt her sister.

  “You’re Temple?” asked the colonel sitting behind her desk, surveying this lieutenant colonel under her new command.

  “Yes, ma’am,” Kai responded, keeping her eyes focused straight ahead.

  “Didn’t know I had a female lieutenant colonel under my command,” Kathy Binder said, her blue eyes scanning Kai’s uniform and the eagle on her collar. “It says here you’ve got nine years in?”