Since the weekend she'd spent in this very room upgrading every piece of equipment in it, in fact. Dar swung back and forth a little, enjoying the motion and the memories. She'd just been a tech then, before she'd decided to move into management.
Looking back along that curve now, Dar found herself wondering a little if that move had been the right one after all. Here she was, years later, right back in this closet doing something she could have easily paid an entire roomful of programmers to do instead of getting involved.
So why was she doing it? Just to have something to do and stay out of Kerry's way? Dar grimaced. Oh that was an attractive thought. Maybe she'd let herself be promoted past her competency, like she was always accusing Jose of.
Ah, Dar. She sighed at herself. You can't really complain, can you? After all, if you'd stayed a grunt, chances are you'd never have met Kerry, right?
No, probably not. Dar swung back and forth a little more, and thought about how much more she'd gotten done after Kerry had joined her today. She'd been less restless, and more focused, and suddenly it occurred to her that the more she separated herself from her partner and her projects, the more antsy she tended to be.
It was so obvious, once she'd thought of it, that she almost slapped herself on the head. "Damn." In her efforts to distance herself from Kerry's efforts, and let her partner fly on her own--was she sending herself down the stupid path?
Didn't they really work better as a team?
Didn't they?
The outer door opened, and she was graced with the sight of her lover from an interesting perspective. "Hi."
"What are you doing?" Kerry walked in and set the sodas down before she came over to where Dar was hanging like a bat. "You have no idea how funny you look."
"Just stretching." Dar said. "It's good for your back." She reached out and gave Kerry a poke in the belly. "Join me?"
Kerry studied her, and grinned. "If you say so, honey. I'll take your word for it. Last time I did that I fell out of a tree and my mother nearly had me hogtied for a month. Wasn't a pretty sight."
Dar reached up and caught hold of the bars, reversing her position and letting herself down onto the ground again. She reached around Kerry to pick up her Yoohoo bottle, ending up in an intentional hug as Kerry bumped up against her. "You're always a pretty sight."
Kerry wrapped her arms around Dar and gave her a powerful squeeze. "And you're the best thing my ego's ever, ever had." She sighed. "Dear god, you make me feel ten feet tall sometimes, Dar."
Dar nodded a little to herself, and accepted the fact that her judgment had been off. It happened sometimes, but in this case, she had an idea of what to do to correct it.
"Mm." Kerry hesitated. "Dar..."
"I think I like it when we work together." Dar commented casually. "Even when we're not on the same project I like having you here."
Unexpected, but startlingly identical to the words running through Kerry's mind as well. "Wow." She murmured. "I was about to say the same thing." She let her hands rest on Dar's waist. "You know something? I think that's why I've been so rattled over this ship project." She looked up. "Dar, I don't need you holding my hand on it." A sigh. "But I want you there. I want us to beat them. Not just me."
"All right." Dar leaned her forearms on Kerry's shoulders and touched her forehead to Kerry's. "And I want you guiding me on this security package. I need your judgment."
The concrete and steel suddenly became magic, framing the moment indelibly. Kerry felt an impish grin forming on her lips, smothered a moment later when Dar kissed them.
She sincerely hoped there weren't any cameras.
"URGF." Kerry took a breath and continued her sit ups, the roll of thunder percolating into the island's gym. Behind her, she could hear the soft clank as Dar did leg presses. She resisted the temptation to move from her current exercise to that one.
Sit ups were definitely not her favorite things. They made her back ache, for one thing, and since she was now using an incline board, they were just plain hard to do.
Still, she kept them up, resolutely closing her eyes and concentrating on the positive results she knew she'd get by completing her self-imposed sets.
The rain outside had canceled their morning run, and they'd decided on a work out to replace it--possibly suffering from some mutual guilt brought on by consuming an entire baking pan full of rice crispy treats the night before.
With fudge. Kerry blinked her eyes open, scattering a fine mist of sweat as she regarded the stolidly boring ceiling. She let her back rest against the padded surface, breathing deeply as she waited for the burning ache to dissipate from the muscles that lined the front of her stomach.
"Ker?"
"Uh?" She grunted.
"You okay?"
"Just resting." Kerry extended her arms over her head and stretched her body out. Her bare legs were hooked around supports at the end of the board holding her in place, and she flexed her thighs a little, watching the skin tighten and relax.
"Thought you didn't like doing those." Dar commented.
"I don't. But I do like having a six pack." She patted her belly. "Do you know how horrified my family would be if I told them I did?"
Dar merely chuckled.
"When I went home the first time," Kerry said, "I took my shirt off in front of my sister, and she started teasing me about being She Ra. You remember She Ra, Dar?"
"Bwahhahahaha."
"Uh huh. I used to have a plastic sword, and everything." Kerry chuckled. "Until my parents found it and threw it out."
They both stopped chuckling. Dar cleared her throat. "I think...I first started to be aware of the way I looked when I was around thirteen or fourteen or so."
"Mm?" Kerry took another breath, and started in on her sit ups again. "Puberty?' She grunted.
Dar got up and went to the free weights, picking up a triceps bar and starting some curls as she walked over to be nearer to Kerry. "Yeah. Killer growth spurt. I grew...almost five inches in a year and my whole metabolism went nuts."
"Uh huh." Kerry agreed in sympathy.
"I started eating like a horse, and figured if I didn't start working out, it was all gonna stay on me like it was on a lot of my classmates." Dar related. "So I did."
"Sensible decision."
"Yeah." Dar chuckled. "Except I went to the base gym, and worked out with all the guys. I didn't know I wasn't supposed to use the same weights they were using, and my mother walked in on me one day while I was dressing and nearly had a fit at what I looked like."
Kerry snickered, but kept crunching.
"Hey, I thought it looked good." Dar mused. "And the guys all sure respected me."
"I bet." Kerry finished her second set and pulled herself off the board, escaping gratefully to the lat pull down machine. It was angled perfectly so that she could see Dar while she was doing the exercise, and she studied her partner's body as she started the new routine.
Dar had definitely grown into her height. Her shoulders were broad, and rounded with muscle, and that extended down her arms to corded wrists that were currently tensed as she did her curls. Yet, her skin fitted over her body in supple curves, never giving the impression of a bodybuilder's starkly ripped muscularity at all.
Kerry liked that. She liked the impression of strength Dar had without looking at all masculine, and she'd consciously or unconsciously patterned her own aspirations in the same direction. She'd first started noticing a difference a few months into their relationship, before she'd moved in permanently with Dar.
It had all started with a shirt. She'd been dressing for work one day, half in the dark of a very early morning when she'd pulled on a silk blouse she hadn't worn in several weeks and found the sleeves binding uncomfortably around her upper arms and shoulders.
"Huh?" Kerry turned to the mirror in her bedroom and flipped the light on, giving herself a puzzled look in the reflection. Sure enough, the fabric was pulled taut over her upper body, the length draping down o
ver her half bared torso still unbuttoned.
"Great." She sighed, apprehensively reaching for the lowest button, and matching it with its hole on the other side. To her mild surprise, it mated easily around her waist, easing her sudden fear that her recent change of habits had added more pounds to her frame than she'd realized. "So, what the heck?"
With a touch of impatience, she stripped the shirt off, and let it fall to the dresser, studying her body in the mirror with a very critical eye. What she saw surprised her, and she straightened up a little, squaring newly broadened shoulders and holding her arms out, turning them a little as she flexed her muscles.
Holy pooters. Kerry exhaled. Under her skin she could now see visible power, bunching and moving in the lamplight as she shifted. Her shoulders had gained a cap of sinew over them and she could see the beginning shadow of an arch that extended from the points of her shoulders to her neck.
It felt very strange, and for a moment, she felt a little scared of the changes. She'd kept an image of herself in her head for so long, hammered in by her parents that this shift was almost as intimidating as the twenty pounds she'd carried home after her first year in Miami.
That had merely ended up being embarrassing. Kerry spread her arms out fully, and almost shook her head at the new shape of her outline, the widened shoulders giving her body a very pleasing taper she hadn't really anticipated.
"Wow." She finally said, letting her hands drop to her sides. "You know, I think I like this." She met her own reflection's eyes and grinned. "Wonder if Dar's noticed?"
A wink of dawn light peeked through the blinds and she put her hands on her hips, turning her attention to the problem of dressing for work. She walked back to her closet and reviewed her options. The skirt she'd intended on wearing hung there, but she pondered now what top she would go with it.
Her eye fell on a simple, tailored linen shirt with crisp lines and a conservative cut right up to the point where it became sleeveless. "Hmm." Kerry removed it from its hanger and slipped it on, the whispered chill of the air conditioning feeling slightly illicit on her bare shoulders.
She put on her skirt, tucking the ends of the shirt into the waistband and buttoning it. She buckled the slim leather belt, then removed her linen jacket from its hanger and put it on. Facing the mirror she observed the effect.
Businesslike and conservative. Kerry gave herself a brief nod, and then she let the jacket slip off her shoulders and looked again.
She grinned and put the jacket back on and headed off to work.
"What's so funny?" Dar inquired, pausing in her curls. "Am I making faces again?"
Kerry chuckled. "No, I was just thinking of something." She stood up and let the pull down bar return to its resting position. "Hey, let me ask you a question." She let her arms rest against her thighs.
"Hmm?" Dar cocked her head in inquiry, the muscles in her arms jumping as she brought the weighted bar up.
"Do you think I look too butch?'
Dar paused in her upswing, the bar ending up pressed against her breastbone. Her nostrils flared, and she made a small snorting sound, attempting to stifle a laugh.
Kerry put her hands on her hips. "What was that supposed to mean?" She cocked an eyebrow at her partner.
Hastily, Dar put down the barbell and walked over, wiping her hands on the towel she had tucked into her shorts. She cupped Kerry's chin and tilted her head up, regarding her with serious affection. "You don't look at all butch."
"I don't?"
"No."
"Not even with these?" Kerry lifted her arm and tensed her biceps.
"No."
"Really?"
"Really." Dar said. "Just incredibly sexy." She paused. "Why? Do you want to look more butch?" She asked curiously.
Kerry shook her head. "No, not really. I was just remembering something someone told me right after I first moved down here, about not falling into the typical gay routine of becoming a...um..." Her face scrunched a little. "Um..."
"Baby butch?" Dar inquired. "Well, I don't know...you looked great as a Revolutionary." She chuckled softly, giving Kerry a pat on the cheek. "But I love the way you look, no matter what it is, Ker. You know that."
"Mm."
Dar gave her a one armed hug, and then she went over to the incline board, and took Kerry's place on it. She adjusted the length, and then settled herself in to start her own set of sit ups, the motion relaxed and easy.
Kerry watched her a moment, then sighed enviously and got up on the stair climber. "What do you think...another twenty minutes? We should leave a little early in this weather."
"Yeah. Sounds about right." Dar had her arms crossed over her chest, and was moving up and down steadily. "You said you had to go over to the pier today?"
Kerry increased her pace. "Yep."
"How about we go there, and then take off." Dar said. "If you drive, I can get the revisions done on my program, and I won't feel guilty all damn weekend."
"Sounds like a plan."
They were both quiet for a few minutes, concentrating on their exercising. Finally after several sets, Dar let herself down on the board and gazed up at the ceiling, sweat dripping liberally across her body. "Hey, Ker?"
An equally dewy blond head lifted. "Hmm?"
"Any time you want to quit this and become couch potatoes, just drop me an email, yeah?'
Kerry chuckled, as she straightened on her machine and took a swig from the water bottle hung by her wrist. "You got it, baby. You got it."
They both started laughing, the noise echoing softly off the ceiling of the gym.
"ALL RIGHT." Dar motioned Mark to follow her into her office. "Let's see what you've got." She walked across the carpet and changed direction at the last minute, going to the small worktable in the corner of her office instead. "Here."
Mark followed her and put a cardboard box on the desk. "Sorry to grab you so early, DR, but I heard you were taking off today so I figured I'd better do it when I could."
"No problem." Dar perched on one of the two stools behind the worktable. She opened the top of the box and peered inside, reaching in to remove the cellular gadget along with several other miscellaneous bits of hardware.
"Going down south?" Mark asked.
"Yep." Dar set the cell unit down and leaned forward, removing the battery pack and examining the inside surface. "We're taking off after lunch. I'm going with Ker down to the boats, and then we're outta here for the weekend."
"Ah." Mark picked up a second bit of hardware and showed it to Dar. "This is the remote interface. I took it apart. It's got a circuit card in it to mask its internal ID."
"Huh." Dar took it.
"So, I guess after all that crap you guys needed some time out?"
Dar glanced up. "Not really. We just decided to go down. Why?"
Mark looked distinctly uncomfortable. "Just some stuff I heard." He knew better than to dissemble in front of Dar. He could get away with it with Kerry on occasion, but those icy blue eyes lanced right through him as Dar's expression changed.
"Now what?" With a look of disgust, Dar dropped the part on the table. "C'mon, spill it. What bullshit are they passing around this time?"
Mark studied the table, wondering for the nth time how he let himself get into situations like this one. Stolid loyalty to Dar? Maybe. "People are saying you guys are having problems."
"Problems?" Dar's tone sounded honestly puzzled. "Mark, we always have problems. Our whole damn job is nothing but problems."
Mark looked up. "No, not here." He took a breath. "Like, between you." He watched Dar's face, feeling a sense of weird relief at the expression of mild confusion that appeared there. "It made like, no sense to me, you know?"
Dar crossed her arms over her chest. "Is this..." She fished for an explanation. "Having something to do with her black eye? I'd heard rumors some idiots think I did that."
Dar's reaction wasn't what he'd been expecting. Mark fingered the piece of gear again. "No, um...it was mor
e like that Kerry's mad at you and thinking about moving out," he said. "And that, yeah, I guess you guys were fighting, and that's how she got a black eye."
"That's ridiculous."
"Well yeah, I know," Mark said. "I don't know where this crap comes from."
Dar sighed, tossing the bit of hardware away from her. Then she paused and considered what she was feeling--impatience, annoyance? "Maybe we should put on a boxing exhibition," she remarked, with wry humor. "Or...I know. We'll put on a kissing exhibition in the lobby. How's that? Think anyone will catch a clue we're not breaking up?"
Mark blushed. "Um..."
"I just don't get it." Dar gazed thoughtfully at the other side of her office. "We've both been hurt before. Hell, we've spent weeks in slings since Kerry's started working here. Why all this crap now?" She rested her elbows on the table and shook her head. "Hope Ker doesn't hear all of it."
"Me either," Mark said. "She's got a mean temper."
The words made Dar smile a little. "Anyway." She picked up the cellular device. "Talk to me about this thing. When are its owners coming after it?
Mark gathered his wits and accepted the change of subject. He'd half expected Dar to fly off the handle, or react in some way, so the almost benign indifference she was exhibiting puzzled him. It wasn't as though he thought the rumors were true--after all, he interacted with his two bosses on a daily basis, and neither of them was great at hiding even minor spats.
Kerry got all nervous when they were disagreeing. She was restless as hell in meetings and she lost her usual even tempered patience when dealing with the staff or the daily problems they often faced. Luckily it never lasted that long, but it was easy to spot.
"I think they'll be here Monday," he told Dar. "But the basics are-- it's a remotely accessed cell device."
"I got that far on my own." Dar cocked an eyebrow at him.
Now Dar, on the other hand, she'd pull back into her shell, glaring and snapping at everyone. Nobody liked dealing with her when she was like that, but Mark could also remember that before Kerry had entered her life nobody had much liked dealing with Dar even when she wasn't angry or upset,.
Stormy Waters: Book 10 in The Dar & Kerry Series Page 20
