Gray Skies (WeHo Book 8)

by Sherryl Hancock

  It was the first thing Jazmine noticed when she woke up the next morning. Dakota was holding her in a similar way that Jazmine found so endearing when Rayden did it. She smiled and slid her hand over Dakota’s arm, snuggling a little closer, and fell asleep again.

  When Dakota woke later that morning, it was with the strangest sensation of a body next to her on the bed. It wasn’t something she was used to at all. She insisted she had her own room at Cassandra’s so she could go back to her room after sex, or Cassandra could go back to hers. She normally didn’t want to cuddle or any of that with women she slept with. She wanted to get them off and then have them go away so she could get off. Part of her knew it wasn’t ‘normal’ but it was how she was and how she liked things. Waking up next to Jazmine was, therefore, very strange to her.

  Her eyes took in the sight of the other woman, her dark red lashes around her closed eyes, her rich red hair flowing around her face and over Dakota’s arm. She noticed how smooth Jazmine’s skin was, there was literally nothing unattractive about the woman. Dakota’s eyes moved down her body. She had a dancer’s body with lean muscle, but a good amount of curve as well. Dakota noticed a couple of healing scars on her side and wondered at them.

  As she looked at Jazmine’s body, she wanted her again. She slid her hand down Jazmine’s arm and then back up to her shoulder, then to her collarbone and down her side, careful to avoid the scars. She then smoothed her hand over Jazmine’s lower torso and abdomen, then slid her hand up over perfectly rounded breasts, her thumb sliding over her nipple. Just touching Jazmine was getting her further aroused.

  Jazmine stirred, and turned over on her side, facing away from Dakota. Dakota slid her hand over Jazmine’s waist and pulled her gently back, closing the gap between them so she could hold her closer. Dakota moved her head, to nuzzle Jazmine’s neck, her lips kissing and sucking gently, her hand between Jazmine’s breasts brushing back and forth on her skin.

  Jazmine woke to the feeling of Dakota kissing and caressing her. Her body was already alive with sensations. She moaned softly, and pressed back against Dakota who pulled her closer. She continued to touch her, getting her more and more excited, until she finally slid her hand downward, touching Jazmine and sliding a finger inside her. Jazmine gasped out loud and pressed closer to Dakota. She reached her hand back to grasp at Dakota’s body, pulling her closer, moaning louder. Within minutes Jazmine was climaxing and holding tight to Dakota’s hip.

  Immediately after her orgasm, Jazmine turned over to kiss Dakota deeply, her hand sliding up from Dakota’s hip to her shoulder and then down to caress her nipples. She pressed Dakota back on the bed and moved over her. She positioned herself between Dakota’s legs, and moved her body against Dakota’s. As a dancer, she had very strong hips and the ability to move them in very enticing ways. Dakota’s hands were on those hips, guiding her, and grinding Jazmine down against her. Jazmine’s lips kissed her skin, sucking gently, then harder as she felt Dakota getting more and more excited. Within minutes Dakota was crying out, holding onto her, sending Jazmine over the edge again as well.

  “And good morning…” Dakota said, grinning as they both lay panting.

  Jazmine chuckled. “I’ll say.”

  Jazmine positioned herself on her side facing Dakota, and put her hand on Dakota’s shoulder. Dakota looked over at her, grinning.

  “This is actually kind of nice…” Dakota said, sounding surprised.

  “Guess you don’t usually do this either, huh?” Jazmine asked, her eyes sparkling with amusement.

  “Nope,” Dakota said, shaking her head.

  “So is this hard for you?” Jazmine asked, not wanting Dakota to be uncomfortable.

  Dakota looked back at her for a long moment, as if trying to decide, then she shook her head. “No,” she said, smiling in wonder. “I guess I’ve never tried it before…”

  “Well maybe I’m not the only one who needs to try new things,” Jazmine said, grinning as she winked at Dakota.

  “Uh-huh,” Dakota said, grinning.

  Jazmine sat up and stretched with Dakota watching her appreciatively “You are one seriously spectacular looking female, you know that?”

  Jazmine glanced back at Dakota, looking surprised by the compliment. She leaned down and kissed Dakota’s lips.

  “Thank you,” she said, smiling.

  Dakota pulled her back down and kissed her again. Within minutes, they were making love again. Afterward they lay together and got to chatting again. After a while, they got up and got dressed. The hotel had cleaned the clothes they’d driven to Vegas in.

  They went down to the hotel restaurant and had breakfast. While eating they decided to stay another day and night. Dakota wanted to check out the night clubs in an area of Las Vegas called the Fruit Loop. Jazmine agreed, but wanted to buy something less flashy for going to a club. This time she insisted on using her own credit card. They went back to Diesel, a trendy punk rock style store. She bought a pair of opaque black slim fit jeans and a shirt that was see through black tulle with a blue, gray, and white leopard print on it and pockets strategically placed to cover her breasts. Dakota insisted on buying her a pair of rocker style boots that had three-inch heels.

  “They look like you,” Dakota told her, grinning.

  Dakota ended up buying a sleeveless denim shirt and a edgy black bra with stud accents.

  They spent the rest of the day gambling. Dakota hit another winning streak and was able to not only settle the hotel bill and charges, but had an addition $20,000 to spare which she pocketed.

  That night they hit the bars. Jazmine looked really sexy with her shirt open to just below her breasts. She had on Dakota’s wide studded belt with a Harley Davidson belt buckle, her rocker boots, and Dakota’s leather biker jacket. Dakota also wore the new clothes she’d bought earlier, keeping the shirt open to her waist. At the first club they went to there were a lot of butch women who flirted outrageously with Jazmine. They asked her to dance, asking if she and Dakota were together. Dakota made a point of not being possessive, not wanting to interfere with Jazmine’s good time. She did, however, keep a watchful eye on the goings on, making sure the other butches weren’t getting too pushy. Jazmine would look over at Dakota whenever a woman was being too forward, and Dakota would intervene, strongly if necessary. One woman got to see the nasty side of Dakota when she wouldn’t give up her effort to corner Jazmine. She quite literally had Jazmine backed into a corner when Dakota returned from the bathroom. Dakota immediately stepped up behind her, looking down at the slightly shorter woman.

  “Back up off her now…” Dakota growled lowly.

  “She said you ain’t her thang,” the woman muttered over her shoulder.

  “Well, neither are you, so back up,” Dakota said, clamping her hand around the woman’s forearm.

  “Back off!” the woman snapped, apparently used to being in charge.

  Dakota used strength it never appeared she had, to whip the woman around to face her. Then she grabbed the woman by two handfuls of the jean jacket she wore and backed her up against the nearest wall, her blue eyes blazing.

  “I told you to leave the lady alone,” Dakota said, her tone still low. “Now you either listen, or I’m gonna make you listen. You got me?”

  The woman stared back at Dakota and sensed the violence simmering just under the surface in the younger woman. Finally, she held up her hands in surrender. Dakota let her go, and turned back to Jazmine.

  “You okay?” she asked, her eyes scanning Jazmine’s face.

  Jazmine smiled. “I’m okay.”

  Dakota put her hand out and Jazmine took it. She led her back to the bar and bought her a drink. The rest of the time at that particular club, Jazmine only danced with Dakota, making it very obvious to everyone that they were indeed together. There were a few deep long kisses on the dance floor, but it was fun and drinking.

  The second club they went into had a lot more femme lesbians and they were like a swarm of locusts o
n the quite handsome and sexy Dakota. Jazmine hung back, watching Dakota work her magic. She had women panting over her left and right. It was undeniably interesting to watch. Jazmine was very careful to keep any feelings of jealousy out of her eyes and out of her comments when Dakota made her way to her after each brief encounter.

  Jazmine keeping out of Dakota’s way didn’t go unnoticed. She found it very interesting. She was used to either extremely jealous women, or women that didn’t care at all. She could tell that Jazmine was watching her, but she didn’t feel like Jazmine was trying to build a case against her. She’d found over the years that women would sometimes watch and wait, and then hit her with all the bad acts she’d done. They’d foolishly thought it would work to make her feel bad. She never felt bad. Jazmine didn’t seem to be doing that though.

  At one point Dakota walked over to where Jazmine sat at the bar with her back to her. Dakota slid Jazmine’s shirt off her shoulder, and kissed the exposed skin softly. She held her empty bottle up the bartender, giving her a wink, then leaned on the bar facing Jazmine.

  “So how’re you doing?” Dakota asked.

  “Good,” Jazmine said, smiling. “That one is cute.” She nodded back toward the girl Dakota had just danced with.

  Dakota looked over at the girl. She was a very tiny blond Barbie doll type. Then she looked at Jazmine. “Not as cute as you,” she said, winking at Jazmine.

  “Uh-huh,” Jazmine said, grinning.

  Dakota looked back at Jazmine thinking that she was definitely the hottest woman in the place. She pushed off the bar and positioned herself between Jazmine’s legs so they were eye to eye. She leaned in, kissing Jazmine’s lips deeply, her hands sliding around Jazmine’s waist to pull her closer.

  “Come dance with me,” Dakota said.

  Jazmine smiled, “Okay.”

  They danced for a couple of fast songs. Dakota really loved to watch Jazmine dance, the girl definitely had the hot hip hop dancer thing down. She could easily see why Jazmine was popular for the music videos. She had the body and the moves and the look to stand out, and she did. Even the femmes in the place were attracted to her. As the song slowed down, Dakota moved in, taking Jazmine in her arms and moving with her, her body molding to Jazmine’s.

  Jazmine enjoyed dancing with Dakota, she had good rhythm, and now during the slow song, with Dakota’s body pressed close to hers, she felt her body getting excited. By the time the song was over, she was aching for release.

  As the song ended and another started, Jazmine leaned into Dakota. “I need you…” she whispered into Dakota’s ear, her tone unmistakably horny.

  Dakota looked down at her, seeing the look in her eyes. She grinned, and dropped her hand to take Jazmine’s. There was a quick walk to the bathroom and they had sex in the larger stall, their screams covered by the loud music of the club.

  Chapter 6

  Raine was sitting on the bed in the room she was staying in at Cat’s house. She’d just gotten out of the shower after getting back from work. She had her music on and was listening to Justin Timberlake’s “Cry Me a River.” It was hitting way too close to home at that point. The lyrics talked about how she was everything to him, and they just threw it away and now they were sorry. It went on to sarcastically suggest that the girl “cry a river” indicating that it wouldn’t do any good to do it.

  The problem was that she knew she couldn’t be as callous at this. Part of her wished that she could be, because it would probably hurt less, but wishing didn’t make it happen. Natalia had finally stopped calling and texting. Raine knew she needed to make a decision and do what she needed to do. She couldn’t hide out at Cat’s house forever.

  She was sitting on the bed, her knees up to her chest when there was a knock on the door. It was half open and she looked up to see Natalia standing hesitantly in the doorway. Raine couldn’t believe the way her heart lurched at seeing Natalia again. There had never been a way to get over how beautiful how Natalia was with her dark eyes and bright smile that made her eyes sparkle. Even as she stood looking almost afraid to talk to Raine, she was beautiful. Her dark hair was pulled back in a messy ponytail and her eyes red from crying.

  Raine steeled herself and motioned with her hand for Natalia to come in. Natalia walked in, closing the door behind her, and then walked over to the bed and sat down right next to where Raine’s feet were. Raine looked at her, seeing the sadness in Natalia’s entire presence. It struck a chord in Raine, but she filed it away, not wanting to let it make her weak right now.

  “Can we please talk?” Natalia pleaded.

  Raine thought about it for a moment, then nodded. “Okay.”

  Natalia took a deep breath, expelling it slowly to try and calm her nerves. “Raine, I am so sorry for what happened, I would give anything to change it, but I can’t. You need to know that I love you so much and I will never love anyone the way I love you. Nothing will ever change that.”

  Raine looked at Natalia, her eyes searching Natalia’s as she talked. When Natalia finished her statement, Raine narrowed her eyes slightly.

  “Tell me what happened that night,” she said to Natalia. “The truth.”

  Natalia winced at the last. The fact that Raine now didn’t trust her to tell the truth bothered her no end. She knew that she’d destroyed Raine’s trust and that it was what was keeping them apart. She just didn’t know if she knew how to fix it at this point.

  “I was drinking too much that night,” Natalia said. “And I’d gone to the bathroom feeling sick and emotional. I was mad that you’d come late again that night, and that you were working so much… I was crying in the bathroom and was just coming out of the stall when I ran into Dakota. She saw that I was crying and I tried to wipe away my tears so she wouldn’t see, but I got makeup in my eyes. She helped me over to the sink to try to clean up. When I thought I’d gotten it all, she saw more and wiped at it with her thumb. That was when we kissed.”

  “Did you kiss her?” Raine asked, remembering what Dakota had said.

  Natalia hesitated, but then shook her head. “No, she kissed me, but I should have stopped her and I didn’t.”

  “Then what?” Raine asked, doing her best to steel herself against the rest.

  “Raine…” Natalia said, her voice pained.

  “I need to hear it,” Raine said evenly.

  Natalia looked down, afraid to see Raine’s eyes when she told the rest of the story. When she got to the part about what Dakota had done, tears fell from her eyes.

  “So she left, you didn’t…” Raine said. Her voice trailed off as she felt sick at the idea of Natalia touching Dakota sexually.

  “No,” Natalia said, shaking her head vehemently.

  Raine drew in a deep breath and expelled it slowly. Natalia’s account of what had happened matched Dakota’s.

  “You said you were mad at me…” Natalia nodded, looking sad still. “You were working so much, and I just felt like we were drifting apart. With the studio deal I was really excited by the idea and I wanted to share it with you, but you were so tired all the time. You’d come home, take a shower and go to bed… I just felt like you weren’t even a part of this great opportunity that I was getting. I guess I resented you a bit.”

  Raine closed her eyes for a moment, nodding and grimacing at the same time. She blew her breath out, pressing her lips together.

  “I heard that you’re pulling out of the studio,” Raine said then, surprising Natalia by the change in direction of the conversation.

  Natalia nodded. “I just can’t be there right now, knowing that what happened with Dakota did this to us and… This mess has shown me what is really important to me, and it’s not the studio. It is and has always been you, Raine. If I don’t have you, I don’t want anything.”

  Raine gave her a pained smile. Then she surprised Natalia by reaching over to the nightstand and picking up an envelope, which she handed to Natalia.

  The envelope was addressed to her at the apartment and even ha
d a stamp on it already.

  “What is this?” she asked, her eyes searching Raine’s face.

  “Open it,” Raine said softly.

  Natalia opened the envelope. It was a single thing, a check made out to her. Then she read the amount.

  “Fifty thousand…” she whispered. “Raine, what is this?”

  “It’s why I was working so much overtime,” Raine said, “because I wanted you to have something to buy into the studio with.”

  Natalia’s mouth opened in surprise. “You did this for me?” she asked, her tone aghast.

  Raine nodded, looking somber.

  “Aye dios mio…” Natalia whispered as new tears began.

  She’d been so mad at Raine for working so much. She’d thought that Raine had just wanted to stay away, or didn’t care about the studio. It had made her believe that Raine really didn’t love her, and it had made her just taciturn enough to allow Dakota to do what she’d done.

  “Raine…” she said through her tears. “I had no idea… Why didn’t you tell me?”

  Raine smiled sadly. “Well, it’s not really a surprise if I tell you…”

  “I can’t take this,” Natalia said, handing the check to Raine.

  “Why?” Raine said. “It’s what it was always meant for.”

  Natalia shook her head. “I meant what I said, Raine, if I don’t have you, I don’t want the studio, especially knowing that ultimately it was the studio that brought Dakota into our lives, and it’s what happened with Dakota that ended us.”

  “I talked to Dakota,” Raine said after a long pause.