Addicted to Pearls (Revised) (Pearls Series)

by Dani Marie

  Addicted to Pearls

  By

  DaniMarie

  Cover Design by Blue Moose Design Services

  Copyright @ 2012 by DaniMarie All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

  Acknowledgements

  This book is dedicated to my entire family.

  Thank you for encouraging me, pushing me and for those who were willing to skip the naughty bits. I couldn’t have done it without your support.

  Addicted to Pearls

  By Dani Marie

  Chapter 1

  His hands were strong and rough from work but gentle as he slid them under her skirt lifting it and her. She was braced against the wall, her arms around his neck, fingers in his hair as they kissed. She wrapped her legs around him and he used one of those wicked hands to rip her panties from one side so his talented fingers could find her wet center. She shivered as he pressed one then two fingers inside. Her moan was caught in his kiss. He would take her, here, now right against this wall in the court house where anyone could walk by and see them. Neither cared, their need was too strong.

  "Tori, I need that file. Tori, did you hear me?"

  She startled then looked up at her co-worker and automatically handed the woman the file in question. With barely a look the woman left without another word. Tori couldn't believe she'd been day dreaming at work again.

  Tori Dell was bored, her life was boring and she was boring. She didn‘t want to be and she wasn’t going to continue to be. She knew deep in her heart that this was not how her life was supposed to be. There was a real woman just waiting for the right moment to come out and play. That moment had to be soon before she woke up one day and it was too late. Those erotic books she had started reading were giving her tips and ideas on how to start. She was ready to reach for the sky. It would be hard in ways, living in a small town imposed its own limitations and Tori had been taught early on to conform. She just had to figure out how to break the cycle.

  Today, as she surveyed her office at the court house, she really wondered why she was waiting. Watching police officers, lawyers and the ‘innocent until proven guilty crowd’ left her feeling restless and most definitely bored. Tori was the court clerk and she did her job well. Her quiet demeanor and unemotional effectiveness ensured that the officers didn’t tease her, the lawyers respected her and the defendants didn’t often try to treat her with disrespect. This job wasn’t how she wanted to spend the rest of her working days. There had to be something more challenging, fun and exciting than this. It was like she was trying to break out of her own skin. Behind her unmoving bland expressions Tori was often laughing inside, or wanted to join in the conversations around her. She didn’t though, so for years she continued living in the shell of her current life. Not for much longer though, she smiled thinking “I can’t wait to get started.”

  Maybe it was her deep auburn hair. She’d read how wild and outrageous redheads were supposed to be. Tori knew she had a good body, all those hours of trying to work out her frustrations in her home gym had helped with that. She wasn’t very tall, but she had curves in all the right places, she’d never be long and lean like the models. Her long curly hair would be an eye catcher if she ever wore it down instead of the tight bun she was always seen in. With pale skin and no make-up, Tori felt as if she had no color and faded into the background of the world around her. What Tori didn’t see was that her skin was flawless and she had a healthy look about her.

  Tori pushed her black rimmed glasses back up her nose and sighed. Her thoughts turned to things she wanted to do, the way she wanted her life to be. The time of holding back was going to be over. The stigma of how the Dell sisters, Tori and her older sister Lisa, were supposed to behave. The sister’s lives were defined by their father, a pastor gone bad, and mother that prized reputation over everything. The girls had it drummed into their heads over and over to always consider what the rest of the community would think, say and how any action could harm their reputations.

  Their Mom hadn’t always been so critical but when the scandal of their Dad running away with the church treasurer after a yearlong affair, Mom had changed. It must have been a coping mechanism of some sort. But from that day forward, no hint of scandal would be tolerated.

  Tori’s Mom was very vocal about this and criticized the girls regularly for any perceived infraction. Something as simple as a smile when a man was present was enough to earn an hour long lecture on the evils of sinning.

  So, Tori continued living the lie, aching to join in, but not quite able to. To the world, she remained a woman that was very quiet and reserved. She wore conservative out of date outfits that hid any idea of her shape and never a hint of romance, scandal or fun for that matter was associated to her; other than one tiny incident when she was younger that most folks didn’t remember at this point. Men didn’t look at her, but past her, through her, never seeing the real person behind the persona.

  Deep inside her, she had hopes and dreams of living a more exuberant life. Tori wanted love and laughter, children and a husband that she could love with all her heart. It was as if she was two separate people, the one the world saw and the one she was in her heart. She kept her secrets at home, including that workout equipment hidden in a spare bedroom, and just two weeks ago her new contacts lenses had come in from the optometrist two towns over. She read romance and erotic novels that she kept in a secret cupboard and had even watched movies that her Mother would be shocked to know she’d seen. Tori had a second wardrobe she had recently been building. Bright colors, jeans, form fitting tops, short skirts, thigh high boots and even a sexy little black dress that no one had ever seen her in. What would scandalize her Mother the most was the drawer full of sexy, skimpy lingerie. Not even her sister (the person she was closest to in the world) would have guessed what Tori wore under the conservative and baggy clothes. She had fallen in love with all those matching panties and bra sets, camisoles and teddies in silks and satins. Maybe buying those first few sets a couple months ago had sparked this urge to break out.

  Some of Tori’s fear of town gossip came not just from her parents but from her first and only kiss. As a young girl of 16, just coming into the swan from the ugly duckling stage, she hadn’t been ready for the day that escalated her fear of really living life. That simple kiss taught her the value of what her mother had drummed into the girls. One tentative kiss with, worldly by small town standards Brent, and Tori had become the gossip of Claytonville High School. It was only one kiss and not all that memorable in Tori’s mind, but the ramifications had been astounding.

  Her mother had ranted and prayed for hours for Tori’s redemption and the eyes of the community seemed to slice through her with condemnation. She was taunted as easy and had endured the snickers and whispered hateful words from other teenage girls and the boys until they had grown tired after a week or so and moved on to the next scandal. The girls were the worst since they were just starting to see that she was going to be beautiful and felt threatened. Those girls were viscous as only teenage girls can be. She knew then, that her mother was right, anything that could be construed as gossip worthy must be avoided at all costs. So she became more entrenched in her quiet lonely world. The dowdy, reclusive Tori was born that day. She hadn’t realized that she would be missing out on living when she had taken this path.

  Lisa was even quieter than Tori, with a truly meek character that often drove Tori crazy. Never a harsh word or though
t, even just between the sisters was uttered by Lisa, she was stepped on and used by everyone. She wore herself to a frazzle and no one even noticed. So Tori just accepted that she had to hold all emotion in, keep her wants and needs to herself. It became natural for Tori to hide and shut herself off from the world, even, or maybe especially, her family.

  Tori wanted to be confident, to show off the body she’d worked so diligently and secretively on. She loved her sexy new clothes and wanted to let others see her in some of them. Sadly, the changes she’d allowed herself in public so far, was that new underwear collection. Panties, bras, camisoles, garters, thongs, teddies, if it was sexy she now had it. No, not even Lisa knew she was already wearing her “dirty” little scraps of silk and lace under her conservative clothes, secretly loving the feel of those silky secrets against her skin. Just like her day dreams, these were for her alone. For now anyway.

  I’ve got a good life, just boring, she tried to tell herself. With a home of her own, a fairly new car and the ability to pay the bills with some leftover is more than a lot of people have. Still, she wanted more and when she saw other women with families she knew she deserved more too. Watching a couple in love tore at Tori’s heart, always reminding her what she didn’t have. Reading was an escape that gave her a glimpse of other people’s lives, showing her that there were other ways to live. She often wondered if the romantic lives portrayed in those books were possible in real life. Because that’s what she wanted, love and laughter with a husband and children, and especially wild romance. She wanted to know what it felt like to be touched, to touch a man and feel this pleasure the books were always talking about.

  Chapter 2

  Trying to focus on work seemed beyond her. What’s wrong with me today, she wondered? That’s when Gloria Bland, the court judge walked in, she was a striking woman, brimming with platinum blond hair, curves and confidence. Think of Marilyn Monroe with brains. Today Gloria was wearing a dark grey suit, it should have looked conservative, but on her it was just plain sexy. Men stopped talking to watch her walk by, women looked at her nervously or with envy. To top it all off the woman was smart, good at her job and she was just so darn nice. Not that fake type of nice some beautiful women have but the deep down real type of nice. Tori loved her, Gloria was her idol and the closest thing she had to a friend.

  “Hi Tori, what wicked things have you done this week?” Gloria asked her. This was Gloria’s way of teasing Tori, and secretly trying to open Tori up to a little fun. Gloria was always trying to get Tori to do things with her, but Tori remained firm with thoughts of the gossip in mind. That didn’t stop their tentative friendship, although it was decidedly favored to one side. Gloria did most of the talking, often telling Tori of some naughty thing she’d done. But with Gloria, naughty was nice. She was happily married and kept her naughty comments centered on things like some slinky negligee she met her husband at the door with and stories of that nature. Tori always blushed and continued working, but Gloria persisted.

  Tori dreamed of the day she could answer Gloria with something naughty of her own to share. But in the three years since Gloria had become judge and sashayed into Tori’s world, that day hadn’t come.

  “You need to get a life, have some fun,” Gloria told her adding “life is going to pass you by and one day you’ll look back and wish you’d taken a chance on fun.” Tori smiled but didn’t say anything. For some reason, today those words struck home. Gloria was right, the way she was heading she was going to die a sad, lonely virgin. At this rate she may never even get a second kiss, never mind kids. If she was going to live, to really have a chance at love and a life with any laughter and romance she was going to have to do something about it, and soon.

  Tori sat there at her desk telling herself that things were going to have to change soon. Thinking about changing brought a smile to her face. She wasn’t sure how she was going to do it, but she thought she could slowly start and see how it went.

  This was the exact moment when her life got a jolt. Tori heard the gunshot, her mind processed the noise, but she couldn’t seem to move or accept what was going on. A man came running through the hall wildly firing shots. He was waving the gun around, yelling. His wild eyes were that of someone who had lost all reason. Normally, a person would at least duck and hide. Tori didn’t. It was if she was just a spectator in her own life. Watching to see what happened. There was a moment when she knew a shot had been aimed in her general direction. She saw the gunman look at her briefly, fire, then run off. She felt the slight disruption of air near her face. The bullet must have just barely missed her and she hadn’t even flinched. Then her thoughts changed course and she realized that not only had she almost died but she may still die this day. Her mind whirled with all the lost days, the lack of love and how sad it would be to leave this earth without having experienced life. She heard one more gunshot and more yelling but still she sat immobile thinking about her life. She later remembered thinking that if she lived through this, she wouldn’t take it slow, she would start living right away.

  It’s funny, she thought, how dramatically a few moments of fear and chaos can change a person. This was Tori’s moment. It wasn’t long before the man with the gun was subdued and taken away. People had been fired at but thankfully no one was hurt, just scared. One officer stopped and asked Tori if she was ok and she nodded but she never even moved from her desk. She had remained sitting in the same spot the entire time. It was an hour later when she had figured it all out in her mind. This was her wake up call.

  The conference coming up in two days in the city seemed like the perfect place and time to start. With a smile that would have surprised anyone if they’d bothered to look, Tori hurried and put up her work so that she could head home. There was planning to do and a new life to begin.

  That evening Tori began packing for the conference. She included some of her normal clothing for the conference itself but she added some of the new clothes she had hidden away along with the new contacts and attitude. On the first evening of the conference there would be a friendly gathering at an area bar. That seemed like a good time and place to begin living life as the new sexy, wild and outgoing Tori. Tori decided that she would go to the bar early and get used to the idea of actually being in a bar. She would wear something sexy this time. Then when the others came in, hopefully she would at least be somewhat used to it and could relax and try to enjoy being with others. This was going to be a test and she was going to ace it. No more holding back, watching from the sidelines and wishing. It was her time.

  Chapter 3

  I love this city and my job Victor reminded himself, but at this moment he was not a happy man. His favorite female undercover officer was pregnant and showing. This timid little girl in front of him was never going to pull off the sex kitten image he needed for this operation. Especially not a wicked sex kitten with a bit of backbone character. Nope, no way, no how was she going to be able to handle it.

  “Vic, this is the way it is, we’ll just have to do the best we can,” Paul, Vic’s Sargent was saying as the young female officer sat looking at the floor not saying a word.

  Paul was right though; there wasn’t time to find anyone else. He looked at the woman again and she happened to look up at him, blushed and dropped her head even lower if that was possible. Vic groaned inwardly and tried bringing the woman back into the conversation. Fifteen minutes later, she had only said two words. No he thought, this wasn’t going well.

  There was a lot riding on this operation. So Vic made himself feel better by going over it one more time, trying to sound friendly. Making this work could potentially save the community from some very bad drug dealers.

  Vic really did love his job, being a lieutenant in the police force, and the opportunity to dip into undercover work now and then, fed his need for adventure. He was a thrill seeker at heart, and luckily his step-mother had tempered it with a good dose of common sense, just barely keeping Vic from being reckless.

 
Growing up Vic had gotten himself into several scrapes. He would try things that others would have been afraid to even think about. Living out on the ranch had given him a strong back, stronger work ethics and values, but it took the love of his step-mother to rein in those crazier stunt antics. Betty had married Vic’s dad when Vic was only 10. He had been an angry kid before that, not really understanding that he was grieving for his mother who had passed away from cancer. If Betty hadn’t been as patient and understanding as she was, Vic surely would have ended up behind bars. Now, she was someone he loved and looked up to. Vic was treated the same as the two boys she and his father soon had. The five of them had become a real family. There was no doubt in Vic’s mind that he owed his life to the woman his father had married.

  His mind focused back on the job at hand, once the newly acquired so called sex kitten had shyly left his office, Vic paged the clerk on duty to file the pile of forms he’d finally completed. Forms and paperwork were the bane of any police officers life, but it had to be done.

  Dot, the clerk sashayed into his office. That’s the only way one could explain her walk. She would have loved the undercover assignment, even asked for it. But she wasn’t a certified officer, thankfully, thought Vic. Not that Vic didn’t enjoy women, even aggressive women, now and then. But this female was driving him crazy. She was just a little too brazen and sometimes he actually felt sexually harassed, which made him snicker. Still, getting her to back off was becoming a pain.

  “Yes, Boss?” she said in her obviously well practiced “sexy whisper.” Vic sighed, what was it with this woman. Dot had asked Vic out about six months ago. She just wasn’t his type, though he really didn’t have a specific type. He just wasn’t interested in her. She was tall, thin and suggestive just like most of the women he’d dated, but his skin seemed to crawl at her touch. Not a good start to a relationship, he figured.