Sebastian leaned close to Ashley, putting his lips right next to her ear. “The trick is to take her music. She’ll follow you anywhere if you have that.”
Ashley was surprised by the shiver that went through her at the proximity of this man. He was definitely handsome, and he smelled really good too. Reminding herself firmly that she was married, she smiled up at Sebastian.
“Good tip,” she said, nodding.
Jet watched the exchange, her cop instincts vibrating, but she said nothing about it. She did, however, reach over and swat Sebastian on the back of the head.
“Not cool, dude,” Jet said then. “You’re as connected there as I am.”
“True,” Sebastian said, his eyes sparkling, “which is why I know where your Achilles heel is.”
Jet shook her head, and walked inside, leaving Ashley and Sebastian standing in the patio.
“Well, it was nice to meet you,” Ashley said, smiling up at Sebastian.
“You too,” he said, nodding, as he moved to open the door for her.
As she walked through, he found himself watching her. Jet Mathews always scored the hottest women…
Ashley managed to get Jet out of the office just under than an hour later. Not before Kashena Windwalker-Marshal walked in however. Kashena walked into Jet’s cubicle, her look quizzical.
“I vaguely recall signing a leave slip for you today…” she said, already grinning, her dark blue eyes shining with humor.
Jet started to chuckle, even as she saved the document she’d been working on.
She looked up then. “I’m getting ready to leave, right now.”
“Baz told me he gave your friend a deadline,” Kashena said looking over at Ashley.
Jet stood from her chair stretching, and nodding toward Ashley.
“Kash, this is Ashley, Ash this is my boss, Special Agent Supervisor Kashena Windwalker-Marshal.”
“Hi,” Kashena said, smiling at Ashley.
“Good morning,” Ashley said, smiling too.
“You’re from Jet’s hometown right?” Kashena asked.
Ashley nodded. “We went to high school together.”
“And how was that?” Kashena asked, winking over at Jet.
“Amazing,” Ashley said, surprising both Kashena and Jet.
“Wow,” Kashena said, grinning, looking at Jet to see her reaction. She saw that Jet was shaking her head and rolling her eyes. “Guess there’s a story there I need to hear sometime…”
Jet laughed, and then cleared her throat. “We’re gonna go now,” she said, her look pointed.
Kashena chuckled. “Have a nice half day off,” she said, looking at her watch. “And I’ll put four hours back on your timesheet,” she said, narrowing her eyes.
Jet shrugged. “Doesn’t matter,” she said. “Hey are you and Sierra coming tonight?”
Kashena considered. “I think we might make it,” she said. “Colby’s at some school thing all weekend.”
“Cool,” Jet said, nodding. “Ash is hoping to meet Jericho.”
“Well you know her and Zoey always make it,” Kash said, grinning.
“Yeah, I figured as much.”
“We’ll see you tonight then,” Kash said, smiling.
“You got it,” Jet said, moving to pick up her gear bag, and gesturing for Ashley to precede her out of the office.
Kashena watched the two walk out. She, like everyone else that had met Ashley that morning, was trying to figure out the nature of their relationship. Jet changed women like she did her socks, but Jet had told her that Ashley was married, to a man no less. The girl definitely seemed to have, at the very least, a girl crush on Jet. It was going to be an interesting evening.
Jet lit a cigarette on the way out to her car, when they got to the car she opened Ashley’s door and stood outside of the vehicle finishing the cigarette, then she got in on the driver’s side.
“I take it you don’t smoke in your car,” Ashley said.
“Who’s dumb enough to smoke in a hundred and eighty thousand dollar car?” Jet asked, looking aghast at the very thought.
Ashley laughed. “I guess not you.”
“Hell no,” Jet said, shaking her head and starting the car.
“So can I ask a personal question?”
“Sure,” Jet said without hesitation.
“How can you afford this car?” Ashley asked.
Jet grinned, surprised Ashley hadn’t asked that sooner.
“One of the last things I did in the Army was a job for an outside contractor. When I got out I had a nice fat check waiting for me. I blew it on the car and my motorcycle.”
“Oh,” Ashley said, widening her eyes, “outside contractors pay that good?”
“You bet they do,” Jet said, rolling her eyes. “I thought my dad was going to have a stroke when he heard about the car…” she said, her voice trailing off as she grinned. “Waste all that money on a car…” she said, her voice imitating her father’s. “You should have invested it…” She said the last rolling her eyes. “I didn’t want to invest it, I wanted to buy a cool car and work for a living. Jesus, it’s not like I used my trust fund money or anything…”
Ashley smiled.
Jet looked over at her. “And there you have my parental issues for the day.”
“Everyone has parental issues,” Ashley said.
“Yeah? Tell me yours.”
“Oh, mine are the usual, mom thought I was fat, dad thought I was his little princess, blah, blah, blah.”
“That sounds more fun,” Jet said, grinning.
“Believe me, it wasn’t.”
“So what do you want to do now?” Jet asked, as they stopped at a red light. “We definitely need lunch, anywhere special you want to eat?”
“Wherever,” Ashley said, shrugging.
“Do you want to stay on the non-gay side of town?” Jet asked, grinning.
“Stop it!” Ashley said. “I don’t care about that, sheesh! We can eat wherever you want.”
“Fine, West Hollywood it is,” Jet said, winking over at her.
They were quiet for another few minutes as they drove. Then Ashley looked over at Jet.
“Why does your Facebook page say ‘Jet Blue’?” she asked.
Jet shrugged. “I’m a cop. I really don’t want my whole name out there. I mostly have that page so my parents know how to get ahold of me.”
“Your whole name?” Ashley asked.
Jet looked over at her. “My middle name is Blue.”
“It is?” Ashley said, surprised.
“Yeah, I chalk it up to my parents being high on something when they named me.”
“Oh, my God, stop!” Ashley laughed.
They had lunch at Katana Robata, a Japanese restaurant and sat out on the patio. The waitress who came to take their order recognized Jet.
“Oh my God, how are you!” the girl said, smiling and leaning over to hug Jet, her cleavage on full display.
“I’m alright,” Jet said, smiling. “Sara this is Ashley, she’s a friend of mine.”
“Hi,” Sara said smiling at Ashley too.
“Hello,” Ashley said, and then looked over at Jet who widened her eyes slightly.
“I’m sorry, so what can I get you?” Sara asked.
They ordered their food, and she left with a swish of her short skirt. Jet’s eyes followed the girl appreciatively. When she looked up she saw that Ashley was giving her a narrowed look.
“What?” she asked, a grin starting on her lips.
“You are a dog,” Ashley said.
“No,” Jet said shaking her head. “A dog would have slid her hand up that skirt, like she was inviting me to. I’m a gentleman.”
Ashley looked back at her, thinking that the word gentleman did seem to fit Jet pretty well. She got to see more as lunch went on. Two girls were walking by when one of them saw Jet and apparently also knew her. The blond squealed excitedly and ran over to Jet, who stood immediately. The girl barely took a breath before she launche
d herself into Jet’s arms hugging her.
Ashley noted that Jet’s hands stayed right at the girl’s waist, even though the girl was definitely pressing herself very close. When she pulled back to look up at Jet, she pressed her lips against Jet’s in a fairly deep kiss. After a long minute, Jet pulled her head back to break the kiss and smiled at the girl.
“Amy, this is my friend Ashley,” Jet said, stepping back to give Amy the hint.
Amy didn’t miss a beat, and she turned smiling brightly at Ashley. “Oh, hi,” she said. “I’m sorry, I haven’t seen Jet in months!”
“She does seem to have that effect on people,” Ashley said, her tone reasonable.
“Doesn’t she?” Amy said, laughing.
Jet remained standing, her look polite. Amy finally got the hint and retreated.
“Good lord, how many women do you know?” Ashley asked.
Jet only grinned.
By the time lunch was done, no less than five women had found it necessary to say hello to Jet. Still other women were watching her intently.
“You are one hot commodity,” Ashley said, looking around them as Sara brought over the check and handed it to Jet. “And you are not paying that check,” she said as she saw Jet reach into her pocket.
“Wanna bet?” Jet said, as she pulled out some money, and handed it to Sara, giving her a wink.
Ashley just stared at Jet, exasperated. “You don’t get to pay for everything Jet Mathews.”
“Watch me, Ashley Foster,” Jet replied.
“Simmons,” Ashley replied.
“Oh yes, the husband,” Jet said, nodding as she moved to stand.
Ashley caught the slightest hint of sarcasm in Jet’s voice and wondered about it. But she didn’t want to sound crazy if she was imagining things, so said nothing.
After lunch they walked around looking in shops, and eventually got back in the car to head back to the house.
“So, Kashena…” Ashley began hesitantly.
“Yeah?” Jet asked, glancing over at her as she drove.
“Is she… um…”
“Say it…” Jet said, her eyes sparkling.
“Gay, is she gay?” Ashley said.
“Yes, she’s gay too.”
“Do you think that a lot of women who are police officers are gay?” Ashley asked.
Jet considered the question. “I think that more women that are cops are likely to be gay, yeah,” she said. “It’s a pretty tough job for a woman, and butch women tend to do well in the men’s arena. Like firefighters, any man-type job, really.”
“I don’t know if I really get the whole butch thing,” Ashley said looking over at Jet. “How does that work?”
“Well, you have two main types of women,” Jet said. “You’ve got the more feminine women, who wear makeup and all that kind of stuff; they’re considered femme. Then there are the women who are more like men; no makeup, kind of a masculine personality,”
“Like you?” Ashley asked.
“Yeah,” Jet said nodding. “Fixing cars, carrying heavy stuff, construction, stuff like that.”
Ashley nodded. “How are they different from men then?”
Jet curled her lips in a derisive grin. “Yeah, we butches hate that comparison, I gotta tell ya.”
Ashley looked immediately contrite. “I’m sorry,” she said, “I didn’t mean anything by it.”
Jet shook her head. “It’s okay, I know you didn’t, but I wouldn’t suggest you say that to any other butch. We are nothing like men, at least no true butch is. We respect women, we treat them the way they should be treated. In a way that if men treated them even half as good, there might not be as many lesbians as there are these days.”
Ashley looked back at her. “How do you think a woman should be treated?”
“Like she’s the most fragile, beautiful thing you’ve ever seen, and that you’d walk over hot coals to be her boi.”
Ashley found that she couldn’t speak for a moment. It was the most amazing thing she’d ever heard and it didn’t surprise her one bit that it came from Jet.
“Wow,” Ashley said, blinking a couple of times.
“And that’s what I mean,” Jet said, seeing the look on Ashley’s face. “Your woman should always look at you like that, and if she doesn’t, you’re not doing something right, man or woman.”
Ashley shook her head, unable to believe that someone thought this way in this day and age. But Jet Mathews wasn’t just anyone, and Ashley had always known that.
They were both quiet for a bit. Then Jet looked over at Ashley.
“So,” she said, grinning, “what’s hubby like?”
Ashley pressed her lips together, glancing over at Jet.
“What?” Jet asked, her look quizzical.
“I’m not sure I want to tell you,” Ashley said, her tone tentative.
“Why?”
Ashley shook her head, still pressing her lips together.
“Don’t tell me, let me guess, I’m more butch than he is…” Jet said.
Ashley laughed, then grimaced.
“Seriously?” Jet asked, her look poker-faced.
Ashley grimaced again and nodded.
“Jesus, Ash…” Jet said, sounding exasperated.
“He’s very sweet…” Ashley said.
“Sweet?” Jet repeated, her tone indicating that she thought ‘sweet’ wasn’t a positive description for a guy.
“Yes,” Ashley said.
“What does he do for a living?” Jet asked.
Again Ashley hesitated, knowing how this was going to go.
“Ash…” Jet said, looking over at her as she exited the freeway.
Ashley sighed. “He’s an accountant.”
“Oh my God!” Jet said, her tone both shocked and disgusted at the same time. “Are you kidding me?”
“No,” Ashley said, looking embarrassed.
Jet blew her breath out, shaking her head. “No wonder you hadn’t said word one about him until I asked.”
Ashley bit her lip. She didn’t realize she hadn’t yet mentioned her husband, Greg. Did that say something? The fact was she really hadn’t thought about him at all up until this conversation.
Jet looked over at her, raising a black eyebrow. “What does he drive?” she asked, like that would be the final factor on whether or not her husband was a complete zero.
Ashley looked up at the ceiling of the car, not willing to answer the question.
“He drives a Prius, doesn’t he?” Jet said, like it was the worst possible car that her husband could drive.
“No, it’s a Nissan Leaf,” Ashley said triumphantly.
Jet burst into laughter. “It’s the same fuckin’ thing, Ash!”
“It is not!” Ashley said, starting to laugh herself.
Jet just shook her head, feeling sorry for the girl.
Chapter 3
That night, Ashley walked down the stairs to Jet’s foyer trying not to feel self-conscious. She’d had a hard time deciding what to wear, not wanting to appear like she was dressing up for meeting Jet’s friends, but at the same, not wanting to look sloppy. She’d gone somewhere in between wearing a pair of nice fitting jeans, a blue shirt that brought out the blue in her eyes and three inch black heels. She’d left her hair loose in curls and added a little darker color to her eye makeup, lips and cheeks. She wore silver hoop earrings and a looped silver chain around her neck. She had been pretty pleased with the look, but now she was starting to feel like she’d over done it.
Jet was standing in the backyard smoking. Ashley stood at the back sliding door staring at Jet. She wore all black from head to toe: Opaque black jeans that were snug but boot cut, black rocker-style studded boots with a two inch heel, and a black button up shirt, open at the throat with a silver byzantine-style chain with a black iron cross hanging on it. In her ears she wore two sets of small silver Irish knot style hoops, and in the lowest hole she wore black studs. As she’d said she sometimes did, she wore the slightest
smudge of black eye liner; just enough to make her eyes stand out even more than they did normally. Ashley couldn’t take her eyes off the woman as she opened the slider to step outside.
Turning around Jet took in the sight of Ashley.
“Wow…” Jet said, her light green eyes sweeping over her appreciatively. “You’re so gonna get hit on tonight,” she said, grinning.
“Stop,” Ashley said, smiling. “You look pretty amazing.”
“Thank you,” Jet said, inclining her head, moving to step closer. She leaned her head down. “I may hit on you myself,” she said, her voice a low murmur.
Ashley felt her breath catch in her throat. She bit her lip, wishing she didn’t feel her stomach flutter at Jet’s proximity, but wishing didn’t help.
After a couple of long seconds, Jet stepped back, looking down at her.
“Ready to go?” she asked, her tone completely normal.
“Y-yes,” Ashley stammered.
The drive to the bar was mercifully without much conversation. Unfortunately, it didn’t keep Ashley from inhaling the slightly different musk scent that Jet wore, which combined with the smell of leather in the car. When they got to the bar, Ashley ordered a double shot of tequila from the bartender. The woman provided it quickly with a wink. Ashley looked back at the woman, surprised.
“Told you,” Jet said from behind her, her lips right next to her ear.
Ashley shook her head, and picked up the shot, drinking it as quickly as she could, and wincing as the alcohol burned her throat.
“Jesus, babe,” Jet said, handing her a lime.
Ashley sucked the lime, trying to get the taste of tequila out of her mouth. Jet watched her with a slight grin on her lips.
Looking over at the bartender, Jet held up two fingers. “Casa Noble,” she said. “Run my tab, will ya, Jen?” Jet said, pulling out her credit card and handing it to the bartender.
“You got it, Jet,” Jen said, smiling.
Jen handed over two shot glasses and Jet handed one to Ashley. “Now,” Jet said, and she licked the spot between her thumb and forefinger and shook salt onto it, looking at Ashley.
When Ashley didn’t respond, Jet shook her head and reached down to picked up Ashley’s hand. Leaning over, she licked the same spot on Ashley’s hand she had on hers and shook salt on it, her eyes looking into Ashley’s as she did.
Jet Blue (WeHo Book 5) Page 4
