In Plain Sight

by Sherryl Hancock

  The waitress handed her a salt shaker and tapped her neck. Memphis lowered her head and licked the girl’s neck slowly and sensually. The waitress bit her lip, closing her eyes. Salt was shaken onto the waitress’ neck, and Memphis once again lowered her head, sucking at the girls’ skin. This time the waitress put her hands to Memphis’ head to hold it there longer. The group cheered, even as Memphis began to laugh. She lowered her head then and took the shot glass between her teeth, pulling it out and tipping her head back to down it without using her hands. The waitress put a lime wedge in her mouth and her hands to Memphis’ neck, pulling her down to kiss her. Memphis sucked the wedge, then spit it aside, leaning back down to kiss the waitress deeply. The girl was left visibly weak in the knees.

  “Christ, girls, could you leave my waitresses out of this?” Millie said, grinning as she walked up. “Jane’s gonna be useless for the next half hour!”

  “Sorry, Millie!” Cody said.

  “This one’s not.” Millie leaned up to kiss Jet on the lips. “But she’s so hot, she knows she can get away with it.”

  Kieran looked over at Fadiyah, the girl who was married to Jet Mathews. Fadiyah had simply smiled at what Millie had said. It was obvious the girl didn’t mind the attention her wife was getting. Kieran had to admit that Jet Mathews was a very attractive woman, with a serious amount of sex appeal oozing from her pores. In fact, most of the women in this group—and the one man who obviously rated inclusion—were all incredibly appealing in one way or another. They were all different types and styles; it was amazing that such a group got along so well. There was a lot of goodnatured ribbing, but none of it seemed malicious. There were obviously a lot of private jokes and history between some of these women.

  As Memphis’ set started, Millie introduced her as the hottest DJ in all of the western world. Memphis shook her head at the description.

  “And don’t worry, ladies,” Millie said. “I’m working on trying to get her here as your house DJ…”

  Screams went up all over the club, which was packed to the rafters.

  The group all exchanged shocked looks.

  “Didn’t know Millie was trying to land her permanently,” Remington said.

  “BJ is ready to chew nails,” Xandy said.

  Wynter grinned. “Oh yes he is.”

  “Think she’ll do it?” Jet asked. “It’d be fuckin awesome, having her spin here all the time.”

  “Yeah, it would,” Jazmine said.

  Memphis started her set and the dance floor was instantly packed. Kieran watched the way Memphis moved, with her headset on one ear. She was never still, shifting from one deck to the next, moving her hands constantly as well as her head. Women walked up to the booth in a stream, and Kieran watched as Memphis would lean down to talk to whoever it was. She’d see a flash of a grin, a nod, a smile. One woman reached up and kissed her. Memphis took it all in her stride. She was also being sent drinks continuously and, Kieran discovered when she walked into the booth, a number of notes with phone numbers and names.

  “Good lord,” Kieran said, seeing the pile of notes off to the side, as well as a number of untouched drinks.

  “Want one?” Memphis asked, grinning. “If I drank half of what was sent I’d be so hammered right now I couldn’t stand up.”

  Kieran laughed. “They do seem to love you here.” She glanced out at the crowd. “And I am getting a series of dirty looks…”

  “Don’t worry about it,” Memphis said as she cut in a new song. “DJs are like bartenders. Everyone thinks they want to get to one, till they do.”

  “Why, what happens when they do?”

  “They have amazing, mindblowing sex,” answered a voice from the door.

  Memphis looked up and her mouth dropped open. “Carma?”

  The woman—an incredibly beautiful, very curvy Latina woman—smiled, holding her arms out to Memphis. Memphis actually took her headphones off long enough to step over and hug her.

  “What the hell are you doing here?” Memphis asked as she stepped back over to the DJ table. “Oh, shit, sorry. Carmalina, this is Kieran. Kier, this is Carmalina, a fellow DJ—my mentor, actually.”

  “Oh my,” Kieran said, smiling. “It’s lovely to meet you.” She extended her hand to the other woman.

  “Hi,” Carmalina said, smiling and taking Kieran’s hand. “Where are you from, chica?”

  “England.”

  “And now you’re here with my girl?”

  “Oh.” Kieran looked surprised. “No, we’re just friends.”

  “Oh.” Carmalina turned to Memphis. “Con quién está usted?”

  “I’m not with anyone,” Memphis said.

  “My lucky night…” Carmalina moved to stand behind Memphis, sliding her hands around her slim waist, pressing her body up against her.

  Memphis grinned, even as she moved her hands over the mixer and let Carmalina’s hands slide over hers. Kieran felt a stab of jealousy at how smoothly they moved together. It was obvious they’d done this before. She left the booth, deciding she really didn’t want to see that much. She was still warring with her emotions about Oliver versus Memphis. She knew she was very attracted to Memphis, but also knew that Oliver offered an actual relationship. She did, however, absolutely adore Memphis already.

  As she exited the booth, Kieran noticed Raine, Natalia, Jazmine, and a few of the other girls dancing. They grabbed her and pulled her out onto the floor with them.

  “Is that Carmalina Garcia in the booth with Memphis?” Natalia said.

  “You know her?” Kieran asked.

  Natalia nodded. “I know she’s the best DJ in Mexico. We come from the same part of the country.”

  “Oh,” Kieran said. “Well, she and Memphis seem to have a history of some sort.”

  “Wow.” Natalia looked shocked. “Kieran, you should come to my class.”

  “Class?”

  “Memphis didn’t tell you? She comes at least twice a week when she’s home. You should have her bring you.”

  “I’ll talk to her about that,” Kieran said. “What kind of class is it?”

  “Cardio dance. You’d love it.”

  The group continued to dance. Kieran noted that other women from the group seemed to be hanging around the edges of the floor, the ones that were more butch.

  “They don’t dance?” she said.

  “Not many of them do,” Natalia said, grinning. “Not that they can’t—some of them can very nicely, like Harley and Jet, but they tend to keep an eye on us instead.”

  “An eye on you…” Kieran trailed off as she noticed a butch woman moving toward Xandy and talking to her.

  Xandy smiled and nodded, saying “thank you” for something. The woman leaned in and said something else, and Xandy shook her head, taking a step back. The woman stepped forward, even as Xandy turned her head, clearly looking for someone. Quinn seemed to appear out of thin air behind the woman and to Xandy’s side. The woman glanced at her, and Quinn merely lifted an eyebrow. The woman put her hands up and stepped back.

  Quinn licked her lips, winking at Xandy, and Xandy reached up to touch her cheek affectionately. As Kieran watched, Quinn slid her hand around Xandy’s waist, pulling her close and leaning down to kiss her lips softly, then again with a deeper show of possession. Quinn lifted her head and looked around, her point made that Xandy belonged to her and no one better think differently for even a second. Kieran found the display very profound and moving.

  She, like many others in the world, had seen the videos and reports about Xandy Blue and her bodyguard Quinn Kavanaugh and their love affair. It was very different seeing it in person and in action. Kieran absolutely loved a love story. She found that she wanted to learn about other love affairs as well. She’d heard from Memphis that the group had some fairly interesting couples. Memphis had also said that she couldn’t talk about all of them because she didn’t know them; she only knew the one that had bloomed between Remington and Wynter during the tour.

&
nbsp; Remington, the world-famous five-time bantam-weight Women’s MMA champion, had retired, and had become Wynter Kincade’s bodyguard. She’d saved Wynter’s life by catching her when she fell from a two-story stage set. The world had fallen in love with the Haitian Creole fighter who’d talked to Wynter in her native language to calm her down while paramedics checked her over. It had been obvious to the world that Remington LaRoché was in love with the woman she was protecting. It had been another fighter’s crap-talking about Wynter that had gotten Remington back in the ring a few months before, to take the woman on and shut her up for good. No one talked badly about Wynter in Remington’s presence; Remington was the consummate southern gentleman. It was incredibly endearing.

  On a break from the DJ’s booth, Memphis went to check on Kieran and found her out on the patio talking to Jet and Skyler. She grabbed a couple of drinks and headed back inside.

  “So you went back to Iraq to rescue Fadiyah?” Kieran was asking Jet.

  Jet nodded. “Yeah.”

  “How incredibly romantic,” Kieran said, shaking her head.

  “Didn’t seem that romantic to me,” Skyler said, grinning. “Getting shot at and all.”

  “You were there too?” Kieran asked.

  “Sky and Sebastian,” Jet said, smiling over at her friend.

  “Army sticks together,” Skyler said by way of explanation.

  “And I’m the one that got shot, thank you very much,” Jet said.

  “’Cause you blocked Fadi from getting shot,” Skyler said. She winked at Kieran. “Now that’s romantic, right?”

  “What? How?” Kieran asked.

  “Someone was taking a shot at us—I was carrying Fadi, and I turned to take the bullet, thinking it would hit my vest.”

  “Which it did,” Skyler said. “But it was a high-velocity round, so it got through.”

  “You got shot for the woman you loved…” Kieran said, sighing.

  Jet grinned at Skyler. “Sky rescued Devin from a mudslide.”

  “Oh my God, you did?”

  “Well, not just me—my team did.”

  “Yeah, Sky just piloted the helicopter, that’s all.”

  “You’re a pilot as well?” Kieran asked Skyler.

  “Yeah, I fly for DOJ too.”

  “And you rescued the woman you loved from a mudslide.”

  “Yeah, when I worked for LA Fire and Rescue.”

  Jet grinned. “Yeah, then she tried to kill me by crashing a helicopter.”

  “Not funny, asshole.” Skyler threw Jet a dirty look.

  “Okay, technically her damned good piloting skills saved my ass. Well, that and Sebastian getting me out before the damned thing blew up.”

  “Oh my God, you were in a helicopter that blew up?” Kieran said.

  “Well, I wasn’t in it at the time.”

  “Always a smart ass,” Skyler said.

  Jet winked at her. “You loved me way back when.”

  “And you’ll never let me forget.”

  Kieran looked between them, a question on her face.

  “Yeah, we dated in Iraq,” Jet said.

  Skyler nodded when Kieran looked at her.

  “Do your wives know?” Kieran asked.

  Jet nodded. “Oh yeah.”

  “Yep,” Skyler said.

  Kieran shook her head. “You women are amazing.”

  “Psshh,” Jet said. “You haven’t heard all the stories yet. Ask Jericho about her attack, where she took a knife through the back to protect Zoey. Or Cody how she took a guy over a two-story balcony to save McKenna, or the three rounds Lyric took, and you know about Quinn lifting a house off Xandy’s baby cousin, right?”

  Kieran looked completely stunned. “I guess there’s a few other stories to hear, eh?”

  “Don’t forget how Rayden thought Gray was dead for a year,” Skyler said. “Or how Jazmine saved Dakota’s life when Cassandra left her for dead.”

  “Oh my lord!”

  They both chuckled. “We’re kind of a dramatic bunch,” Skyler said.

  “I’d say so,” Kieran said, nodding. “But such interesting people…”

  Jet and Skyler exchanged a look. “So, how do you know Memphis again?” Jet asked.

  Kieran pressed her lips together. “Technically I know her through Oliver.”

  “Technically,” Jet said. “I always use that word when I’m trying to get out of trouble.”

  “Well, I’m not in trouble. Yet.” Kieran glanced around and saw Memphis standing with Carmalina. Their faces were very close.

  “But?” Skyler said.

  “But, I can very easily see myself in trouble with her,” Kieran said, looking between the two women.

  “But you’re dating Oliver?” Skyler said.

  “Yes, I guess so.”

  “Guess so.” Jet raised an eyebrow. “That’s a ringing endorsement of heterosexuality if I ever heard one.”

  Kieran laughed softly. “I don’t worry about the labels. I go with what’s in my heart. So far Memphis has been absolutely wonderful to me. Oliver… not as much.”

  “I say go for Memphis,” Jet said simply.

  “Of course you do.” Skyler gave Jet a dirty look. “You have no respect for men.”

  “That’s because men suck.”

  “Always so black and white.” Skyler shook her head. “What about my brother Sebo, or Jams?”

  “They’re exceptions.” Jet waved her hand dismissively.

  “What about Baz?” Skyler said.

  “He’s a major exception. Which is why he was allowed to marry Ashley.”

  “Allowed?” Kieran said.

  “Jet used to date Ashley,” Skyler said, smiling.

  Kieran grinned. “Are there any women you haven’t dated?”

  “A couple,” Jet said. “In Andalusia somewhere.”

  Skyler laughed, as did Kieran.

  Meanwhile, inside, Memphis was doing her best to resist Carmalina’s charms. She’d never been able to before; she didn’t know why she thought she could now.

  She’d been watching Carmalina Garcia DJ for the last couple of hours. She’d been there many, many nights before, doing the same. She watched as the woman’s hands moved over the decks and worked the mixing board. She liked that Carmalina had chosen to work with Latin music. It was brave in a world where techno was fast becoming the thing. It wasn’t that Carmalina didn’t use techno, but she used a lot of Latin backbeats.

  On this particular night, she’d made a point of getting closer to the side of the bar, where she could watch the way Carmalina mixed. Now that she knew the purpose of all the levers, buttons, and knobs, it was easier to figure out why Carmalina did what she did. She noticed Carmalina looking over at her a number of times during the night. She was writing a list of songs she wanted to download when a drink was set in front of her, and she looked up to see Carmalina’s dark eyes observing her closely.

  “You spend a lot of time writing in that book.” Carmalina gestured to the notebook she always carried.

  “They’re songs, and ideas for mixes,” she said.

  Carmalina nodded slowly, her expression changing slightly. “So, you’re watchin’ my skills, not my ass?” she asked, as if she found that hard to believe.

  She pressed her lips together, her blue eyes widening as she nodded.

  Carmalina shook her head slowly. “If that don’t beat the fuck outta all…” she said, smiling widely.

  Without warning she leaned down, capturing her lips with hers in a deep, sexually charged kiss. She felt her body respond instantly.

  When their lips parted, Carmalina’s eyes searched hers. “You an’ me, we’re gonna have a go,” she said huskily. “But first…” She drained her drink. “Drink up, mija. You’re gonna finish this set with me.”

  Carmalina took her back up to the DJ’s booth and started showing her the tracks and what she was doing. She watched everything. Eventually Carmalina had her stand in front of her and put her hands over hers to g
uide them.

  “Just like that, mija… not too fast… just like you’re caressing a woman… take your time. Yes, yes, like that… buena. Mmmm, yes, you feel that? Can you feel it about to change? Right… there—you feel that?”

  She nodded; she saw exactly what Carmalina was saying.

  “It’s a vibration,” Carmalina said into her ear, her body pressed close. “You can feel it. You’ll get to where you can sense when the music needs to change, to step up, or back down… Mmmm, so sweet.”Carmalina slid her tongue over her neck, one hand touching her waist, pulling her back.

  Later that night, as the bar closed down, Carmalina showed her how to pack up her personal gear.

  “What’s your name, mija?” she asked.

  “Memphis,” she said, having finally settled on a name.

  “Like the city?”

  Memphis nodded.

  “And how old are ya? ’Cause I know you aren’t legal to be in here.”

  Memphis didn’t answer at first. “I’m twenty,” she said after a moment—a lie.

  Carmalina’s eyes narrowed slightly. She wasn’t sure if the girl was telling the truth, but she really didn’t care. She thought the little blond was hot in a very boyish way, and she wanted her. Carmalina rarely denied herself anything she wanted—she wasn’t about to stop at this one.

  “Come on, Memphis,” she said, beckoning.

  “Where are we going?”

  Carmalina turned to look at her, putting her hand to Memphis’ cheek. “I’m going to take you to my place. I’m going to make you chorizo and eggs, we’re going to eat, and then I’m going to fuck you.”

  Memphis’ eyes widened at the last, but then she started to smile and nod. It was the beginning of a six-month relationship that ended when Carmalina got a job offer in Mexico.

  “Come with me,” Carmalina said.

  Memphis shook her head. “I can’t live in Mexico.”

  “You can live with me.”

  “And do what? I’m DJing here. My work is here, babe.”

  Carmalina looked back with regret at the beautiful blond she never got enough of.