Beyond the Breakwater

by Radclyffe

  “Apparently for a minute or two. She and Caroline went off on the motorcycle, and after they talked, Bri hasn’t been back.”

  “Doesn’t sound too good,” Reese observed with a raised eyebrow. She settled back and slid her arm around Tory’s shoulder. Jed plodded in and flopped at Reese’s feet. “What’s going on, do you know?”

  Tory snuggled against Reese’s side, threading an arm around her waist as she rested her head on Reese’s shoulder. “They’re having problems.”

  “I gathered that from what Caroline said this morning. Did you get a chance to talk to her?”

  “Some.”

  “Thank God. I didn’t do a very good job.” Reese rubbed her cheek absently across the top of Tory’s head, then kissed the fine wisps of hair at her temple. “She’s really upset about Bri leaving school, I guess.”

  “Apparently she’s a lot more upset about Bri fooling around with some other girl.”

  Reese stiffened. “What?”

  “I didn’t get all the details,” Tory said quietly. “It sounds as if Bri has gotten herself involved somehow with someone up here.”

  “That doesn’t seem like Bri. She’s always been crazy about Caroline.”

  “You probably know her better than I do, but the other night I got the sense that this whole thing with Caroline going to Europe has really thrown Bri for a loop.”

  “That’s no reason to fool around,” Reese growled. “If she were a recruit and pulled a bonehead stunt like this, I’d have her mopping out every latrine in the barracks. She wouldn’t see a liberty until she was ready for retirement.”

  “She’s not a marine, honey,” Tory pointed out gently. “And she’s scared.”

  Reese fell silent. Unconsciously, she stroked Tory’s back and arm, needing her quiet strength. “Of what?”

  “That Caroline will leave her behind, I think.”

  “So she turns around and leaves instead?” Reese blew out her breath, frustrated. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

  Smiling fondly, sensing her lover’s struggle to understand something so foreign to her, Tory loosed a button on Reese’s shirt, slipped her hand inside, and smoothed her palm over Reese’s abdomen. “Emotions don’t always make sense, sweetheart.”

  “If I were worried about losing you,” Reese murmured, her lips close to Tory’s ear, “the last thing I would do is leave you.”

  “There aren’t many people in the world as solid as you, Reese Conlon.” Tory remembered how impossible it had seemed to imagine Reese straying, and although her rational mind argued it could happen, the safety and certainty of Reese’s embrace assured her it would not. “God, I got so lucky.”

  “No.” Reese shook her head, pulling Tory closer. “You’re my life, Tor.”

  “And you’re mine,” Tory whispered, raising her head to find Reese’s mouth. She kissed her slowly, savoring the softness of her lips. When she drew back, she felt Reese’s breathing hitch and her heart quickened in response. The skin beneath her fingers grew hot. “Reese?”

  “Mmm.”

  “I love you.”

  Reese groaned softly, arching her hips as Tory stroked a particularly sensitive spot just below her navel. “Don’t we both have to work this afternoon?”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “Then I think, Dr. King, that you should remove your hand.”

  “We have to shower, don’t we?”

  Reese just grinned.

  *

  Tory leaned back into Reese’s arms, sighing as Reese reached around her and smoothed warm lather over her breasts and abdomen with both hands. She let her head fall back against Reese’s shoulder, closed her eyes, and luxuriated in the heat and the knowing touch of her lover’s gentle caress. When Reese palmed her breasts, tenderly smoothing her thumbs across her nipples, Tory moaned softly. “I never want to leave here.”

  Reese chuckled, holding a full breast in one hand as she ran the other palm down the prominent slope of Tory’s belly. “The baby is growing.”

  “It’s really starting to show,” Tory murmured, her eyes still closed. “Do you mind?”

  “You have to ask?” Reese’s voice was husky as she brushed her fingers softly through the downy hair at the base of Tory’s abdomen. “It’s wonderful. And incredibly sexy.”

  Tory laughed softly, covering the exploring hand with her own. “I wouldn’t have believed it, but I actually feel sexy—in a different way than before, but good.”

  “How?” It never took more than the sensation of Tory in her arms to arouse Reese. Now, the miracle of what was happening beneath the fragile layers of skin and muscle left her in a constant state of wonder and desire. It was sexual, and yet so much more.

  “I feel as if I’m bursting with something so powerful—life, love, I guess. I look at you, and I want you to touch it, touch me, some place deep inside.”

  “I love you.” Reese groaned. Tory’s soft skin against her breasts and abdomen was like flame to tinder. She was burning, pulsing with excitement. “Take my hand…take me to those places.”

  “Hold me.”

  ???Always.”

  Tory drew Reese’s fingers between her legs, parting the delicate folds that enclosed her most sensitive places. She led her to the warm pools of her desire, guiding Reese’s fingertips gently inside and then upward, until they rested against the undersurface of her clitoris. Her legs were trembling, her breath shallow and fast. “Feel how heavy? How full?”

  “Yes,” Reese gasped, her head pounding with the effort it took to let Tory guide her. “Beautiful.”

  Tory pushed against Reese’s hand, moaning softly. Then, slowly, she drew her lover inside, resting her weight in the bend of Reese’s body as she was filled. “Ah, so good. You feel so good there.”

  Reese closed her eyes tightly, holding very still as she pressed her mouth to Tory’s neck, letting the warm water that cascaded from Tory’s skin run between her lips. Nothing ever made her feel quite so humble or so privileged as when she was inside Tory’s body. Hoarsely, she whispered, “I want to stay here forever.”

  “You can.” Fine ripples cascaded through the muscles enclosing Reese’s fingers. Tory tightened involuntarily and the pressure immediately pulsed into her clitoris. She jerked, and Reese’s palm brushed over the swollen shaft. She gave a small cry and arched in Reese’s arms.

  “What is it?”

  “I want to come.”

  Reese gently bit the tender skin below Tory’s jaw. “Can you stand?”

  “Yes.”

  When Tory reached behind and braced both palms against Reese’s thighs, Reese let the hand that had been encircling Tory’s middle drift lower until she could stroke her. Tory was already too close to tease, and Reese started the circular motion that she knew would make her come.

  “I love you, Tor,” Reese breathed when Tory trembled in her arms.

  “Can you feel it?” Tory asked urgently as she began to come.

  “Yes.” Reese worked so carefully to go slow, drawing out the pleasure as Tory climaxed in her hands.

  “Ah,” Tory sighed as she slowly relaxed into Reese’s embrace. “God, you spoil me.”

  Reese laughed a bit shakily. She tended to stop breathing every time Tory orgasmed, and her legs had gotten so weak, she’d been worried for a moment that she was going to take them both down.

  “Believe me, it’s my pleasure.”

  “Lucky me.” Tory wrapped her fingers languidly around Reese’s wrists, and gently moved her lover’s hands from between her thighs. She turned until her breasts were against Reese’s and wrapped both arms around Reese’s neck. Resting her forehead against her lover’s, she sighed again. “You realize that in another few weeks, I’m going to be too big for us to do that.”

  “We’ll find a way around it,” Reese promised, her hands dropping to Tory’s hips and caressing her softly. “It will still be okay, right?”

  “What?” Tory asked lazily.

  “For a little while longer? We ca
n still make love, right?”

  Tory laughed and moved one hand between their bodies. “As long as we can find a position where we can reach the important places, we don’t have to stop.”

  “You just need to tell me, okay?” Reese’s kissed her softly. “If we shouldn’t? If there’s a…problem.”

  Leaning her head back, Tory studied her lover’s serious countenance. “You worry too much, Sheriff.”

  “I love you so much, I just want you to be okay.”

  “I’m fine,” Tory said firmly. She insinuated her fingers into Reese’s hair and tugged gently. “Look at me.”

  Reese fell into Tory’s eyes.

  “Everything is perfect.” As she spoke, she pressed her thigh between Reese’s, leaning her weight into her, pinning her to the wall. She knew how sensitive Reese was when they made love. Often, she had to be careful that Reese didn’t come too soon from an inadvertent caress. She knew precisely how hard it had been for Reese to make love to her so slowly and so carefully. That her lover would do that despite her own needs moved her terribly. “You are perfect.”

  “Tor,” Reese whispered, her vision hazy.

  “You can come now, sweetheart.” Tory lowered her mouth to Reese’s. She pressed harder with her thigh as she slid her tongue into Reese’s mouth. She kept her hands in Reese’s hair, holding her head still as she searched inside, sucking gently on her. She matched her rhythm to the thrust of Reese’s hips and when the fingers gripping her tightened convulsively, she circled her leg faster. As Reese grew rigid, Tory lifted her face away. “Let me watch you.”

  Reese forced her eyes open, though she was blind to everything except the storm surging through her blood. She crumpled under the onslaught of pleasure, and only Tory’s body against hers kept her upright. “Don’t…let go,” she managed to cry.

  “Never. Never.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Reese glanced at the large plain-faced clock on the wall opposite her desk. It was 3:59 p.m. She stood, settled her cap squarely over her brow, and crossed the room to the door. When she stepped out onto the small landing in front of the sheriff’s department, she heard the sound of a powerful engine. She looked right toward Bradford and watched the approaching motorcycle streak into the parking lot, spewing gravel and dirt.

  Bri climbed off almost before the big bike had stopped moving and jogged over to where Reese waited.

  “Officer,” Reese said by way of greeting. Bri was in uniform, her shoes polished, although dusty from the ride, and her shirt and pants starched and pressed. Her eyes were hollow and her face pale.

  “Sheriff.”

  “Technically,” Reese said shortly, “you’re not late. It is customary, however, to arrive at least a half an hour before your shift in the event that there’s anything pertinent to relay from the previous shift. In your case, it’s mandatory. See to it in the future.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Let’s take a ride-through.”

  They were both silent as Reese drove the cruiser west on Bradford. She slowed as they approached the site of the fire. A deep red Durango SUV was parked on the shoulder across the street from the police barricades that had been erected around the property.

  “There’s someone walking around back there,” Bri observed.

  “Yep, I see him.” Reese pulled up behind the Durango. “Call in that plate number.”

  Bri already had the mike in her hand and called for vehicle identification.

  “Recognize the vehicle?” Reese thought Bri might know it from around town.

  “Nope. Looks to be brand new. Snazzy.”

  “Uh-huh,” Reese agreed as she pushed open her door.

  The radio crackled to life and Smith came on, advising them that there were no wants or warrants on the vehicle and that it was registered to an A. Walker of Falls River, Massachusetts.

  “Well, let’s go see what Mr. Walker is doing poking around our crime scene.”

  The two officers crossed the street shoulder to shoulder and circled around to the rear of the burned-out shell of the restaurant. Much of the external frame remained, although the building had been nearly gutted. At the location of what had once been the service entrance to the restaurant, a thin figure in blue jeans, a denim workshirt, scuffed work boots, and a baseball cap crouched with his back to them, photographing the interior of the building.

  “Sheriff’s department,” Reese announced as she and Bri walked around one of the yellow and blue sawhorses and approached the stranger. “This is a restricted area.”

  Slowly, the individual stood and turned in their direction. “I’m an insurance investigator, officers,” a mellifluous tenor voice responded.

  Reese raised an eyebrow, surveying the emerald green eyes, flawless lightly tanned complexion, and the hint of red hair obscured by the cap. “You have ID?”

  “Sure.” Approaching them now, the stranger reached into a back pocket with one hand and swept off the ball cap with the other. Thick, luxurious crimson hair cascaded to shoulder level. The strikingly beautiful woman smiled and extended a hand with a leather bi-fold ID case in it. “Ashley Walker.”

  Reese studied the photo ID on the private investigator’s license. Satisfied, she handed it back. “Ordinarily, Ms. Walker, it’s wise for a private investigator to check in with the local authorities.”

  Ashley swept her eyes from Reese to Bri and back again. The two law enforcement agents were disarmingly similar with their dark good looks and nearly matching brilliant blue eyes. The older one was slightly taller and a little more muscular, but in the dark, there wouldn’t be much difference between the two. She smiled slowly.

  “My apologies. I meant to let you know I was in town, but when I drove by and saw the state of this building, I thought I’d better get a few photographs before it fell down or your town engineers pulled it down.”

  “Step outside the barricade, please,” Reese directed in a tone which implied it was more than a request, “and we’ll give you what we have.”

  “Fine.” Ashley returned her ID to her pocket “I didn’t get your names?”

  “Deputy Sheriff Reese Conlon. This is Officer Parker.”

  “Pleasure.”

  Reese nodded in response and glanced at Bri, who was studying the newcomer curiously. “Parker, want to fill Ms. Walker in on the state of the investigation?”

  “Yes, ma’am.” Without referring to her notes, which she kept in a slim spiral-ringed tablet in her back pocket, Bri recited confidently. “There were no injuries or fatalities associated with the incident. The fire marshal’s report isn’t expected for at least a week. This being a holiday weekend, most of the labs are closed. At the present time, we are working under the assumption that this is incendiary in nature. The site will remain barricaded until released by the fire marshal for demolition, which we anticipate will be in approximately ten days.”

  “Sounds routine,” Ashley observed, slipping her hands into the back pockets of her jeans.

  “And what about your investigation, Ms. Walker?” Bri questioned evenly. “Who are you working for?”

  “Just the standard insurance claim.” Unperturbed by the mildly suspicious expression on the young officer’s face, Ashley produced her wallet, opened it, and slid a business card from an inside pocket. Handing it to Bri, she said, “That’s my office address, cell phone number, and pager. Any time you want to reach me, Officer Parker, for any reason, please feel free.”

  “Finished up here, then?” Reese was curious if the investigator had found something as they started back toward their vehicles.

  “I thought I’d stay in town for a while until the fire marshal’s report was complete. A busman’s holiday,” Ashley finished with a soft laugh.

  “If you need access to the site, once it’s been cleared, let us know,” Reese advised.

  Ashley rested her hand on the handle of her SUV, hitched one hip against the door, and observed them both with a small grin. “Oh, I’ll be sure to do t
hat.” Then she stepped into her Durango, started the engine, and drove away with a small wave in their direction.

  Bri watched the red truck turn right and disappear around the bend toward Herring Cove. Part of her was irritated at the cocky self-confidence of the private investigator, but she found that the woman’s flippant grin stayed with her. “Is that normal?”

  “For an insurance investigation? Yeah, pretty much all the time when there’s loss of property.” Reese opened the driver’s side door of the cruiser and slid in while Bri walked around to the other side. “It isn’t usual to have a PI run the investigation though. Usually, it’s one of the insurance company’s claim representatives.”

  “So what do you think?”

  “I think we ought to take a very careful look at the fire marshal’s report, and I think you’re going to have some homework.”

  *

  When Reese returned to the office an hour later, Nelson was at his desk working on his never-ending stack of paperwork. He glanced up as she pushed through the wooden gate toward her adjoining desk.

  “Where’s your…trainee?”

  “Interviewing some of the neighbors in the area immediately around the fire site. We’re looking into the possibility that it was started accidentally by kids using the place to party.”

  “You think she’s okay out there alone?” Nelson carefully straightened his file folders and stacked them on the corner of his desk. “She’s only been at this a couple of days.”

  “It’s a simple assignment, Chief. It’s just the kind of thing that she needs to do independently at this point.”

  “You never know what she might run into. She’s wearing a gun. That’s enough to make some people antsy.”

  Reese settled behind her desk and took her time answering.

  “Nelson, I’ve read her performance evaluations. She’s at the top of her class in all the required areas. She qualified with highest recommendations in firearms and close-range disarmament. She can handle herself.”