Indecent Read online

  Renae twisted her lips. “If we could bottle what put that look on your face, we’d be very rich women.”

  Normally Lucky might have offered up a sarcastic comeback. Maybe something along the lines of “who needs rich when there’s great sex to be had?”

  Now she merely smiled. Though her mind provided the jibe, something held her back from making light of what was happening between her and Colin. She didn’t dare delve into what exactly that something was. She’d learned long ago that today, the moment, was all that mattered. What sense was there in looking down the road when that same road might narrow into a dark and cruel dead end?

  Renae began to help Lucky fold the thick, Turkish terry-cloth robes that had come in that morning and put them on the display shelves against the far wall of the shop. From bath and lingerie stuffs to massage oils and aromatherapy candles, Women Only was packed full of everything a woman could want, and many things only a woman could understand. Lucky had yet to see one man come through the door. Not that she could blame the opposite sex. They’d probably feel as lost as she would at a sports supply store.

  One of the many fringe benefits of her new job was that yesterday Renae had packed a boxful of things for her to use at home. As she’d put it, “You can’t recommend a product unless you’ve used and liked it.”

  In Lucky’s case, Colin had enjoyed the products as much, if not more, than she had last night.

  “You’re doing a good job, Lucky,” Renae said, leaning into her in a way that might have made Lucky a little wary a short time ago but that she found herself welcoming now. “I’m impressed with your work so far. Even a couple of customers have commented on how much they like you.”

  Lucky had never really received compliments on her work and she hadn’t expected to. Generally she was only spoken to when a table needed waiting, drinks needed serving and when she wasn’t keeping up with the hectic pace.

  She didn’t know quite how to respond. “I like it here,” she said, and found that was the truth.

  To her, a job had always been a job, judged by the tips she brought home rather than how she passed the time. She’d chosen the places where she’d worked by how busy they’d keep her, because when she was busy she didn’t have time to think. It was hard to think about the landlady wanting the rent or the phone company threatening to shut off your line when you were occupied with serving food before it got cold or refilling a customer’s drink.

  The front-door bell rang and a woman came in, issued a brief greeting to Renae, then headed straight for the back where a room decorated in white with red candles was separated from the rest of the shop.

  Renae put the last robe on the pile in front of her. “Time for my eleven o’clock.”

  Lucky knew that was her cue to hold down the shop. Renae waited a moment to give the woman time to change into a robe and stretch out on the massage table, then she joined her, striking up a conversation as she pulled the thick, red velvet curtain closed behind her, blocking the two from view.

  A massage sounded really good right now. Sex with Colin was introducing her to all sorts of muscles she hadn’t known she had.

  The bell on the door rang again. Lucky gathered the empty box, stashed it behind the counter then turned toward the customer. “May I help you?” she asked.

  A pretty blonde wearing a trendy red sleeveless mock turtleneck and white pants smiled at her.

  “You must be Lucky. Hi, I’m Leah Bur—um, West.” She laughed. “Sorry, I’m not quite used to my married name yet.”

  Leah. Now that rang a bell. She realized it was because Leah was the owner of the Women Only satellite shop on the opposite end of town. A place she’d heard described as putting the P in posh that was already garnering a lot of attention in the local media.

  “Nice to meet you. You’re right, I’m Lucky.

  But not enough to win the lottery,” she said with a wry smile at her lame joke.

  Leah laughed and Lucky took the unguarded moment to examine the other woman’s features.

  Renae was right. You could tell when a woman was well sexed.

  Huh.

  “I called Renae to tell her I’d be stopping by to stock up on a few supplies until I receive re placement shipments.” She picked up a jasmine-scented candle, put it down, then lifted a vanilla one. “I shouldn’t be long so don’t worry about having to entertain me.”

  Lucky smiled. “Okay. Just wave if you need anything.”

  She went to work on collapsing the empty box, dusting the glass display case and marking down some of the items of inventory they might need to replenish soon.

  The bell rang again. She turned to find Colin standing inside the door looking about as comfortable as a pup in a lion’s den. A very handsome and sexy pup.

  Lucky’s heart skipped a beat. She’d never had anyone visit her on the job before.

  Colin’s gaze moved to her and she smiled widely at him. He seemed to relax instantly.

  “Yes, sir, is there something I can do to help you?” she said in a tone teasing enough for him to understand she was glad to see him, yet benign enough in case Renae was listening.

  Leah West had spotted the new visitor. “Dr. McKenna? Colin, is that you?”

  COLIN WAS HELPLESS to explain what happened to him every time his sight was filled with Lucky’s beautiful face. His breathing seemed to grow shallower, his libido leapt to attention, and his chest tightened in an unfamiliar way. He recognized that the symptoms weren’t a simple matter of sex. While he knew indescribable pleasure when their limbs were intertwined, his want of her was beginning to surpass that surface, physical need. He wanted to be with her, hear her laugh, listen to her opinion on issues that mattered to her, and just plain look at her.

  “It is you! Imagine that.”

  Colin finally glanced at the woman who had said his name. He smiled. “Leah. It’s good to see you.”

  She extended her hand and he shook it, noticing that there was something different about the woman he had counseled along with her ex-husband a couple of short months ago.

  “I received your wedding invitation. I’m sorry I couldn’t make it.”

  Leah’s brown eyes sparkled. “I take it you noticed the name of the husband had changed.”

  He nodded. “I not only noticed, I expected it, Leah. And I’m happy for you.”

  He remembered Leah and her ex-husband, Dan Burger, well, if only because they had been the only couple he’d counseled recently who’d stood a chance of true reconciliation. Not because they’d been a love match. That much had been obvious even to him. But because for whatever reasons each of them held, they’d wanted it to work.

  Still, he was secretly glad it hadn’t. Settling was no way to go into a union that was supposed to last a lifetime.

  On that thought his gaze drifted to Lucky. She was watching the exchange with interest, but made it clear she didn’t want to interfere.

  “Leah, have you met Lucky?” he said.

  LUCKY WASN’T SURE what surprised her more, that Colin was introducing her to Leah, or that she was happy that he was.

  “Yes, we’ve met,” Lucky said. “Mrs. West happens to own the sister shop of Women Only.”

  She watched as Colin’s brow rose and he congratulated the other woman on her recent accomplishments, indicating she’d undergone quite a change since he’d last seen her and that the changes suited her.

  Lucky covertly watched Colin. Aside from her first group session at his office, she hadn’t observed him much around other people. She decided she liked what she saw. A lot. He exuded a commanding presence, and not only because of his size. There was something about him that made you feel welcome and safe and happy all at once. Or at least that’s how he made her feel.

  Leah looked at her. “I think I have everything I need for now.” She held out a slip of paper and Lucky took it. “This is a list of the items I took. Tell Renae I’ll replace them by the end of the week at the latest.”

  Lucky nodded, t
hey exchanged pleasantries, and then the doorbell clanged as Leah left.

  Suddenly she and Colin were completely, totally, utterly alone.

  Well, except for Renae and her client in the back.

  Colin cleared his throat. The telltale sign of nervousness made Lucky smile.

  “Nice place,” he said.

  Lucky looked around. “Yes, it is, isn’t it?”

  “I came by to see if you have time to catch a bite with me. I’m on my way downtown for a couple of meetings and had a little free time on my hands.”

  The way his gaze raked over her face and body, she had the feeling that he’d like to have his hands full of much more than free time.

  Lucky shivered. “Sorry, my lunch break isn’t until two.”

  He nodded, then shook his head. “Shame.”

  She agreed. “Damn shame.”

  “Okay, then, I’ll see you later?” he asked.

  She nodded.

  He began walking toward the door, then hesitated. Taking something out of his pocket, he came back to stand in front of her. He grasped her hand and placed something in the middle of her palm. “I may run a little a late. Why don’t you let yourself in?”

  Lucky stared down at the key resting against her skin. But she didn’t have a chance to respond as he kissed her then left her standing in the middle of the room to make of the exchange what she would.

  ONCE A MONTH for the past three years Colin had sat in on group sessions at a local shelter for teen age runaways. His original commitment with Crossroads had been for a year, but when the period had been up, he’d found he couldn’t turn away from the nonprofit agency or its boarders. While the stories of abuse and neglect often made him feel sick to his stomach, the resiliency and determination of the teens never failed to awe and inspire him.

  This month, as every month, there were at least five new additions to the group, and he noticed that three others were missing, likely having moved back home, in with relatives, or having been placed with foster families. In some sad cases, a few emotionally damaged teens ex changed life at the home for life on the streets.

  There were a few mandatory requirements that the boarders met, and one of them was attending these sessions. Considering the members, Colin always left his jacket and tie in his car and folded up the sleeves and unbuttoned the collar of his shirt. Today’s session was beginning to wind down.

  As he listened to a thirteen-year-old named Melissa talk of her absent, uncaring father and her physically abusive stepmother, who had thrown out all the sentimental items that meant something to the girl, Colin found his mind drifting to Lucky.

  A shadow skittered around on the outer edges of his thoughts but he couldn’t quite hold on to it long enough to get a better look.

  Melissa finished and the housemother cleared her throat, then called the session to an end.

  Colin looked down at the notes he’d written. He generally stayed over in case any of the teens wanted to talk to him one-on-one with the housemother present, and also to consult with the housemother on others’ progress. The group sessions were designed to allow the teens to air their problems, work through them, and understand that they weren’t alone, that there were not only others like them, there were others who had it worse.

  That realization alone was often enough to help the teens move beyond the past and begin working toward a better future. A future they were in control of.

  Again that sensation of missing something haunted him.

  “Dr. McKenna, can I talk to you for a minute?”

  He blinked up at Melissa, the last teen to speak, and smiled. Some of the others left to see to house chores, go to jobs outside the home, but most of them lingered on, gathering into smaller groups and continuing the rap session on a smaller scale.

  Colin patted the spot next to him on the couch he sat on in the room set up to be comfortable rather than utilitarian. There were no hardback chairs here. Only cozy armchairs and sofas arranged in a circle.

  “What’s on your mind, Melissa?” he asked, determined to fully dedicate the next few minutes to the thirteen-year-old with the eyes of a thirty-year-old.

  LATER THAT NIGHT Colin returned to his place, not realizing how much he’d been looking for ward to seeing Lucky until he opened the door to a dark apartment. He flicked on a light and glanced around, but found no sign that Lucky was either there or had been there. He tossed his keys to the hall table then looked at his watch. Just after nine.

  Over the past few days they had settled into a routine of sorts. Lucky knocked off at the shop at around six and by six-thirty she was at his place. They usually ordered in food and spent the night indulging in all sorts of wicked pleasures. That’s why it had seemed natural for him to give her his key earlier.

  Why, then, wasn’t she there?

  He absently rubbed the back of his neck and checked his home voice mail. A message from his car insurance company following up a small claim he’d made recently, a hello from his mother who just wanted to catch up with him and then…nothing.

  A brief knock sounded on the door behind him. He glanced toward it then moved to open it.

  Lucky stood in the hall holding up his key. “I think this belongs to you.”

  He hesitantly accepted the key back, noticing the wary expression on her face. She came inside and he closed the door after her.

  It struck him that if given the same type of access to his place, another woman would have put an extra toothbrush next to his. Put a change of clothes and underwear in his drawers. Somehow stamped her presence subtly but meaningfully all over the place, much as a cat marked its territory.

  But not Lucky.

  Of course he’d already known that she wasn’t like most women. It was just taking him a while to figure out how unlike them she was.

  “I placed an order for a large pizza before I came over so it should be here any minute,” she said, putting her purse on the hall table and walking toward the kitchen, much as she had the past few nights. “Soda?”

  No mention of why she had knocked on the door instead of letting herself in with the key. No reference to why she happened to show up at the same time he had instead of letting herself in earlier.

  He watched as her shapely bottom disappeared into the kitchen, and then her delectable front faced him as she handed him a can of soda.

  “There’s a new show on Fox. Do you mind if we catch a little of it?”

  Colin shook his head.

  But before she could completely turn away from him again, he said quietly, “Lucky, we need to talk.”

  10

  IF THERE WERE any four words in the English language Lucky hated, it was those four.

  “We need to talk.”

  Usually when she heard them it meant she was about to be fired or let go or laid off.

  Only Colin wasn’t her boss.

  Still, the graveness of his tone told her she probably wasn’t going to like what he had to say.

  “About what?” she asked, trying to play it off while knowing her chances of getting away with it with the sexy doc lay between slim and none.

  He held up the key in his hand.

  Lucky looked from it to him. “What about it?”

  “Why didn’t you use it?”

  She popped the tab on her soda and took a long swallow, somehow managing to get the liquid past her tight throat. “There was no need to. You were already home.”

  His eyes narrowed. “Convenient.”

  She smiled and turned toward the couch. “Wasn’t it though?”

  She found the remote tucked in between the seat cushions and switched on the large-screen television that was probably worth more than she brought home in a month. She found the station she was looking for then crossed her legs in front of her, her short shorts short but enough to cover her decently.

  Depending on your definition of decent.

  Colin sat down next to her. Peripherally she watched as he put the extra house key down on the coff
ee table in front of them and fought not to stare at her shorts.

  He quietly cleared his throat. “Did you stay past closing time at the shop?”

  “Hmm?” she asked, pretending an interest in the show that had just started.

  He gestured with his hand. “Work. Did you work overtime today?”

  “No.”

  They sat like that for long minutes, neither of them saying anything, Lucky feeling his gaze on her profile while she stared at the television.

  Then he picked up the remote and switched off the show.

  “Hey, I was watching that,” she said.

  The expression on his face was far too serious.

  She decided it needed to be kissed off.

  “Looks like somebody had a rough day,” she murmured. Climbing to her knees, she wrapped her arms around his neck, placed her forehead against his, then leisurely pressed her lips against his. When he didn’t immediately respond, she ran her tongue along the length of his bottom lip, then slowly slipped it inside his mouth, teasing him, tempting his tongue to come out and play.

  He groaned, his hand finding the back of her neck and pulling her forward as he gave in to her attentions and kissed her back. In no time at all, they were both going at it hot and heavy, Lucky grateful for the surge of sensual need snaking through her.

  Then Colin’s grip increased on the back of her neck and he hauled his mouth from hers, his breath hot on her cheek. “Distracting me with sex, no matter how tempting, is not going to work this time, Lucky.”

  She pulled slightly back and stared deep into his eyes.

  “Why didn’t you use the key?”

  Desire still throbbed with a life of its own through her body, even though his words served as a bucket of cold water over her intentions.

  She reluctantly sat back across the sofa from him. “Because this isn’t my place.”

  “No, it’s mine. And I gave you a key so you could come over early.”

  Too soon, an inner voice said.

  Only that wasn’t true, either, was it? Unless her subconscious was alerting her that it was too soon to end her relationship with Colin.