Red Sky at Morning

Chapter

Nine

THE DREAM WAS warm and sunny, and Dar stretched into it, reveling in the feel of the sun against her skin as the boat rocked beneath her. Her eyes were closed, but she could hear the strains of a popular tune from behind her and smell the tang of the salt air as it brushed over her.

Her body was pleasantly tired, and she was content to rest in the sun, turning her head slightly as she heard a gull land on the boat. Its claws made soft, ticking sounds as it moved closer, and she kept very still to see how close it would dare to come.

She could almost feel the warmth of its body as it pattered nearer and nearer, and she resisted the urge to open her eyes and look.

Then it blew in her ear.

Dar’s eyes popped wide open as her dream world rapidly merged into her waking one, and the gentle waves and warm sun became the rocking of the waterbed under Kerry’s laughing form and the startling reality of true sunlight gilding both of them.

“Holy shit.” Dar’s eyes found the clock, which was displaying a cheerful 7:40. “Jesus. Did we forget to set the alarm?”

“I think so.” Kerry propped her head up on one hand and let her chuckles wind down.

“Damn.” Dar sighed, her brain still a little fuzzy from sleep. “How could I have done that? I haven’t forgotten to set that damn alarm in...in...”

“Honey,” Kerry leaned over and rubbed Dar’s bare belly, “you forgot because you fell asleep with your clothes half on. I had to pull them off. I was the one who forgot to check the clock, okay?”

“I did?” Dar tried to remember the previous night in the fog of exhaustion she’d been walking through. “Um...I think I remember a strawberry...and you kissing me.”

Kerry smiled, her fingers tracing a light pattern over Dar’s skin.

They’d both been far too tired to eat when they’d gotten home, and had settled for a shared bowl of freshly washed strawberries and two large glasses of milk. She’d put her things upstairs and come down to find Dar sprawled over the bed, already well on her way to sleep.

“I remember that, too.” She looked up and almost laughed when Red Sky At Morning 145

she saw Dar’s expression relaxed back into slumber. “Hey...Paladar.”

She gave her lover a tiny poke.

“Eh?” Dar’s eyes opened again. “Oh. Damn,” she complained, rolling over and capturing Kerry in a tangle of warm arms and smooth skin. “Why can’t it be Saturday? I don’t wanna get up.”

That was okay. Kerry didn’t want to either. She tried an experiment, making her little patterns again, and was rewarded by hearing Dar’s breathing even out almost immediately and feeling her body go limp and relaxed. She closed her own eyes and reviewed her schedule, thinking about what her morning was like.

Hmm. It was Thursday. That meant her staff meeting at ten, nothing after that until lunch, then network strategy sessions from two to five.

She liked those, actually, when her operations team would test different scenarios to see how they could reshape the network to better suit their customers’ needs.

So. She didn’t need to be in until ten. Dar wasn’t supposed to be in the office at all, since she was heading back down to the base. They could actually sleep in a little, if they skipped their morning run. Could they afford it?

One green eye appeared and regarded their intertwined bodies critically, then closed in contentment. Yep, they could afford it, Kerry decided, squirming a little closer and settling down with a silent sigh.

She let herself relax into a light doze for another half-hour, then nudged herself awake again.

For a few minutes, all she did was just look at Dar. The sun was spilling in the window through the blinds and painting gold stripes across the bed, and one stripe had captured most of Dar’s face. Kerry could see the tiny motes of dust in it and watched the faint flickers as some dream stirred her lover’s eyelids.

She is so beautiful. Kerry let out a breath, resisting the impulse to run a finger down one of Dar’s planed cheekbones. She did move a lock of dark hair back, though, biting her lip when even this slight motion brought a flutter of eyelids and a pair of sleepy blue eyes into view.

“Oops. Sorry.”

Dar blinked. “Did you let me go back to sleep?” she asked incredulously. “Ker, we’re going to be late as hell.”

“Yes, I did,” Kerry replied in an unperturbed tone. “My first thing’s at ten, and you’re OCB today, so take a chill gelcap and relax, okay?”

She slid a hand over Dar’s hip and lightly scratched her back. “How’s this doing?”

The smooth surface under her hand tensed, then moved as Dar stretched, the muscles under her skin shifting under Kerry’s fingers.

“A little stiff, but not bad,” Dar admitted. “Maybe we can do some swimming this weekend. That should fix it up.”

Kerry wriggled over and pinned her lover down, receiving a startled, widened-eyed look in return. “Maybe we can take you over to 146 Melissa Good Dr. Steve’s, and have him look at it.”

“Aw...Kerrryyy...” Dar whined.

“Pick one: Dr. Steve, or the ophthalmologist,” Kerry replied kindly, ignoring the endearing pout that faced her. “Sweetheart, I’m not going to sit by and watch you either hurting or hurting yourself, so you’d better just get used to it, okay?”

“I hate doctors,” Dar said. “You know I hate doctors.”

Kerry sighed. “Yes, I know you do; but I have to take very good care of you, Dar.” She put a fingertip on Dar’s nose. “Humor me. Please?”

Dar thought about it, her eyes moving slightly, regarding the eggshell-colored ceiling. Then they focused on Kerry’s face and softened. “All right,” she agreed quietly. “But you have to go with me.”

“Of course I will.” Kerry smiled in relief. “In fact, I’m embarrassed to admit it, but I haven’t had my eyes checked in a few years, either.

We’ll both go, okay?”

Dar nodded. “Okay.” She rubbed a thumb over Kerry’s rib cage, which expanded under her touch. “I think it’s time we got our lazy butts out of bed, don’t you?”

“Do you really want to?” Kerry laid an arm down on Dar’s chest and rested her chin on it. “You know what I’d like?” she added suddenly.

“What?”

“Someday, I’d like us to just...” Kerry nibbled her lower lip, “get a camper, or something, and travel all over the place, just seeing new things.” A half smile appeared. “Does that sound strange to you? There are so many places I haven’t seen, and I’d like to—together.”

Dar cocked her head slightly to one side. She took a breath to answer, then released it when her cell phone, dropped haphazardly on the bedside table, buzzed. “Hold that thought,” she told Kerry as she fumbled one-handedly with the instrument. “Because I really like it.”

Kerry grinned wholeheartedly and gave Dar a pat on the side. “I’ll get coffee started.” She lowered her voice as Dar answered the phone, then took the opportunity to suckle Dar’s navel gently, chuckling as she heard her lover’s voice break slightly. “Tell Mark I said hi.” She gave Dar a nip, then rolled out of bed and made her way out into the living room, where Chino was already waiting impatiently to be let out.

She opened the back door for the Lab, then clicked the coffee on before she trotted upstairs and into her own bedroom. “Two bathrooms, no waiting,” she told her reflection as she entered hers, splashing water on her face, more to wake her up than anything else, and scrubbing her teeth industriously.

One of the nicer things about the condo was the amount of space they both had, she reflected. She’d grown up in such a big house, with a lot of people around, and Dar had grown up just the opposite, but they both needed and appreciated the room to get away a little and be alone sometimes.

Red Sky At Morning 147

Which made her comment to Dar seem really odd, if she thought about it. But Dar had liked the idea of traveling around together, so maybe it wasn’t so weird after all.

Of course, showers, now... Kerry grinned at the rumpled, rakish-looking figure gazing back at her. Showers they liked to take together.

“Hey, scruffy, time for a haircut.” She pointed at her reflection, before she turned and went to her closet, bound on selecting her clothing for the day.

DAR SETTLED HER sunglasses more firmly as she headed from the parking lot into the staff building. She was dressed in her favorite pair of worn jeans and a Navy sweatshirt, in deference to the cooler weather that had rolled in overnight.

The Marine at the door gave her a friendly nod and opened the portal for her. “Good morning, ma’am.”

“Morning,” Dar replied politely. She took the stairs two at a time and ducked around the upper hall doors, glancing around for any sign of her glowering nemesis. “Eh...maybe I’ll get lucky for a change.”

She made it into the network hardware room and put her case down, then glanced around at the walls full of telecommunications punch downs. With a sigh, she pulled out her Palm Pilot and opened it, checking the circuit ID Mark had given her and comparing it to the rows of tags hanging from the blocks.

“Ah. There you are.” Dar pulled a tool from her briefcase and studied the network bridges, consulting her Pilot for the network node the base had assigned her to. Her brow creased, and she ran a finger lightly down the massive hub, curious about the design. For no reason she could readily identify, an entire segment was bridged off to a completely different hub.

One dark eyebrow lifted. “Hmm.” Dar followed the cables to the other hub and peeked in back of it. “Ethernet...Ethernet...Fast Ethernet...T3?” Dar looked closer. “Twelve network nodes sharing a T3?

What the hell is running on them?”

Really curious now, Dar pulled the network schematic she’d been given out of her briefcase and spread it out, running an experienced eye over the layout. After a few minutes, she folded up the paper and tucked it away, letting out a careful breath as she considered her options.

Then she walked over and copied down the circuit ID on the mysterious hub and pulled out her cell phone.

KERRY TOOK HER seat in the operations meeting, setting down her cup of tea and glancing around the table. No one met her eyes, and she let a wry grin touch her lips as she settled back in the leather 148 Melissa Good conference chair, extending her legs and crossing them while she rested her folded hands on the table surface.

Mark was the last to arrive, and he closed the door behind him before he took his own seat, the one directly across from hers. There was none of the usual bantering; everyone just sat quietly, eyes on their agendas, and waited.

“So.” Kerry broke the silence. “Heard any good rumors lately?” She waited for the embarrassed shuffling to quiet down. “That was pretty counterproductive, wasn’t it? I’m used to people having nothing better to do than speculate about my private life, but tying up the resources of the entire department for an entire morning was going a little overboard, don’t you think?”

Nobody knew what to say. They all just stared miserably at the table.“I’m not sure what’s more disappointing,” Kerry went on quietly.

“The fact that people who know me personally participated in it and thought so little of my integrity that they’d think I’d do something like that to Dar in front of the entire company...” She paused. “Or the fact that in a department full of intelligent people, only Dar’s admin had the sense to check the visitors log.”

Mark finally looked up, his jaw muscles visibly clenching as he met her gaze squarely. “I didn’t bother checking,” he stated. “I knew it was bullshit. The only thing I wanted to do was find out where it started and stop it,” he reflected. “I did. But the word flew out so fast, it went through my fingers.”

Kerry nodded. “I know. Thank you, Mark.” She saw some of the rigid tension in his shoulders relax a little. “Dar and I make a point of keeping our personal lives out of this building. I’d appreciate it if you all would do the same. Find something else to speculate about.”

Nods and murmurs of agreement went around the table.

“Okay.” Kerry was satisfied that she’d scared, embarrassed, and intimidated the entire room to the best of her capability. Dar, of course, would have done a much scarier job of it, but she felt she’d gotten her point across, and predicted her people would be having little meetings of their own in their areas as soon as the current session was over.

“Next item on the agenda. Enid, what’s the status on the new accounts in the Northwest?”

Never had there been so many people in one room so glad of a subject change. Enid eagerly sifted through her papers and started into her report.

THE SMALL OFFICE was very quiet. Only the faint sound of the laptop’s hard drive and the occasional soft click broke the silence. Dar had her head propped up on one fist as she reviewed the data flicking across the display.

Red Sky At Morning 149

“What in the hell are they doing?” the CIO asked her computer, which morosely refused to answer. She scanned the data stream for the nth time, trying to figure out the pattern in the weird anomalies she’d been seeing for the last couple of hours.

The cell phone resting on the desk buzzed, and Dar answered it.

“Yeah?”

“Hey, Dar.” Mark’s voice sounded unusually quiet. “I tracked down that T3 ID for you. It’s a private subscriber circuit. Not BellSouth.”

“Huh.” Dar’s brow creased. “That’s even stranger. I could understand having a—” A thought occurred to her. “Hang on...I’ll call you back.” She hung up and retrieved a number from the cell phone memory, then dialed it.

It rang twice, then was answered. “Gerry?”

“Ah, Dar!” Gerald Easton’s voice sounded cheerful. “I was just thinking of you.”

“Someone send you a memo?” Dar hazarded a guess.

The military man chuckled. “Eh...heard from old Jeff, as a matter of fact. He’s thrilled to have you down there, Dar.”

Dar felt a half grin forming. “He’s the only one, Gerry. I’m not a popular person down here. Listen, is there anything black here?”

There was a momentary silence. “Eh,” Easton grunted. “Odd question.”

“Odd because it’s yes, or because it’s no?” Dar was conscious of the cellular connection, which could be monitored. “I don’t want details, Gerry, just if there is or isn’t.”

“Hold on a minute.” Easton’s voice had become crisp. It was replaced with hold music, which Dar suffered through, having an innate dislike for the song Sleigh Ride. It cut off thankfully on the third go-round, replaced by a rustle and a clearing of Gerry’s throat. “Ah, Dar?”

“Mm...still here.” Dar sketched a squirrel on her pad.

“I just checked, and no, we’ve got nothing dark there.” Gerry paused. “Nothing even remotely gray, as a matter of fact.”

Dar scowled, and put fangs on the squirrel. “Damn.” She exhaled.

“Okay, thanks, Gerry. I’ve got to hunt somewhere else for answers.”

“Problems?” The cautious question came back.

“Things that aren’t making sense,” Dar replied. “I hate that.”

A chuckle came through the line. “As well I remember. If you need any more information, Dar, get in touch, eh?”

“I will.” Dar hung up the cell phone and reviewed the data she had on her screen. “Okay.” She called up a new e-mail, clipped and pasted from the analyzer program into it, added notes, and sent it on its way.

“Let’s see what Mark can dig up about who bought that nice big hub that mysteriously connects to someone else’s network from inside a supposedly secure building.”

150 Melissa Good Then she set up her transfer program and tapped into the base’s network, parsing all of its traffic and sending a running dump to her ops center in Miami. The big boxes there would digest the information and run her custom-designed systems analysis programs on it. That code would tell her if her gut instinct was right and there was something weird going on, or if she was just seeing spiders in the shadows.

Dar leaned back in her wooden chair and folded her arms as the data transfer kicked in. She looked up as a light knock sounded at the door. “Yes?”

Chuckie stuck his head inside the room. “Hey there, old buddy.

Can I interest you in some lunch?”

Dar smiled easily. “Sure.” She set her passwords and locked the laptop down, then stood up and joined Chuckie at the door. “You want to go downstairs or off base?” she asked. “I kind of have an itch for conch fritters.”

“You’re on,” Chuckie agreed happily. “I’ve been buried up to my butt in status reports all day. I’ve got ten new recruits coming from this class, and boy howdy, I hope those little suckers don’t sink the boat before we clear international waters.” He put a hand on Dar’s back and guided her down the hall. “Dad says you plan on doing a checkout on the training process here, that right?”

“Right,” Dar answered. “That’s what Gerry was griping about from here mostly—results on the folks they kick out of here being substandard.” She dropped down the stairs with Chuckie at her side.

“He wants to know why, and frankly, so do I.”

“For real?” Chuckie held the door at the bottom of the hall open for her, then followed her out and into the cool, somewhat damp air.

“Yeah.” Dar pulled her keys out of her pocket and headed for the Lexus. “From a management perspective, bad performance usually only has one of a couple sources.” She opened the doors and they got in, then she continued her lecture, to which Chuckie listened with interest.

“Either your talent pool is empty, your processes are defective, or there’s a motivation structure in place that doesn’t match what your performance objectives are.”

Chuckie folded his arms over his chest and eyed her. “Can we talk about football or something? I didn’t get three words out of five in that last paragraph.”

Dar chuckled as she pulled out of the base parking lot and sent the Lexus in search of a scrungy crab shack. “Sorry.” She recomposed her thoughts. “Your recruits suck, the instructors don’t know what the hell they’re doing, or someone’s being paid to just churn out bodies regardless of whether they know what end of a broom to grab hold of.”

“Ah.” Chuckie considered this thoughtfully. “How are you going to figure out which one it is?”

How indeed? Dar pulled into an unpaved parking lot and stopped Red Sky At Morning 151

the Lexus. “I’m not sure yet,” she admitted. “I’ve got a program sucking everything down into one of our big processors, and it’s going to sort the data out for me. I’ll review it and make a plan based on what I find.”

“Okay.” Chuckie opened the door to the crab shack and they entered, going from the bright light outside into a somewhat dim, weathered wooden interior graced with trestle tables, benches, and several neon bar signs on the wall. “Howdy, Red.”

The burly, bearded man with more tattoos than seemed safe waved at him. “Hey, Chuck. Whoa, you moved up in the world, didn’cha?” His eyes flicked over Dar with genial approval. “C’mon in, sweet thing.”

Chuckie, to give him credit, winced.

Dar dropped her jacket onto the nearest trestle table and sauntered over to the man, leaning on the counter across from him and tipping her sunglasses down to give him a better look. After a moment, she sighed.

“You are still as butt ugly as you were in high school, you know that, August?”

The man’s eyes widened. “Whothefuckareyou?”

“Someone you ain’t seen in fifteen years,” Dar drawled back. “You want to put us up two baskets of fritters and burgers, so at least we’ll get something out of this conversation?”

The man scratched his jaw and tilted his head, then reached over and pulled Dar’s sunglasses all the way off. He leaned closer. “Oh shit.”

He started laughing. “It’s Dar.” He let the glasses drop to the counter.

“I’ll be a son of a bitch.”

Dar scooped up her shades. “You’re damn lucky I’m not nearly as much of a hardass as I used to be, Augie. That crack would have gotten you a broken nose once upon a time.” She relaxed into a smile as Chuckie decided it was safe to approach and came up next to her.

“Yeah, you’re so mellow now,” Chuckie commented. “Remind me of that again when I bitch about how sore I am from that little stunt we pulled the other night.”

“Irene!” August hollered behind him. “Two burgers, two fritters, okay?” He faced forward again. “Dar, man, it’s such a trip to see you. It has been forever and gone, ain’t it?” He pointed to the table. “Siddown.

I was just gonna have some lunch myself. We were busier than all get-out before, but it slowed down some.”

Dar took a seat on the worn wooden bench as her two friends did the same. She rested her elbows on the surface and exhaled, allowing a bittersweet sense of familiarity to wash over her. August’s father had owned the shack during her younger years, and she’d spent many hours hunched over the uneven tables, talking crap and swallowing enough fried fish and greasy burgers to have easily killed off anyone with a more sensitive digestive system.

Her nose twitched as she detected the scent of the spicy fritter batter cooking, and she smiled, glad—for the moment—to know that not everything had changed.

152 Melissa Good

“Still workin’ with that computer shit, huh, Dar?” Augie asked.

Oh yeah. “Yep,” Dar admitted. “Same shit.”

“MS. KERRY?” MAYTE’S voice crackled through the intercom.

“Señor Mark is here.”

Kerry finished typing her last sentence and flexed her hands, making the joints crack slightly. “Great. Send him this way, Mayte.” She sat back and waited as her door opened and Mark entered. “Hi.”

“Hi.” Mark closed the door and crossed the carpeted floor, taking a seat in one of Kerry’s visitor’s chairs. “Listen, I...um—”

“Mark, it’s okay,” Kerry interrupted him gently. “I’m over it.”

The MIS chief blinked. “Oh.” He sat back and let his hands rest on his thighs. “You know the whole staff’s been walking around in a blue funk since the meeting, right?”

“I heard.” Kerry ran her fingers through her hair and riffled it, stifling a yawn as she did so. “Jesus, it’s not like I was that wacko, was I? I’ve heard Dar go off. I know I’m not in her league.”

“Nah,” Mark agreed. “It’s worse with you, though, because you’re always so nice. When you get postal, it makes everyone’s hair stand on end.” He gave Kerry an apologetic look. “No offense.”

“None taken.” Kerry smiled. “I talked to Mariana.” She shifted the topic neatly. “She’s agreed to let me handle whatever we decide to do with Brent.”

“Urm.” Mark rubbed his jaw, darkened with stubble now that the day was almost ended. “I talked to him a little. He’s way out there, Kerry.” He shook his head. “I can’t figure out if it’s just that he had a...uh, I mean, if...”

Kerry leaned forward. “I didn’t think he was serious until after I met you both in the ops center that time and Dar told me that he’d just finished asking her if I was seeing anyone.” She propped her head up on one fist. “I thought that was pretty darn oblivious of him, you know?”

Mark waggled his hand. “He’s pretty focused.”

“So is his problem that I’m not interested, or is his problem why I’m not interested?”

“Why,” Mark said bluntly. “His dad’s a Southern Baptist minister who was tossed out of the local group for advocating the castration of gay guys and the incarceration of anyone who didn’t think we should swap the Bill of Rights for the Bible.”

Kerry sighed.

“It sucks, you know? He’s a good tech, and not a half-bad guy if you don’t mind the freaking nerdiness.” Mark shook his head. “I talked to him just before I came in here, and he just can’t see why everyone doesn’t feel the same way he does.”

“Okay.” Kerry scrubbed her face. “I’d like to talk to him,” she said.

“Can you set up a time tomorrow morning? Make it early, preferably Red Sky At Morning 153

before I have to sit in on the marketing projection session.”

“Sure you want to do that?” Mark queried.

“Yes.”

“Okay.” Mark stood up. “Did you hear from the boss? Her data dump finally finished. The processors are chewing on it.”

Kerry leaned back. “Yep. She’s home, actually.” She propped a knee up against the desk and folded her hands around it. Hearing from Dar had been a surprise, especially when her lover had told her she was comfortably seated on their leather couch watching a special on China.

“She’s...um...cooking dinner.”

Mark stopped in mid-motion and stared at her, his jaw dropping in mild shock. “Uh?”

“Yeah.” Kerry scratched her nose. “My curiosity is starting to give me wedgies,” she admitted with a grin. “I mean, it could be that we’ll end up eating ice cream sundaes for dinner—those are well inside Dar’s ability; or maybe she’ll do eggs, which I know are safe.”

“Now you’ve got me curious.” Mark chuckled. “She once told me flipping the power switch on the coffee machine was the limit of her cooking skills.” He folded his arms. “You gotta let me know what happens.”

Kerry stood up and stretched, wincing as her back popped from the long hours she’d been seated at her desk trying to clear her inbox. She’d even had Mayte bring her up lunch so she could spend the extra time catching up. “Okay.” She viewed the outbox with a sense of satisfaction.

“I think I’m going to pack it in.”

“Walk you downstairs?” Mark offered. “I was just on my way out myself.”

They joined a group of fellow employees who were also leaving, including Jose and Eleanor, and the elevator was fairly crowded. Kerry pressed back against the mirrored wall, not really uncomfortable, but conscious of the air’s stuffiness and the clashing scents of Eleanor’s aggressive rose perfume and Jose’s vaguely coconutty-smelling after-shave.

Ick. Kerry eyed the ceiling; it was also unfortunate that some people seemed to have a curious absentmindedness when it came to things like deodorant and reasonably frequent showering. She considered holding her breath, wondering if the elevator was being perversely slow just to piss her off.

Oh. Kerry almost hopped up and down to force the car to move faster. What if it gets stuck? Her eyes widened a little. How would it look for the VP Ops to upchuck all over half the executive staff in an elevator?

“Kerry!”

She jerked and sucked in a breath, then glanced at Mark. “What?”

Mark leaned closer. “You looked like you were freaking out.”

She sighed and leaned back. “Overactive imagination.” The car 154 Melissa Good reached the bottom and bounced a little, then, finally, blissfully, the doors slid open and allowed the people to exit and the cold air to enter.

“Jesus.” She pushed off from the mirrored wall and left the elevator, glancing up into the vast vault of the atrium lobby.

A faint smile crossed her face as she remembered the first time she’d seen this place—a very late, rainy night that had started in despair and ended up being a crossroads in her life she wasn’t even aware of until long after she’d passed through it.

She followed Mark out the front doors into the daylight and headed for her car, her mind making the mental jog when it first tried to find her Mustang, then shifted and searched for the new profile.

“Hey, did you get a new set of wheels?” Mark asked as he ambled alongside her. “Ain’t that cute...a baby Darcar.”

“A wh? Oh,” Kerry laughed. “Yeah, I guess you could call it that.”

She patted her new blue Lexus on the side. “I like it. I can actually see things now. See you tomorrow, Mark.”

“Yeah.” Mark put his briefcase in the saddlebag of the big Harley and unstrapped his motorcycle helmet. “Drop me a mail when you figure out what Big D is feeding you, huh? I’m dying to know.”

“Hmm.” Kerry got into the SUV and rolled the window down.

“Dying...not a good word there, Mark.” She gave him a wave and started the car, then pulled out of the parking lot and headed home.

IT WAS RELATIVELY quiet outside the condo when she pulled into her spot and got out, cautiously examining the front door before she approached it. “Well.” She leaned back against the car and crossed her arms. “No smoke, no fire engines outside the place, and it looks like the electricity is still on, so she didn’t blow a circuit.”

She nodded. “Looking good so far. Now, Kerrison,” she addressed herself seriously, “whatever this turns out to be, Dar will have spent a lot of time and a lot of effort on it, so no matter what, you’re going to like it. Got me?” She squared her shoulders and took a deep breath.

“Besides, you’ve eaten at the Republican National Convention. Nothing should scare you after that.”

She trotted up the stairs and paused, cocking her head and listening before she keyed in her lock code. Nothing but soft music came faintly to her ears, certainly not the strident cursing she’d have expected from Dar if things weren’t going well. Another good sign. Kerry unlocked the door and opened it, slipping inside and closing it behind her.

And then she just stood there, only her eyes moving as she absorbed the scene in front of her. The lights were dimmed in both the living room and dining room, and there were candles on the table.

Really tall, pretty candles, set in holders that complemented the china and crystal place settings patiently awaiting use.

She also realized two other things: there was no sign of Dar, and Red Sky At Morning 155

something smelled great. “Heh,” Kerry chortled softly to herself. “I’m liking this already.”

“Good,” Dar’s voice purred from nearby.

Kerry almost jumped, and then she turned to see Dar leaning against the doorjamb of her bedroom, her hair pulled loosely back and her body covered in something very silky and brief. The pale blue eyes held a lazily sensual note as they traveled over Kerry’s form, eliciting a small, almost subvocal noise from Kerry’s throat. “Hi there,” she managed to get out.

“Hi there,” Dar replied. “Wanna come in and make yourself comfortable?” She eased away from the door and moved toward Kerry, bare feet soundless against the tile. “Hello? Earth to Kerry.” Dar waved a hand in front of her lover’s eyes, which seemed to be firmly focused on her.

Kerry let her laptop case slide to the floor and found better uses for her hands, letting them slide over the soft, cool fabric covering Dar’s body to feel the warm flesh beneath. She stepped closer and took a deep breath, then tilted her head back to look up at her lover. “So, what did I do to rate this?”

Dar smiled. “Nothing.” She brushed a wisp of pale hair out of Kerry’s eyes. “I just felt like trying out this romantic thing.

Complaining?”

“Nuh-uh.” Kerry shook her head firmly. “Where’d you get this? It’s gorgeous.” She fingered the crimson silk. It barely covered Dar’s body, and Kerry found herself losing interest in dinner, or asking questions, or... “Damn, you smell good.”

“Glad you think so.” Dar nuzzled her hair, then slipped her arms around Kerry and gave her a big hug. “Mom and Dad took Chino for a while.”

Kerry gave her a weird look. “Why? She never bothers us.”

“No, but she kept jumping up and stealing my mixing thing, and it was driving me nuts,” Dar admitted with a faint chuckle. “They’ll bring her back and drop her off later in the evening. C’mon, let’s get you undressed so you can properly appreciate my creation.”

Kerry stepped back and grinned frankly at her. “Sweetie, I don’t need to be undressed to appreciate that. I think your creation is spectacular.”

Dar put her hands on her hips, hiking up the fabric and only enhancing Kerry’s visceral experience. “I meant dinner.”

“That too.” Kerry’s smile grew wider. “Oh.” The words finally penetrated, and she laughed helplessly. “Sorry...sorry...you mean the food.”

Dar snorted softly, but looked pleased with the appraisal nonetheless. “G’wan.” She nudged Kerry toward the stairs. “I’ll put the salad on the table.”

Kerry had turned and had one foot on the steps. Now she stopped 156 Melissa Good dead and swiveled her head to face Dar. “You,” she pointed, “made salad?”

Dar nodded.

“Ah...hah.” Kerry slowly turned back around and started up the steps, sneaking disbelieving peeks at Dar as she did, until she disappeared onto the second floor. “Salad.” She shook her head as she entered her bedroom and kicked her shoes off. “I feel like I’m in a dream world.”

Her closet beckoned and she went inside, shucking out of her jacket and hanging it neatly on a hanger. She unbuttoned and slid out of her skirt and hung that up as well. Then she stopped and considered as she removed her shirt. Normally, she’d just slip into an old T-shirt, but since Dar had made an effort... Her eyes roved speculatively over her wardrobe. “Hmm. It’s all business or dressy. I don’t have any causally sexy numbers, Dar.”

She flipped through the hangers until she finally stopped at one, removing it. “Hmm.” It was a sleeveless satin sheath, designed to go under a lacy dress she had. “That’ll work.” She slipped it over her head and settled the edges, which just barely came to her upper thighs.

“Yeah...” She consulted the mirror, which reflected back to her a surprisingly racy-looking image. Thoughts of Dar in her silk strapless number came to mind, and Kerry found herself wondering just how relevant dinner was going to be.

A shiver of anticipation made her grin.

DAR STUDIED THE plate, then nodded in satisfaction, cocking her head as she heard Kerry’s footsteps coming down the stairs. She put both hands on the back of the dining room chair and smiled in welcome as Kerry appeared, the smile broadening as the warm candlelight exposed the brief clothing and knowing look. “Nice.” Dar drew the chair back, and Kerry seated herself with a faint chuckle.

“Thank you.” Kerry waited for Dar to take the seat right next to her and moved the chair slightly so their bare legs touched. “Are you actually going to eat some of this here salad, Dardar?”

White teeth reflected the candlelight as Dar smiled. “Only if you feed it to me.”

So she did. They exchanged forkfuls, and Kerry found herself enjoying the freshly cut greens very much. Of course, there was enough dressing on them that Dar probably couldn’t tell a lettuce leaf from a carrot, but that was okay. That’s how Kerry liked her salad. They finished, and she carefully removed some extra dressing off Dar’s lips before she let her lover stand and remove the plates. “That was great.”

Dar paused at the entrance to the kitchen. “Just you wait.”

“Mm.” Kerry sat back and folded her hands over her stomach, craning her neck to watch Dar busy at work by the stove. With serious Red Sky At Morning 157

precision, her lover was arranging something on plates and adding scoops of something else from a dish on the warmer. When she was satisfied that both plates had equal amounts and were symmetrical, Dar picked them up and walked back into the dining room.

“Here you go.” Dar set the plates down and seated herself, then eyed Kerry for a reaction.

Kerry’s eyebrows lifted. “That’s a lobster tail,” she commented.

“Yep.”

Kerry poked the top. “It’s stuffed.”

“Sure is.”

“Those are au gratin potatoes.”

“With cheese,” Dar agreed.

“And peas.”

“LeSeur Very Early Baby Peas.”

Kerry nibbled a bit of stuffing. “Dar, this is fantastic.”

A very satisfied Dar settled back in her chair. “Thanks.”

They ate in silence for a moment. Unable to keep her curiosity under wraps, Kerry finally asked, “When did you learn to cook?”

Dar looked up, and bit the end of her fork in thought. “Four—no, four-thirty today.” She reached over and poured chilled white wine into their glasses, then lifted one and toasted her lover. “Incredible what you can find out on the Internet, isn’t it?”

With a helpless laugh, Kerry lifted her glass and clinked it, then took a sip of the sweet wine. “So, what’s for dessert?”

For an answer, Dar looked her up and down and raised an eyebrow, her lips twitching into a rakish grin.

“Ah.” Kerry wrinkled her nose into an appreciative grin. “Got any fudge with that?”

Dar merely chuckled.

“MM.” KERRY STRETCHED her legs out in the Jacuzzi and leaned her head back, regarding the stars happily. “What a great night.”

Dar stepped into the tub and sat down, setting two glasses down on the rim and stretching an arm out to encircle Kerry’s shoulders. “Glad you liked it.” She wiggled her toes in contentment. “I sure did, except that fudge got damn messy.”

One green eye rotated in her direction. “Which is why we’re here in the hot tub,” Kerry reminded her wryly. “Or we would have ended up stuck together, which could have made work a little interesting tomorrow.” She reached over and scratched the back of Dar’s neck.

“How’d it go down by the base today?”

Dar handed her a glass of cold sweet peach tea. “Relatively pointless. I got the circuit hooked up and got the download started, then...” Dar paused. “There was one weird thing. They’ve got a private T3 dropped in there that’s on an isolated segment.”

158 Melissa Good Kerry tipped her head to one side. “Really?” she mused. “That is weird.”

“Yeah.” Dar nibbled her inner lip. “I’ve got Mark tracking down the private line, but...I don’t know, Ker. It’s really odd.” She leaned back and sighed. “I wish I knew what was going on.”

Kerry caught the mood change, and she slid closer. “Maybe it’s nothing.”

Dar regarded the stars. “Maybe.” She set her glass down and slid her arms around Kerry instead, kissing her lips and removing a trace of fudge from them. “But right now, I don’t think I want to care one way or the other.”

“Mm.” Kerry slid around to face her, going belly to belly with Dar as she leaned forward.

Dar pulled her closer, circling her arms around the small of Kerry’s back. As she looked up, the stars overhead formed an almost halo around her partner’s form, and their twinkle was echoed in the mist-green eyes gazing back at her. “Know what I think?”

“No, what?” Kerry murmured, gently exploring the curve of Dar’s neck with her lips.

“I think I like cooking.”

Kerry stopped and went nose to nose with her, her eyes almost crossing as she tried to keep Dar’s face in focus. “I think you got into some bad MREs down on that base, Ms. Paladar.”

Dar chuckled. “Well, okay. I don’t like cooking, but I like surprising you.” She tilted Kerry’s chin upward and kissed her on the lips. “I thought about what I was going to do all the way home on that damn boring road.”

Kerry responded, letting her hand submerge to stroke Dar’s side, rubbing her thumb along the curve of her breast. “Well, it was a trip to come home to, that’s for sure. I don’t think I ever had anyone do that for me before,” she admitted. “And boy, was it nice after being at work all day. I think I get a clue as to why guys wanted to keep their wives home in the kitchen all those years.”

Dar snickered, nuzzling her neck and giving her a nip.

“Antifeminism explained. There’s a master’s thesis in there if you want it, Ker.”

“No thanks.” Kerry rubbed her body against Dar’s, reveling in the feel of their skin-on-skin contact. “Four years was more than enough for me. I’m no scholar.”

“Me either.” Dar ran her hands up Kerry’s thighs, leaning back a little as her partner pressed against her. The frothy water tickled her now sensitized skin, and they spent a leisurely few minutes exchanging kisses.

Kerry unexpectedly giggled. “Um...Dar?”

“Yeees?”

“Look over your right shoulder.”

Red Sky At Morning 159

Dar reluctantly left off from a very interesting exploration of Kerry’s chest and turned her head, coming face to face, or rather nose to nose, with a curious Labrador Retriever. “Yah!”

“Gruff!” Chino gave her a lick.

Kerry burst into laughter, collapsing against Dar in a delightful swirl of bubbles and warm skin. “We forgot to close the sliding door all the way.”

“So I see.” Dar splashed the dog with a handful of water. “Least it’s her, and not my folks.” She caught her breath, her temporarily thwarted libido kicking her in the butt but not having anywhere to go past those cute Labrador ears now cocking her way. “C’mon. It’s getting a little chilly out here anyway.”

Kerry flexed her shoulders, which had been fully exposed to the wind. “Mm.” She got out and wrapped one of their fluffy blue towels around her, reaching over and handing Dar the other as her partner climbed out of the tub. Even after all this time, Kerry glanced around as the moonlight outlined Dar’s muscular body, half expecting to see interested spectators on decks nearby.

There weren’t. At least none that she saw. She chuckled at herself and followed Dar inside, finding her hand taken and clasped as they closed the sliding door and traded the balmy air for the crisp chill of the condo. They walked together in silence across the living room, jostling each other as they entered the large blue-tinted bedroom.

“Now,” Dar turned and faced her, removing her towel and tossing it into the corner. “Where were we?”

Kerry stepped forward into her embrace, ducking her head slightly to give Dar’s nipple a playful lick. “Here?”

“Hmm...” Dar half chuckled deep in her throat. She wrapped her arms around Kerry and picked her up, turning and taking both of them to the waterbed. She rolled over onto her back as Kerry stretched and spread her body out. The heat of their combined skin was shiver inducing, an exquisite counterpoint to the conditioned air.

Kerry slid her thigh between Dar’s and traced a teasing path from her groin to her breasts, leaning forward to coax a soft groan from her partner with a pair of skillful lips. Learning what worked with Dar was a never-ending fascination of hers, and she took an unsteady breath as she felt Dar’s touch high up on the inside of her leg.

Her body growled sensually, and she craved more as they traded nips, Dar’s teeth closing gently over her breast as the warmth of her breath warmed the skin around her nipple. Kerry felt her heart rate pick up and she started to work her way down Dar’s body, nibbling the subtle ripples under her skin as she tasted the skin around her navel.

The muscles under her lips tensed, and she moved lower, feeling Dar shift under her as she curled her upper body around and took a taste of Kerry’s hip.

“Mm.” Kerry breathed in, sucking in a lungful of Dar’s distinctive 160 Melissa Good scent, just lightly touched with chlorine from the tub. “I want you.”

“Heh.” Dar chuckled. “Think you got me, cute stuff.”

Kerry could feel the pressure building in her guts as Dar’s light touch moved intimately over her in tweaks and gentle strokes, a rhythm she matched with her own attentions to her partner’s tanned body. As the tension wound up, she gasped for air, arching her back as Dar’s attentions brought her to the breaking point and over it.

Her body contracted, shivers moving up and down her spine as she felt Dar grip her fiercely. Their limbs coiled together as Dar let out a heartfelt groan and slid belly to belly again. They rocked together, stroking each other gently as the contractions eased, exchanging the light coating of sweat they’d worked up.

Kerry closed her eyes, enjoying the comfortable lassitude. For all the stress of the day, ending it like this made her look back on her problems and just laugh at them.

Made it all worth it, really—this being in love thing.

Dar slid her arms around Kerry and pulled her closer, fitting their bodies together like a living puzzle. They fell asleep like that as the moonlight painted stripes across their bodies, making them seem more one creature than two.