“That?” Dar rumbled, and gently closed her teeth on a very sensitive part of Kerry’s anatomy.
Thicker Than Water 65
The answer was a low groan.
Dar shifted her attentions slightly. “Or that?” She chuckled softly as the groan became a squeak.
KERRY FLUFFED OUT her hair and stared pensively at her reflection. She tugged a little on the snug teal turtleneck she hadn’t had occasion to wear in over a year. “I’m going to sweat in this, aren’t I?”
Dar came up behind her and put a hand on her shoulder.
“Probably.” She brushed a speck of dust off Kerry’s sleeve. The sweater nicely outlined her lover’s athletic build and contrasted against her pale hair. “You look nice, though.”
Kerry turned and regarded her. Dar was wearing a beautifully knitted red pullover with an embroidered pattern on it and a pair of black corduroys. The pullover had a rolled collar, and it looked casually elegant. “So do you. I like that on you.”
“You should; you bought it.” Dar smiled, having found the surprise laid out on her dresser after the first cool morning they’d had that fall. She didn’t like sweaters, as a rule, never having had occasion to wear them much, but she did like this one. It was incredibly soft, for one thing, a very fine, silky weave that felt nice against her skin. For another thing, she looked good in it, and she was self aware enough to know that. “Where did you get it? I should get you a blue one, and we can wear them on the same day at work.” She straightened Kerry’s shoulder seams. “You ready?”
Kerry’s eyes dropped. “As I’ll ever be. Dar, I want to apologize to you in advance for all the crap you’re going to have to wit-ness and be subjected to today.”
Dar tipped Kerry’s chin up so their eyes met. “I’ll live. Don’t worry about me, okay?”
A thin lipped smile flitted on Kerry’s face, then disappeared.
“Okay. Let’s go.” She slipped into her leather jacket and zipped it, then headed for the door with Dar following behind her. “Good God.” She stopped in mid stride, almost making Dar crash into her. “Dar, what happened with the Navy investigation?”
Dar put a hand on her back and pushed her gently forward.
“C’mon.” She pushed the elevator button, debating whether or not to go into the subject.
Kerry didn’t budge. “Dar?”
Pale blue eyes regarded her seriously. “Gerry called me.”
Kerry waited. “And?”
Dar sighed. “He…wants to dump the whole thing.”
Kerry’s jaw dropped. “What?”
Dar fiddled with the catches on her heavy jacket. “I can see 66 Melissa Good where he’s coming from, Kerry.” She glanced up and down the empty corridor. “The scandal could destroy a lot of people.”
Kerry just stared at her. “And you accepted that?” Her voice was flat with disbelief.
Dar studied the carpet, then looked up. “No. I told him I’d go public with it if he didn’t.” The doors opened and she put out a hand to keep them that way. “Alastair’s frothing at me for that.”
Kerry walked into the elevator, her mind churning. She knew Dar would keep her word, but at what cost? “Is it worth it? Maybe Easton’s right.” Dar’s silence made her look up, and she found her lover studying her seriously. “Maybe the damage outweighs the benefits.”
Dar seemed to understand where she was coming from. “I thought about that. After I did the analysis, I sat at my desk for hours, debating with myself over whether or not to give it to your father.” She half shook her head. “Maybe I knew this was going to happen.”
The doors opened at the bottom floor and they exited. Kerry thought about what Dar had said as they crossed the warm, gaily decorated lobby and passed through the revolving door into the bitterly cold wind. “Did you think you might be doing it just because you were mad at Ainsbright?”
Dar stuck her hands in her pockets. “No. I thought I might be doing it to stroke my own ego.”
Kerry looked at her in surprise. “What?”
Dar gave an embarrassed nod. “I figured there’s a part of me that hates losing and hates letting someone get one over on me, and that’s what was driving me to force the issue.”
Kerry stopped at her rental car and opened the doors. She waited for Dar to slip inside, then joined her and closed the door on the icy air. “And you decided you weren’t?”
Dar smiled at the bleak scene outside the car. “No. That was very much a part of why I did it.” She gave Kerry an honest, open look. “But the other part of it was that people are getting hurt by this, and it has to stop.” Her jaw tensed. “And it will stop, one way or the other, no matter what that takes.”
Sometimes, Kerry mused, as she started the car and let the engine warm up, sometimes life’s lessons come at you from the strang-est directions, and at the weirdest times. “Does your father know about this?”
Dar nodded silently.
Kerry didn’t have to ask how Andrew felt about it. She knew, simply by the set of Dar’s shoulders and the almost unconsciously proud lift of her chin. It definitely gave her something to think about. “Well. I don’t think my father had time to do anything with Thicker Than Water 67
it.”
“Mm.” Dar leaned back in her seat.
Kerry exhaled and put the car into gear. She backed out of the parking spot and headed towards the main road. The landscape was bleak and gray, trees dressed in winter brown with their coat-ing of snow and ice.
It made Kerry feel cold, despite the heater in the car. This had once been home. She’d grown up here, played in some of the fields they were passing, skated on those frozen lakes. They drove past a group of young people walking along the sidewalk, laughing and joking with each other, obviously headed for the church youth center not far away.
Kerry remembered being one of them, pampered and privi-leged, wanting for absolutely nothing. Sure of her place in the world and secure in her family’s solid circle. Lacking only the one thing that Dar, raised without any of her advantages, had been given freely.
Life is so strange, sometimes.
Kerry felt almost lightheaded. She pulled over to the side of the road, stopped, and leaned on the steering wheel as she stared out at the trees.
“Ker?” Dar asked, hesitantly.
“It…um…” Kerry started, then paused. “I think part of the reason why I leaked that dirt on my father was because I was so angry at him.” Her voice was shaking a little, and she appreciated the sudden warmth as Dar laid a hand on her thigh. “I don’t think it had anything to do with wanting to do the right thing. Knowing that, and seeing him in that bed…it’s killing me.”
“Hey.” Dar leaned over the shift console and put an arm across Kerry’s shoulders. “It’s not your fault, Kerry.”
She gazed at Dar. “Isn’t it?”
“Don’t be an idiot.” Dar’s voice was warm, taking the sting out of the words. “Yeah, that was stressful, but your father spent his whole life in politics, Kerry. You think that was the only stress in his life? C’mon, you know better.”
Kerry remained silent.
“Don’t do that to yourself,” Dar said. “He made the choice to do what he did, knowing it might get out. You think keeping that secret wasn’t tough?” One dark brow lifted. “In the long run, lying is harder than truth.” She stroked Kerry’s cheek. “We found that out, didn’t we?”
A memory of the tense months early in their relationship surfaced, when even bringing Dar lunch was looked at with suspicion. “Yeah,” Kerry had to admit. “It was a lot easier once we came out. But this isn’t the same thing, Dar.”
68 Melissa Good
“Isn’t it?” Dar echoed her earlier statement. “Think about it.”