Lauren jumped as her phone on her waistband vibrated. She glanced at the readout and grimaced.
"Camz, can you keep an eye on Kyle, I just need to answer this one? It's the ER "
Camila turned away from the spectacle of cavorting sea lions, taking in Lauren's slight frown of irritation. "I thought you were off today. I don't even have my cell phone."
"I'm supposed to be off," Lauren shrugged in resignation. "It's probably just some administrative issue and they need me to confirm the official party line. I'll only be a few minutes."
"No problem. We're headed to the monkey house next," Camila replied. "We'll wait for you there."
Since arriving at the zoo, Camila and Kyle had been busy studying the pictorial map in the color brochure that came with the price of admission and plotting their course around the enclosure.. Lauren was amused to discover that her daughter and Camila shared a very strong sense of order and a love for structure. Left to her own devices, Lauren would have wandered in whatever direction her interest led. However, it had rapidly become clear that with Kyle and Camila in charge, this was to be a very systematic safari.
"Yeah, Mom," Kyle announced excitedly. "We're going to take pictures of them when they're outside in their...natural habitat." She glanced at Camila, who gave her a thumbs-up of approval for remembering the new term.
"That's great, honey. I'll be right back." Lauren fixed them both with a mock-stern look. "And don't get into trouble."
The angelic brunette child and the devilishly good-looking dark-haired, browned-eyed woman both grinned, and Lauren's heart melted.
Unfortunately, she looked at Camila for just a second too long, and a few other parts of her anatomy grew disturbingly warm. She left in search of a good reception before she could become any more distracted.
It was closer to fifteen minutes before Lauren made her way back through the heavy throngs of visitors toward the screened-in expanse of tall grass, trees, and man-made climbing devices that composed the outdoor extension of the monkey house. Her daughter and Camila were nowhere in sight. With just the slightest sense of unease, she turned slowly, scanning the people lined up along the railing that separated the paved pathway from the animal habitat. Then she heard, above the cacophony of the crowd, the sound of one child laughing. Unerringly, she pivoted toward the voice, and her gaze fell directly on Kyle and Camila.
Kyle stood on the bottom rung of the metal railing that edged the moat surrounding the monkey house. She leaned as far over the railing as she possibly could with her camera at eye level, a posture which, Lauren was certain, was frowned upon by zoo officials. Ordinarily, she would have been too anxious to allow Kyle to climb up on the barrier. However, Camila stood immediately beside Kyle with her fingers curled around the waistband at the back of the child's shorts. Lauren had not the slightest doubt that Camila would keep Kyle safe.
As she watched, she saw Camila point to two monkeys frolicking on a wooden scaffolding and caught a glimpse of Kyle's thrilled expression as she aimed her new camera toward them. The sight of her daughter's pleasure and the easy, tender way that Camila related to her brought Lauren a surge of joy. Smiling, she joined them and rested her hand in the center of Camila's back, stroking gently up and down.
"Hi," Lauren said softly.
"Everything okay?"
"Mmm. Just an insurance snafu with an ER transfer." She kept her hand lightly resting on the small of Camila's back. "You two look like you're having fun."
"We are." Camila continued her hold on Kyle and, while the child was occupied taking another picture, leaned over and kissed Lauren quickly. "Missed you."
Lauren's lips parted in surprise and pleasure. Her stomach did a quick roll and she suddenly felt far more than warm. Camila's muscles tightened beneath Lauren's fingers and she saw her brown eyes darken with desire. That was all it took. She wanted to jump her. "Oh my God."
Camila raised an eyebrow, laughter and arousal warring in her expression. "Are you talking to me?"
"Definitely not." Laughing, Lauren wrapped her arm around Camila's waist and leaned into her. "What's next, Captain Camila?"
Grinning, Camila turned to Kyle. "Where to, navigator?"
Kyle finally looked away from the primate enclosure. "What's a navigator?"
"The person who's in charge of directions," Camila explained.
"Where's the map?"
Camila retrieved it from her back pocket and held it out. Kyle climbed down from the railing and studied it, then looked around. With a frown that was a replica of her mother's, she held out the map to Lauren.
"I can't tell where I am."
Lauren knelt down and looked at the simplistic diagram of the zoo. She pointed to an image that was presumably the monkey house.
"This is where we are. See? There are the monkeys." She drew her finger to another image. "What about this?"
"It's a lion." Kyle turned in a circle and gestured triumphantly toward the stone statue to their right. "There! Right?"
"Very good." Lauren stood and handed the map back to Camila. With a salute, she declared exuberantly, "To the lion house."
Camila was about to reply when Kyle slid a small hand into hers. She glanced down to see that the child had taken Lauren's hand, too, linking the three of them. It seemed so completely natural and right that for an instant, Camila had the sensation of always having been with them. Then, just as quickly, she realized that had fate and circumstance been less fickle, less cruel, someone else would have been standing there with the woman she loved and her child. She experienced a sudden surge of sadness, but it was quickly replaced by the certain knowledge that the past, with all its tragedy and heartbreak, was truly behind them. Fate, it appeared, was not fixed, but fluid, and Lauren and Kyle were her destiny. She knew it as certainly as she had ever known anything, to the depths of her soul.
"Lead on." Voice husky, Camila smiled into Lauren's eyes and was rewarded by a long sultry look that was both tender and hungry. "I'll follow."
"For a little while." Lauren let her eyes drift down over Camila's body and then slowly rise once again to meet her gaze. She was pleased to see the flicker of arousal in Camila's eyes. "I like it— sometimes—when you're in charge."
Camila's stomach clenched Sweet Jesus.
Kyle tugged their hands and forged ahead, dragging the adults behind her. "Come on. We don't want to miss anything."
Laughing, both doctors hurried to keep up.
* * * * *
"Cami?" Kyle asked. "Can you stay and read with me after my bath?"
After the zoo, they'd had an impromptu barbecue in Lauren's backyard, just the three of them and a happy Pooch, who had had his fill of dropped morsels. Now it was nearing nine, and Lauren had just announced that it was time for Kyle to get ready for bed. Camila looked questioningly over Kyle's head to Lauren.
Smiling, Lauren nodded.
"Sure," Camila replied. "I'll pick up down here while you go with your mom."
When Camila had covered the grill, carried in the dishes, and stowed away the condiments, she went upstairs to Kyle's room. A pajama-clad Kyle sat up in bed the covers drawn up to her waist and an enormous book propped on her knees.
"Harry Potter, huh?" Camila remarked as she crossed to the bed.
Lauren stuck her head in the door. "Don't make her read the entire thing tonight, okay, honey?"
"Mom." Kyle giggled. "It's hundreds and hundreds of pages."
"Well then, no more than half." Lauren gave Camila an amused look. "If you can handle the storytelling duties, I'm going to take care of a few things downstairs."
Camila kicked off her Nikes, propped a pillow against the headboard, and settled onto the bed next to Kyle. "You go ahead. We're fine."
Lauren was ambushed by a sudden swell of affection and blinked away an unexpected wash of tears. The picture before her was not the one she had imagined night after night, standing alone in this doorway. It was not the picture she had longed for, ached for, wept for. To her astonishment and confusion, she felt nothing but happiness now. Unable to speak, she merely nodded and slipped away.
"Okay," Camila said briskly. "What's the drill here?"
Kyle gave her a perplexed look. "You're supposed to read the story to me."
"How come you're not going to read it to me?"
"Because some of it is too hard for me." Kyle's tone suggested that Camila should know that.
"Oh. Okay." Camila leaned closer and held one side of the book open as Kyle held the other and began to read.
"Cami," Kyle interrupted after a few minutes.
"Huh?" Camila had quickly become engrossed in the story.
"Do you like my mom a lot?"
Uh-oh. Camila stiffened. "Yes, I do."
"Do you like my mom like Aunt Ally and Perrie like each other?"
Oh, man. Where's Lauren? Camila cleared her throat, cursing herself for not having seen this coming. "I don't know. How do you mean?"
Kyle closed the book and shifted on the bed to regard Camila seriously. "Aunt Ally and Perrie like each other more than anybody else in the world, and that's why they live together."
"Well, I like your mom more than anybody else. And you, too." Honesty seemed the only course, and Camila desperately hoped it was the correct one. She took a long breath. "But living together is very special, and it's something that you have to think about very hard before you do it."
"Are you thinking about it?"
God, she's s single-minded. She's going to be a surgeon some day. Or president Camila forced herself not to fidget. "Well, right now, your mom and I are just finding out if we like each other the way Ally and Perrie do."
"Oh," Kyle replied, sounding sleepy. "When will you know?"
"Don't worry." Smiling, Camila rescued the book from where it was about to fall onto the floor and eased to the side of the bed. She tucked the covers around Kyle and leaned over to kiss her on the forehead. "We'll let you know first thing."
As Camila moved quietly toward the door, Lauren appeared outside in the hall.
"Everything okay?"
Camila hurriedly took Lauren's arm and led her further down the hall.
"She's asleep." Camila leaned against the wall. "She asked me about us ."
Lauren struggled not to smile at the hint of panic in Camila's voice. She'd rarely seen Camila show nerves over anything. "What about us?"
"If we liked each other." Camila's voice was a desperate whisper. "You know. Like liked."
"What did you tell her?" Lauren bit her bottom lip, but the laugh was about to erupt despite her best attempts to contain it. Camila looked adorably flummoxed.
The brunette ran a hand through her hair. She felt like pulling it out. "I told her I liked you a lot but that we're not ready to live together yet."
"Live together?" Lauren's voice rose along with her eyebrows. "That's a leap."
"You had to have been there."
"I'm sure." Lauren took Camila's hand and drew her to the door of her bedroom. "So, you wanna have a sleepover?"
"I do, except..." Desire leapt like a living thing into Camila's throat. "I'm not really tired yet."
Lauren slid her fingers under the waistband of Camila's jeans. "Good. Neither am I."
Then she tugged Camila into her bedroom, reached around her to lock the door, and then laced her arms around Camila's neck. Sighing at the first touch of their bodies, she nuzzled her face in the curve of Camila's neck. "I had a wonderful time today. I wouldn't change a thing about it."
Camila encircled Lauren's waist and spread her hands over her hips, snugging her closer still. With her lips against Lauren's forehead, she murmured, "But?"
"But," Lauren replied indolently, her mouth brushing over Camila's lips, her hips rocking gently, "I thought I was going to die if I couldn't touch you soon."
"Mmm." Camila moved her mouth along the edge of Lauren's jaw in quick, feathery kisses, then caught an earlobe between her teeth and nipped, drawing a sharp gasp from the woman in her arms. "You can touch me now."
"I'm going to make you pay for that," Lauren warned breathlessly, tugging the T-shirt from Camila's jeans.
"Promise?"
In lieu of an answer, Lauren kissed her, darting her tongue between Camila's lips until she heard her groaned. With the kiss unbroken, they stumbled their way toward the bed and tumbled onto it. Then they drew apart, laughing quietly. Lauren slid her hand under Camila's T-shirt and over her breasts, teasing her nipples into hard points of desire. Breathing rapidly, Camila worked the button loose on Lauren's shorts with one hand and then dipped her fingers inside. Lauren stiffened and caught her breath sharply.
"Camz, baby...that's not exactly my idea of punishment." With a swift lift of her hips, she dislodged Camila's hand and rolled over on top of her, straddling her hips. Laughing at the look of consternation on Camila's face, she pulled her shirt and bra off over her head and dropped them behind her onto the floor. She arched her back and gave a low contented sigh, drawing both hands up her abdomen to stop with her fingers'splayed over her breasts. When Camila raised her shoulders to reach for her, Lauren shook her head.
"No, I don't think so." She cupped her breasts, squeezed gently. "You can look, but not touch."
Camila's eyes grew round with surprise at the same time as her pulse skyrocketed. Her throat went dry and arousal poured through her like quicksilver, hot and slick. She groaned. "Do you know what that will do to me?"
Lauren cocked her head and smiled, a slow teasing smile. She flicked one of her hard nipples with a fingertip and barely managed to hold back a moan. Breathless, she said, "Let's find out."
The muscles in Camila's legs were so tight she thought she'd cramp as she watched Lauren push her shorts down over her hips, shifting quickly back and forth until she kicked free of the restraining material.
"Hands on the bed, now," Lauren murmured as she unzipped Camila's jeans and worked them off.
When Lauren settled back down, a leg on either side of Quinn's body, she was nude, and Quinn was desperate with the scent and sight of her.
"I like the way you look at me," Lauren whispered, trailing the fingers of her right hand between her breasts and then down over her belly. She fixed on Camila's eyes as they followed the movement of her fingers, and it was almost as if it were Camila touching her. Lauren's excitement escalated and she pulled her lip between her teeth, biting down to hold her focus. She was wet, throbbing, and she wanted Camila's hands on her. "You look a little wild. A little dangerous."
"I am dangerous. I want you." Camila dared to touch her then, because she couldn't bear not to any longer. Still, she only rested her palms against the outside of Lauren's thighs, needing to feel the heat of her skin. "All of you." She smoothed her hands up Lauren's sides and then down to clasp her hips. "I want to be inside of you like you're inside of me."
Lauren rested her fingertips on the insides of her spread legs and drew her hands upward until she framed the center of her desire, then brushed her fingers lightly over herself. Someone groaned. She thought it was Camila. It might have been her. Her lids closed as the pleasure settled in the pit of her stomach, and she heard Camila panting softly as her hips jerked between Lauren's thighs. She held her fingers still then, afraid that her control would snap. "Do you know how ready I am for you?"
"Lauren," Camila pleaded, cupping Lauren's hips and urging her upward. "Let me have you. Please."
Unable to hold back, Lauren leaned forward and braced her arms on the headboard, letting Camila guide her to her mouth. She cried out softly as warm lips enclosed her, her head dropping between her arms, her thighs trembling. "Oh," she moaned, "oh My god, Camila."
Camila caressed Lauren's back in long strokes that echoed the movement of her tongue, soothing even as she stoked the embers of Lauren's passion to bright flame. When she felt the pulse beat wildly between her lips and sensed Lauren gathering her strength for the climb to completion, she gripped Lauren's waist and held her firmly. When Lauren sobbed out her pleasure, Camila drew her deeper, claiming her with relentless tenderness.
Even before the last gripping spasm had released her, Lauren collapsed into Camila's waiting arms. She shuddered with the still-powerful aftershocks, pressing her face to Camila's neck. "Please don't let go."
Camila tightened her hold, molding her body to Lauren's and wrapping her arms around her. "No," she murmured, her lips pressed to Lauren's damp hair. "No, sweetheart, I won't."
Eventually, Lauren stilled and her breathing returned to normal. "When you touch me, I feel so exposed."
"I love the way you let me touch you." Camila caressed Lauren's cheek and kissed her softly. "You can trust me."
"I think I do."
Camila closed her eyes, gratitude and desire filling her in equal measure. "By the way, you can punish me any time you please."
"I don't think...that plan worked very well." Lauren laughed just a bit wildly, remembering how easily she had given herself to Camila, how she had wanted so desperately for Camila to take her. God, how can she turn everything around and make it feel so right?
Gently, the brunette took Lauren's hand and drew it between her own thighs, gasping softly as warm fingers brushed her painfully swollen clitoris, "I think...it worked...just fine."
"Is that right?" Laughing with delight now, Lauren leaned up on an elbow and watched Camila's face as she worked her slowly but inexorably to orgasm. When Camila's eyes, fixed on her face, lost focus and her stomach tightened on a groan, Lauren moaned softly. She felt powerful and humbled and blessed by the exquisite connection she had never hoped to experience again.
"That's right, baby," she murmured as Camila, shuddering violently, pressed her face to Lauren's breasts. "That's right. Everything is fine, just fine."
"Oh," Camila gasped after a time. "You make me feel so good." She leaned her head back, searching Lauren's face, her expression still dazed. "So damn good—everywhere."
Smiling tenderly, Lauren brushed her fingers through Camila's hair, then eased Camila's head back to her breast, loving the sensation of holding her in her arms. "Then we're even, because you make me feel so good, too."
"I'm happy," Camila mumbled, floating on the edge of sleep. "Really happy."
"Yes," Lauren whispered wonderingly, her voice just barely audible. "So am I."
AN: I'm about to end this book and I'm ready to post all the parts today. Hope you're happy guys.