Reviewing restaurants is normally a safe pursuit, but Kate and Lorne face torture and death when they try to unravel organised crime's infiltration of the fine dining scene.
Kate is a novelist and a dining columnist. Lorne is a lawyer, a prominent w...
After Lorne left, I sat on the couch, set my MacBook on the coffee table and opened it, the Wikipedia page filling the screen while a low-battery alert flashed 9%. Darn, no charger. Should have shut down last night. Then remembering why I didn't, I sighed. Yeah, straight from looking up asexuality into diddling. Oh, God! Then into sex far finer than I've ever dared write. Far finer than I've ever dreamed possible.
I blew a deep breath. Need to rethink my ideas about ace. My mind drifted to his delightfully naïve awkwardness. His unleashed desire to pleasure me. The look of adoration in his eyes. I shuddered at the memories and the feelings sweeping through me before I realised my fingers were pressed to my mound and slowly circling.
Following a loud sigh, with both hands back at the keyboard, I focused on the screen to continue reading about asexuality. After following links that led to contradictory information, I realised that asexuality is not yet well understood. Even some in the LGBT community dispute its place under their rainbow. Strange.
At least, that's better than being diagnosed as a mental disorder. God, what a horrid thing to impose on an already confused teen.
After digging further and finding increasingly conflicting opinions, the battery alert changed to a larger and more insistently flashing 5% on the screen. Continue this later. More immediate concerns now.
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I searched through my files to locate the K ate design, opened it, clicked full screen and zoomed in to examine. Hmmm! The pink background might not be the best choice for Lorne. The links are still valid, so all that's needed...
A click, a thud and some rustling somewhere in the loft sent my heart racing, and I shuddered, jerking my gaze around in search of a place to hide.
"Sorry I took so long, Kate. The stores were all –"
"Oh, God! Lorne! You scared the bejeebers out of me."
"Sorry. Didn't think. Where are you?"
"Part of me is cowering under the coffee table, some behind the sofa." I tried a giggle, but it came out closer to a cackle. "The rest is trying to decide."
He chuckled. "Where's your mouth, so I can kiss it?"
"Still trembling here on the couch, frozen in place by fear."
"Sorry. I should have found a better way to –"
"No, it's me, Lorne. Mind still flashing to –" I crunched my eyes closed. "Oh, God!"
Lorne nestled to my side on the couch and wrapped me in his arms, cupping my head and easing it to his chest. "You're safe with me, Kate."
"Ummm. When you're here."
"Next time, I'll call you as I approach – I got burner phones for us."
"Hunh? What're they?"
"Difficult-to-track throwaways. That's why I told you to check your iPhone settings before we left the boat; they have Nathan's with your calls and texts in it."
