Doing It Right Read online

  “That’s a new look for you,” he observed.

  “God, I want you,” she replied, approaching so quickly her armadillo tail knocked everything off his bedside table. “You’re all I can think about, Jared.”

  “That’s nice. Really! Uh, what are you doing?”

  She was unscrewing the jar she was holding. Then she tossed the lid behind her where it hit the floor with a clatter. She reached into the jar with her armadillo paw and extracted something small and wet. Which she flung at him.

  Jared felt the pickle slice hit his forehead with a wet smack. “Pickled vegetables make me sooooo horny,” she whispered. She then upended the jar all over herself. Pickle juice rained down on his floor—and her armadillo suit. She writhed and moaned within the dill-scented shower.

  “On any other day, I would find this extremely weird.” In fact, he felt pretty sanguine about what was happening. “However, it’s been one of those days, so nothing surprises me.”

  He heard a purring sound as she unzipped her armadillo suit and stepped out of it. For a moment she was naked in the moonlight, her skin almost alabaster in the eerie light. Then she pounced on him. Her breasts brushed his chin as she leaned forward and sucked the pickle off his forehead. He heard her crunch, gulp, then felt her tongue as it slid back and forth across his forehead.

  “Ummmm,” she moaned, “Vlassic.”

  “Uh … Kara … are you on any medication that you think I should—”

  “Shut up and take me,” she commanded, her breath redolent with dill. “Take me like you know I want to be taken.”

  “Okay … but I’ll have to stop and fill up my gas tank first.”

  “Stop that. There’s something you should know.”

  “I can’t imagine what the hell it could be,” he said with perfect truth.

  “When I eat pickles … afterwards, I must always wash them down with cock.”

  “Wha—aigh!” Shockingly, she reached back and grabbed him. Even more shocking, he was as firm as a crisp pickle.

  Quick as a fish, she whipped around and dived for his dick like a gull diving for a herring. Instantly her warm, wet mouth was on him, while he was face-to-face, so to speak, with her delectable ass. It looked good enough to eat. He leaned forward and gently bit down on the plump, smooth flesh.

  She hummed in response, which sent glorious vibrations through his dick, vibrations he felt all the way up to his eyeballs.

  Her head was pistoning up and down like that stupid woodpecker toy he had as a kid. And speaking of peckers, his was so hard he felt like it had to be three feet long. Her lips surrounded him, her teeth scraped him—very, very gently—and he groaned around a mouthful of her ass.

  There was a pop as she pulled her mouth free of him. Then she whipped back around, straddling him. She laced her fingers behind his neck and jerked him into a sitting position. “I want you,” she growled, sounding uncommonly like the kid from The Exorcist. She smelled strongly of pickles. Her breasts pressed against his chest.

  “That’s swell,” he said, “because I want you, too, but maybe we could slow down a little—”

  “Less talk,” she murmured. “More fucking.”

  “Okey dokey.”

  She seized him, accidentally catching several pubic hairs. He let out a yelp, but by then she was stuffing him inside her. She rode him enthusiastically, squealing happily every time she impaled herself. Her breasts bobbed. Pickle juice dripped from her shoulders. He held onto the side of the bed for dear life as his orgasm thundered closer, closer …

  She twisted, jerked, bounced. He started to come at the exact moment her momentum pushed him from the bed. He slammed into the—

  Floor.

  Jared jerked awake, staring at the ceiling. The armadillo suit was gone. So was the lingering odor of pickles and, of course, Kara. He had semen on his stomach and one fuck of a headache.

  “Jesus Christ,” he gasped, then started the long climb back into bed.

  The thump of Jared flailing his way off the bed inserted itself into Kara’s dream as his bedroom door slammed open.

  She sat up on the couch and saw him walking softly toward her, splendidly naked. His shoulders were broad and his chest was lightly furred with crisp black hair, hair that tapered down past his belly button into his lush pubic hair. His sex jutted toward her. He wasn’t smiling.

  She saw, with no real surprise, that she was naked, too.

  “Come closer,” he said, even as he did so himself, and then he was standing before her, his hand on the back of her neck, urging her forward. “Touch me.”

  “I—”

  “With your mouth, Kara. Touch me with your mouth. I want you to, and you want you to.”

  “It’s a secret.” The wanting. The craving.

  “I won’t tell.” The pressure on the back of her neck increased, and she opened her lips and took him. His long, rolling purr of satisfaction kindled her own excitement.

  His palms were on either side of her face as he rocked his hips against her mouth. Then he pulled away and knelt between her legs. He spread her thighs wide and pushed her back, then pulled her legs across his. His hands were busy at the small of her back, pulling her toward him, and she felt him enter her with sweet and delicious slowness.

  She tried to bring her arms around him but, strangely, couldn’t move them an inch. She was pushed back so far, her legs were so wide. He crouched and rode her, rode her. It was hard to get a breath. It was hard to even want to.

  “When I’m done,” he said, perfectly calm, “I’ll leave.”

  “Yes, that’s—”

  “—what people do, yes. I know. You didn’t think you could have a normal life with me, did you?”

  “Why can’t I?”

  “Why should you?” He pulled out and, with savage swiftness, flipped her over. Shoved her, hard. She grabbed wildly for the couch, and found herself bent over the arm rest. Felt him part her legs, and brutally shove himself inside her. Red agony slashed across her vision as he shoved and withdrew and pushed some more. His fingers dug into her flesh, marking it, and she squirmed to get away. To her extreme humiliation, beneath the pain she could sense something else begin to stir.

  “Say it.”

  She said nothing. He shoved, harder than he ever had, so hard she could almost feel his cock in the back of her throat. His fingers were busy between her legs, pinching the tender lips, pulling on them. He withdrew almost all the way and she went limp, thinking he was done, and then he rammed himself into her again. She made a sound between a moan and a scream.

  “Say it or I’ll stop.”

  Everything was tightening, was getting hotter, and it hurt, God, it hurt, but it felt embarrassingly marvelous, too, and he couldn’t stop before she found her climax, he couldn’t. “Everybody leaves.”

  “Good. Yes. Everybody leaves.” Although his brutal thrusting didn’t stop, his fingers between her thighs became gentle, toyed with her throbbing clit, swept over it, squeezed it, rubbed, rubbed, rubbed …

  Things went dark, very dark around the edges as her orgasm screamed through her. She lay across the armrest for a moment, gasping, then turned over.

  He was gone.

  The next day, Jared and Kara managed to get up, refresh themselves, have a pleasant conversation, and leave together without actually making eye contact.

  Jared crept around the apartment feeling guilty, and nearly screamed when he opened the fridge and saw the jar of pickles sitting menacingly on the second shelf.

  For her part, Kara was mortified. She prayed Jared couldn’t read her expression. She didn’t like pain, she had never liked pain, she certainly didn’t like anybody messing with her ass, so what was with that dream? In real life, if Jared ever tried such a thing, she’d break his arm in two places.

  Right?

  After driving downtown to find a restaurant, they’d parked the car and walked, enjoying the unseasonably warm weather. Indian summer had been going on for more than a month. Chica
go in October, Kara mused. You gotta love it.

  Jared stopped in his tracks so suddenly, she went two steps past him before realizing he wasn’t walking. “You want to eat here?”

  Surprised, Kara turned to look at him. “You said I could choose. If you don’t like sushi, they have other things. You can have a steak or—”

  “It’s not that.”

  The man looked decidedly nervous; she wondered what was up. Jared seemed singularly unconcerned about his life being in danger, but ill at ease when confronted with the prospect of a Japanese restaurant.

  “What’s wrong?”

  He was looking through the front window, shading his eyes and squinting. “It’s okay,” he said at last. “I don’t think he’s working right now. We can go in.”

  He pulled open the door to Ish, a trendy sushi restaurant with a terrible name and astonishing food. He held the door for her and, with a wary look inside, she went in. The interior, like every Japanese restaurant she had ever been in, was understated and completely different from the outside. The building housing the restaurant was gray cement, the entrance to the restaurant shaded with a dirty green awning. Inside, however, the carpet was pearl gray and immaculate, plain ink prints decorated the walls, the tables were low, and the wood had been rubbed to a mellow glow. Muted music tinkled over the speakers, waitresses wearing beautiful kimonos shuffled quietly to and fro, and the air smelled of soup and delicate Japanese spices.

  Kara took an appreciative breath while they waited for a table. She loved the way the Japanese did things, their understated efficiency, the beauty of their food presentation, their droll humor. She adored the cuisine and could have eaten sushi three times daily. Too bad Jared looked ready to jump out of his skin. She could sense no danger to him here, but resolved to keep her eyes open.

  The hostess stepped toward them, dressed in a sapphire blue kimono embroidered with white seagull silhouettes. She bowed a greeting, then asked them pleasantly if they wanted smoking or non.

  “Non,” they said in unison, then followed her to a table by the window.

  “Excuse me,” Kara said, “but we’d prefer a table at the back of the room, if you please.”

  The hostess apologized and led them to a booth in the back. When she was gone, while they were wiping their faces with the hot, damp towels she had left them, Jared said, “You don’t want me sitting by the window, huh?”

  Kara shrugged. “Force of habit. Listen, you’re making me nervous. What’s the problem? Why don’t you like this place?”

  “I love this place,” he assured her. “The food is fabulous, the service is great.”

  “Then why—”

  “It’s a long story. Never mind. What are you having?”

  Before she could answer, a voice boomed, “Ah, Dr. Dean!” Jared sighed.

  “Busted,” he muttered, just before a middle-aged Japanese man rushed to their table. The man was wiry and looked strong. His head was so bald and shiny Kara itched to touch it, to see if it felt as smooth as it looked.

  “Hello, hello! So nice to see you again and you’ve brought a lovely lady friend, too, how wonderful!”

  “Ishiguro, this is Kara. Kara, this is the owner, Ishiguro. Listen, pal,” Jared said to the beaming man, “let’s not do this, okay?”

  Kara edged closer to the edge of the booth, ready to pound the man into jelly if he so much as twitched a trigger finger. Jared promptly stuck his foot up onto her seat, barring her way.

  Ishiguro quit smiling and looked stubborn. He snapped his fingers and a waitress appeared, bowing to him and then to Jared and Kara. “These are my dear good friends,” he said, “and they must have anything they want. Bring appetizers. Dr. Dean is partial to seafood.”

  The waitress bowed again and practically sprinted to the kitchen.

  “Ishiguro,” Jared said warningly.

  The man rapped something sharp in Japanese and Jared shut up. Ishiguro turned to Kara and said, “Do you know the story of how the wonderful Dr. Dean saved my only son from hideous death?”

  “He probably would have been able to cough it up on his own,” Jared mumbled.

  “Please tell me,” Kara said politely.

  “It’s not that big a deal,” Jared protested.

  Ishiguro ignored him. “There he was, my poor Yoshi, gagging and turning blue and staggering, and we pounded on his back and prayed an ambulance would come, when Dr. Dean leaped from his chair, over the table—”

  “I did not.”

  “—and with a squeeze of his mighty arms—”

  “For God’s sake.”

  “—forced the offending fish from my son’s throat. Ah! He breathed, he lived, he is first in his class at Harvard Business, he is married and his lovely wife is pregnant with my first grandchild.” Ishiguro stopped and looked at Jared admiringly. “All because of Dr. Dean. So.”

  Kara looked at Jared. “I’m betting lunch is on the house.”

  Jared nodded unhappily. “Come on, Ish, you’ve given me enough free meals, you’ve probably cost yourself a thousand bucks in food. I was glad to help, but I was only doing my job, you don’t need to keep giving me—”

  Ishiguro held up a hand imperiously. When he spoke, his voice was very mild, but his gaze was arctic. “Are you suggesting my son’s life is not worth some raw fish and rice?”

  “Uh, no.”

  “Are you suggesting there is no debt between us?”

  Jared sighed. Kara smiled. “Give it up, Jared. Besides, you’re insulting our host.”

  “The lady is wise,” Ishiguro declared, just as the waitress reappeared, carrying a large tray crowded with enticing dishes.

  Ishiguro placed the food himself, clucking over them like a hen with two chicks, making sure the temperature of the food was exactly right, Kara waited for him to tie a napkin around Jared’s neck and start hand-feeding him, but he didn’t go that far. And then, finally, he left them to their food.

  Kara had to laugh. Poor Jared looked so embarrassed, she almost felt sorry for him. “No wonder you didn’t want to come in here,” she said, digging into her chawanmushi, a delicately flavored custard crammed with seafood and mushrooms.

  “It’s not just the fuss he makes,” Jared confessed in a low voice. “I swear, he loses money every time I come in. Then I avoid the place for a few months and his feelings are hurt … It’s kind of a mess.”

  “That will teach you to save lives, you bastard,” she said solemnly and they both laughed.

  They had barely begun their meal when Jared’s pager went off. He sighed, swallowed, and un-clipped it for a quick glance. “I’ve got to go back to the hospital,” he said. “Let me call you a cab.”

  “I’m coming with you,” she said, tossing her napkin on the table.

  “No, Kara, stay here and enjoy the food, you—”

  “This isn’t a date, Jared,” she reminded him coolly, though she’d had trouble remembering that fact herself. “I’m sticking close for the next few days. Besides, it’s not hard to get your pager number. For all you know, this is a trick. I’m coming with you.”

  He looked pleased. She had no idea why. “Okay. I’ll call us both a cab.” They stood, and, as Ishiguro approached, he waved his pager at the restaurant owner. “Gotta run, Ish. Everything was fabulous. I’m sorry we couldn’t finish.”

  “That’s quite all right, Dr. Dean. We’ll box it up and send it to the hospital for a late snack. I hope you’ll stop back later for dinner.” He shook Jared’s hand, then beamed with surprised delight when Kara bowed. She did it out of a perverse, continual need to prove her late sensei, a man similar to Ishiguro in looks but quite dissimilar in temperament, wrong. He’d told her once, when she was very small, that Americans bowed like cows danced. She’d spent as much time trying to perfect her bow as she had trying to perfect her defensive techniques.

  Ishiguro, smiling, returned her bow and they left.

  At the hospital, she watched Jared work and was impressed all over again. He wa
s deft, compassionate, constantly smiling, and if he felt it was appropriate, gently teasing. The patients seemed to adore him. Certainly the nurses were fond of him. She bristled as more than one nurse “accidentally” brushed by Jared, touched his arm, laughed a bit too loudly at his jokes. Then she scolded herself for bristling.

  Calling Jared back to the hospital had not been a trick. Still, Kara kept a wary eye out. She hadn’t heard any word on the street about Carlotti, which was good news, so far. Carlotti was like a freight train—slow to get going, almost unstoppable once he reached full speed. When things started to happen, they would happen fast. For now, she and Jared could enjoy the calm before the storm.

  Hunger gnawed at her, but she ignored the sensation. It was too bad their lunch had been interrupted, but they could grab a bite or maybe chow on leftovers when Jared finished his work. She certainly wasn’t planning to leave him alone while she stuffed her face.

  She saw he was looking for her and stepped up behind him, tapping his shoulder. He turned and blinked with surprise when he saw it was her. “How do you do that?” he said, half complaining, half admiring. “I’ve been looking all over for you and I never see you unless you want me to.”

  “Inner city emergency room,” she reminded him. “Remember?”

  “Right. Don’t walk on your hands to prove your point, I get it. And I’m starving. The interns grabbed our leftovers, the bastards. Want to get some supper?”

  She glanced at the clock and saw with a start that she had been watching and admiring and thinking about him for close to five hours. It felt like five minutes.

  She nodded and he reached for her hand, unthinking. She stiffened for a moment, then let him hold her hand. His fingers were warm and—odd!—she felt their warmth all the way down to her toes. “I’m sorry you had to wait so long,” he was saying, “I finished as quickly as I could.”

  “I don’t mind,” she said, and pulled her hand away.

  No doubt about it. Dr. Dean was dangerous. She was used to physical danger, used to the worry of some street snitch giving her up to the cops, used to gang toughs trying to take down A.A. as some sort of stupid initiation rite, but she had no idea how to deal with emotional danger. No idea how to stop herself from liking a man. She wondered for the first time if she was protecting him because it would thwart her enemy, or because she couldn’t bear to see him hurt.