Part 29 (2/2)
”Oh, please. I've been listening to girls swoon over your skills for years.” Pia smiled as Deo squirmed. ”Does she really mean something to you? It's not just your ego acting up because you've fi nally run into a woman who doesn't want any more from you than you're usually willing to give?”
”No. She makes me...” Deo's throat tightened and she looked away until the tension in her throat eased. ”She makes me feel like I matter.”
”Oh, sweetie,” Pia whispered. ”You do.”
”Yeah, well. You've always made me feel that way. But this is different.”
”I know.” Pia stroked Deo's clenched fi st where it rested on the table. ”If Nita doesn't trust you or what she's feeling for you, then prove to her that she can.”
”How,” Deo whispered.
”Don't give up.”
* 210 *
Winds of Fortune
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO.
Nita stared at the lab report, but she didn't register the values.
Her mind was completely consumed with Deo. Exactly what she feared would happen was happening. She craved her. The way her skin slid under her fi ngertips, the way her breath wafted over her breast as she slept, the way her eyes gleamed when she was pleased or being pleasured. She ached to hear Deo murmur her name and to feel the tender touch of her fi ngertips against the small of her back. She longed to share her thoughts, knowing she could tell her anything because she had already confessed her worst secret and her greatest shame, and Deo had not rejected her. She'd only to recall the soft brush of Deo's hot mouth on her tense and waiting fl esh and she was ready to explode.
”G.o.d, not again,” she whispered.
”Nita?”
”Oh, sorry,” Nita blurted, feeling herself color when she realized Tory was standing in front of her desk. She hadn't even heard her come in. ”I was just...” She lifted the paperwork in explanation.
”I hate to bother you but Reese is here, and there's a problem.”
Immediately, Nita stood, her fi rst thought of Deo up on a roof in this gale. Her stomach lurched. ”Is someone hurt?”
”Oh,” Tory said quickly. ”No. I'm sorry. It's something else. She's next door in my offi ce. Come over when you can.”
”I'll come right now,” Nita said, hurrying to join Tory.
Reese turned from the photographs she had been perusing on the wall and nodded to Nita, her expression grim. ”How are you this morning, Nita?”
”I'm fi ne, Reese,” Nita said, grateful for how much practice she had in allowing her professional performance to hide her emotional chaos. She wondered what people would think if they knew she was so desperate to see and touch another woman she was practically coming apart. Knowing that her urgency stemmed from her long relations.h.i.+p * 211 *
RADCLY fFE with Sylvia and the uncertain, often frantic nature of their interludes, didn't make the desperate longing any easier to tolerate. But she'd had a lot of practice living with unrequited need too. ”Is there some problem with the post on the victim from last night?”
”Not that I'm aware of.” Reese gestured to the chairs in front of Tory's desk and waited until Nita sat beside Tory, then said, ”We received a bulletin about an hour ago that seriously bad weather is headed our way. In fact, there's better than an eighty percent chance we're going to see hurricane force winds up and down the Cape in about seventy-two hours.”
Nita started. ”Here? I've never heard of a hurricane this far north.”
”Apparently, it happens every twenty or thirty years or so.”
Reese lifted her shoulder. ”Depending upon wind patterns and ocean temperatures, hurricanes have tracked up the coast this far or even farther.”
”I'm on the disaster response committee,” Tory explained to Nita, ”and all of the emergency personnel-EMTs, fi re rescue, the Sheriff's Department-will be on twenty-four hour alert until this is over. If you're planning to stay-”
”Why wouldn't I?” Nita interrupted.
”The Cape is only a mile or so wide at this point,” Reese pointed out. ”We're going to get fl ooding and the roads will probably go out.
We'll defi nitely lose power.”
”In other words, things are going to get nasty,” Nita said, ”and we're going to be cut off from the rest of the Cape and the mainland.”
”Very possibly,” Reese replied.
Nita looked at Tory. ”There are going to be injuries, not to mention the usual medical emergencies.”
”Yes,” Tory said. ”And if it really gets bad, we're not going to be able to transport people out, possibly for days.”
”I'm staying.” Nita turned to Reese. ”I know you've already got a plan in place, but can you just run it down for me.”
”You and Tory will oversee all emergency medical management.
Make sure the clinic is well stocked, and if you can identify patients who could get into trouble without immediate access to hospital facilities, get a list to me so we can evacuate them now.”
”We've got a handful of patients who drive to Hyannis for dialysis * 212 *
Winds of Fortune or have home units,” Tory informed her lover. ”They would be better off on the mainland just in case we're looking at four or fi ve days without power. Even generator backup might not be enough.”
”I'm following two children with sleep apnea using positive pressure ventilators at night,” Nita pointed out. ”We should advise those families.”
”Yes.” Tory grabbed a notepad and started taking notes. ”Reese, when you make the general announcement, remind everyone that they should be certain to have enough medication to last ten days along with all the other necessities. Bottled water, batteries, lanterns, packaged foods-the usual disaster items.”
”I'll call the hardware stores as soon as we're done to let them know there's going to be a run.” Reese dropped her hand to Tory's shoulder as she wrote and caressed her softly. ”Gladys and the Chief are working on an announcement right now and we'll get it out on the radio within the hour.”
”Nelson? Don't tell me he's in the offi ce,” Tory said with a frown.
”He's at home for the time being. He threatened to come in, so I sent Gladys over there to keep him in the loop. That's as quiet as we're going to be able to keep him.”
”What about the extended care facility?” Nita glanced at Tory.
Between the two of them they did site visits once or twice a week to the elderly residents of Beech Forest Manor. She could think of at least a dozen patients who were bedridden or who required intensive care around the clock.
”Reese?” Tory asked.
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