Page 17 of Masked Indulgence
The urge to pee hit me suddenly, and I hurried to the bathroom. “Okay, Blyss, I’ll do everything you told me. I’ve gotta get off here now. Love you. Happy Thanksgiving. Bye.” I ended the call before she said a word as I was about tobust.
The three bottles of water all seemed to be ready to come out at the same time. The stream I let loose easily covered the little stick and I placed it on a washcloth next to thesink.
The next three minutes went by like three whole days. I covered my eyes the whole time until the timer on my cell went off, telling me I could looknow.
Moving my fingers apart, I snuck a peek at thestick.
“Oh,shit!”
Chapter11
Nixon
The dayafter Thanksgiving Shanna and I left early to get back to the L.A. grind. Only I wasn’t going to be staying in L.A long, or going home at all. No, I was going to Portland to search for KatanaReeves.
Shanna and I lived miles apart, so she took a cab back to her place, and I acted as if I was waiting for my driver to come pick me up. I wasn’t; I’d already told the pilot to take an hour off, then I’d be ready to head toPortland.
Chilling in one of the lounges at LAX, I was sipping on some Scotch. At only a bit past noon, I knew it was a bit on the early side to be drinking alcohol, but my nerves had been stirred up. I had to do something to soothethem.
My cell beeped, letting me know a text had come in. I didn’t recognize the number but opened the messageanyway.
Nix, it’s Katana Reeves, from Portland. I don’t know if you remember me at all, but I need to talk to you. Can you call me when you get achance?
Why would she think I wouldn’t remember her? Shit, it hadn’t been a month since we’d been together. I wasted no time calling her. Her voice was soft as she answered. “Nix?”
“Yeah, it’s me. How’ve you been?” I ran my finger around the top of my glass, picturing her lovely face in mymind.
“Okay. Andyou?”
“Same. It’s funny you sent me that message. I grew tired of waiting for you to call, so I’m sitting at the airport right now, waiting for my pilot to finish his break so he can take me your way,” I told her and hoped she was going to be cool withthat.
“Really?” she asked, sounding as if she didn’t quite believethat.
I held up the phone and asked the bartender. “Hey, buddy, can you verify where I am rightnow?”
“LAX,” he said withouthesitation.
“See,” I said. “I just got back from visiting my family in Texas, and all I could think about was getting to Portland to findyou.”
She let out a heavy sigh, as if she were holding her breath. “That’s good to know. I’ve got a lot to talk to you about. When do you think you’ll get here?” she asked and I heard her voice crack alittle.
“A couple of hours. I’ll be at the Heathman. I can send someone to get you and bring you over.” I took another drink and waited to see what she’dsay.
“I can’t do what we did before,” shemumbled.
My heart fell. I definitely wanted to do what we’d done before. But I didn’t ask why. “Okay. That’s fine. I just want to see you.” I also wanted to find out what had taken her so damn long to contact me. “If I’d had the forethought to get your number, I’d have called you a long time ago. That was my mistake.” I hesitated then went for it, “I’ve missed you,Katana.”
“I’ve missed you, too,” she said, and it made me sigh. She’d missed me! “To be honest, I’ve thought about calling you often. The contract had me holding back. But then I finally realized only yesterday that the contract probably doesn’t matter now that the club is closed It’s nice to hear that you missedme.”
I saw my pilot walking past the lounge toward the gate he’d parked the jet at. “Hey, I see my pilot. I’m going to see if we can take off now. I’ll call you as soon as I getthere.”
“K, bye,” she said, then hungup.
I hurried to catch up to Bernie, the pilot. “Hey, Bernie, waitup.”
He stopped and turned to look at me. “Yes,sir.”
I caught up with him. “Are you doing anything? I mean, I’m ready to take off if you don’t have anything else todo.”
