Honeyed Words by J. A. Pitts Page A

fished around for my cell phone and saw the battery was dead. You’d think I would remember to plug it in every now and again.
    The charger should have been in my computer bag along with my passport, but it didn’t seem to be around.
    Katie just rolled her eyes at me. “It’s probably on your counter next to a half-empty cottage cheese container.”
    “Not funny,” I said, frowning at her. “Ever since Julie moved in, she won’t let me leave things lying around. She even makes me do dishes.”
    Katie smiled. “Oh, the horror.”
    “Hey, I have a busy life.”
    Katie just smiled and shook her head. “How’s she doing?”
    I shrugged. “Doctor says she’s healing fine. The physical therapy is going okay, but she won’t talk about what happened when…” I hesitated, not wanting to send Katie into a funk.
    “When we got kidnapped?”
    I nodded. “Yeah.”
    “Give her some time,” she said. “Maybe she’s talking to someone else.”
    “I hope so. Maybe Mrs. Sorenson, the cabbage lady in the next apartment.”
    “She’s sweet. When is Julie going back to work?”
    I shrugged. Couldn’t even get Julie to talk about it. “Good question. Not soon enough, in my book. I think she’d benefit from getting out, seeing our regulars. Swinging a hammer and dealing with horses.”
    “I bet that would be therapeutic.”
    “I’ll bring it up again when we get home. Can’t make her do anything, though.”
    Katie smiled. “No, I imagine not. Not like getting you to wash the dishes.”
    “Touché.”
    But, I still needed to call Rolph. “Let’s stop and buy a new charger,” I suggested. “Rolph’s number is in my phone.”
    “You should just upgrade your phone,” Katie offered. “I’d let you use my charger, but it doesn’t convert to older-than-sin.”
    I squinted at her. She was always so damn funny. “I think I’ll shower,” I said instead. “You can stay out here and be miss smart-ass if you want, or you could join me.”
    She looked at me for a second, checked that the door was locked, and began taking off her clothes. The hotel wasn’t the Ritz or anything, but the shower was pretty large. I set the water to a hard spray and turned it all the way to hot. I wanted to breathe in the steam. It felt like my lungs were full of sludge from last night. The mirror covered the wall behind the vanity, so I could get a good look at the bruises that were forming on my neck. Just below my left breast, a large one had already begun to darken. Likely a boot. I’d be pretty mottled by the end of the day. I was already stiff. The shower would help work out the kinks.
    I heard muffled voices and looked around. Sounded like naked and nipples. I stepped into the door. “You say something?”
    Katie was just pulling her sweatshirt over her head. “What?” she asked.
    The television wasn’t on. She shimmied out of her sweatpants and began to unhook her bra.
    “I thought I heard you say something.”
    She shrugged, stepping out of her panties, and strode across the room to me. “Must have been the television next door. Wasn’t me.”
    She pushed me back into the bathroom, shut the door, and climbed into the shower. She squeaked, before turning the water cooler. “Damn, Beauhall, you trying to kill me?”
    “No ma’am,” I said, climbing in after her.
    I thought I heard someone else a couple of other times, but I was pretty distracted there for a while.
    We washed each other, slowly. Getting to know the curves and lines again after far too long. Her face clouded for a moment, then relaxed into a look of bliss as I ran my hands over her breasts. Her nipples grew stiff under my palms, so I bent my head down to take the left one in my mouth, tracing the areola with my tongue.
    She brought her hands to the back of my head, gasping.
    I moved my hand down her back, cupping her ass, allowing my fingers to slide between her cheeks while I drew my other hand down across her belly, strumming my fingers down the