Radclyffe - Passion's Bright Fury Read online

  It was clear by her tone that the photographer was very happy with the way things had gone.

  "Exactly," Jude agreed. "And next time I want you to slow it down."

  " What ?"

  Jude grinned. They'd been at this place before, where what Melissa saw, and what she captured on film, wasn't precisely what Jude wanted to emphasize. The director's role, as Jude saw it, was to shape the bits and pieces of events into a cohesive whole with a clear message, thereby leading the viewer unconsciously to the same conclusion. That happened by virtue of what she included, and very often, by what she excluded from the hours and hours of footage they accumulated during the course of a long project. It would make her job easier if she and Melissa were looking for the same thing right from the start. "Mel, what's the purpose of this project?"

  "I can't do this on an empty stomach," Melissa growled, abruptly rising and starting to pace in the twelve-foot square space between their beds. She refrained from pulling her hair, but she was getting close.

  "Do what?"

  "Do this goddamned mind-melding thing you always insist we do at the beginning of a shoot. I should have known that's why you got me over here this afternoon. Need I remind you that tomorrow Deb is on call again and we're going to be here for another thirty hours or so?" She flopped onto the small bed which she had a feeling she would not be spending much time in and grumbled, "I was hoping to get out of here in time to go home, shower, climb into something irresistibly hot and go out cruising for someone wild and wanton."

  "You can still do that. I just want to get us on the same page before we get too far into this and discover we're missing the shots we need."

  "I always get the shots!"

  "You do, I know," Jude responded soothingly. "But it will be simpler, don't you think, if you had some insight…"

  "Oh, God, I hate that word. I hate it. You're going to make me process next, aren't you?" Melissa pulled the pillow over her head and shouted obscenities into it.

  "Is there any chance we can avoid the part where you say you can't work with me again, and where you tell me to find another fucking photographer because I'm too controlling?" Jude asked when her associate had finished screaming, smiling her most charming smile. For almost four years Melissa Cooper had been her DP on every major project she'd done, and she couldn't imagine doing something of this magnitude without her on board. The photographer's skill and vision were second to none. Plus she was a lesbian, and her friend, and there had been a time, a long time past, when for a few fevered weeks, she'd come close to being more. "And how can you manage to stay in shape when you eat as many times a day as you do?"

  "Sex. Sex burns calories, especially if you do it a lot," Melissa answered, turning on her side on the bed and facing Jude across the tiny space. "If I do this, will you buy me dinner?"

  "Yes. Yes, anywhere."

  "Will you go out clubbing with me?"

  "Mel," Jude said hesitantly. They'd had this debate for weeks. Mel wanted her to go barhopping, and she had resisted. She'd used her relationship with Lori as an excuse, saying that she didn't need to go out looking for other women, she already had one. In reality, she was a little bit worried that if she accompanied Mel to one of her favorite hangouts, she might just be tempted to experiment. And she simply didn't have the time. She hadn't not been working on one project or another for almost two years. Her production company was young- she was young-and she needed to establish herself in a competitive market where, unfortunately, men still ruled. Lori was perfect for her for a lot of practical reasons, and she didn't want anything to upset that image in her mind.

  "I won't take you to any place grungy, just a little edgy, okay? I promise," Melissa said matter-of-factly. "Other wise-no deal. I'm outta here."

  Jude worked at looking affronted, but she was trying not to grin. The woman had always been irresistible. "I don't think the ink is even dry on your contract yet and you're making me regret it."

  "What contract?"

  "All right. Deal," Jude relented with a sigh. "Now sit down over here and watch this. Then I'll buy you dinner."

  Melissa pulled her chair close to the monitor again and waited while Jude found the section she was looking for. All business now, she narrowed her eyes and put herself back in the moment. Her vision tunneled down to the view she'd had through her lens, and she murmured, "Go ahead."

  "Watch her face," Jude said softly. The camera had caught Saxon Sinclair in a three-quarter profile as she leaned close to the innocent, vulnerable young girl peering up at her through tear-softened eyes. The surgeon's full lips moved silently as she spoke to the child, but no sound was needed to convey the tenderness in her expression. There was a world of feeling in the depth of her eyes. "God, she's beautiful," Jude whispered, without realizing she had spoken aloud.

  Melissa glanced at her quickly, stunned by her tone, and even more astonished by her expression. The way Jude was looking at the image of Sinclair made her instantly hot. She'd always wanted to see that look directed at her, but even second hand it was doing the trick. She definitely needed to find a date later.

  "Jude…" she began tentatively.

  "There! Right there…" Jude exclaimed, pointing at a frame she had frozen on the screen. "She stands up to begin her exam and, bam-look at her now."

  Melissa looked. Cool, calm, completely composed. Sinclair was glacially removed from any part of the human drama raging around her. "Wow."

  "Yes," Jude agreed softly. "Wow. Instant transformation-all emotion just-gone. Don't you see the contradiction in that? She's supposed to be the healer, only she also has to be-I don't know, detached and dispassionate. That's what makes her so good, but god, at what cost?"

  Melissa thought about Sinclair and her obvious capability and her perfect control and wondered what she was like when that restraint broke. "I bet there's a powder keg behind those cool blue eyes," she muttered.

  Jude chose to ignore that remark, but something inside her twisted as she thought about the glimpses of fire she'd seen in Sinclair's gaze. Clearing her throat, she instructed, "Now-go back and find Deb somewhere."

  Into it now, excited, Melissa searched the footage. "Okay, here's where I got her when she first evaluated the little girl."

  "Watch for that change."

  After a few minutes, Melissa remarked, "It never happens."

  "No," Jude agreed, "I didn't think it would. But it will-sometime this year. That's what Sinclair is going to teach her-how to do what needs to be done no matter the cost, to herself or anyone else. That's the critical lesson."

  "And that's the angle," Melissa said almost reverently.

  "Find me that moment, Mel. That's the story."

  Chapter eleven

  "What are you doing here?" Sax asked as she closed the door to her on-call room and turned to discover Jude leaning against the wall in the deserted hallway. Finding her there so unexpectedly, she was reminded of Maddy's request that she bring 'that director' along with her on her next trip north, and for one brief moment, she imagined Jude Castle behind her on the bike, body pressed to her back, arms around her waist, hands tucked into the curve of her thighs. She could feel the warmth of the redhead's hands cupping her. Her legs quivered unexpectedly, and she thrust her hands into her front pockets as if to hide the response.

  "Waiting for Mel," Jude replied, uncharacteristically flustered at running into the woman she had just spent the last few hours studying. Even the stark, powerful images of the surgeon on tape paled in contrast to how compelling she was in the flesh. Feeling the need to elaborate, she added, "She's in the OR locker room. Shower-she's taking a shower."

  "Ah," Sax replied carefully, raising one expressive brow. "Something wrong with the plumbing in her apartment?"

  Laughing, Jude explained, "I dragged her here from the gym earlier, and we ended up taking a lot longer than I expected. We were reviewing some film and time got away from us."

  "I'm sorry there's no bathroom in your on-call room. I'l
l get you a key for mine. You can shower there if you need to."

  "Thanks," Jude responded, although the prospect of inadvertently walking in on Sinclair in the shower, or vice versa, was strangely unsettling. Trying to dispel the image of them in a small steamy room with one of them naked, she asked quickly, "What are you doing here? I thought you weren't due to be on call until the morning."

  Now it was Sax's turn to be caught off-guard. She grinned a little sheepishly. "Just checking up on things. I was out of town for a while and I wanted to make sure everything was stable here."

  "So," Jude said, "we're both working," adding under her breath, "why am I not surprised?" She wondered, though, if Sax really were working, considering what she was wearing. Totally in black, dusty and disheveled, she looked so un like a doctor and so much more like a Soho artist or a bartender at one of the clubs Mel loved to frequent. It was difficult reconciling this vision with that of the woman she had watched conduct a masterpiece of high-tension drama just moments before. One thing she was certain of, though. The surgeon was intriguing. And sexy, she thought, remembering the way Sinclair's hands had moved so surely over flesh and bone. Without intending it, her gaze traveled from those hands that now rested part way in the pockets of low-slung jeans, up the long stretch of torso to linger briefly on the tantalizing hint of breasts beneath a body-hugging silk T-shirt, along the sculpted column of her neck, and finally over the angled architecture of her face to her eyes. Deep-blue eyes that were laser sharp and penetrating--and staring directly into hers. Jude blushed, feeling unexpectedly exposed. God, I'm standing here cruising her and she knows it. I never do that!

  Completely unaware, both women took a step closer until they were only a few feet apart. Sax said quietly, watching the smooth ripple of blood surge and throb beneath the ivory skin of Jude's throat, "You should get some rest. Tomorrow's Friday and there's going to be a full moon. We'll get killed tomorrow night."

  "You think?" Jude inquired, her voice so oddly thick she almost didn't recognize it. The air between them was nearly vibrating and her skin began to sing.

  "Count on it," Sax murmured, captivated by the way Jude's lips began to darken and swell as her neck flushed a pale rose. A fist of fire forced the breath from her lungs and she almost gasped out loud.

  "I will then. Get some sleep. Tonight," Jude managed, aware that she was having trouble forming sentences. In another second she'd be incoherent. Dear god. She caught herself leaning forward, drawn by the intensity of Sinclair's gaze on her mouth, and stunned, almost jumped back. For a heart stopping second, she thought Sinclair was going to take a step forward and close the distance between them, but, mercifully, a voice interrupted.

  "Time for dinner?" Melissa asked lightly as she approached from down the hall, not entirely certain what she was seeing. It appeared for all the world like the two of them were about to jump each other. However, she knew that couldn't be true because Jude Castle just did not do that kind of thing. It wasn't because her drop-dead gorgeous friend was too uptight to do something risky or outrageous, she was just too preoccupied and too damn practical to do it. A pity, that was for sure. "You coming with us, Doctor?" she added.

  Sax turned slowly to face the newcomer, her vision cloudy, as if she were underwater. Except she was anything but cool. Her entire body was hot; she was surprised she wasn't dripping sweat. The blood was roaring through her head and she wondered if either of the women next to her could sense the sex seeping from her pores. Jesus Christ.

  "No," Sax replied, her voice low and gravelly. She cleared her throat as she straightened and stepped back. "No, I need to…uh…I have some things I need to take care of." She took another step away and pulled herself together, back from the edge. "Goodnight, Ms. Castle--Ms. Cooper."

  The two women stood in silence, watching her walk away.

  The silence stretched until Melissa cleared her throat and asked, "What was that all about?"

  "Nothing," Jude responded, still slightly dazed. What in God's name just happened?

  "Excuse me, but I could have sworn the two of you were about to start ripping each other's clothes off."

  "We were just talking, Mel," Jude said a little more sharply than she had intended. She was too unsettled by her unanticipated and completely uncharacteristic reaction to make a joke of it. It was true that she found Sinclair to be a fascinating woman, as well as compellingly attractive, but she had met other interesting, eye-catching women in her life and they hadn't thrown her system into overdrive. It wasn't like her to respond so physically, so mindlessly , to anyone, but particularly not to a near stranger. Her legs were still quaking, and arousal thudded persistently between her legs. What she wanted at the moment was not dinner. What she wanted was to have Sinclair's hands on her. "Let's go," she said hoarsely, determined to ignore the wholly unwelcome signals her body was emphatically sending.

  "Anything you say," Melissa responded as she hurried to keep pace with her friend, who was heading for the stairwell like the place was on fire. "But you've got to admit, she's fantasy material."

  Jude didn't even want to consider that. She didn't have time for that kind of complication.

  *****

  Sax swung one leg over her Harley and tilted her head back to the sky, breathing deeply. Her T-shirt clung to her chest, soaked through in places with sweat that was rapidly turning cool. She shivered in the heavy scorching night air, running a shaking hand through her hair, astonished at the tremor. Nothing made her hands shake, not fatigue or caffeine or disaster. Not even the perfunctory physiologic release of orgasm did what standing three feet away from Jude Castle, feeling the redhead's eyes move over her body, had done to her. Even now, she was burning. She glanced back at the hospital, half expecting to see Jude and Melissa emerge. She really didn't want to see the filmmaker again so soon, because it had taken all her restraint not to accept the offer to join the two of them for dinner. She didn't need any further stimulation; she needed to get her mind off those green eyes stripping her bare.

  *****

  "This is really a bad idea."

  "Why? We're not breaking any rules," Melissa pointed out. "And I promise to behave myself. I haven't tried to seduce you in at least three and half years."

  "We have an early call tomorrow, in case you've forgotten," Jude responded grumpily, even as she handed over her twenty-dollar cover charge. "And I know you're not going to try to seduce me."

  How do you know that, when I don't even know it myself? Mel thought, waving hello to one of the two bartenders who were working the length of a long bar that extended along one wall of the cavernous space. A heavy bass beat from speakers at either end of the room made the thick, hot atmosphere in the dimly lit room vibrate. She put her mouth close to Jude's ear and answered, "We don't have to stay late. After all the work we did this afternoon, I think we've earned a couple of drinks. I promise I'll get you home in plenty of time to catch a few hours of sleep, unless you want me to drop you off at your lawyer friend's for a quickie."

  Jude gave her a scathing look, but it was hard to be annoyed in the face of Mel's irrepressible good humor. "All right, I agreed to come with you and I'm going to stop complaining. But you might have warned me about this place first."

  Feigning innocence, Melissa lifted both hands in mock supplication. "What are you talking about?"

  As they talked, they edged their way through the milling crowd of women toward the bar. Along the way, Jude couldn't help but notice that most of the women wore a combination of leather or denim. "This looks like some kind of leather bar. I would at least like to be able to dress the part if that's where you're going to take me."

  "It's more of a biker bar, really," Melissa responded. She shouted to one of the bartenders for two beers. "Besides, you're wearing jeans. That's good enough." And if you think it matters one iota what you're wearing, you have no idea how hot you are.

  Jude didn't comment on the fact that in addition to the rough trade atmosphere, there was an unmist
akable aura of sex in the air, and she didn't need a guide to know what was happening in the murky recesses of the shadowy room. Under the strobing black lights, bodies seethed in a continuous fusion of arms and legs and searching hands.

  "It doesn't bother you, does it?" Mel asked, leaning close to be heard as she passed her the beer. She indicated that Jude should follow as she cut a path through the crowd toward a post at one corner of an enormous dance floor. At midnight, the place was packed with writhing revelers in a simulation of dancing that came very close to public sex.

  Jude pressed her back against the post to keep out of the stream of constantly moving people. She took a healthy swallow of her beer before answering, "You know it doesn't. Just because it isn't my particular style, doesn't mean I mind." She watched Mel, who was evidently cruising the crowd and asked, "But aren't I going to cramp your style?"

  "No," Melissa answered, shaking her head. "I don't have the energy for it tonight anyway."

  "My, my," Jude chided good-naturedly. "You were all primed earlier. Is our age showing?"

  "Bite your tongue," Melissa snapped, but she was smiling. "I'm going to need some sleep tonight too, especially if we're going to be up until God knows when tomorrow. We'll just have a drink, think about what we're missing while we cruise all these gorgeous women, and toddle off home like good responsible professionals."

  "In that case, I'll have another beer," Jude said, turning to make her way back toward the bar. She wasn't much of a drinker, so two beers were just about the right amount to make her feel mellow without making her act stupid. After her intense afternoon and evening of work and her disquieting encounter with Sinclair, unwinding a little seemed like a very good idea.

  "Never mind, I'll get them," Melissa interjected, stopping her with a hand on her arm. "I have to go to the john anyhow."