He shut the door behind him, but graciously waited for me to take my first sip to jerk the rug out from under me-not that I’d been feeling that secure on it anyway.
“How well do you know this Dana?”
I took another sip.
“It’s just…she’s been spending a lot of time with Harmony, and the other day I found something I thought you might want to see.”
I waited for him to hand me something, but instead he pointed to my computer. “It’s on there.”
Feeling more confused by the second, I rolled my chair backward to allow him space beside me. With a few clicks, he’d navigated his way to one of those social-networking sites where pseudomodels and dreaming-big bands posted pictures and music.
“Here.” He stepped back.
“You have got to be-What is this?” What I saw on the screen shocked me-pictures of obviously drunk girls hanging on boys and revealing more skin than an elephant in a bikini.
“Not here.” He clicked some more. “Here.” This page was a little less shocking, but only marginally. It seemed to be focused on body art-female body art. Again, it was obvious that wherever the photos had been taken, alcohol aplenty had been flowing.
The first row was butt shots-just generic run-of-the-mill angels and flowers, typical stuff for girls, if in a slightly tantalizing position. His finger pointed to the next row, three pictures over.
Dana hanging on a boy whose face wasn’t visible, but while little of the boy had made it into the shot, plenty of Dana had. Both of her breasts spilled from her bra. And clearly visible on top of the right one-her givnomai, a bee.
Answered my question about the Amazons getting lax.
“Damn it.” Stupid, stupid girl, didn’t she know…My eyes wandered to the row below and my brain froze.
The next row, not a single face was visible, but I didn’t need faces. From the growling bear and snarling leopard tattoos, I could identify the first two girls as easily as if they’d walked up and introduced themselves. The dead girls-their telioses immortalized for all to see.
“Whose page is this?” I asked.
Peter propped his butt onto my desk beside me. “Screen name is ‘tatluvr.’ That’s all I know.”
I blinked in frustration, then switched my concentration back to the screen. If the dead girls’ telioses were on here, were their givnomais too? Sure enough, a few pictures down from Dana’s, I spotted them. I couldn’t know for sure which image went with which girl-these pictures were much more focused on their breasts than Dana’s had been, but I knew without a doubt the tiger and even the octopus I was looking at were Amazon givnomais.
I wanted to investigate the site more, but not with Peter lounging next to me. I had to get rid of him, but first there was something I needed to know. “How’d you find this?”
He stared at the wall.
“You aren’t going to tell me you were just surfing and found this, because if you do…” I let the obvious say itself.
“You wouldn’t believe a client sent it to me?”
“No. I wouldn’t.”
He tapped his finger against my mouse pad. “Harmony. She was complaining that you wouldn’t let her get a tattoo, and telling me ‘everyone’ had tattoos, even Dana. Then she showed me this. I guess Dana showed her the site, thinking some boy Dana liked would be pictured there.”
“Her baby’s father.”
“Yeah.” Peter looked at me, and I felt like the worst mother ever.
He held up both hands. “No judgments.”
No, of course not. I let it go, followed up on another point of interest instead.
“I didn’t realize you and Harmony talked.” First Dana, now Peter. Did my daughter confide in everyone except me?
His reply consisted of a sympathetic stare.
I picked up the mouse. Unable to resist, I clicked through the next few pages. There were at least three more photos easily identifiable as Amazon-one telios, a hare; and two givnomais, a salmon and a deer.
“We have to find out who set up this page.”
Peter didn’t ask why, just replied in a low tone, “You could call your detective friend.”
I glanced up at him, surprised by the mention of Reynolds, but even more so by the tone-as if the detective and I had, well, something going.
Alone in the basement with Reynolds, I’d felt an awareness. I couldn’t deny that, but in front of Peter I was confident we’d been nothing but professional, distant, even.
“I wouldn’t call him a friend.” Whatever had happened in Mother’s workout space didn’t make us friends.
“Really? He seemed kind of friendly.” Peter twiddled with the cord on my mouse. I stifled the urge to jerk the wire out of his fingers.
“Well, he isn’t. We aren’t.”
Peter shrugged. “None of my business.” But his expression said it was.
Feast or famine. I hadn’t had a man interested in me for a decade and suddenly I had two…kind of…maybe…I looked at Peter, tried to figure out what was going on in his head. Was he attracted to me? Was I attracted to him? Or was something about all the stress I’d been under doing weird things to my libido?
He leaned down. “Of course, it could be my business.” And he kissed me.
I think my heart stopped from shock-but it started back up again, double time.
His fingers cradled the nape of my neck, tipping my face to his. He tasted of premium coffee, hazelnut. Had to love a man secure enough to buy a flavored brew.
My hands somehow found their way to his knees and then I was standing, my legs between his, my fingers resting lightly on his hips. He didn’t change his grip, didn’t pull me closer, and I was afraid to move further myself, like any overt action on my part would cause him to pull away. As surprised as I had been when the kiss started, as his lips moved over mine and parts of me constricted that I’d forgotten could constrict, I knew I didn’t want the kiss to end.
But it did, and in as confusing a manner as it had started.
He pulled his mouth free, placed his hands over mine, and gave them a light squeeze. “So, you’ll talk to Harmony?”
My mind was foggy and my eyes were half closed. I fluttered my eyelids, trying to make sense of what he was saying. Talk to Harmony about our kiss? Was that necessary?
“She seems pretty taken with Dana, and after seeing this…well, you don’t want her to think flashing tattoos to get on some Web site is a good idea.”
Things were back in focus now, and embarrassment at how lost in the moment I’d become while Peter had clearly moved on settled in. I pulled my hands from his legs and stepped back. “Not too big of a worry. At least for a few years. Harmony doesn’t have any tattoos and won’t till she’s legal.”
“Still, it wouldn’t hurt…” Peter slid away from my desk. I turned-picked up a piece of paper and shoved it into a random file.
Fingers trailed down my spine, stopping right at the spot where my shirt separated from my jeans. Every muscle in my body locked up, while my heart jumped back into beating overtime.
“And let me know about that detective. I’m hoping he is my business.”
Before I could think of how to reply, he’d spun back around my desk and sauntered from the room.
I plopped into my chair with enough force it rolled backward two feet. After heel-walking back to my start point I stared at my computer screen, but I wasn’t seeing teenage girls exposing themselves for the camera, or even dead Amazons at the moment-my mind was in too big of a whirl.
I sat there another few minutes, then shook myself. One kiss and I lost track of everything else going on. Just showed humans had nothing on Amazons as far as being ruled by basic urges.
I forced my eyes and mind to focus. There were a lot of thoughts pinging around in my brain-Peter’s kiss and the idea that Reynolds was attracted to me. I wasn’t sure how I felt about either; my body was sure how it felt, but my mind, not so much. That Harmony was confiding in not only Dana, but also Peter-a man she had only met a little over a week ago-rather than me. The disturbing fact that Dana thought it was an okay idea to show my daughter a Web site with girls, Dana being one of them, obviously drunk and flashing skin. And finally, the biggie, that on said Web site there were pictures of both dead Amazon girls, not to mention the other girls who I knew from their art were also Amazons. Givnomais displayed for the world to see on the Internet…Someone in the tribe wasn’t doing her job educating these girls. It pissed me off.