Extreme Sensitivity… as proof of something long suspected. – A Women’s Murder Club Series, part 37

TITLE: Extreme Sensitivity… as proof of something long suspected. (37/?)
PAIRING: Lindsay/Cindy
DISCLAIMER: Not mine. Never were. Never will be. No profit. Just love.

(Lindsay’s POV)

When Lindsay woke, Cindy’s body was heavy against her side. One slender arm was angled across her chest and one leg crossed her knees in a manner that left Lindsay absolutely no hope of escape. Not that she was looking to.

Lifting her head just enough to glance down at the shock of hair beneath her chin, Lindsay felt something squeeze inside her chest and dropped her head back down. In a fleeting moment of panic, she actually wondered if she could slip free and get out quietly. Though they’d slept together before, and Cindy had even spent that one night on her couch by accident, it somehow seemed more significant to be waking up with Cindy in Cindy’s bed.

Blowing out an uneasy breath, Lindsay wondered what exactly she had gotten herself into. Then, she wondered if she’d known that she was getting herself into it from the get-go.

Yes, she decided.

And then no.

Because she could have predicted a lot of what was coming her way with Cindy, even the chaos, but there was this one, not-so-small feeling that kept flaming up inside of her at the most random of moments that she hadn’t anticipated at all.

Or maybe she had and she just didn’t want to admit it.

Cindy stirred against her chest, and her hair tickled Lindsay’s chin as Cindy raised her head and smiled at her. That simple movement and Lindsay suddenly realized that whether or not she’d seen it coming didn’t matter, because she was smack in the middle of it now, and, sex or no sex, she was really quite helpless against it. Which terrified her… and exhilarated her. She couldn’t decide which one it did more.

What she did know for sure was that, if she had, in fact, fled upon waking, she would have made it only as far as the door before she turned around and walked right back in.

Running away from Cindy simply didn’t seem to be in her nature anymore.

“Morning,” Cindy murmured.

“Morning,” Lindsay husked back.

Though they both knew it wasn’t going to get them to any desirable end, their lips still came together as if they were magnetized. It lasted, what Lindsay quickly calculated in her head to be, approximately .4 seconds before her phone rang on Cindy’s bedside table.

Expecting it with every bit the certainty that she expected the sun to rise in the morning and daytime television to suck, she dropped her head back to the pillow again and didn’t even bother to groan at the interruption.

Cindy grabbed the phone from the table and glanced down at it. “Well, at least it’s not your job,” she said as she answered. “Hi Claire.”

“Were you even going to bother to tell us that Lindsay’s building caught fire last night?” Lindsay heard Claire’s scolding voice come sharply across the line.

“Of course,” Cindy responded. “We would have mentioned it eventually.”

“I want you both at Papa Joe’s. I want to see that you’re okay,” Claire’s voice leaked out from the phone at a much more reasonable volume.

“Sure, why not?” Cindy returned. “It’s not like we have any other plans… that will work out. We’ll be there in an hour.”

“So, we’ve got somewhere to be,” Lindsay stated as Cindy ended the call.

“Yeah, but we do have an hour,” Cindy purred, and Lindsay almost bought into the seductress act.

She wanted to buy into it. But reality hadn’t exactly been on their side of late.

“Are you sure you want to try this? We don’t want to torch your building too.”

Cindy snorted softly and let her head fall to Lindsay’s chest.

*****

Jill had a much more casual response to the fire.

“You two got so hot you made sparks, huh?” she grinned over the top of her omelet.

“Don’t throw anything at me,” Claire interrupted before Lindsay could respond, “but don’t forget about Ed’s party tonight.”

Cindy’s sigh seemed to possess all of her frustration and Lindsay’s in one. “We didn’t forget,” Cindy assured Claire.

“Yeah,” Lindsay added. “It’s not like we have anything else to do.”

“Experience,” Cindy murmured.

“Accomplish,” Lindsay countered.

“Consummate,” Cindy breathed.

“Fulfill,” Lindsay continued.

“Alright, I get it,” Claire broke in on their mutual whining. “Make a brief appearance and you can have as much sex as you would like before and after.”

“You’re kidding, right?” Lindsay scoffed. “We’d have better luck at the racetrack. In fact, I think we’re going to head on down there when we finish eating.”

*****

Of course, sex didn’t happen in the interim between the diner and the party. They hadn’t even bothered to try. It was far less disappointing to run errands, check on her apartment, reclaim Martha from Jill, and get dressed, knowing that at least those things would turn out somewhat successfully.

So, when Lindsay ended up standing in the living room of Claire’s house with a glass of champagne, it didn’t feel at all celebratory. It didn’t even feel all that relaxing as she stared across the room at Cindy while Cindy carried on a conversation with a group of strangers. She honestly didn’t know how Cindy did it. She was acting normal, exceptionally outgoing even. She’d let herself get pulled headlong into a debate about women’s lib and workplace equality and was being quite effusive about it, while all that Lindsay wanted to do was stand on the sidelines and pout.

Hoping that Cindy would be victorious in her debate sooner rather than later so that they could get the hell out of there and make haste for a bed, Lindsay finished off the last of her glass and went in search of a non-alcoholic replacement, so that she would be good to drive just as soon as Cindy was ready to escape.

Walking back into the living room, it was rather difficult not to notice how large Cindy’s group of listeners had grown. There was nothing short of a gaggle around Cindy. A damn gaggle. Hanging on her every charming word. Six guys that Lindsay recognized from the force and two women that Lindsay didn’t know at all. They all seemed equally enchanted, like Cindy was a fairy princess who’d just sprinkled them with stardust.

Given the fact that fate was clearly against them, Lindsay couldn’t blame Cindy if she decided to just pick one of her admirers and try her luck with the lucky victor. The odds might be more in her favor.

But that wasn’t going to happen.

Not on Lindsay’s watch.

Striding across the room with far more confidence than she felt at the moment, Lindsay put her hand on Cindy’s back as she came up behind her in a way that she knew was possessive in the most juvenile way.

“Excuse me,” Lindsay interrupted. “Can I borrow you for a minute?”

“Of course,” Cindy returned with a soft smile, and Lindsay kind of felt like an ass. Though not enough like an ass to leave Cindy to her gaggle.

She took Cindy by the hand and pulled her from the room, down the hallway, and into the guest room. When Lindsay shut the door behind them, Cindy looked instantly worried.

“Oh, come on,” she started. “What did I do? If I did something, I didn’t know about it, so I don’t think I deserve any kind of lecture or reminder.”

“Cindy…”

“I know that you can still arrest me at any time, but I thought my days of getting in trouble with you were over.”

“Unless you do something criminal,” Lindsay felt the need to clarify.

“I don’t think that I did anything, I swear,” Cindy said quickly. “Did I? If I did, I don’t know what it could have been, and please don’t arrest me.”

“Geez, Thomas,” Lindsay uttered. “Now, you got me wonderin’ what you did do. Would you let me get a word in here?”

“Sorry,” Cindy smiled crookedly and took a breath. “Proceed. Take as many words as you need.”

Watching Cindy try to appear unruffled, Lindsay realized she really didn’t need that many. She stepped forward and thread her fingers through Cindy’s hair, kissing her deeply and thoroughly, in a way that she had never quite kissed her before. She would have been lying if she said she didn’t take some pleasure in the way that Cindy moaned deep in her throat, or that Cindy had to grab onto her when her knees buckled. With a satisfied sigh, Lindsay pulled back and waited for Cindy’s eyes to open.

“I love you,” she whispered once Cindy’s eyes did, and Cindy’s eyes continued to expand to a point that could only be described as impossibly wide.

“You love me?” Cindy blinked very slowly.

“I love you,” Lindsay stated again, clearly and concisely.

At least she thought it was clear and concise until Cindy’s eyes narrowed and she looked as if she was trying to solve a very complex puzzle. “You,” Cindy repeated, raising one finger between them to point at Lindsay, “love me?” Cindy turned the finger on herself.

“Yes,” Lindsay answered, putting as much emphasis as she could on the syllable.

“You do realize you’re saying it out loud, right?”

Lindsay couldn’t stop the smile that split her face at the absurd question. “Yeah, Thomas. I know what I’m sayin’.”

Cindy’s face softened a little too. “Like love me love me?” she asked in an incredibly small voice.

“Cindy,” Lindsay sighed. God, why did Cindy always have to make everything so damn difficult? “I really… I just…” Lindsay floundered, and finally found her words, the ones that she was most afraid of. “I would get in a rowboat with you and row for Hawaii. We can go now if you want.”

Before Lindsay even had the chance to worry about whether or not she just sounded completely sappy and ridiculous, Cindy sprung forward, jumping into the air and wrapping her legs so tightly around Lindsay’s waist, it was like she was trapped in a vise. The kind of vise from which she never wanted to get free.

Cindy’s mouth covered hers and Lindsay lost all sense of balance. Stumbling backward, she didn’t even realize that they were falling until her back hit the soft mattress.

Then, Cindy’s lips moved to a spot on her neck and sucked with desperate abandon and Lindsay lost all sense of decorum. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she knew that, just down the hall, there were dozens of people who could easily walk in on them.

She simply didn’t care.