Carry Me Home Read Online Free Page B

in full makeup,” she said dubiously.
    “Big soft eyes because he did you so good, a mouth that’s all pink and swollen because it’s been worked out so hard, hair he’s had his hand twisted up in while you’ve been lying underneath him,” Rochelle said. “You’re three for three, and he is gone .”
    “Thanks. Now I’m all turned on,” Zoe grumbled. She adjusted the delicate brown leather belt defining her waist in the yellow dress, posed a bit in the tooled leather boots that were actually her own. Put her hand on a cocked hip, stood on one toe, and looked over her shoulder at the smoky-eyed temptress who gazed back at her.
    It was true; she felt like a different person. A whole lot less like Dr. Zoe Santangelo, assistant professor of geology at the University of the Palouse, and a whole lot more like the babe she’d never been.
    She shouldn’t have bought the boots, but looking at them with the lace dress, she couldn’t help being glad she had. She’d been moving to Idaho. She’d needed cowboy boots, right? And if they were purple and would never come within yards of an actual cow, well, they had just been too pretty to pass up, and for once, she’d succumbed.
    It wasn’t that she was never tempted. It was just that she almost always resisted.
    “That would be great,” she told Rochelle. “Looking good, I mean, if I were actually in the market. Except I’m not. Turned on or not, I am not picking up a guy in a bar.”
    “Ego feed,” Rochelle said. “Entertainment. You look, you dance, you drink. And then you walk on home with your girlfriend, safe and sound, feeling a little bit prettier, a little bit sexier, and knowing that more than a few of those boys are watching you walk out, imagining what you and I are getting up to, and wishing like hell they could join the party.”
    Zoe stared at her in astonishment. “They are not.”
    “Oh, yeah,” Rochelle assured her. “They are. They love to think about that.”
    “I’ve heard that,” Zoe admitted. “But why would they? What’s the appeal? If they wouldn’t even be . . . involved in it?”
    Rochelle shrugged. “Guys’ minds. Who can understand them? You ever want to do it with a girl?”
    “No. Never. Despite what some of the guys I turned down in grad school had to say. Seems they just couldn’t understand why I couldn’t get enthusiastic about their skinny bearded selves. Or why I was better than them in class. Somehow, it made it a lot easier to understand if I was a lesbian. Who knew that attraction to women translated to IQ points?”
    “Me neither,” Rochelle said. “Never wanted to, I mean. And it sure doesn’t do anything for me to think about two guys gettin’ it on. Passing that image right on by. But for some reason, the idea of two girls features big in guys’ fantasy lives. I guarantee you, they’ll be thinking about it tonight. Makes me laugh. I might just give you a hug while we’re out there, fan those flames a little. If I kiss you on the cheek, do me a favor and don’t wipe it off.”
    “As long as you don’t get too excited,” Zoe said, “I’ll go for it. But you’ve got me wondering now. Is this really about taking me out on the town? Or is it more about your nonlamented ex-husband?”
    “You mean showing Lake the Snake that I’m better off? Well, I’m not saying that doesn’t figure into it, too.”
    Their eyes met in the mirror, and they both smiled. “Well,” Zoe said, “that’s a worthwhile goal. I’m more than happy to contribute to that effort.”

    She’d met Rochelle when she’d come to the university for an interview and a guest lecture, hoping that this would be it, the tenure-track position that would start her on her way. Never mind that it wasn’t exactly the Ivy League. All she needed was a start, and she could make it to those ivy-covered halls. She knew she could. She had to.
    An administrative assistant in the dean’s office, Rochelle had been in charge of the details