1.
When Sophia walks back in, Kalinda Sharma is standing by her desk, examining the framed photographs and unobtrusively edging a manila folder open. The heels of her boots are about four inches high, and Sophia notices for the first time that she's actually a very tiny woman, the curves of her hips so fine it's as if they were inked.
"Nice try," Sophia breathes close to her ear.
Kalinda turns, as if she knew all along that Sophia was behind her. "I got what I needed." Her smile is thin and playful. Sophia lets a thin sigh of frustration escape her own lips.
"What did you need?"
Kalinda shrugs. Sophia does a quick inventory of the papers left on her desk before she went to the restroom. Nothing she needs to worry about. Sophia's pretty sure she can stand up to any sabotage.
Kalinda cocks her head towards the three photographs lining the shelf above Sophia's desk. "Hmm?"
"My nieces. My husband. My brother," Sophia says, pointing to each.
"Where are they?"
"In the pictures? Or now?"
"Whatever."
"Why do you want to know?"
Kalinda purses her lips. "I believe it's known as 'collegiality.'"
Sophia has to laugh. She doesn't know Kalinda very well; she appeared on the staff suddenly less than a year ago (Florrick seems to like her, but it's the rare woman under the age of forty that Florrick doesn't like). Since it's the rare case that mandates two investigators, Kalinda and Sophia have mostly gone their separate ways. Sophia's hardly been close enough to her to admire the hourglass figure, the full, sweet lines of her lips—she shakes her head, trying to clear the lust that's already fogging it. Three months without sex is long enough for anyone.
"James and the girls are in Memphis."
"That where your family's from?"
Sophia ignores her. "Griffin's still working out of Seoul, he's at the North Korean border in that picture."
"Journalist?"
"Yes."
Kalinda leans on the edge of Sophia's desk and crosses one high-booted leg over the other. "Think you could do something for me?" she says.
"Why?"
"'Cause it's gonna help you too." Kalinda shrugs, her shoulders loose as liquid. "You can't tell me you haven't noticed."
Sophia won't be pulled into that. She crosses her arms beneath her breasts and waits.
It's a full two minutes before Kalinda cracks a smile. "Fine," she says. "There's someone in this office we ought to keep an eye on. I've got it down to two, but I could use a hand."
"Yeah?" Sophia cocks an eyebrow, a bit incredulous at this woman's cockiness. "What's in it for me?"
"Tell you when to abandon ship."
Sophia studies Kalinda. She raises her chin with arresting confidence, daring Sophia to challenge her knowledge. Florrick's been edgy lately, everyone has noticed that, and some clerk or other might have seen him with a blonde woman or maybe she was Latina but she was definitely not his wife, but "abandoning ship" hadn't really crossed Sophia's mind.
Kalinda continues, in a voice that Sophia has to lean quite close to hear. "I'll know when it's coming. But I'll know even more if you can check out some things on Matan and Geneva for me."
"Do you think maybe there's someplace else we could discuss this?" Sophia says carefully.
"I usually get a drink after work," Kalinda murmurs. The breath near her ear makes Sophia shiver, and she hopes Kalinda hasn't noticed. They're looking out over the room now, staring at the door to Matan's miniscule office, at Geneva's empty desk—she's in court—and when Sophia turns back to Kalinda it's all she can do not to lick her lips. Kalinda smiles as if daring her to do so, then turns on her heel and twitches out of the room.
/
"Did you just squeak?" Sophia presses the length of her body against Kalinda.
Kalinda has been breathing deeply as she comes down from a fast and fierce orgasm, enjoying the softness of Sophia's hand on her waist and the tender memory of her tongue, but now her eyes fly open. "Excuse me?"
"You squeaked." Sophia's cat-that-ate-the-canary smile is wide and wet, and another rush of pleasure clenches Kalinda's core.
"I did no such thing." Kalinda smiles and nips Sophia's earlobe.
"I never knew you could make a noise like that." Sophia kisses a different spot on her throat to emphasize each word. "Kalinda … Sharma … squeaks." Kalinda rolls her eyes, but then Sophia rolls her still-tender clit between her thumb and forefinger, and this time Kalinda hears the noise as it bursts from her throat, and she can't deny it. Sophia laughs, latches her lips to Kalinda's breast with a murmured "told you so," and it can't be more than ten seconds of rough, playful handling before Kalinda comes again. Sophia's laugh is loose and sharp and shiny, and all in all it's a much more pleasant time than Kalinda has had in quite a while.
Later, Sophia's cheek lies against her collarbone, her breath rippling across Kalinda's chest, and it seems a shame to wake her. Kalinda grabs the remote and flicks the TV on to keep herself from getting up. A news segment about Florrick's rumored corruption is just ending, and Sophia murmurs, "What do you think?"
"Hmm?" If Kalinda had known she was awake, she would have stood up half an hour ago.
"Florrick. You think it was a hooker?"
"Oh, I know she was." There's no point in hiding it anymore; Florrick's finally waking up to the moves Glenn Childs is making, and it's only a matter of time before the rest of the office finds out. Kalinda knows, too, that when Florrick finally catches on to her involvement she'll be making tracks—she's been putting out feelers at a law firm or two—but a new ally never hurts, and a new ally who can do that kind of thing with her tongue hurts even less.
"You seem to know a lot," Sophia murmurs.
"Yeah." Kalinda would shrug, but Sophia's on her shoulder.
"You gonna tell me where you're getting this information?"
"Glenn Childs," Kalinda says. Sophia pushes up on her forearms to look at Kalinda's face. Kalinda keeps her expression neutral, and then Sophia lets loose another chuckle and presses her swollen lips to Kalinda's again.