Scene II

Salmon Crimes

"I'll need you to call the cleaner and pick up my gray suit. If it's not finished yet, see to it that it is. I also would like sushi for lunch, from the place on 5th Street. Should it be salmon again, I swear to the Spirits, Cara—"

"No salmon," Cara repeated, the impassive expression on her face assuring her boss that she was altogether unbothered by the frustrating way in which he spoke to her. He was the CEO of the company, after all, so he paid her bills and allowed her to have a sufficient place to live and food to eat. There was an independence that came with money that was too tempting to ignore, even when Cara's boss made her want to make a permanent imprint of his aquiline nose that he was so fond of glowering down at her from onto the middle of the desk between them.

There was so much she gave up at this job to fit in, so much of herself that she had to keep under lock and key, it was nearly impossible for her bite to not slip out once in a while. Thankfully, her superior seemed to take a more lenient stance with the venom that occasionally escaped her. Despite her mean streak, Cara would get the job done to the letter, the first time. No exceptions. The salmon, as it turns out, had been an intern's fault, and Cara had promptly fired them for their hideous salmon crimes. It was this cruel and unyielding attention to detail that had secured and maintained her position as the head executive assistant at Rahl Entertainment for years.

"I'll be picking up the new lawyer at the 6th street stop at 11am," Cara reminded him idly, scratching down something entirely different in her notepad. It was then that her inquisitive gaze dropped to the name printed on the page.

Kahlan Amnell

Surely there were not many Kahlan's, even in a city as sprawling and expansive as New York. But if this was Kahlan, her Kahlan, Cara felt the unmistakable cold rush of fear pour over her. Unbidden but not unwelcome images of the night before, of tangled sheets and a magnificent woman sprawled on her bed, raced through her mind. They should have been delicious treats which she could ration out throughout the day to get through the minor frustrations and boredom which the downtime in her job provided in excess, but now they had turned to stones of terror in her stomach.

For all the world to see from nine a.m. to five p.m. Monday through Friday, Cara was a pencil skirted, six-inch pump wearing, red lipstick adorned, and most importantly—straight woman. It made her skin crawl and threatened to kill her almost every day, but it was the only way to survive. If she let slip even an inch of herself, of how she was with Kahlan last night with her slicked back hair and taut muscles, her career would irreparably suffer.

Here, she was intimidating but in a way that was sexy to the men in the office, specifically her boss. Here, countless coworkers would spill thumbtacks onto the floor three times a week for even a second's glance up her skirt. They took her out to expensive lunches, dinners. They bought her flowers and lingerie. Cara, however, maintained her magic because she never relented. She rarely said yes, and when she did, she refused to speak for the entire outing. Cara would selfishly order the most expensive item on the menu, down at least three glasses of red wine, and be home by herself at nine p.m., curled up in bed while leafing through one of those delightful "women's magazines" that were meant for only one, specific, hungry kind of woman.

Cara exhaled a deep breath and braced herself in the back of the town car. Her skin felt hot underneath her black pantyhose, which were threatening to melt off her legs if she did not calm down. Never had her personal life come within even inches of her work life, and now she was forced to contend with the two slamming into each other without even knowing what her relationship with Kahlan was. The car slowed and Cara felt her heart drop to her stomach. The driver rolled his window down, muttered to the figure outside the car, pointed behind him, and rolled the window up again.

The door opened and Kahlan slid into the seat beside her. When the raven-haired woman turned her head she smelled of expensive perfume, and her hair perfectly curled to frame her face. Her eyes were downcast for a moment, focused on closing the door behind her before they flitted up to Cara's face and brightened with recognition.

"Cara?" Kahlan asked, watching as the blonde stiffened for a moment. "I didn't expect that you would be the one picking me up."

The blonde was stunned to wordlessness and her entire body felt like it had collided with a brick wall. Cara's breathing hitched and she heard a ringing in her good ear, high and whining. All of the panic, the feeling of drowning above water, screamed to a halt the moment Kahlan rested a concerned hand on her knee.

"Cara," Kahlan said again, her blue eyes tinted with a tinge of worry. Cara noticed that in this light Kahlan's eyes were deep, blue oceans. She wished that she could dive into Kahlan again, right now, in the back of this car. It would be so easy to press a button to roll the privacy partition up between them and the driver. It would be even simpler to slide her hands under Kahlan's skirt and pull down her panties like they were a prize. Cara was sure that she would find them slightly damp, and that they would smell of the wetness she had found in them last night.

Cara pressed her index finger down on the black button on her right side door, and the partition rose with a mechanical whirr. Cara held her silence until it was up, much to Kahlan's impatience, represented by her eyebrow raising ever so slightly.

"We've never met before," Cara told her in a stern tone, and before Kahlan could open her mouth to protest, Cara squeezed her hand which was still on Cara's thigh. "I am not trying to ditch you, I swear. But my job doesn't know, and they can't ever know."

Kahlan let out a soft sigh of relief. Although they had only shared a single night together, Kahlan was not ready to let Cara go. There were many more expanses of the blonde she had regretfully left unexplored.

"I understand. I don't mean to be clingy, but I couldn't tell this morning if you wanted to see me again or—"

"I do," Cara said, a small smile blooming on her face. Kahlan saw that it was a careful smile, and she could tell that it was one that Cara did not give to many people. "I had a wonderful night with you, even if you were angry with me for part of it."

"You more than made up for the frustrating miscommunication," Kahlan smirked, her hand reaching up to cup Cara's cheek. Cara could not help but feel a bit of heat spike down to her core at Kahlan's soft touch. "So, what's our story?"

"We don't know each other, at all. We've never met," Cara told her quickly, and Kahlan nodded.

"I've never lied under oath, but I suppose for you, I'll risk my legal license," Kahlan teased. She leaned forward and pressed her lips to Cara's, the feeling of skin on skin was instantly intoxicating. In a single, short kiss, Cara knew that whatever happened next, she would be chasing the rush that she felt right now for years to come.

—

"Kahlan Amnell, it's excellent to meet you. Thank you for coming up on such short notice. I hope Cara wasn't too rough with you?" Rahl smiled, shaking Kahlan's hand vigorously. While entirely not her type, Kahlan noticed that the curve of his long nose and the slight plushness to his lips rendered Rahl relatively attractive. His pale blue eyes seemed to search every crater and crevice of Kahlan, even in the short moment of the handshake.

"Nothing I can't handle. You have an excellent assistant, I would love to steal her from you," Kahlan said in rejoinder, plastering a fake smile onto her face and producing an even faker laugh. Cara had not heard her laugh yet, but even she could tell that it was feigned amusement all around. Kahlan was smart, though, because that was the one thing Rahl completely buckled under—female attention.

"I would love to accommodate you, Miss Amnell, but I'm afraid Cara is rather invaluable to me, and to our office," Rahl teased back, then let go of her hand. The greedy way in which Rahl's eyes glanced over Cara's muscled form in her tight, office clothes did not escape Kahlan. She tried her best not to feel jealous. "Please, this way," he said, directing Kahlan to his office with a pointed finger. Kahlan obliged, nodding her silent and professional goodbye to Cara for now.

Cara tried her best to ignore that Kahlan was in her boss's office, but all she could think about was Kahlan's dark brown lipstick and bright blue eyes. The way her legs looked perfect beneath black pantyhose. The tightness of her calves under the duress of the heels she wore. Cara could not help but pass the door of the office and glance there and back at Kahlan and Rahl. She could see that Kahlan had several documents waiting patiently to be signed by Rahl, but he was far more interested in looking down at her perfect lips. Cara couldn't blame him, really.

Cara was relieved when her pager beeped, the small, black text on the top screen letting her know that lunch was waiting downstairs. She sauntered down to the first floor of the building, knowing that she had enough time to dally while still being on time. Anything to be out of range of the allure of Kahlan. Cara had never been down this bad for a woman she had only spent a night with, and in all honesty it terrified her. Cara thanked the delivery man, paid him a good tip, and hurried back upstairs faster than she had gone to come down for the crucial lunch.

"Would you like to take your lunch now, Mr. Rahl?" Cara asked, poking her head into the office. She already knew the answer, because he always did better in these meetings on a full stomach, and right now he looked as still as stone.

"Did you—"

"Get something for Miss Amnell? Of course," Cara replied smoothly, holding out two trays of sushi. Rahl smiled and let Cara open up the plastic containers with a satisfying pop as they continued to talk business. Kahlan did not turn around, only offering a gentle word of thanks. Kahlan visibly relaxed as Cara's breast accidentally brushed the top of her shoulder as she leaned over to set the small tray of sushi in front of her.

"You have all the evidence the office sent over, correct?" Rahl asked, and Kahlan nodded.

"My office has been combing through it since it was sent on Monday, we should be complete with it two weeks from now," Kahlan responded, her voice calm and authoritative. Cara could have sworn she was nothing like the woman she'd seduced in the club last night. This was not to say that Kahlan was weak or timid, but rather her power was more vocal now than she had anticipated. There was a weight to her words, which Cara knew was most likely to her benefit, Kahlan worked, like she did, in a male-dominated industry. It was kill or be killed.

"Two weeks?" Rahl asked incredulously. Cara did not react as she placed his lunch down in front of him. He snapped his fingers and she unwrapped the chopsticks, placing them in his fingers.

"That is a quick turnaround time in our office, Mr. Rahl. I assure you, we're doing everything we can to support your case," Kahlan repeated, not touching her lunch. "But good work takes time, and we want to make sure your case is watertight."

"Very well," Rahl said in a tone that showed he was not entirely pleased. Kahlan's eyes flitted down to Rahl's hand as it reached up for Cara's ass, squeezing it quickly before sliding down her leg to her well-toned thigh. Cara did not react, instead waited until his hand faded away to walk out of the office. Kahlan stayed silent and still as Cara walked out, and it wasn't until she heard the door click shut that she heard Rahl urging her to eat.

—

The afternoon sizzled, the sun was large in the sky, and concrete sidewalks hissed out heat waves that threatened to burn the bottoms of Cara's heels. Cara detested the leering eyes that stuck on her during this walk home, they followed her down into the subway station, onto the train, and back up to the surface at her Queens stop. The red lipstick that she had carefully affixed to her full lips felt stiff and stifling. All she could think about was retreating home, ripping off these clothes, and going for a run.

Cara stuck her key into the door which took a try or two before it opened, the wood having expanded with the new, late-June heat. She kicked the bottom of it with the toe of her pump and it popped open, revealing her apartment in the exact way she had left it this morning—sans the beautiful, dark-haired lawyer, to her disappointment. Kahlan had made the bed, cleaned the bowls they had eaten out of that morning, and placed an incense stick into the circular mount on the nightstand. Cara could not stop the smile that spilled over her face, threatening to crack the hard exterior she had worked so hard to maintain. Kahlan had cared enough to leave a small offering for Cara, the only trace that anyone so kind had ever been with her.

Cara took a small lighter from the nightstand and flicked on the flame with her thumb, holding it against the tip of the incense stick. Instantly, smoke ribbons floated upwards, and the smell of frankincense began to meander about the still, studio apartment. The thick, golden sun fell in through the windows and coated the floor in an orange hue. Letting the trigger go, Cara bent down and slid open the wooden nightstand drawer, rifling through for a tin container. When her fingertips hit it, she smiled in satisfaction and pulled out a tightly wrapped joint. Cara popped it between her lips and lit it, watching the embers ignite on the end, and held the smoke deep in her lungs. When she let it out, some of her anxiety went with it.

Cara noticed something laid out on one of the pillows on her bed. Curiously, she snatched it up between her first two fingers. It was a little piece of paper with ten numbers written on it in simple, clean handwriting.

Call me tonight x