75 - The Dress

My Darling Readers –



I want to thank you for your patience and apologize for the delays this week.



For the last few months, my son and I have been attending the Citizens Police Academy. I went so that I would have a better understanding and be able to write accurately where the police are concerned. My son went because he is considering becoming a police officer. Or a firefighter. (He has a service-driven heart.)



This past Monday, one of our instructors was killed in the line of duty.



His death is the first for the department in over a hundred years and has struck our small community hard. To make it even worse, it happened right before the holidays.



Although I did not know him very well, I feel lucky to have known him.



With much love, Amy



Badge 366 – Rest easy, we have the watch









Friday morning, the Saints followed Darkness and Camille on their Roscoe Reagan custom bike to the IHOP that they frequented. Their usual waitress was thrilled to see them. Her son was at his cousin’s house, and she had agreed to stay late.



They sat talking and laughing for several hours. Danisha left, and the new waitress came on shift. Other Cajuns joined them before going to work. Still, the five of them sat there.



When they did finally leave the restaurant, the lunch crowd was beginning to gather. Arriving back at the clubhouse, the three Saints loaded their bags and checked in with Gator. He assured the men from Massachusetts that she would not face any repercussions for their antics the night before.



Shortly after they left and Darkness went to the job site for the day, Gator went and found her on the back porch with one of her computers. Until he discovered that she had three different laptops, he thought that he was losing his mind about the different colors.



“Hey, Cher,” he pulled a chair over to the table that she was at. “Are you okay?”



“Yes,” she smiled at him as her fingers continued to fly over the keys.



“How do you do that?”



She laughed. “You should watch me code.” Finishing her paragraph, she took her reading glasses off and sat them on the table. Her flip-flops were kicked off to the side and her bare feet rested on the dog asleep under the table.



“No, Cher, I don’t need you to do anything to remind me that you are a lot smarter than me,” he chuckled. “The men have been told to back the fuck off. You tell me if you have any more issues.”



“I will,” she shifted in her chair, and he opened his arms. Leaning in, she accepted the hug that he offered. “I’m sorry I shot up your gun range.”



Chuckling, he kissed the top of her head. “I’m not. They now know not to fuck with you.”



They sat out there for a little longer, and then she returned to her history paper, making the corrections that Evie suggested. Late in the afternoon, she went to practice and helped set up for the high school competition that was being held at the Natatorium over the weekend.



With her working the competition and Darkness working overtime on what he was calling a ‘special project’ throughout the week, they hardly saw each other for the next week. He still showed up at morning practice, and they had midnight pancakes on Wednesday night.



Danisha was off, but the regular cook was on duty and fixed their regular orders before the waitress could even put in the order.



“The special project will be completed tomorrow,” Darkness smiled at Camille across the table. “I would love to take you out Friday.”



“You mean somewhere other than IHOP?” she offered him a piece of her pancake.



Leaning over the table, he opened his mouth for the syrup-covered bite. As he sat back, his tongue dipped out to get a drop of syrup off his bottom lip.



“Yeah, there’s a place near the river that I want to take you to.”



Her eyes were focused on his mouth, and she licked her own lips before biting her bottom lip. Forcing her eyes away from the smile that was splitting his bearded face, she met his dark eyes.



“I’d like that,” she whispered.



“Me too,” he cleared his throat. “Did you, um, did you bring that dress with you?”



“The dress?”



“That one you wore when we went to dinner with your family.”



She knew exactly which dress he was speaking of. Sid had taken her shopping the day before they had a family dinner at Delmar’s. It was a high-end steak house that backed up to the river in Monroe. The entire night, Darkness had stared at her and missed half of what was said to her.



For the first time in her life, she felt beautiful wearing a dress. And when she was packing, Sid insisted that her daughter take the dress with her.



Camille hated wearing dresses. Her dislike of dresses wasn’t like Rye, who had bad memories with them. Or Taz, who thought they made her look like a drag queen. Or like Priscilla who complained that she would have to shave her legs.



No, it was nothing like that.



It was the fact that all her sisters had kick-ass bodies. Hourglass figures. Long shapely legs. And Allison never missed an opportunity to point out what Camille lacked or had too much of. Small breasts. Broad shoulders. Thick thighs. Her hourglass had a few extra minutes.



But she felt beautiful that night in her burgundy and black lace spaghetti strap dress. It was low cut and practically backless. It wasn’t form-fitting, but it wasn’t so loose that it looked like a circus tent. It stopped mid-thigh and showed off her legs. Or at least it showed her legs to the tops of her black riding boots.



Darkness loved her knee-high boots. On more than one occasion, he had suggested that she wear them and not her flip-flops with her pajama shorts. Even if it was just for him.



Camille had never been the most girly of girls and typically wore her hair in a braid or ponytail and bare minimum makeup. But for tonight, she wanted to knock Darkness on his ass.



Rosie and Candi had pampered her on Friday afternoon. Her hair was curled, and her face contoured. But somehow, her makeup did not feel or look heavy.



She wore her silver and black diamond earrings and the matching constellation necklace. With the low back and the crisscrossing straps, her large back tattoo was clearly visible. The two smaller tattoos would peak out if she moved just right.



Looking in her bathroom mirror, she ran fingers through her hair and used a small claw clamp to pull up half her curls. Her friends would not like it, but the curls kept getting in her face and that drove her crazy.



Camille applied her lip gloss over the lip stain and blew herself a kiss in her mirror. Her soft green eyes looked larger with the expertly applied smoky eye makeup.



Going out the door, she grabbed her stylish black leather jacket, the one without any patches, and phone. Evie had drilled it into their heads that heat will destroy condoms. Even prolonged exposure to body heat could cause them to fail.



But her mom had drilled it into her head not to expect the man to be the only one thinking about protection. Tucked away in the inside pocket of her jacket was a three-count roll of condoms. Yeah, she had hopes.



When she walked into the main room, Darkness completely stopped talking to Peanut and just stared at her. The other conversations around the room fell silent as the other men appraised her.



“I’m going to go get a mop.” Rosie teased. “All these men kicking themselves in the ass for not seeing what Darkness did are going to slip in their drool.”



“Cher,” Gator kissed her temple, “you look beautiful.”



“Thanks.” She blushed.



Darkness held his hand out for her, and she walked over to him. With a gentle caress, he tipped her face up to him and kissed her lightly.



“You look gorgeous.”



She blushed at his softly spoken compliment. “You look pretty good yourself.” She whispered as he took the jacket and helped her put it on.



Once the jacket was on, he gently pulled her hair out of the collar. Then he put his hand at the small of her back to guide her to the door. Opening the passenger door to her car, he helped her in.



“I love that dress.” He murmured just before he closed the door. After he slid into the driver’s seat, he looked at her. “There’s only one thing that your dress would look better on.”



Confused, and a little afraid of what he would say, she softly asked, “What?”



“The floor.”