7
Tuesday, June 7th
Sperryville, Virginia
A light rain pattered tiny wet fingers on the tent, but the rip-stop Gortex was up to it—water beaded and ran down the roof sides in meandering rivulets.
It was just after dawn. Jay Gridley lay on his back watching the drops. He was inside the two zipped-together sleeping bags next to Soji, his head propped on his rolled-up jacket. She’d been right—he hadn’t been the least bit disappointed in this camping trip, no sir, no way. This was the best vacation he had ever had, no two ways about it. He wasn’t a fan of the great outdoors, he was much more comfortable creating a VR version of it and plugging into that, but no matter how good a programmer you were, you couldn’t begin to approach the reality of sex.
Nope, nossir, no way, no how.
Jay glanced over at Soji, who was still asleep. He resisted the urge to reach over and stroke her dark hair. God, she was beautiful. Smart, wise, everything he could possibly want in a woman. The only question was, how could he make it permanent? Would she, he wondered, laugh at him if he asked her to marry him?
Soji opened her eyes and smiled at him. “Thinking about asking for your money back, white boy?”
“I’ll have you know I’m half Thai,” he said, “and that for your white boy.” He gave her a slapped biceps and raised fist. “And no, I wasn’t thinking about asking for my money back, thank you.”
“Scenery was worth the trip?”
“All the scenery I need is here in the tent.”
She laughed. “Uh-oh, a flatterer trying to reattach me to my ego.”
“Yes, ma’am, I’m a Buddhist’s worst nightmare. Listen to me, you will fall right off the edge of the eightfold path.”
“Never happen,” she said. “We Buddhists are middle-of-the-roaders, remember?”
Now he did reach out and softly run his hand through her hair.
She caught his hand, brought it to her mouth, kissed the palm. “Hold that thought,” she said. “I’ll be right back.”
“Going to go and meditate in the rain?”
“No, I’m going to go pee behind the tent.”
“You’re ruining my image of your holy nature.”
“Sorry. You’ll just have to get used to me being a lowly human.”
“Like the rest of us.”
She unzipped the sleeping bag and rolled out, gloriously nude. “Well, not as lowly as some of you.”
He watched her crawl out of the low-roofed tent, smiling at her tight backside as it vanished past the mosquito netting. They were in the middle of nowhere, hadn’t seen another soul for four days, not since they’d left the main trail. They could run around naked in the sunshine—as long as they slathered themselves in sunblock and bug dope, of course—and nobody would see them. If it stopped raining and there was any sunshine—and as far as he was concerned, he didn’t care if they ever left this tent except to go pee.
Jay laughed. Boy, had he come a long way from being a dedicated computer op. Going back to work had no appeal whatsoever. This was what life was all about.
Yes, sir.
London
Toni had rented a small place when Alex had gone back to the U.S.—she had some money in the bank, but hotel prices in London would eat that up in a big hurry, now that she wasn’t on an expense account. Carl had introduced her to one of his students who had a granny flat, and the cost was more than reasonable. In fact, Toni wondered if maybe Carl was somehow subsidizing it on the sly. So far, she hadn’t worked up enough nerve to ask him—if he wasn’t, he might be insulted by the thought. And if he was, then she’d have to move out, and that would be a pain in the butt.
Either way, her money would be depleted by the time her visa ran out, and she’d have to leave the country by the end of the summer.
She was sitting at the small table in the kitchen—a kitchenette, really—when the doorbell chimed. Who could that be? Save for Carl and her landlord, nobody knew she lived here. A salesman? Somebody come to the wrong address?
When she opened the door, the last person she expected to see stood there:
MI-6 agent Angela Cooper.
Toni was stunned. The bitch! How dare she come here?
Toni clamped a lid on the rush of anger that threatened to boil forth. Polite might be too much to ask for, but she kept her voice even: “What do you want?”
Cooper flashed a weak smile. She was a beautiful woman, no doubt of that. Toni could see the attraction. “I need to speak to you. May I come inside?”
“Why? We don’t have anything to talk about.”
“I think we do. Please.”
Toni offered as bored a shrug as she could. “Sure. Come in.”
Once inside, Cooper looked nervous. She sure as hell should be, Toni thought. She might be a trained secret agent, but Toni’s martial abilities were a lot sharper than what the Royal secret service would be passing on to its operatives. If push came to shove, she could take Cooper—even if she had James F*cking Bond backing her up. And she would enjoy whacking Cooper. A lot.
“What?”
“I won’t be here but a moment or two. Listen, I’ve wrestled with this and I can’t come up with any clever way to say it, so here it is, flat out: I didn’t sleep with Alex Michaels.”
“No, I expect you didn’t get much sleeping done.”
Cooper shook her head. “You have it wrong. We did not have sex—is that clearer? Not in any way, shape, or form, not even by Clinton definition. I wanted to, but he turned me down.”
It caught Toni flat-footed. “What?”
“Yes, I know I made it seem as if we had, but—it didn’t happen. I wanted to, believe it, and I tried my best, but he wouldn’t go for it.”
Toni waved at the table. This was astounding. “You want to sit down?” As it always did when she got flustered, her Bronx accent came back: Ya wanna siddown?
Was she telling the truth? Had Alex put her up to this?
Cooper read her mind: “In case you are wondering, no, Alex didn’t tell me to talk to you; I haven’t spoken to him since he left the country. I heard what happened between you two. I was going to let it pass. When he wouldn’t do me, I was, well, a bit put out, so I decided to sting you a little by letting on that he had. I suppose I wanted you to take him to task, make him squirm a bit. But despite his rejection, I did like Alex, and it isn’t really fair to make him suffer because he was doing right by you.”
“Alex didn’t deny it when I brought it up,” Toni said.
“I don’t understand why not. It had been a long day. We had supper in a pub. He had one beer too many, and I offered to give him a massage. But that was as far as it got. He was half-asleep facedown on the massage table when I stripped and tried to get him to have it off with me. I was ready—and it was obvious he was ready, too—but instead of his willie, he waved you in my face.”
She paused, took a deep breath, and went on. “I was furious. And I resented you for having him, so that’s why I did what I did. I’m sorry. That’s it.”
She turned and started for the door.
Toni had trouble finding her voice, barely made it before the woman got the door open. “Angela?”
“Yes?”
“Thank you for telling me. It couldn’t have been easy.”
Cooper smiled, more genuine this time. “I’d rather be having a bloody root canal. You’re lucky to have a man like that interested in you. Maybe you can patch things up.”
When she was gone, Toni sat at the table, staring at the wall. Why hadn’t he just told her? He knew she thought he’d slept with Cooper; all he had to do was deny it, she would have believed him. At least she thought she would have believed him. Why hadn’t he spoken up?
She replayed their last meeting, trying to remember exactly how it had gone. Had he ever actually said he’d been with Cooper?
No...
Well, shit! What the hell was wrong with him! Why had he let her think he’d done it!
Abruptly, Toni felt the emotions well, and tears spill. Dammit, Alex!
She was angry all over again, but this time for an entirely different reason. What on Earth could he have been thinking ?