Kiss Me While I sleep (29 page)

“What do you have?” Lily asked, bending down to read over his shoulder.

He lowered his voice so no one could overhear what they were saying. “A list of infectious agents and the safety precautions taken with each one.” He nodded at the computer she was using. “What do you have over there?”

“A projection of illnesses and deaths during the next pandemic. Nothing useful, I don’t think.”

“This should tell us what we need. If it doesn’t, my friend in Atlanta can fill in the blanks. I should have asked him a bunch of these questions this morning, but I hadn’t had time to think about it and he called me a bastard anyway, since it was three am there when I called him.”

“Understandable.”

“I thought so, too.” Her hand was still on his shoulder, and he covered it with one of his. “Let’s take this stuff back to the hotel to read. We can order room service, and you can get unpacked and settled in.”

“We’ll have to tell the hotel there are now two people staying in your room, instead of just one.”

“I’ll just say my wife has joined me. Not a problem. Keep your sunglasses on and don’t let any of the staff see your eyes, and we should be in the clear.”

“I’ll look pretty silly sitting around a hotel room wearing sunglasses. Colored contacts will be easier.”

“It isn’t just your eyes that are so identifiable. It’s the entire package, the color of your hair, your facial structure. Just duck into the bathroom when room service is delivered. Other than maid service, that’s the only time we’ll be interrupted.” He logged off, then gathered all the pages that had been printed out. He paid for the service while Lily logged off her computer and did the same.

They stepped out into the street, and the wind whipped at them. Though the day was sunny, it was cool enough, and the windchill cold enough, that a lot of people were wearing hats and scarves. Lily pulled her own hat down so it covered all her hair as they walked to where Swain had parked the car. He seemed to have remarkable luck in finding parking space in a city that was notorious for difficult parking, but she was beginning to think Swain was just one of those people born under a lucky horseshoe. If he’d leased a Hummer, somehow he’d have found a place to park it.

He forwent making any more disparaging comments about the Fiat, though she heard him making that high-pitched whining noise under his breath a few times. The days had gotten really short, with winter only a few weeks away, so the sun had already set by the time they got to the hotel and twilight was fading fast, making Lily’s sunglasses unnecessary. She pulled them off but remembered that she still had a pair of pink-lensed sunglasses that she’d used as part of her disguise in London, and fished them out of her bag. The tint was light enough that she could see with the glasses on and wouldn’t look like a total idiot for wearing sunglasses at night but was sufficient to hide the color of her eyes.

She slipped them in place and turned to Swain. “How do I look?”

“Sexy and stylish.” He gave her a thumbs-up. “Just keep your eyelids at half-mast, as if you’re jet-lagged, and we’re home free.”

He was right; no one paid any attention to them at all as he carried her bags through the lobby with her trailing behind. When they were in his room, he called the front desk and told them his wife had arrived, so there were now two occupants in his room; then he called housekeeping and requested extra towels. Lily busied herself unpacking, putting her clothing away in drawers or hanging it in the closet beside Swain’s clothes, and her toiletries in the bathroom.

She got a jolt as she set a pair of her shoes beside his in the bottom of the closet There was something intimate about the sight, her shoes so much smaller and daintier than his, that brought home to her the fact that she was now, for all intents and purposes, living with him.

She looked up to find him watching her, reading her discomfort.

“It’ll be all right,” he said gently, and opened his arms to her.

Lily went to him, burrowed herself close to the comforting warmth of his body, nestled her head in the hollow of his shoulder, and felt some of her tension ease as he wrapped his arms around her. He kissed the top of her head. “I repeat, we don’t have to have sex tonight. If you’re that uncomfortable with the idea, we can wait.”

“Can we?” she asked softly. “Normally I’d wait a lot longer than this, because two kisses and one grope do not a relationship make-”

He gave a bark of laughter. “I guess not, but even though logically I know we’ve known each other only a few days, part of me feels as if it’s been a lot longer than that. A week, maybe,” he teased. “Have I really groped you just once?”

“Once is all that I remember.”

“Then it’s definitely just once, because you’d remember my gropes.” He rubbed his hand up and down her back, coaxing her tense muscles to relax.

“Tonight may be the only night we have,” she said, trying for a matter-of-fact tone but unable to keep out a hint of wistfulness. The truth of that had been in the back of her mind all day. She couldn’t afford to take her time, get to know him, ease into a relationship. Seen in that light, her decision was simple: she might well die tomorrow, and she didn’t want her last night on earth to be spent alone. She didn’t want to die without having made love with him, without sleeping so close in his arms that she could hear his heartbeat. She wanted him to be her love, even if she wouldn’t have a chance to discover if he was
the
love. At least she would have the hope that he was.

“Hey,” he chided. “Remember the power of positive thinking. Tonight is the first night, not the only night.”

“Have you always been a Pollyanna?”

“Pollyanna saw something good in everything. I see nothing good at all about that Fiat.”

Taken by surprise at his abrupt change of subject, she snickered. “I do. I got a good laugh out of your reaction to it”

He stiffened. “You mean you deliberately picked out that car just to jerk my chain?”

She didn’t bother denying it, just gave a satisfied sigh as she rubbed her cheek against his chest. “I wanted to see you drive it for just one day. It’s a perfectly good car; I once owned a Fiat, so I know how reliable and economical they are, but you act as if you’re in agony.”

“You’ll have to pay for this,” he said, shaking his head. “And not with all that massaging you promised, either. This is big. I’ll have to think about this one for a while.”

“Just don’t take too long.”

“You’ll know tonight,” he promised, tilting her head up for a warm kiss that lingered, multiplied, deepened. Unlike the night before, he took his time stroking her breasts, cupping them, thumbing her nipples through the layers of clothing. Lily half expected to be tumbled onto the bed, but he didn’t even slip his hand under her top. She was glad; she wasn’t anywhere near aroused. His caresses felt good, though, and when he released her, she was warmer and more fluid than she’d been before.

A brisk knock on the door signaled the arrival of housekeeping with an armful of towels. Swain went to the door and took the towels in the same motion with which he handed over a tip, not letting the maid in, though she would have gladly arranged the towels in the bathroom for them.

“Let’s read over all these papers and see what we’ve got,” he said after he put the towels away, indicating everything they’d printed out at the Internet cafe. “There’s a lot of extra stuff in the articles that we won’t need.”

She liked that he wanted to take care of business before fun and games, so she joined him in the sitting area, where he had all the papers scattered out on the coffee table.

“Ebola… Marburg… We don’t need all this,” he muttered, dropping page after page on the floor. Lily picked up a stack of paper and began sorting through it, looking for any information on influenza.

“Here,” she said a moment later. “ ‘How influenza viruses are treated in the laboratory.’ Let’s see… ‘laboratory-associated infections aren’t documented,’ but watch out for ferrets.”

“What?” he asked, startled.

“That’s what it says. Evidently infected ferrets pass the virus along to humans fairly easily, and vice versa. They make us sick, we make them sick. That’s fair,” she said judiciously. “What else… ‘a genetically altered virus… unknown potential. Biosafety Level 2 is recommended.’ What’s Biosafety Level 2?”

“I have that here… somewhere.” Rapidly he flipped through a section of papers. “Here. Okay. The threat is considered moderate. ‘Laboratory personnel must be trained in handling the viruses, access to the lab is limited when work is being done,’ but I guess we can safely say access to the Nervi lab is limited at all times. ‘People have to wash their hands… no eating or drinking in the area… wastes are decontaminated before disposal’-that’s good to know. I guess we could have safely gone in the sewer, after all.”

“I’m just as glad we didn’t.”

“We may have to yet”

She wrinkled her nose at the thought. Even though the sewer had been her idea and she would go that route if there was no other way, she’d rather not.

“ ‘A biohazard sign must be posted,’ ” he continued. “ ‘Extra care taken when handling sharp instruments’-duh-these are all precautions the laboratory personnel take while handling the bugs. ‘The lab must have lockable doors; no specific ventilation system is required.’ Huh.” He put down the papers and scratched his jaw. “This sounds like a basic lab, no airlock entrances, retina scans, thumbprint locks, or anything else. Looks as if we were borrowing trouble, because if Dr. Giordano follows these instructions, all we have to deal with is a locked door.”

“And a lot of people with weapons.”

He waved his hand. “That’s straightforward.” He tossed the papers on the coffee table and leaned back, lacing his fingers behind his head. “I’m surprised. I thought when you were dealing with infectious bugs, you had all sorts of hoops to jump through; but it’s mostly personal security, not external.”

They looked at each other and shrugged. “We’re back where we started,” Lily said. “We need information about the external security system. Once we get in, we look around for the door with the biohazard sign on it”

“X marks the spot,” he agreed. They both knew it wouldn’t be that simple; for one thing, the laboratory could be anywhere within the large complex. It could even be underground, which would limit their available exit routes.

Having found out what they needed to know, which was a lot less than they’d expected, there was no need to keep all the copies they’d printed. Swain picked up the ones he’d dropped on the floor while Lily gathered up all the other sheets; then they dumped everything in the trash.

She was at a loss for something to do now. The hour was still fairly early; they hadn’t even had dinner. She didn’t want to take a shower yet, and thankfully he didn’t seem inclined to rush her into bed. Finally she picked up the book she’d brought and kicked off her boots, then curled up on the sofa to read.

Swain picked up his room key. “I’m going down to the lobby to pick up some newspapers. Do you want anything?”

“Nothing, thanks.”

He let himself out. Lily waited to a count of thirty, then got up and swiftly went through his things. His underwear was neatly stacked in a drawer, with nothing hidden between the folded boxer-style briefs. She patted the pockets of everything he had hanging in the closet, finding nothing. There wasn’t a briefcase, but she pulled out his leather duffel bag and searched it. There didn’t seem to be any hidden pockets or a false bottom to it; his Heckler and Koch nine-millimeter weapon was there, neatly holstered. The bedside table yielded a thriller that was dog-eared at about the halfway point She fanned the pages, but nothing had been slipped between them.

She ran her hand under the mattress, all the way around, and looked under the bed. His leather blazer was lying on the bed where he’d thrown it. She searched his pockets, and found his passport in a zippered inside pocket, but she’d already seen it, so she didn’t take it out.

There was nothing to indicate he was anything other than what he’d told her. Relieved, she returned to the sofa and resumed reading.

He let himself back in five minutes later, carrying two thick newspapers and a small plastic bag. “I had a vasectomy after my second kid was born,” he said, “but I bought some condoms, anyway, in case they’ll make you feel more secure.”

His concern touched her. “Have you done anything risky? Sexually, I mean.”

“I did it standing up in a hammock once, but that was when I was seventeen.”

“You did not.
Hammock
maybe,
standing up
a definite no.”

He grinned. “Actually, the hammock dumped me out on my ass, and I haven’t tried that again. It did a real number on the mood. I didn’t get laid that day, after all.”

“I can imagine. She must have laughed herself silly.”

“No, she screamed.   I was the one laughing. Even a seventeen-year-old can’t keep it up when he’s doing belly laughs. Not to mention I looked like an idiot, and girls that age are real sensitive about image and things like that. She decided I was very uncool and went off in a huff.”

She should have known he’d be the one laughing. Smiling, she propped her chin in her palm. “Anything else risky?”

He settled in the chair closest to her and stretched out his legs, propping his feet on the coffee table. “Let’s see. Right after that is when Amy and I started going together, and I was faithful to her from day one until we got divorced. I’ve had a few close friends since then, relationships lasting from a couple of months to two years, but nothing casual. I’ve mostly been in places where there was no wild nightlife, unless you count the four-legged kind. Whenever I was in a civilized area, I didn’t want to spend my time nightclubbing.”