Solomon's Sieve (42 page)

He opened it to find Mercy standing there.

“What’s wrong?”

She walked straight into his body and he put his arms around her reflexively. “There’s a strange woman in my room who says she’s my mother. Can I sleep in here?”

“Yeah. Of course, baby.”

He shut the door behind her and helped her strip down to underwear. Then he pulled back the covers, got in and turned off the light, noting that Torn was snoring through the whole thing.

As she climbed in and nestled into his side like she was made to be there, he said, “Are you sure you wouldn’t rather sleep in Torn’s bed?”

She snorted. “Why would you ask me that?”

“Because girls like you always end up with some other guy.”

“Shut up and go to sleep.”

He grinned in the darkness and pulled her closer.

The next day the hotel cleared out pretty quickly once it became known that the missing couple was safe. Rev and Farnsworth moved to another room. Raif woke to the sounds of low voices.

Torn was saying, “Woke up with a mother of all hangovers and, Great Glorious Paddy, there they were. Sleepin’ like angels. Much as I want to know what transpired durin’ the night, I do no’ have the heart to disturb a slumber so sound.”

“When they wake up, tell Dr. Renaux that her room has been vacated and is ready for her with clean sheets and towels. Here’s her card key. I think she left it.”

Glen closed the door and Torn sat down on the side of his bed facing his partner and the surprise bedmate.

Raif was on his back with Mercy asleep on his chest. His arms were wrapped around her in what looked like a protective embrace. He opened one eye a sliver and looked at Torn.

Torn smiled like a Cheshire cat. “Got lucky, did ye?”

Raif’s gaze swept over the state of Torn’s swollen and bruised face and took in the bandages. “When are you going to learn that no means no?”

Between the hangover and whole body soreness, the last thing in the world Torn needed was to laugh, which of course meant that everything was funnier than usual. So he laughed, but the sounds he made were more, Ow Ow Ow than Ha Ha Ha.

That in turn made Raif laugh. Without opening her eyes, Mercy reached behind her and shoved a pillow in his face. “Quiet. Both of you. Go somewhere else.”

“This is
our
room,” Torn said.

That made Mercy raise her head and look around. “Oh. Yeah.”

Raif patted the blanket covering her ass. “Glen came by. He said your room is all yours. No more strange people. Nice clean linens. And he left your key card.”

She let out a noncommittal huff that gave no indication of her plans.

“Sooooo,” Raif began. “What would you like to do?”

“Be left alone to sleep.”

“Well, we could do that. Or I could help you get to your own room where you could have a nice bath and put on some clean clothes. And while you were doing that I could order some room service. Coffee. Juice. Sugary pastries.”

She pulled back just far enough so that she could see his face. “What happened to steaks? I thought you wanted steaks.”

He grinned. “We’ll see what they have in the way of aged filet.”

“Okay,” she said. “If I agree to get out of this bed, you agree to get me room service.”

“That’s the deal.”

She started to pull back the covers, but stopped. “Make him turn around. And I have to go to the bathroom. I’ll never make it all the way to my room.”

“Our facilities are your facilities.” Raif made a motion to Torn to turn around and his partner complied without hesitation or complaint.

When he heard the bath door close, Torn turned to Raif with a scathing smile.

“What?”

“Two words,” answered Torn. “Pussy. Whipped.”

“Call it what you want, brother. I’m taking whatever she’s giving and calling myself the luckiest son-of-a-bitch alive.”

Torn shook his head. “Out of all of us. Ne’er figured you to be the first man down.”

CHAPTER 24

When Mercy emerged from the bath in clean clothes, wet hair, and no makeup, she didn’t feel the least glamorous, but she did feel a little less like dead person walking. The room smelled like a banquet. Raif had pretty much ordered one of everything the kitchen had to offer and looked ready to eat anything she didn’t. They’d run out of surfaces and put a lot of the plates on top of the bed.

She smiled shyly. “Thank you. This looks wonderful.”

He pushed out a chair. “Have a seat. What will you have first?”

“Um. Is that cranberry juice?”

He looked where she pointed. “Could be. It’s red.” She tried it and smiled. “Guess what?”

“What?”

“It’s our first real meal together.”

“You don’t count half a protein bar.”

“Okay. It’s our first meal together with furniture involved.” She smiled as she chewed a piece of cheesy bread. “You take good care of me.”

“Glad you noticed.”

“Who’s taking care of you?”

He stopped dead still. “What do you mean?”

“Who’s making sure you got enough sleep, got a shower, got breakfast? I’m not used to being a taker. Doesn’t feel right.”

Raif’s eyes traveled down her body suggestively. “Well, if you’re saying you’d like to return some favors…” She giggled and he looked mesmerized. “Is that a yes?”

She took a forkful of something that looked like hash. “It’s a maybe,” she smiled with a teasing flirtatiousness she didn’t even know she had in her.

Seeing that look directed at him, Raif felt like all the blood in his body rushed to his groin. If he didn’t know how badly she needed to replenish her body’s reserves, he would have lunged at her. That, plus there was business to take care of first.

“If that look means what I think it means, then I’m your guy.”

She stopped with her fork in the air. “You’re my guy?” He nodded. “But you’re putting conditions on that? You’re my guy, but only if I’m looking at you with a promise of carnal delight?”

Raif lips parted in reaction to paralysis of tongue while he tried to sort out what he was supposed to say.

“You should see your face,” she laughed. “I’m just kidding. Don’t look so scared. I’m not making a claim on you or anything like that.”

Raif stood and started stacking all the food, some on the little desk-table, some on the dresser. She watched dumbfounded as he carefully built towers of food. First a plate, then a stainless steel cover, then a plate, and so on until he’d cleared the entire bed. Then he took the plate Mercy was working on and set it on the nightstand before sitting beside her. Close beside her.

“Mercy, do you want to make a claim on me?” Her lips parted and her eyes moved to his lips before coming back to his beautifully pale eyes. “Say yes. Because that’s what I want. Hel yes I’m your guy. Whether you’re looking at me like you want to eat me or looking at me like you want to kill me.” He smiled. “Which, in its own way, is almost as cute.”

He reached over, took her hands in his, and intertwined their fingers. “Sir Nightsong.” Gods he liked the way that sounded. “Let’s talk about the speed dating thing.”

He groaned and closed his eyes. “Not again. I told you I…”

“Just listen. I heard your story. It’s only fair you hear mine.” With clear reluctance, he nodded. “I’m not an overly emotional person. The way you made me feel that day, well I hated you for it. I practically ran out of there. I was out on the streets, crying and not able to stop. It was so humiliating to put on a spectacle like that. In front of all those strangers. The way people looked at me. Curiosity. Sympathy. Disdain. I hated you for that, too.

“So, like I told you, I went back to work and decided that dating isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. I told myself that I had what most people want, fulfilling self-actualizing work. I threw myself into mentoring grad students and volunteered to serve on a couple of boards. I’d been busy before, but I was determined to fill every minute of every day.”

She stopped and looked away. He didn’t say anything, but squeezed her hand in a gesture of encouragement.

“The thing is,” she looked up at him, “it still didn’t get you out of my mind.” Raif’s face went slack at that revelation. That was, apparently, the last thing he’d expected to hear. “I despised you for rejecting me the way you did, but I was also, I don’t know how I should describe it, obsessed I guess.”

Raif’s face was as full of wonder as if he was witnessing a miracle. “You were obsessed with
me
?”

“Yes.” She nodded.

“That’s… awesome. Also sick and perverted. But go on.”

She laughed. “Anyway, as the time went by I couldn’t recall your face in detail. All that remained was an impression of black hair, pale eyes, naughty boy beauty.”

He stifled a laugh. “Naughty boy beauty? Please, I’m begging, never say that in front of other people or I’ll have to commit honor suicide.”

Mercy rolled her eyes. “Do you want me to finish or not?”

“I do,” he said and closed the inch between them so that they were sitting as close as two people can sit.

“That’s pretty much it. The supreme irony is I took this job thinking it would be the very thing I needed to finally get you out of my head and stop obsessing about you. You know the rest. I got on that plane and there you were.”

“Can I ask a couple of questions?”

She suddenly looked guarded. “Like what?”

“All the flirting with my partner?”

“Oh.” He could see the blush start to rise in her cheeks.
Fascinating.
He reached up and trailed a fingertip down her face to see if it made her skin hot to the touch. “That was my insurance policy to be certain I didn’t give away that I was attracted to you and making an even bigger fool of myself.”

That answer seemed to please him immensely. “Women are evil.”

“Nah. Just me.”

“
Next question. Are you claiming me?”

In a move that took the breath from her body, Raif pulled her up and rearranged her on the bed, on her back, and tucked underneath him. He buried his face in her neck and inhaled her scent, then started nibbling, which made her gasp, her body arching toward him in a ritual of reflex as old as the race.

“Not letting you up until you say it.”

She started laughing at the way her body responded to him so completely and immediately, as if her genetic particles were reaching out in hopes of combining with his.

“Yes.”

He lifted his head up so he could look into her face. “Yes?” She nodded, looking at his lips with a hunger that was both invitation and demand. “You and me? Exclusive. Right?”

“Right.”

He gave her the kiss she was asking for. She didn’t know that kisses could be so thorough or last so long. Or that they could communicate so much feeling. She felt the swell in his jeans grind against her. Her body rocked upward in response.

With a frustrated growl and without warning, he tore away from the kiss and practically leapt from the bed. That left Mercy staring in confusion and wondering what the devil just happened. She was learning that Raif liked to do things fast and abrupt. No grass growing under his feet.

“Duty calling, babe. We got business to take care of first.”

“What business?” He looked at his watch. “We’re expected downstairs in twenty minutes for debriefing.”

“What does that mean?”

“Means we have to go tell our story to our boss and my team mates. You have just enough time to finish eating and get some clothes on. I’m going to take a shower while you do that, then I’ll go down with you.”

She sat up and scowled. “That woman. Who was in here last night. She said the man with her is my boss.”

Raif looked interested in that. “What was his name?”

“Um, I don’t know. I was tired and it’s kind of hazy.”

“About my size? Buzzed hair? Brown eyes?”

Mercy nodded. “That seems right.”

Raif whistled long and low. “Guess we’ll find out soon enough.” He took hold of the door knob. “Back in fifteen minutes.”

When Mercy walked down the hallway with Raif, she was more than happy to stop at the elevator and make good use of it. There was a lot to be said for a few hours’ sleep, a good breakfast, and being clean, but she still felt like she’d been run over by a semi.

When they got off the elevator Glen was waiting to walk them to the room that had been reserved for their use. There were four others waiting: Torn, Gun, Rev, and Farnsworth. Rev was at the far end of the oblong table. At the end nearest the door, two chairs were situated side by side. Assuming that they were meant to sit in those two, Raif pulled out one of the chairs for Mercy.

She looked up at him for reassurance, silently communicating that this was her first debriefing. He nodded almost imperceptibly and, when they were seated, he reached for her hand under the table. Her eyes kept going to the handsome woman sitting at the end. She knew that woman was lying about being her mother because, for one thing, she wasn’t nearly old enough. That woman looked no more than ten years older than she, if that.