Hothouse Orchid

31

Teddy Fay lay back and gazed into the face of Lauren Cade, which was contorted with passion. She moved rhythmically up and down on top of him, making little noises, and he moved with her. Then, they both climaxed together and ended up with her in his arms but still locked together.

“That was just wonderful,” she said.

“It certainly was,” he agreed.

“How do you do that?” she asked.

“It seems to me that you were doing the greater part of it.”

“I suppose I was.”

“And doing it extremely well, too.”

She fell sideways and lay tight against him, her head on his shoulder and her leg over his, spilling his seed onto him. “Messy, isn’t it?”

“Yes.”

“I love it. I love your sweat, too.”

“That’s entirely involuntary; it doesn’t require any talent.”

“No, it’s just part of you.” She got up and went into the bathroom. He heard water running, and a moment later she came back with a hot face cloth and wiped down his body.

“The service is very good around here,” Teddy said.

“I’m going to keep it that way,” she replied. “What can I get you?”

“A cold beer, please.”

“Oh, me, too.” She trotted off toward the kitchen.

“There are cold glasses in the freezer,” he called after her.

She returned with two perfectly poured glasses, and he sat up and rearranged the pillows for both of them.

“It’s fun watching you walk around naked,” Teddy said.

“Then I’ll do that a lot.”

They touched glasses and drank the cold lager.

Teddy experienced a rush of feeling for her. He wanted her to never leave his house again, but he could not express this desire. “What are your career plans?” he asked.

“I’ve got four years on the job,” she said, “so I guess I’ll put in at least twenty, for the pension-barring a better offer, of course.”

“What would you consider a better offer?”

“A job with a federal agency, I guess-FBI, DEA, like that.”

“Then you’d have to move,” he pointed out.

“Probably. I suppose they employ agents in Florida, though. I’d like to stay here. Mind you, my new job is something meaningful; it’s better than chasing down speeders on I-95.”

“I suppose it is. You’re a bright woman; you need something that requires intelligence.”

“I do.”

Teddy was trying to think about the future, but it was hard. What was he going to do? Ask her to marry him and run with him when the Agency stumbled across him somewhere? Could he confess to her the murders he’d done, necessary for the welfare of the country though they may have been. Could he ask her to share the risks in his life, to change her identity, to keep moving? He actually enjoyed the chase, but it seemed unlikely that she would. He tried to bring his mind back to the present.

“What about you?” she asked. “Are you going to settle down in Vero Beach?”

“Seems like a nice town,” he said. “So far. Certainly the company is good.”

“How’d you pick Vero anyway?”

“I read something about it somewhere. It’s a nice size-not too big, not too small-and I don’t mind a hot summer.”

“I do,” she said, “but there’s nothing I can do about it.”

That was something he could offer her, he thought: a better climate somewhere else. “Where would you like to live, if you could live anywhere?”

“Paris,” she said unhesitatingly.

“That’s a nice thought,” Teddy said. “Do you have the language?”

“Two courses in high school. I can order dinner.”

“That’s about the extent of my French, too,” he admitted.

“I think if I lived in Paris the language would come to me quickly enough.”

Teddy changed the subject. “When you nail this Bruno character, what will your next job be?”

“The next big crime, I guess.”

“Wherever it is?”

“Wherever in Florida.”

So she might get yanked away from him. He didn’t like that.

“Our charter from the government is to investigate ‘major’ crimes, but Hurd Wallace has a lot of discretion over what cases he works. Of course, the governor could call at any time and send him off to Miami or Jacksonville or someplace to solve some murder that had statewide or national implications.”

“Are you having Bruno followed?”

“No, not yet, anyway. But I’ve told Jimmy Weathers-you met him-that Bruno is a suspect, so I expect he’ll be paying a lot of attention to him until we break the case.”

“Does he spend most of his time in the office?”

“Jimmy says he works odd hours. Sometimes he’s at the station in the middle of the night. It’s like he’s always checking up on the people who work for him.”

“I’m no cop,” Teddy said, “but I should think that if he’s your suspect, you’d follow him night and day, until he made an incriminating move.”

“To do that, Hurd would have to request more manpower from the state police, and then it starts to get political. If he meets with resistance, he has to get the governor involved. I think Hurd is reluctant to do that, or we’d already be following Bruno.”

“He’ll make a mistake eventually,” Teddy said.

“Let’s hope so,” Lauren replied.

Teddy was thinking he wouldn’t wait for Bruno to make a mistake.