Page 83 of Dangerous Encore
"It's acoincidence."
"You want to destroy myhometown."
"You're not from the city. You're from the Silicon Valley burbs with all the otherrichkids."
"And you, Mrs. ManhattanPenthouse?"
"True. But we have great bagels. You have… stripmalls."
"You love stripmalls."
"Maybe."
"Bullshit,maybe."
Her smile melts the tension in my chest. "Maybe." She reaches past me for the mug then she leans in to press her lipstomine.
Fuck, shetastesgood.
I kiss her back as hard as I can. With everything I have togiveher.
She pulls back with a heavy sigh. "Okay. I guess I should leave the mug in thebathroom."
"You can bring itouthere."
She scrunches her nose in distaste. "No. Bathroom. I'll pee. Then we'll… we'll wait together." She takes a deep breath. Slowly, she crosses to thebathroom.
She closesthedoor.
God, this is the longest twenty seconds of my life. I can feel the tension in her shouldersoverhere.
The toilet flushes. The water runs. A few moments later, she calls me over. "I'm just about ready." She pulls thedooropen.
I move into the bathroomwithher.
She unwraps the test. "Three minutes. Exactly threeminutes."
I grab my cell off the kitchen counter and rejoin her. I set the timer to three minutes and show ittoher.
She dips the stick for the required five seconds then places it on the counter, face down. "Here goesnothing."
