Solomon's Sieve (44 page)

He looked down at the impressive hard on protruding from the opening in his jeans. “Yeah. What about it? I’m not wearing any.”

She laughed. “I can see that.”

“You don’t like the bare look?”

“No I don’t,” she said seriously, then smiled brightly as she jack knifed up and pulled him back down with her. “I love it!”

Raif responded with a promising smile. He started at her forehead and began working his way down her body slowly with kisses and licks and nibbles and nuzzles. Some made her gasp. Some made her laugh softly. Some made her whole body jerk in response. She lost patience and tried to hurry him along, but he refused.

“This is the first time I’m making love to you in a bed and I’m going to savor every agonizingly slow second of it.”

“Is there anything I can say to get you where I want you right now?”

“No,” he said as he blew a breath across her pubic area.

“How about please?” He stopped for a second and she took that as an indication that she could be on to something. “Please.” He looked up at her. So she started a mantra of begging until he gave up, grinning, and looking at her with something in his eyes that wasn’t just lust.

She wouldn’t have thought it was possible to penetrate so slowly. When she wiggled and thrust, he held her hips still with his hands, which from her point of view was frustrating and wicked sexy at the same time. He slid out and in with a measured precision, with the tiniest increases, until she was ready to scream. But she didn’t scream. She bit him on his pec.

“Ow,” he laughed. “You little minx! What is it you’re trying to say? Use your words.”

“Harder.”

“Oh. Harder!” He complied and thrust so hard it lifted her completely off the mattress.

“Faster.”

“Faster, too? Demanding.” He let go of her hips and brought it. It was hard. It was fast. And she was in ecstasy.

When he was close to coming, he reached down and stimulated her nub just enough to send her over the edge. He thrust twice more after she felt the hot release pumping into her. He collapsed to the side and smiled over at her, looking proud and pleased with eyes shining brightly. “That what you had in mind, Professor?”

“You get an A+.”

He chuckled. “What was the best thing that’s ever happened to you? In your life?”

She paused. “I don’t know.”

“Okay then. Ask me.”

“Raif. What was the best thing that has ever happened to you in your life?”

“It was this morning, when you told everybody that I’m yours. It… I don’t know, it made something crack inside.” He turned his face toward her. “Almost like I heard it. Here’s this perfectly shiny, beautiful smart accomplished woman,” he leaned in and sniffed, “who smells so good, and she just told everybody flat out that I’m her guy. It was the most amazing moment in my life.” He looked away, smiled, and turned back to her. “Let’s do it again!”

She laughed. “Anytime you want. Call the TV stations.” Mercy couldn’t remember ever having enjoyed anything as much as that look of happiness on Raif’s face. “So do you recommend speed dating?”

His smile melted away as his features grew perfectly serious. His eyes tracked his fingers slowly trailing up her rib cage. “I think maybe when people are supposed to be together, Fate finds a way. If they had a chance speed dating and blew it, but they’re really supposed to be together, then Fate will arrange for them to work for the same secret society and be trapped inside a mountain together.” He looked up and met her eyes.

Mercy was thinking that was perhaps the most romantic thing that any man had ever said to any woman. At least it worked for her.

All of a sudden he twisted around to look at the bedside clock.

“Oh shit! We’re supposed to be somewhere.”

She was confused. Again. Why was he always bounding out of bed and insisting they had someplace to be?

“Come on. Come on. Come on,” he said hurriedly. “Did you bring a dress?”

“A dress? To a dig? No. I didn’t bring a dress.”

“Okay. Just put on something.”

“I don’t want to go out. I’m going to have dinner in here tonight.”

Raif was shaking his head back and forth. “No. No. No. You’re not. I have plans.”

“You do?”

“Plans that involve your cooperation.”

“You might as well find out now. I’m not big on surprises.”

“Fair enough. Just this once then. After this, no more surprises.”

“Somehow I don’t think I can trust you to keep your word on this issue.”

“All’s fair in love and surprises.”

“You’re not going to let me stay in tonight, are you?”

“Not a chance.”

She heaved a big sigh. “I guess I’ll get dressed.”

“Have I told you that you look good in yellow?”

“Have I told you I’m serious about the ADD thing?”

“Does it matter?”

“Not in the least. The only thing I own that’s yellow is the sweater I had on in the cave and it’s going to be the gasoline rag for the next bonfire.”

“Whatever you wear will be almost as perfect as when you’re not wearing anything.”

She disappeared into the bathroom, put on enough makeup to resemble the living, and finally settled on clean skinny jeans and a pink gauze top. She threw her hair up into a messy top knot and left some tendrils hanging down.

“Best I can do on short notice,” she said when she opened the door and stepped out of the bath.

He pulled her into a slow dance pose and spun her around. “Just like I said. Beautiful.” He let go and pulled his phone from his pocket. “Hang on a sec.” He texted something, then said. “Good. Let’s go.”

Mercy paused at the elevator debating about taking the stairs then pushed the button. For the second time that day, Glen was waiting when they got off the elevator. He backed up a few feet and held up his hand. Raif, who had hold of her arm, pulled her to a stop.

“When one of our escorts says to wait you have to do what he says.”

“Only if his name is Simon,” she quipped.

“What’s going on?” Raif just smiled enigmatically. “Whatever’s going on, is there food involved? Please just tell me there’s food involved.”

Glen was emphatic. “Food. Is. Involved.”

He held up a finger, pulled his phone from his pocket and said. “Right this way my lady. Dinner awaits in the terrace room.”

“Sounds good,” Raif said, refusing to look at her.

They walked through the lobby, past reception, through the main restaurant to the entrance of the terrace room at the back. When she reached the doors, they swung open and six people yelled, “Surprise!”

There was a large round table in the center of the room set with seven places. All around the periphery were long tables covered in white linens and birthday cakes with candles blazing. Twenty-eight of them in all. The first had one candle. The second had two candles.

When her mind caught up, her gaze sought out Farnsworth. Raif leaned over and whispered in her ear. “It was her idea. One for every year she missed being with you. She wants you to know she thought about you every birthday and wanted to be with you.”

Mercy leaned down and blew out the candle on the first cake. Looking around she realized she was going to have to hurry if she was going to blow out all the candles before the last ones went out on their own. So she started hurrying. First Raif joined her in blowing them out quickly. Then Glen.

The three of them moved as fast as they could from cake to cake, blowing and bumping into each other, with Mercy doing as much giggling as blowing. They barely made it to the last cake and no one knew for sure if it was breath or time that put them out.

She looked over at Farnsworth who was smiling so brightly she looked like she had an aura around her. Mercy turned and put her face in Raif’s chest and mumbled something. His arms came around her automatically. “What? I couldn’t hear you. Say it again.”

All her life Mercy had wanted somebody to know it was her birthday and care. That night was the first time it had ever been acknowledged by someone other than herself. It was a makeup celebration. As close to a do-over as was possible.

She raised her face from Raif’s chest and said, “I have a mom.”

He laughed. “Yeah. You’re a lucky girl.” He hugged her and said. “I’d like to hear you say that again. Make an announcement, like you did for me. Tell everybody, including her.” He ducked down to look at her eye to eye. “What have you got to lose?”

She smiled, turned and said brightly in full voice. “Hey everybody! I have a mom!”

Farnsworth’s sob of relief and happiness, was drowned out by clapping and cheering and a horrible rendition of “Happy Birthday to You”. At the end of that Mercy decided she might tolerate a quick hug from her mother.

She reached out to give Farnsworth a friendly, but reserved pat. Farnsworth wanted to respect the boundary Mercy was establishing, but her body must have felt overdue to have that baby in an embrace. Without warning Mercy was pulled into a hug that took her breath away, not because it was physically crushing, but because her own body recognized the kinship and the authenticity of the emotion. After a few heartbeats, she relaxed into it and even returned it.

EPILOGUE

Two weeks later.

Mercy had the key to her mother’s beach house in her hand. She and Raif were loaded up, ready to leave for two fabulous days and nights away. They were in the parking garage saying goodbye to her mom and stepdad-to-be.

Rev stopped Raif. “There’s a trick to the kitchen drawer where she keeps the wine opener. You have to kick the baseboard and pull at the same time.”

Raif grinned. “Is this a joke?”

“Gods’ truth. You’ll see.”

“Okay, then. Thanks for the tip.”

Farnsworth was still standing there ten minutes later giving them instructions on how to open up, how to close up, where to go for food, etc.

When they were finally in the SUV and ready to pull away, Rev said, “No dune buggies. Promise me.”

Raif shrugged. “Promise.”

Their first night at the beach house. After they’d made the drive and meticulously followed instructions for opening up, they’d had dinner and, in the process, discovered that there was a nice selection of wine. They also verified that there was indeed a trick to the wine opener drawer.

Later, they sat on the floor in front of a small fire with their backs supported by the sofa feeling full of good food, warmed by great wine, and perfectly contented as if life didn’t get better.

“Want to hear some irony?”

“I have a feeling I’m not supposed to say no.”

She ignored that. “I’ve been thinking about the speed date.”

“Oh, here we go again.”

“No, really. I’ve been thinking how ironic it is that we caused a big enough scene to shut the place down and make everybody there question whether or not they wanted to pursue a possible relationship with the opposite sex. Yet…”

“Yet. Here we are. Together.”

She laughed. “And the bigger irony is that, out of all the people who were speed dating that day? We’re probably the only ones who
are
together.”

“Life is strange.”

“Indeed.”

“I’ve been wondering about one thing.”

“What?” Mercy asked.

“The whole Sozopol vampire discovery is a moot point now, but did you get far enough into it to have an idea what you were going to report?”

“Yes. Since the vampire virus is carried in the bloodstream and depends on the bloodstream, we’re centuries too late to know if they were vampire or not. But the truth is that, even if I said there was indisputable proof, I don’t think it would change a thing.”

Raif wrinkled his brow and looked confused. “Why not?”

“I’ve actually given this some thought. As someone who recently needed to be convinced that vampire exists, I had a personal demonstration. Even after a vampire materialized out of thin air, right next to me, and basically showed me his fangs while going, “Awrrrrr,” I
still
resisted believing it.

“I’ve got a name for it. The Phenomenon of Familiarity. People don’t want to give up their beliefs. Once a belief has taken hold in our minds, most of us will cling to it like a life raft even in the face of incontrovertible evidence. As if we think that, if we change our minds we might somehow cease to be.”

Raif was quiet for a while so she assumed he was absorbing her thoughts because they were so deep. When he spoke, he said, “He didn’t really say ‘awrrrrr’, did he?”