Vortex (19 page)

Not wanting to look at her, I tilted my empty bottle and watched a few drops of beer
fall onto the counter. “Yeah … sorry about that.”

She shrugged. “You’re forgiven.”

Her eyes were so confidently staying on mine that I started to shift uncomfortably
under the weight of her gaze. She was too calm. Too sure of herself. Or maybe I was
comparing her to 007 Holly, because that was the last time I had to meet her for the
first time … again. This was 009 Holly. The nearly nineteen-year-old girl. Suddenly
I had this intense desire to start all over again. The blissful memories that I had
with this girl when we first met … the way I kept catching my thoughts drifting to
her … finding a way to end up in the same place at the same time.

So this
could
be part of my cover tonight? Blending in, chatting up girls. It was what the son
of CEO Kevin Meyer would do. I’d be conducting an investigation. Holly could be a
teenage terrorist, for all they knew. Someone had to get close enough to find out.

I’ll take one for the team.

“So, where are you from, Holly Flynn?” I asked, because it sounded like the thing
to say to spark conversation.

“New Jersey.”

“I went to a party in New Jersey once … a while back.” I nodded toward the crystal
chandelier. “A little different from this place, but overall a great night.”

Her eyebrows arched up. “You went to a party in Jersey? Why?”

I scooted my stool a little closer to her, making room for someone to slide behind
me. “Mostly I went to hang out with a girl I liked. It was outside, in the woods,
we had a bonfire and everything.”

“Beer kegs?” she asked, and then continued after I nodded. “I’ve been to a few of
those. How’d it work out for you … with the girl you liked?”

I thought about it for a second and then smiled. “It was nice. Very nice … Of course,
I’d been hoping for wild sex on a bed of leaves in the woods, but that was more of
a poison ivy issue than me striking out. Plus, she had a boyfriend. Big ugly hairy
dude.”

“Oh, I bet.” She scanned the room for a second and her eyes stopped on Kendrick, now
chatting with Brian. “You’ve been sitting here for an hour. Don’t you think your date
might be a little bored … or lonely?”

“She’s just my partner … I mean, lab partner … for med school.”

She smiled, and this time it was laced with intentions. “Good to know.”

I immediately leaned back, away from her, shocked by the way she was flirting with
me. Definitely something I hadn’t seen from Holly before. Not quite that forward.
“What about your boyfriend? Is he okay with you flirting with strangers?”

She leaned closer to me and her hair brushed against my arm. “Brian flirts better
than he plays football. Besides, he can’t hear me.”

“You sure about that?”

“I’ll prove it,” she said, then raised her voice. “Ohio State is awesome!”

“Go, Buckeyes!” I added, then we both turned our eyes in Brian’s direction. He didn’t
falter in his charismatic conversation with Kendrick, and she winked at me from over
his shoulder. “Okay, I believe you.”

“Good,” she said, then hopped down from the barstool. “I think you should dance with
me.”

Now,
that
shocked the hell out me, but I was drunkenly happy and well trained at concealing
almost everything. I knew this was a very bad idea, and yet … so appealing. Dancing
with Holly, for me, had always been this amazingly hot vertical foreplay.

I started to reach for her hand and then hesitated. Something about her behavior was
off. Her attitude. Even with the beer swimming through my veins, I wondered if this
was some very elaborate practical joke. Like an evil Stewart kind of joke. Except …
if Stewart knew why this would be worthy of an evil prank, we’d have a completely
different problem right now. If she knew what I really am.

“Are you coming or not?” she asked me, with eyes that were a little too innocent.
“It’s a great song.”

My suspicion doubled, but there was no logic behind it except the fact that there
wasn’t any possible way
this
Holly was just going to give me exactly what I wanted from her without me even asking.
Instead of answering, I kept my eyes on hers and she pulled me by the hand toward
the dance floor. Just as we reached the center, I had the most crazy, irrational,
drunken thought ever. Actually, it was just one word floating around in my head like
an annoying bug in a glass of water.

Clones.

I shook the idea from my head, but it didn’t disappear completely. I’d know if this
wasn’t really her, wouldn’t I?

The song filled my head and her hands slipped inside my jacket and all I could think
was,
This looks like Holly. Smells like her. Feels like her.
I wrapped my arms around her waist and yanked her closer until she was pressed against
me. I smiled with satisfaction when I felt her suck in a breath, like I had caught
her off guard, finally.

Senator Healy’s eyes were on the back of my head. I could feel them. So I leaned closer
and whispered, “I’m pretty drunk, so you’re gonna have to tell me if I’m … invading
your personal space.”

Her shoulders tensed a little but she smiled. “Well … at least there’s no poison ivy
around.”

I laughed really hard and then loosened my hold on her, allowing a little breathing
room. I tried desperately to keep my mind here, in the moment, observing this slightly
bolder Holly, but the song blaring through the room had quite a history with us. One
that involved a very drunk girl who, not so wisely, had decided to do shots with my
idiot roommates because I was late and she was bored and pissed off at me.

Then, as a punishment, I got to sit on the end of my dorm room bed and watch her dance
to this same Journey song while tossing her clothes to various corners of the room.
Not a bad way to end an argument.

I focused on her every move while keeping myself in the game. She’d come closer and
then stiffen a little and then force herself to relax, then she’d do something with
her hands, like touching the back of my hair or resting on my chest. It was all very
calculated. Planned. And that was driving me nuts. In a bad way. This was my one impulsive
moment. I wanted to do something that would blow her mind. Make her want nothing more
than to follow me home and throw her clothes around my borrowed CIA apartment.

Not that I’d actually let that happen.

I spun her around so her back pressed up against me and lifted her arms around my
neck again. My fingers rested on her stomach and I barely brushed my nose along the
side of her face and then down her neck. This only lasted a couple seconds before
I started kissing her neck. My focus flew right out of the room and I could feel her
heart pounding, her breath quickening as my mouth sank more firmly into her skin.

“You smell like vanilla,” I mumbled against her ear.

She rested the back of her head on my shoulder and closed her eyes. “You said that
already,” she whispered.

“When?” I asked, lifting my head from her neck.

She spun around again, looking dazed. “I don’t know … earlier.” Her arms dropped to
my waist and she pulled until nothing was left between us except our clothes. Blood
literally dropped from my head toward my feet. And then my hands were drifting below
her waist, trying to wander where they shouldn’t, but she let me. For a second, at
least.

The song suddenly ended and Holly’s eyes focused on mine again and she took a deep
breath and stepped back. “I think … I need another drink.”

“Sure,” I said, confused by the quick shift in gears. The heat that radiated off of
us didn’t help my focus at all.

“That was…” Holly said as she sat down. “A good song.”

I laughed. “Yep, a very good song.”

The bartender brought me another beer and offered one to Holly, but she asked for
water instead, which made me laugh again.

“I bet you get a little wild if you’re drunk,” I teased.

“I bet you won’t find out,” she said with a grin. “Unless…”

I nearly dropped my glass bottle onto the floor. “Unless what?”

“So, where did you say you lived?”

Then I did drop the glass bottle, but caught it right after it slipped through my
fingers. “Far … very far from here, and it’s a total dump … I mean, I’d never take
a girl there, and besides, you don’t even know me.”

The cocky smile had dropped and she was staring at me with a more curious expression.
“Sure … I guess you’re right.”

It didn’t bother me in the least that she’d want to follow me home, but it bothered
me that I might not be the only one. Last time, it took me until our fourth date to
talk 009 Holly into seeing my apartment, and my dad was home and all we did was walk
around for about twenty minutes.

Where was this coming from? I’d practically violated her earlier, and now she wanted
to get me alone?

“Or you could just … give me your number?” she asked.

No, not going to happen.

An awkward silence fell and I wanted to fill it with something meaningful even if
it didn’t make any sense to her. What I didn’t want was for my fellow teammates to
hear me. I picked up a pen from behind the counter and jotted something down on a
napkin.

What's past is prologue.

Her eyes dropped to the napkin and she read what I wrote, then glanced up at me with
a confused expression. “Not a phone number … Shakespeare?”

“Yeah, it was in my fortune cookie at lunch today. Figured I should share the wisdom.”

Her eyes froze on mine for several seconds and then she said, “Let’s hear another
one.”

I pulled my chair closer to her and wrote right on the napkin still sitting in front
of her.

Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows.

She laughed quietly. “Is that why you won’t give me your number?”

“Something like that.” I leaned my chin on her shoulder for a second as I scribbled
the next line. “This one’s my favorite.”

He that dies, pays all debts.

“Something to look forward to when I max out my credit cards.” She reached for another
napkin and jotted down a sentence. “Let’s see if you know this one.”

Then tell the wind and fire where to stop, but don’t tell me.

“Dickens?” It was moments like this when I’d be happy for time to move twice as slow.
“Let me guess … that was the inspiration for your body art.”

Her mouth opened, but it took a second for any words to tumble out. “Not exactly,
but sort of … How did you know?”

I had a clear view of the tattoo on her shoulder blade. I touched it lightly with
one finger. “Lucky guess … or maybe you’re just extremely predictable.”

I watched her expression as I wrote down a few more words.

Would you ever kiss a stranger?

“I’m not predict—” she started to say, and then changed courses when she read the
napkin. “Would you?” she asked.

“No,” I said, before touching my lips to the corner of her mouth. She didn’t stiffen
this time, but I felt her stop breathing. I started to move over toward her lips,
but two very loud, excited men sat on Holly’s other side and we both jumped apart.

“That was pretty smooth.” Now she was blushing, but laughing at the same time. “Can
I ask you something?”

“You can try…”

She leaned in, closing most of the gap between us. “Okay … so … have you noticed that
Senator Healy has been watching us?”

I sat up straighter, catching the slight formality that had returned to her voice.
“No … not really,” I lied. “Have you?”

“Totally,” she whispered, sounding even more scripted than before. “He’s walked behind
you, like, five times.”

“Four,” I answered immediately from the weird part of my brain that stored all this
shit. My defenses were up and agent mode had just switched back on. “Not that I’m
counting.”

“I have a confession to make,” she said, dropping her eyes to her hands. “We sort
of have this … bet going.”

My eyebrows lifted up. “You and the senator? How do you know him?”

She shook her head. “I don’t really know him. I just met him tonight … I mean, he’s
the one who awards the scholarship that I got for college, but it’s coincidental that
we’re both here.”

Not exactly coincidental.
And I didn’t remember her mentioning anything about Senator Healy and her scholarship
before … or maybe I never actually asked where it came from?

“Okay … so what was the bet?” I asked.

Holly reached out and placed her hands on my face, holding tight. “You can’t move
your head … and you have to close your eyes.”

“Um … this is weird.” I shut my eyes anyway, just to see where this was going.

“What color eyes do I have?” she asked.

“Blue … light blue.”

“All right … what about my date?”

“Brown. Why—”

“The Russian ambassador?”

Hazel … with a little bit of blue on the inside. “I don’t know.”

I opened my eyes and saw that her expression was more serious. She dropped her hands
to her lap and forced a smile. “That’s good enough. Thanks.”

I ran my fingers through my hair, trying to catch up. “Seriously? That’s not much
of a bet.”

She grinned. “Actually, there were two tasks, and I went for the most difficult one
first.”

“And what was that?”

She turned her eyes away. “To get you to kiss me.”

I felt my mouth drop open a little and my stomach twisted, like someone had just punched
me in the gut. I forced myself to stay cool. “I hope you won something amazing.”

“
Wicked
.” She reached in her purse and removed what looked like two tickets. “That’s what
I won. Front-row seats.”

I turned my shoulders forward and picked at the label on the empty bottle in front
of me. I shouldn’t have been disappointed. This was my decision. Making out with Stewart
or having a few drinks and grinding with a girl at a party was one thing, but the
second you leap off a roof to save someone … you’ve just exposed your greatest weakness,
and I couldn’t let that happen again. Not ever. Because eventually there would be
a time when I didn’t jump soon enough.