A choking sound came out of Gideon's throat. But it was only when Olivia was nearly upon him that he turned to look at her. If Olivia hadn't melted already, she would have then, at the terrified, hopeful expression on his face.
"I love you," she said. "If you happen to be a nice, safe software salesman or a pistol-packing secret agent, I love you either way."
He didn't say anything, then. His face said it all for him, right before he crushed Olivia in his arms. "I love you," he managed to mutter, many body-crunching minutes later, his voice hoarse. "Oh, Olivia, I love you so much."
She lifted her face and they kissed. It was a kiss of promise, a kiss of forgiveness, and a kiss of great love. When Gideon finally lifted his lips from hers, he brought his hands up to frame Olivia's face. His expression was both tender and serious. "Do you want to know everything, Olivia? I'll tell you. I'll tell you anything you want to know."
"Because now you trust that I love you, no matter what?"
"No, because now I'm terrified of what investigations you may start on your own to find out what you don't yet know."
Olivia's jaw dropped, and then they both laughed.
"Seriously, Olivia," Gideon said, setting his forehead against hers. "What do you want to know?"
She thought about it, thought about it intelligently, rather than with the hurt feelings with which she'd been considering the question over the past few days. "I don't need to know any state secrets," she said at last. "But...much as it might frighten me, I do want to know what you're up to in a general sense, like if you're about to jump off toward some big, dangerous gun battle. If you don't tell me, I'll probably imagine something worse than it actually is."
"I know exactly what you're talking about." Gideon rested his chin on top of Olivia's head, then bent to kiss her forehead. "It's a deal."
"Really?" Olivia asked.
"Really," Gideon promised, but then arched an eyebrow. "Of course, you'll only have my word that I'm telling you the truth."
"If you trust me," Olivia said. "I'll trust you."
"That," Gideon said, with a very soft smile, "is a deal." He pulled her back into his arms. "Now, for God's sake let me hold you. I think I need to hold you for a long, long time."
Fortunately, Olivia felt the very same way.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
There was something awfully strange about that Wednesday's Girls' Night In. Four men were in attendance, for one thing. Odder yet, there was no objection to this male invasion on the part of the ladies. Indeed, the ladies of Green Ivy Way looked eminently pleased with the arrangement.
Shana sat on the floor, cozily ensconced between Dash's long thighs. Brittany was perched on the arm of the over-stuffed armchair where Peter sat. She had an arm about his shoulders while he held her snugly around the waist. Anja had taken a regal position on the lounger and Walter, unhampered by the cast on his arm, prowled the edges of the room, officially on duty.
Olivia sat on the futon sofa looking up at Gideon, who stood facing everybody at one end of the coffee table. She did not appear the least bit disgruntled that a male such as her husband was in attendance, nor that he was clearly taking charge.
To his credit, Gideon seemed to understand the privilege. "I want to thank you ladies," he spoke, "for allowing us guys to attend your exclusive meeting tonight."
"It's just this once," Shana made sure he knew.
Dash let out a breath. "Oh, come on."
But Brittany agreed with Shana. "Only this once."
Olivia rushed to repair any possible insult. "We'll do other things all together."
At this statement Dash's eyebrows jumped. Gideon choked, and Peter laughed out loud.
"All right, all right," Olivia grumbled, though she was doing her best not to laugh, also. "You know what I mean."
"Yes, darling, we know," Gideon said with a chuckle. "Anyway, it's my understanding that it's Olivia's turn to pick an activity tonight."
"Which leads to the question of why you are standing up there," Peter said.
Gideon held up his hands. "I'm here by Olivia's request. See, what we both decided to do tonight is — well, to solicit your opinion on an important topic."
"You want to know what to do with that gigantic ranch house?" Shana guessed.
"Or you're wondering when you should get started on a family?" Brittany conjectured.
Olivia gushed out a breath. "We'd hardly solicit your opinion about any of that!"
"No?" Shana looked innocent.
"No reason not to," Brittany agreed.
Gideon cleared his throat while throwing a strange look in Olivia's direction. But he quickly got back to the business at hand. "Uh, no. What we wanted to discuss was what do about Anja's vector."
"You mean Anja's lack of a vector," Anja put in. She shook her head. "I lost everything on Maria Island when I had to escape from my hotel room."
"You were cool-headed enough to destroy anything that might fall into the wrong hands," Walter corrected, turning from his current position by the back sliding glass door. "Clever, too, using a nail file to open your laptop and then dumping the hard drive into the hotel cesspool."
"Eesh," said Shana.
"But you could put everything back together," Brittany remonstrated. "With the clues you left behind, you still have most of the code, right?"
Anja grimaced.
"Most of it," Shana guessed, regarding Anja's grimace, "minus the back door."
"Precisely," agreed Anja. She looked up at Gideon. "I don't see how the same thing won't happen again — insistence by your superiors at the Pentagon on seeing the vector before all the safety protocols are built in."
Gideon's gaze shifted to Olivia, with whom he shared a brief but meaningful glance. Aloud he said, "I agree with you."
There was a moment of stunned surprise, particularly by those who knew Gideon professionally.
"That's why I'm opening the floor to suggestions," Gideon went on, gazing around the room. "How can we do this? Or should Anja even try to put the vector back together?"
"It's a good question," Peter observed.
"Yes, a topic worthy of serious consideration," Dash agreed, frowning. "We all saw how disastrous the virus could be."
"But — it could also save lives," Shana protested, twisting around to look at Dash.
"And improve others," Brittany added.
"On the whole," Olivia put in, "it could do far more good than harm."
Dash shared a glance with Peter, who laughed and said, "Well, if the only people so far to have been endangered by the vector thinks it's a go, who are we to disagree?"
"I could tell you who we are," grumbled Gideon. "Half my hair is now gray."
"Oh, it already was," Olivia said, with a dismissive wave of her hand.
Anja glanced at Olivia and then Gideon. "I agree with the women," she said. "There is a tremendous therapeutic potential here. But I need to know the same problems won't occur during my development of the virus. I need to know I'll have time to build in a back door before I am required to give it to anybody."
"This is true," Gideon said slowly.
There was a moment of silence while they all sat and thought about it.
Dash scratched the side of his mouth. "Fact is, Gideon, you're the Pentagon's liaison with the lab. They don't know what's going on there until you tell them." He paused and rolled his tongue in his cheek. "Do you have to tell them exactly where Anja may be in her research?"
Gideon looked at him askance. "You mean lie?"
"Nah," Peter said. "Call it 'downplay.'"
"It's only wise," Brittany put in.
Gideon was frowning, considering this idea and clearly conflicted by it, when Olivia spoke up.
"I do find myself wondering," she told him, "how Hollister found out Anja was working on this vector to begin with. I mean, he was tracking Anja, and leaving his dogs behind in the process, even before Anja left. He already knew about the vector."
Gideon stared a
t his wife. In fact, everyone did.
Walter paced forward. "That's right. Anja, Hollister was tracking you with a scarf he stole from you at a Gene Expression conference in April. He told us that. But he never did tell us how he knew he wanted to track you."
"That's true." Gideon, looking dumbstruck, turned to Anja. "Who else was at that conference? That is, from our side?"
Anja was blinking, clearly taken aback. "From our side — ? Nobody. I went on my own, to deliver a paper on the histone code. It was a process I used in the development of the virus, and only peripherally related." She blinked some more and shook her head. "Hollister could not have deduced the vector from my speech. I made sure of that."
"Did you talk to anybody?" Dash wanted to know.
Anja shot him a dark look. "Of course I talked to people."
"Who?" Peter asked.
Anja's eyes narrowed. "I spoke to nobody about the vector. Nobody."
"We believe you," Dash said soothingly.
"Although perhaps," Peter guessed. "It wasn't so much anything you said, Anja, as something you didn't say."
The room went very quiet then. Everybody's eyes trained on Anja. Meanwhile she was quite clearly, and fiercely, posing the question to herself. Her dark brows drew down in concentration. "I did have a conversation with a man from Pfizer. There was somebody to the side, listening but not taking part." Anja sat up straight in the lounger, her eyes widened. "It was Hollister. I knew he looked familiar. But he didn't introduce himself, he never spoke to me directly. He was there, though, listening."
"And what did you say to the man from Pfizer?" Peter asked.
"Or rather," Dash amended. "What didn't you say?"
Anja gazed blindly in Dash's direction. "The fellow from Pfizer was quite sharp. He wanted to know if I had considered the possible application of my research for the development of vectors. I — I pretended this was the first time I had ever thought about it."
"And Hollister didn't buy it," Gideon guessed.
From his position now in the front foyer, Walter laughed. "He knew you were too smart — from your speech probably — to have missed something so obvious."
Anja's face was a picture of astonishment. Her voice was a whisper. "I am the one who leaked the information about the vector."
"By omission," Peter was quick to point out.
Brittany added, "It wasn't your fault Hollister had formed his own opinion of you."
"I did it," Anja repeated.
"You didn't do anything," Olivia put in firmly. "Hollister jumped to his own conclusions, which could well have been wrong. He was just lucky..."
"That he turned out to be right," Anja finished with a moan and dropped her face into her hands. "I am responsible for both Hollister and Hagar Subrahmanyam."
Walter started to move toward her, but stopped himself with a deep sigh, as if he knew better than to try to comfort the independent Anja.
"I agree with Olivia," Gideon pronounced. "Hollister jumping to the conclusions he did was an unforeseeable circumstance. Nobody could have guessed it might happen."
Anja moaned from between her fingers. "But Hagar..."
Ignoring her, Gideon went on. "At the same time, I'm inclined to agree with Dash and Peter, too," Gideon said, looking at them. "It's probably wise for me to keep my mouth shut about everything Anja is doing, at least until all the safety features are in place."
"And I will go to no more conferences," Anja intoned, still from between her fingers. "Where I met both Hagar and Hollister."
"At least you won't go to any conferences," Olivia amended kindly, "until you're ready to present your wonderful new medicine to the scientific community."
"Hear, hear!" Shana said.
"I'll drink to that," agreed Brittany. "Where is the wine, anyway?"
"Uh...the men brought beer," Olivia admitted in a mutter.
"What? No." Shana twisted to give Dash a dark look.
Playing innocent, he raised his hands. "Hey, it wasn't my idea."
"Not your idea, maybe," Peter murmured, "but you agreed happily enough."
"Now, now." Gideon made a placating gesture with his hands. "There is a bottle of wine, for whoever wants it. Uh — " He caught a look from Olivia. "I'll just go open it up right now, then, shall I?"
Shana smirked at Olivia as Gideon hustled toward the kitchen. "He's making himself quite the host in your house here, huh?"
Olivia betrayed not one iota of embarrassment, but instead smiled in a very satisfied manner as she wrapped both hands around one knee. "We're thinking of making this our main residence. It's closer to headquarters. We can use the ranch house as a retreat on the weekends."
Peter emitted a long groan. "What, my boss is going to be living next door?"
Brittany bopped him on the head. "Next door to who? You don't live here."
Undaunted by the reprimand, Peter smiled smugly and added, "Yet."
To the surprise of all, Brittany didn't bop him on the head again but merely raised an eyebrow.
"I don't mind living next door to Gideon," Dash remarked.
"There," Gideon said, coming back into the room while somehow managing the six-pack of beer bottles, bottle of wine, and some glasses. "See? I'm not so bad."
Brittany transferred her skeptical expression to Dash. "So you're planning on living here?"
Finding Shana's hand, Dash laced his fingers through hers.
Most uncharacteristically, Shana started blushing. "We've agreed in principle," she explained. "Nothing is set in stone."
"Yet," Dash added.
There was a short pause while everybody appeared to absorb this. Olivia spoke first. "Uh, you two are planning to get married?"
Shana blushed some more but Dash was an ear-to-ear grin. "It's the general idea," he said.
"In principle," Shana repeated. She held up her free hand. "No congratulations are in order by any means."
Brittany smirked. Olivia coughed. Peter and Gideon exchanged a knowing look before Gideon finished pouring the last of the four glasses of wine. "Here," he said, starting to hand glasses and bottles around. "All the same, I think a toast is in order."
"Please," Shana said.
"Oh, not just to you," Gideon assured her. He held up his own amber bottle of Dos Equis. "I'd like to propose a toast to...new beginnings." His eyes met Olivia's.
"Amen," Brittany said.
"I'll drink to that."
"Cheers."
"To new beginnings."
"And you can just pretend I'm drinking to that, too," Walter said. "I'm on duty, but I couldn't agree more." His gaze strayed briefly toward Anja.
Had she sensed the contact? After one sip, Anja set her wine glass on the table. "Actually, I should probably get back to work," she said. "As you all know, I have much to do."
"Oh, no..." Shana remonstrated. "Come on, Anja. Stay."
"You can't expect to recreate this thing by tomorrow," Brittany added.
"It's okay to take an evening off," Olivia agreed.
But Anja only shook her head with a smile as she rose from the lounger. "Have a good evening, everyone. I will see you soon."
"I'll walk you to the door," said Brittany, hopping off her perch on the armchair.
As the two walked to the front door, Walter and Gideon exchanged a glance, with Gideon giving Walter a small nod.
"What?" Olivia demanded, just as Anja was walking out the door and Brittany closing it after her. "You are not sending Walter out to spy on Anja. That's just too — too — "
"He's not spying," Gideon said, and gave Walter a more definitive gesture to be on his way. "He's only keeping an eye on her, and it's by Anja's request."
"Oh," said Olivia, her indignation visibly deflating.
"She did ask, actually," Walter said gruffly as he backed toward the front door. "Anyway, thanks for having me over."
"Thanks for coming," said Gideon, and made the go-to-work gesture once again.
Walter nodded one final time and
went out the front door.
"I guess Anja figures people out there do know what she's working on now," Brittany remarked, walking back into the living room.
"She'd rather be protected than run," Shana mused with a thoughtful tilt of her head. "Anja's always practical."
"True." But Olivia frowned. "I hope she's going to be all right."
Gideon, gazing in the direction Walter had gone, smiled slightly. "I hope he will."
"What?" Olivia asked. But then Gideon sat down and put his arm around her and he was so strong and male and pleasant that she forgot her train of thought. She lifted her wine glass and simply sank into the moment of being with her good friends, and in the arms of the man she loved.
~~~
Yes, it had been a nice evening spent in the company of good friends, but there was nothing like some really terrific sex to round out a day. Shana lay on her back, absolutely sated. She was blissfully unable to move so much as a finger as Dash dropped to a panting rest beside her.
From his stomach, he pushed himself to his side and shot her a crooked grin. "So, are you still mad at me?"
Shana rolled her eyes in his direction. The effort he'd just expended to please her had worked better than any spoken apology. Indeed, she was far too satisfied at the moment to take him to task for his utter deviousness. But she could try. "You mean, am I still mad that you told everybody we're going to get married when we'd agreed this was just a goal, in principle? Is that what you mean?"
"Yeah." As it should, Dash's crooked smile faded into something a lot more wary.
Shana sighed. "No, I'm not mad. More...worried."
"Worried?" Dash looked unhappy. He didn't like to see Shana upset.
Yet one more positive quality about him she couldn't deny.
"What are you worried about?" he asked.
She caressed his beautifully-sculpted face. "I'm worried that you're getting over-excited about this first big relationship of yours. I'm worried that maybe...we're making more out of this than there is."
Indiscreet Ladies of Green Ivy Way Page 29