by Koch, Gini
“I need to figure out where I’m sleeping,” I said to Martini as we left the dining room on the first quiet night since we’d taken out Mephistopheles a week prior.
“What’s wrong with where you’ve been sleeping?”
“Nothing, other than the damned morning alarm system. And the fact that I really think everyone can hear me, more so from your room than the one I was in before.”
“Awww, you’re shy. Who knew?”
“Not my personal empath, apparently. Besides, that’s the transient floor, and pretty soon someone’s going to suggest you go back to your own place.” I didn’t want to dwell on that.
“So? Come back to my own place with me.”
I took his hand. “Jeff, I love you, but I need time to love you before I live with you. Do you understand?”
He stopped walking and pulled me into his arms. “Yeah. I’m not wild about it, but I understand it.” He kissed me, and I stopped thinking about anything else for as long as that lasted.
Martini had a funny look on his face as he pulled away from me.
“What?”
“You know . . . I have an idea.” He took my hand again and led me to the elevators.
“Love this idea.”
He laughed. “Not right now.”
I felt his forehead. “Who are you and what have you done with Jeff?”
He swung me up into his arms as the elevator doors opened. He hit a button and we went down. Sadly, only in the literal, in-an-elevator sense. My disappointment was somewhat appeased by him kissing me the whole way.
We got off on the fifteenth floor. Martini put me down and led me into his human lair. But we didn’t stop at the couch. Instead, he walked us through the room to something I hadn’t noticed before—a door.
He opened it, and we walked into a full bedroom suite. But it was a real, human bedroom, not a hotel room. “This was where she stayed when we were here. Christopher and I were usually with other kids, but we stayed here sometimes, too.”
I looked around. “I love it.”
“No alarm down here. She hated that too.” He pointed to the clock on the nightstand. “The lighting, though, has to function here like everywhere else, or you’d be wandering around in the pitch black.”
“Lighting I can ignore with a pillow over my head.”
“I’ll be sure to get you up in a timely manner.”
I leaned against him. “It’s a king-sized bed.”
“Yeah. Comfy, too, as I recall.”
We tested it out. Yep, it was very comfy.
“I’ll have your things brought down here,” he said as we were lying together in the happy afterglow.
“Bring some of your things down here, too. You trotting back to your room when we were on the same floor was one thing. This is another.”
He kissed my forehead. “Yes, ma’am, some of my things will be brought down as well, ma’am.”
“Oooh, I feel all military and official.”
“I think you’re cute when the power goes to your head.”
“I like it when the power goes to your head, now that you mention it.”
He grinned and pulled me on top of him, just as a woman’s voice spoke in the room. “Commanders Martini and Katt, Pontifex White requests your presence at a briefing tomorrow at oh-nine-hundred. Can you confirm attendance?”
I looked at Martini. “You didn’t mention the intercom system.”
He sighed. “Confirming attendance for both Martini and Katt, oh-nine-hundred tomorrow. Good night, Gladys.”
“Good night Commanders. Those of us who are light sleepers thank you both profusely for moving to the fifteenth floor.” Gladys signed off.
“God, I need a vacation.”
“I know how to fix that.” Martini got out of bed, pulled out a dresser drawer and put on the standard issue nightclothes. He tossed me a pair as well. My size. His fit perfectly, too.
“How do these get into the rooms, no matter where you go?” I asked him as I put on the nighttime fatigues. “And the Cokes, how do they show up, frosty cold and just when you want them and in the variety you want?”
“Tell you later. Have to keep some secrets from you. I’ve heard that a little mystery is the key to keeping a relationship fresh.” He took my hand, led me to the couch, and turned on the TV.
“They actually show reruns of ‘Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous’? And you watch them?”
He shrugged as he pulled me onto his lap. “I like them, and the other shows, too. They’re nothing like my life’s ever been.”
I thought about it. “Mine either.”
CHAPTER 64
“YOU NEED MORE SUNSCREEN?”
“You’d be a better judge of that than me.”
“Roll over and take your bikini top off. I’ll let you know.”
I rolled. We were in a private cabaña, after all. I lowered my top slowly.
Martini gave me a lazy grin. “I think I’d better protect those. I don’t want them injured, and I don’t think we have enough sunscreen to cover them.”
“Flatterer. I have other areas that need protecting, too.” He bent and kissed me deeply. “I’m on it, baby.” He rolled on top of me.
“I love Cabo.”
“Not me?”
I laughed. “I adore you. And you know it.”
“Yeah. Glad you finally came around.” He kissed me, for a long time. “Hawaii next?”
I thought about it. Well, I thought about it after we made love for the next several hours. “Nah.”
“Nah?”
“I don’t want to go to Hawaii just yet.”
“Where, then? I’ll take you wherever you want to go. As long as you’re there, I’m good with it.”
“Even if it’s around the world?”
He grinned his killer grin. “Especially if it’s around the world.”
I reached up and ran my fingers through his hair and along the line of his jaw. “I want to go back to the Science Center. Fifteenth floor.”
He raised his eyebrow. “Oh? Why?”
“ ‘Fantasy Island’ and ‘Love Boat’ marathons start next week.”
“You really are the perfect woman, on this or any other world.”
“That’s why you love me.”
Martini smiled, and I saw my future. It was the future of a superbeing exterminator from Pueblo Caliente in love with an empath from Alpha Centauri who had two hearts, hyperspeed, and a killer smile. Maybe life got better than this, but I was in no hurry to find out. The journey itself was the reward, after all. Especially if you didn’t have to take that journey alone.
“You want to swim before we go in for dinner?”
“And wash off all this sunscreen? Sure. Race you to the water.”
Martini pulled me to my feet and kept hold of my hand. “No. Like everything else, I’d rather go there with you.” We ran off into the sunset. It was perfect.