Стюарт Вудс - Desperate Measures

“Well,” she said afterward, toying with the bed’s remote control until it sat her up. “When my day started in Miami this morning I didn’t expect to finish it in your bed.”

“I’m glad to be of service,” Stone said.

“You serve well,” she replied. “There’s something I have to explain to you, though.”

“You don’t have to explain anything to me, unless you have an angry husband tucked away somewhere.”

“I have an angry ex -husband,” she said, “but he’s well out of the picture, in Chicago, and I hardly ever fly there. But he’s not the problem.”

“All right, what do you need to explain?”

“I’m a three-time girl,” she said.

Stone shook his head. “I’m not following.”

“I’m not interested in getting married,” she said, “not even interested in having a regular boyfriend.”

“Okay,” Stone said.

“Maybe not,” she replied. “The way I keep either of those things from happening is, I never fuck any man more than three times.” She sighed. “Not that I don’t love sex.”

“How did you happen to select the number three?” Stone asked.

“Three times is a turning point: either I’m sick of a man by then or I want to continue to fuck him. The way I keep from continuing is by stopping at three times.”

“We’ll see,” Stone replied.

“I’m not kidding,” she said.

“It’s too early to make that decision,” Stone pointed out.

“You’re right, of course; we’ve got two more times to go.”

Stone reached for her. “Let’s use number two now,” he said.

“Good idea,” she replied. “We can save ourselves for number three.”

He pulled her on top of him and slipped inside of her.

She smiled. “No lubrication required,” she said.

They moved together. “This is awfully good,” Stone said. “Seems like a shame to limit it to three times, when we’re just learning about each other.”

“Oh, don’t worry,” she said, moving faster, “by the time we’ve done it three times, we’ll know all there is to know about each other.”

He rolled over on top of her without losing his place. “I think you’re the smallest woman I’ve ever made love to,” he said.

“Do you like that about me?”

“There isn’t anything I don’t like about you, except the three-strikes-and-you’re-out thing.”

“This isn’t a strike,” she said, “but it’s a ball.”

“Well put,” Stone said, sensing that she was about to come and moving faster.

Faith began to make the right noises, and in a moment, they came together.

When they recovered themselves, Faith produced an iPhone from the purse at her bedside and began to tap it.

“Checking your e-mail?” Stone asked.

“That and the New York Times online,” she said. “Oh, Jesus.”

“What’s wrong?”

“I just found out why Dino didn’t want to tell me how those two girls died.”

Stone got ready to go down to his office while Faith was still in bed, reading the print edition of the Times .

“Are you going to tell me how those girls died?” he asked.

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Because, like Dino, I don’t care to discuss it.”

“I can read the paper, too, you know.”

“Then read it, but that subject is not going to pass my lips.”

“As you wish,” Stone said. “I’ve got to go downstairs and at least pretend to work. Can you amuse yourself?”

She smiled. “That won’t be necessary,” she said, “you’ve already amused me.”

“You’ve got two more nights in town, right?”

“And you know how to count!”

“I do. What would you like to do with them?”

“Well, I think it’s best if I go back to my hotel room and watch Jeopardy! tonight, but we can have dinner tomorrow night.”

“Why not both nights?”

“Because we have only one fuck left, and I’d rather it be departure sex, so I’ll have something to think about on my Saturday flight.”

“You’re determined to stick to that rule, then?”

“Unalterably.”

“As you wish,” Stone replied and headed for the door.

“Stone,” she called, stopping him in his tracks. “I absolutely love fucking you. Doesn’t that count for something?”

“Sure, but it would count more if you weren’t counting.”

“When I’ve finished the Times I’ll shower and let myself out,” she said.

“Do you do the crossword?”

“No.”

Stone separated the Arts section from the paper and gave her the rest. “Six-thirty here, tomorrow evening? I’ll have Fred drive you to the airport Saturday morning.”

“I don’t have to be there until noon,” she said.

“See you tomorrow evening.” He ran down the stairs for exercise and went to his desk.

Joan came in with the mail. “Have you read the Times , yet?”

“Sort of, Faith commandeered it.”

“Terrible what’s happening to those girls on the East Side, isn’t it?”

“That’s what I hear, but neither Dino nor Faith would tell me about it. Will you?”

“It’s just as well you don’t know,” Joan replied. “You’d toss your breakfast.”

“I’ve got a strong stomach,” Stone said. “I don’t know why nobody believes that.”

“It’s not as strong as you think,” Joan said, then went back to her office.

Stone had just finished the Times crossword when Joan buzzed him. “Mike Freeman on one,” she said.

Stone picked up the phone. “Mike?”

“Good morning and welcome back.”

“Thank you, good to be back.”

“Did you enjoy the Citation Latitude?”

“I did. It’s a lovely airplane, and I enjoyed all the space. I actually got some sleep on the transatlantic.”

“How would you like to make our swap deal permanent?” Mike asked.

“Are you serious?”

“Well, not permanent without some money changing hands.”

“Why would you want to swap?”

“Because I’ve discovered that we’re using your CJ3-Plus a lot more than we were using the Latitude. It has just the right range and capacity to meet more than ninety percent of our needs. On the other hand, you have lots of longer flights: Key West, Santa Fe, L.A. We’ve put only about two hundred hours on the Latitude, not counting your transatlantic, and we’ve got the Gulfstreams for longer flights.”

“How much money are we talking about?”

Mike mentioned a number.

Stone mentioned a smaller number.

“Let’s split the difference,” Mike said. “Remember, you get to expense one hundred percent of the depreciation; that almost pays for the difference in price. And you’ll continue to enjoy the privileges of our hangar space. If you want to keep your tail number, our shop can do that for you.”

Stone thought about that. “All right, done.”

“I’ll send you a sales contract before the day’s out,” Mike said.

“I’ll look forward to receiving it.” Stone hung up and thought for another minute, then he picked up the phone and buzzed the master suite.

“Yes?” Faith said. “You looking for me?”

“I am,” Stone said. “How would you like to fly a Citation Latitude today?”

“Goody, yes!”

“Get dressed and get down here.” He hung up and buzzed Joan. “Please call the Strategic Services hangar and ask them to refuel the Latitude and have it on the ramp in an hour, and ask Fred to drive me to Teterboro and wait for me for a couple of hours.”

“Will do.”

Stone and Faith did the preflight together. “You’ve never flown the actual airplane, have you? Just the simulator.”