Roses Are Red (Alex Cross 6)

I looked into her brown eyes. “You were pretty sure of yourself. Preregistering and all.”

“It was time,” she said, nothing more.

I took off her soft, creamy white blouse and short black skirt a piece at a time. I gently stroked her silky-smooth face; then her arms, legs, the bottoms of her feet. It must have taken us half an hour to get undressed.

“You have the most wonderful touch,” she whispered. “Don’t stop. Please don’t stop.”

“I won’t. I like touching, too. Don’t you stop.”

“Oh, God, this is so good! Alex!” she screeched, completely out of character.

I kissed her where I’d touched her with my fingers. She was so warm to the touch. She wore a wonderful perfume, which she told me was Alfred Sung’s Forever. I kissed her lips, not forever but for a long, long time.

We danced some more, held each other, kissed a lot, stroked each other’s bodies. We had all the time in the world. God, I had missed being with someone like this.

“Now. Please?” one of us whispered finally.

It was definitely time.

I entered Betsey slowly, very slowly. I kept going as far as I could inside her. I was on top, but I held my weight on my forearms. We were moving together, and it seemed so effortless and right. She started to hum, no particular song, just sweetness that made me vibrate like a tuning fork.

“I like being with you,” I said. “A lot. Even more than I expected.”

“Oh, me too. I told you this would be better than chasing after the Mastermind.”

“This is so much better.”

“Now! Please?”

Chapter 107

BETSEY AND I FELL ASLEEP in each other’s arms at some point later that afternoon.

I woke up first and saw it was almost six already. It didn’t matter what time it was. Not even what day. I called home, checked in on everybody. They were happy I was out — and having F-U-N for a change.

I was. I watched Betsey sleep naked, and I would have been content to do that for a long time. I thought about drawing a warm bath for the two of us. Should I? Yes, I should. Why not?

In the bathroom, I spotted a jar of bright blue bubble-bath beads near her things. She was way ahead of me, wasn’t she? I wondered if I liked that, and decided that I did.

The tub was filling up slowly when I heard her speak behind me. “Oh, good, I’ve wanted to have a bubble bath with you.”

I looked around at her — she was still naked.

“You thought about this before, huh?”

“Oh, yes. And often. What do you think I’m doing during those endless briefing sessions?”

A few moments later, we were stepping into the tub together. It felt incredibly good: the antidote to the hard work, the tension, the frustration we’d been experiencing over the past month.

“I like being with you so much,” Betsey whispered as she stared into my eyes. “I don’t want to leave this tub, or you. This is heaven.”

“They have excellent room service. The best in D.C.,” I reminded her. “They’ll probably come right to tubside, if we ask nicely.”

“Let’s find out,” Betsey said.

Chapter 108

IT WENT LIKE THAT, dreamily, wonderfully, perfectly, through the rest of Saturday and into Sunday morning. The only problem — the time went too fast.