She sat on the love seat and opened the note.
With a smile, she lounged back against the love seat. He loved her. He wanted to spend his life with her. That was perfect because she felt exactly the same way.
She read the note again and her smile faded. This time the words “we need to talk” jumped out at her. What was there to talk about?
Her hands trembled as she folded the note. Dammit. She didn’t want to think about it. Denial was so much better. Last night had been glorious. Perfect.
But this was the morning after. She couldn’t deny it any longer. Every time they’d made love, his eyes had glowed red. Medical condition, he’d said. There was no such thing.
Tears gathered in her eyes. He’d lied to her. Knowing how much she hated dishonesty, he’d still lied. What was he covering up?
And then there was his lovemaking. Granted, she had been woefully inexperienced, but even so, she suspected there’d been something unusual about it. Unusually fantastic, she thought with a snort. She’d be crazy to complain about that.
But she might complain about the blue satin pillow that now had two holes in it.
She set the note back on the coffee table. Her heart lurched with a sudden thought. He’d taken the sheet of paper from her legal pad, and it was full of notes from the Great Robby Hunt. She grabbed the legal pad and thumbed through it. He must have seen how hard she’d worked to locate information on him. He knew she hadn’t found squat.
Damn. She threw the legal pad down and headed for the kitchen. She needed a strong cup of tea. She halted at the kitchen entrance. All the discarded clothes and towels from the bedroom were neatly piled in front of the washer/dryer combo. The sink was empty. She checked the dishwasher and found the glasses from last night inside. Even the trash and the pizza box had been taken out. Hadn’t Robby slept at all? He must have done all this while she was sleeping.
A man who voluntarily cleaned up? So what if she had a few questions? The man was worth his weight in gold. And he loved her. She loved him. Whatever the problem was, they’d work it out. They’d certainly resolved her virginity problem with satisfactory results.
She started a load in the washing machine while her water heated on the stove. Her tea was steeping when she heard a knock on the door.
“Olivia, it’s me!” J.L. yelled.
She peered through the peephole to make sure, then froze. The door was locked. Robby must have locked it when he left. She glanced at the console where her new key rested, attached to her key ring. This was…odd.
She opened the door.
J.L. strode inside, smiling. “I brought breakfast.” He showed her a white paper sack full of doughnuts.
“The dead-bolt lock you put in—it came with two keys, right?” Olivia asked.
“Yeah.” He strode over to her kitchen table and set the bag on top.
“Where’s the second key?”
He gave her a sheepish look. “I kept it. Just in case I needed to get in here someday.”
In case she was attacked or incapacitated by Otis Crump’s buddy. Great. She frowned at her key ring on the console. How had Robby managed to lock her door without a key?
That evening, Olivia set up her laptop and webcam at the usual time for her daily talk with Robby.
He appeared on screen and smiled. “How are ye, sweetheart?”
She smiled back and touched the monitor. “I wish you were here. Thank you for straightening up. You must not have slept at all.”
He shrugged one shoulder. “I’m used to working all night.” His smile widened. “Though last night was definitely more pleasure than work.”
Her cheeks grew warm. “You must have been exhausted by the time you got back to New York.”
“Aye.” His mouth twisted with a wry look. “I slept like the dead.”
“You’re back to doing security at Romatech tonight?”
He nodded. “The danger here is greater at night. The terrorists who attack the Romatechs always strike in the dark.”
“What have they got against Romatech?” she asked. “Synthetic blood must save thousands of lives.”
“Aye, it does, but these…people doona approve of the cloning of blood.” He glanced to the side. “Piss off, Phineas. I doona need any more advice.”
Olivia heard some laughter in the background.
Robby turned back to her with an exasperated look. “Sorry about that. The guys are giving me hell tonight.”
Olivia sighed. She knew the feeling. J.L. had pretended to gag when she’d carried her bedsheets into the kitchen to stuff them in the washing machine. “Isn’t Phineas the one who calls himself the Love Doctor?”
“Aye. He offered to lend me a book for educational purposes. It shows thirty different positions displayed in photographs.”
She laughed. “I think we went through half of them last night.”
He grinned. “I’m afraid the other half would require us both to be contortionists.”
“Ouch. So what kind of advice is the Love Doctor giving you?”
Robby’s grin faded. “I should make sure ye know how much I love you.”
She touched the screen. “You’re doing well on that.”
A frown creased his brow. “And I should tell you…everything.”
She took a deep breath. “You were right in your note. I do have questions.”
He nodded but didn’t say anything.
She swallowed hard. “Have you been lying to me?”
He winced. “I always try to be honest. I know it’s important to you. There are times, though…” He shifted in his chair. “Sometimes I canna explain things.”
“Like the red glowing eyes.”
A pained expression flitted over his face. “I will explain. But I need to do it in person.”
“What was wrong with last night?”
“I—” He ran a hand through his hair. “I thought ye’d been through enough trauma for one day.”
She sat back. Telling her the truth about himself would be traumatic?
“And then I…I became a bit single-minded,” he continued. “I wanted to make sure ye enjoyed losing yer virginity.”
“Yeah.” She gave him a wry smile. “You made sure of that about ten times.”
He shrugged one shoulder. “I got a bit carried away. Will ye be free next weekend?”
“Yes.” That would be the first weekend in June. “You’re coming back?”
He nodded. “We need to talk.”
A chill skittered down her arms. “How did you get out of the apartment this morning and lock the door?”
He looked away, frowning. “I’ll explain it next weekend.”
“Isn’t there an easy explanation? Like you took my key to an all-night hardware store and had a copy made while I was sleeping?”
“That would be an easy explanation.” He grimaced. “But it would be a lie.”
“Oh God.” She leaned back against the love seat cushions.
“Olivia, are ye still planning to see Otis Crump tomorrow?”
“Yes.” She sat forward so she’d be back in camera range.
“Is there any news from Forensics regarding the box?”
She shook her head. “Not on a Sunday. We might get some results tomorrow.”
“Let me know what happens. I’ll be happy to deal with him myself, but it would take some planning.”
What kind of planning? “I’ll update you tomorrow night.”
He nodded. “And I’ll see you Friday night, so we can talk.” He gave her a searching look. “Remember I love you.”
“I love you, too.” Why did he look so worried? “Can you spend the whole weekend here?”
“Possibly. It…depends.”
“Depends on what?” she asked.
He touched the screen. “You.”
She opened her mouth to ask what he meant, but the screen went blank.
He was gone.
CHAPTER 20
The guard studied her badge, then J.L.’s. “Sign in, please.” He slid a clipboard across the counter.
Olivia signed in, noting the log-in sheet was just for that Monday. “Last time I was here, I signed into the book.”
The guard nodded. “Change in procedure. We’ll add this page to the book tonight. We get all kinds of visitors—wives, girlfriends—it protects the prisoners’ privacy if their visitors don’t know who else is coming to see them.”
“I see.” He was telling the truth. Olivia passed the clipboard to J.L.
The guard stepped back and yelled into an adjoining room. “Hey, Joe, you need to move Crump into the visitation room. Some FBI agents want to see him.”
“Harrison again?” Joe shouted back.
