Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 103719 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 519(@200wpm)___ 415(@250wpm)___ 346(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103719 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 519(@200wpm)___ 415(@250wpm)___ 346(@300wpm)
“Do you think… Vita is going to work?” C.P. asked. “In this case.”
“Isn’t that the million-dollar question. Or billion-dollar, as the case is, right?”
He sat forward and focused on the bubbles on the inside of the glass he’d made for her. Then he checked out the freshly manicured red nails, so perfectly done.
“What do you think the response will be?” she prompted him.
“I think… I think it better work in this patient. Based on those records, there aren’t many options available to them considering the amount of drugs given over their life-span. They’re already at threshold doses between the treatment for the Wilms’ tumor and what’s going on now.”
C.P. made a noncommittal noise as she finished the G&T.
“Guess this is good timing for you,” he murmured. And mostly kept the bitch out of his voice. “What with the negotiations and all. Or will you sell, anyway?”
She put the glass on the coffee table and rubbed her hands together as if she were cold. Or ready for a big, greedy payday.
“So, who handles the contact for this patient?” he asked. “Have they even been approached?”
“Yes. They have.”
“And they’re up for it?” He frowned as she nodded. “How the fuck did you manage this without me—never mind. I don’t give a shit about that. When can they get here?”
C.P. put her palms on her knees and braced her shoulders. Then she faced him. “They’re already here. It’s me. I’m the patient.”
SIXTEEN
SURFACING FROM A strange dream, Lydia came awake in a dim room, in a bed she didn’t immediately recognize, in a house that she drew a lot of blanks on. But she knew who was with her. She knew the arms that were wrapped around her, and the body pressed against her back, and the leg that had wheedled its way in between hers.
Daniel.
In the gentle juncture between the amnesia of rest and the painful reality of consciousness, in the buffered, semi-dreamscape of rousing… she drifted into a fantasy where what she knew was real was the nightmare and what she was about to wake up to was a normalcy that made her eyes tear up—
“Hi,” came a gravel voice in her ear.
She smiled and stroked Daniel’s arm. They had fallen asleep together after she’d helped him back from the garages. Then they’d woken up and ordered a meal from the kitchen like they were in a hotel. Then… back to sleep on top of the covers, still in the clothes they’d been wearing down in the clinic.
“How did you know?” she murmured. “That I wasn’t asleep?”
“Right there.”
The arm she’d been stroking extended out over the duvet, and she followed the forefinger’s direction across to the full-length mirror mounted next to the door out of the room. And sure enough, there she was with her eyes open—and right behind her, spooning in, was Daniel. With him mostly hidden by her body, she could almost pretend things were the way they should have stayed.
“What time is it?” she asked.
“Ten-thirty.”
Frowning, she glanced over her shoulder. “That can’t be right. We ate lunch at—”
“At night. Ten-thirty at night.”
“Okaaaaaaaaaay.” She rolled over and faced him. “And you? Did you sleep, too?”
“Out like a light. I don’t know what was in that IV. Knockout drops, I guess.”
As they stared at each other, she had the strangest sense of returning from a trip, sure as if she’d been traveling. Or perhaps it was he who had left and returned. Maybe it was both of them, separately departing.
In the back of her mind, she thought of what she’d talked to Gus about.
“Kiss me again, Daniel,” she whispered. “I don’t care where it goes. I just want to be with you.”
He brushed her hair back. “I want that, too.”
They leaned in together, and as he pressed his lips to hers, he tasted of mint, which was a surprise. Except then she remembered the Burt’s Bees he always used to keep his lips moist when he was dehydrated from the drugs—
For a split second, her mind got sucked into dark thoughts, but she reined the chaos in with a hard jolt of gratitude. How stupid would she feel, a month from now, two months from now, that she’d had this moment when he was with her, when he was alive, and she’d wasted it dwelling on everything she couldn’t change.
Closing her eyes, she concentrated on the caress, the warmth, the softness. And as she kissed him back, it got easier to feel him—and she realized that somewhere along the way, she’d decided that this part of their relationship was gone forever.
It was the kind of conclusion that she hadn’t been aware of making.
It was the kind of conclusion that was wrong.
Daniel had always been a dominating lover, and he took control of things now, rolling her onto her back and shifting over onto her. Deeper now with the kissing, his tongue entering her, his hand stroking down the side of her rib cage as his leg moved up on top of both of her thighs.