Stone Barrington 06-11

treatment, you know.” She was working on his buttons.
    “Doesn’t Daisy have to go out?” Stone asked weakly.
    “Daisy is half bladder; don’t worry about it.” She was working on her own buttons now. “You think I could have a little help here?”
    “Anything at all I can do,” Stone said, feeling for her buttons, zippers, and snaps. “I certainly don’t want you to feel neglected.”
    “I feel neglected,” she said. “Make it better.”
    Stone did what he could.

16
    S TONE FELT A gentle kiss near his ear. He turned toward Holly and, for his trouble, received a much bigger, wetter kiss, full on the mouth. It was accompanied by more tongue than he was accustomed to.
    He opened his eyes to find Daisy’s head between his and Holly’s. This was made possible because he and Holly were lying crossways on his bed. He gave Daisy a scratch behind the ears and pushed her head gently away.
    Holly turned toward him and opened her eyes. “Wow,” she said.
    “Wow, indeed.”
    “Why don’t we have any covers?” she asked.
    “I don’t know,” Stone replied. “Why are we sideways in the bed?”
    “I think we boxed the compass,” she replied.
    Daisy made a tiny grunting noise.
    “Uh-oh,” Holly said, “I think I forgot something last night.” She sat up. “I’m coming, Daisy.” She looked down at Stone’s naked body. “Although there are things I’d rather do.” She hopped out of bed.
    When Stone woke up again she was sitting on the edge of the bed in his terry robe, toweling her hair dry.
    “Good morning,” she said.
    “I must have dozed off.”
    “Why? You couldn’t possibly be tired; it’s after nine. We must have gotten, oh, two or three hours of sleep.”
    Stone rolled over on his stomach and put his head in her lap. “Scratch my back,” he said. “That’s all I have energy for.”
    She began scratching his back. “You have sheet marks on your back. That’s what comes from sleeping on wrinkled sheets.”
    “It’s the price you have to pay,” Stone muttered, burrowing his head farther into her lap.
    “Now that’s a nice place for your head,” she said.
    He pulled the robe back and burrowed into her, feeling with his tongue.
    “Nicer still.” She lay back on the bed and turned toward him, giving him more access, then she took him in her mouth. They both were becoming excited now. Two minutes later, they shared an orgasm.
    “I didn’t know I had that left in me,” Stone said.
    “I’m glad you did. Want to do it again?”
    “You want me to die right here and now?”
    “Poor baby. You take a nap.”

    Stone woke from his nap to find a tray next to his head bearing a sandwich and a glass of iced tea.

    “See what you get when you’re nice?” Holly asked.
    Stone struggled into a sitting position and found the remote control for the bed, raising it to support his back. “What about you?” he said.
    “I had lunch in the kitchen, so as not to disturb you. Daisy and I have already been for another, longer walk, too.”
    “Such energy!” he said, biting into the sandwich.
    “Such a long time since I watched a naked man eat a sandwich,” she replied, smiling at him.
    “So what’s your plan for the day?”
    “I don’t suppose it would do any good to keep watch at the La Boheme again,” she said. “I must have scared Trini out of Little Italy by now. You think Lance knows more than he’s telling about Trini?”
    “I think Lance always knows more than he’s telling. He surprised me last night, with this consultant thing.”
    “I think I might do it,” she said, arranging herself next to him. “This is a very nice bed. Does it vibrate?”
    “Yep.”
    “I’m getting tired of my job,” she said.
    “Which job? Me?”
    “No, my chief’s job in Orchid Beach.”
    “I thought you loved it.”
    “I did for a long time, but it’s becoming more and more routine. I mean, I’ve improved the department, trained people better and all that, but it’s not as though I have to do it for a living.”
    “That’s right, you’re retired army; you have a pension.”

    “Yes, and Jackson left me very nicely fixed, too.”
    “That was very nice of Jackson. Why don’t you travel, see some of the world?”
    “I’m an army brat,” she said. “I’ve seen the world twice.”
    “What do you want to do, then?”
    She shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m enjoying myself in New York, but I’m not sure I’d want to live here.”
    “New York is a better place to live