Need You Now by James Grippando Read Free Book Online Page B

clothes / and I need your towel.
    The rest was a blur, which was a shame. I’d
experienced “make-up sex,” before, but this was better than make-up sex, since I
wasn’t just mad at Lilly; I had actually lost her. That put us in the realm of reunion sex, a rare combination of the
excitement of a first-time lover with the joy being with someone who knows
exactly what you like. This was one of life’s greatest pleasures—and I was
bumbling my way through it on too much tequila. Suffice it to say that it wasn’t
our best performance—far short of our Chinese Sound of
Music watershed—but Lilly fell asleep in my arms, and all was
well.
    For an hour or so, anyway.
    The pain in my neck—literally—woke me. I sat up in
bed and gave the burning sensation a minute to subside. Lilly was sleeping
soundly, and it was nice to see the curve of her body beneath the bedsheet
beside me. Morning couldn’t possibly have come so soon, and a check of the clock
confirmed that the night was still young: 8:38 P.M. I quietly rolled out of bed, took a quick shower, and went to
the dresser. We’d left a lamp burning downstairs, and it provided just enough of
a glow for me to move around the loft without stubbing a toe. My overnight
suitcase was packed when Lilly finally stirred.
    “Wow,” she said as she rose up on her elbow. “I’ve
heard of guys dashing off after sex, but I must be the first girl in New York to
send a man running from his own apartment.”
    I went to her side of the bed and sat on the edge
of the mattress. “I was supposed to be on a seven o’clock flight out of
LaGuardia. If I hurry I can catch a later one.”
    “Do you really have to go?”
    I nodded. “It’s just for a day. I’ll be back
tomorrow night.”
    “How will I reach you? Your phone’s in the
garbage.”
    “I still have my BlackBerry,” I said. Everyone on
my team had both an iPhone and a BlackBerry, as the head of BOS security had
laid down the law that a bank-issued BlackBerry was the only way to access the
bank’s e-mail system.
    “I guess I’ll be okay,” she said.
    Even in the dim light, I could see the concern on
her face. She’d spent the previous three nights in a hotel on Eighth Avenue, and
I sensed that she didn’t want to go back. “You can stay here, if you want.”
    “Are you sure?”
    “Yeah, this is a very secure building. You’ll feel
safer.”
    “Safe is good. Apart from that . . . are
you sure?”
    She was giving me an out, but after what had
happened to me that afternoon, it would have taken a total jerk to say, On second thought, go sleep in your hotel room and see if
anyone comes knocking in the middle of the night.
    “Yes, I’m sure.”
    She kissed me and smiled. “I’ll go over to the
hotel in the morning and check out. I only have one suitcase, so don’t worry
about me taking over your closet.”
    My mouth opened, but no words came. “Uhhhh,” was
all I could say. My invitation had been for tonight only. Although I wasn’t dead
set against her staying longer, there was still too much left unsaid between us
to know where we were headed.
    “Are you okay?” she asked.
    “I’m fine,” I said. “I think my head is starting to
throb from all that tequila.”
    “I hope it doesn’t explode on the airplane.”
    “What airplane?”
    “The one you’re trying to catch.”
    “Right. That one. I’d better get going.”
    She pulled me toward her, looking me in the eye.
“It’s true what I told you at Puffy’s,” she said. “When I found out I was under
investigation for helping Cushman hide his money, my biggest fear was that
they’d lock me up in a third-world jail and throw away the key before I was even
charged with a crime. I had to get out of Singapore.”
    “I understand.”
    “What I’m trying to say is that I couldn’t stay in
Singapore. But I didn’t have to come to New York.” She blinked twice, as if to
underscore, in a tender way, what she was telling me. “Now I’m glad I