Never Love A Stranger Part 11

Kay's customary cheerful expression darkened. "I got her stabilized for now, but she's on the way down."

"I'm sorry."

"Yeah, me too. Sometimes there's nothing you can do. G.o.dd.a.m.ned cancer." She made a visible effort to lighten her mood. "So tell me about this guy."

Annie shook her head. "I'd rather not. You're going to think I'm crazy."

"Not a chance. You'd be crazy not to jump the bones of a guy that looks like that." She grinned.

"You've been holding out on me, girl. How long have you known this hunk'"

"Two days," Annie said morosely.

"Two days'" Annie nodded.

"Good G.o.d, that's quick even by my standards."

"There were extenuating circ.u.mstances."

"Uh-huh. Yeah, I can see that."

"Not just because of his looks!" Annie snapped.

Kay took a sip of her tea, her dark eyes regarding Annie curiously over the rim of her cup. "Any particular reason you decided to do the dirty deed in my bed'"

Annie heaved a sigh. "That's the part you're not going to believe."

"Try me."

Annie put down her cup and met her friend's gaze squarely. "James is from the future and someone's trying to kill him." Kay stared at her for a long moment. "You're right," she agreed at last. "I don't believe you." "I figured as much." "Annie...." Kay grinned ruefully. "This is some kind of a joke, right' You're pulling my leg, aren't you'" Annie shook her head.

Kay raised her cup and took a long swallow. "Annie," she said, very seriously, "I've only been gone for two days. You cannot possibly have gone insane in two lousy days." "I'm not insane," Annie said patiently. She could hardly blame Kay for her reaction. G.o.d knew she sounded crazy. "James is from the future."

"Oh, come on!" Kay exploded. "Get serious, for G.o.d's sake. What is really going on here'"

"Annie is telling the truth."

The two women turned to see James. He had, Annie noted with relief, taken the time to put on

clothes--a dark green polo shirt and a pair of b.u.t.ton-fly jeans that clung to him in all the right places. He looked civilized, in an extremely s.e.xy kind of way, and despite the frantic way he'd thrashed around in bed last night, his hair was perfectly neat. She supposed he'd found a comb somewhere, and wished she had taken the time to comb her hair. She imagined it looked pretty straggly, after last night's calisthenics.

Kay looked at him thoughtfully as he paused by the doorway. "I'm not sure I blame you, Annie," she said at last. "If I found a guy who looked like this, whose only fault was that he was nuts, I might play along too."

"I am not playing along!" Annie said hotly.

"It is the truth," James said, entering the kitchen. "I am from three centuries into your future."

"Uh-huh," Kay drawled. "How'd he prove this, Annie' Did he show you a driver's license dated

2304'".

"Look, I thought he was nuts too, at first. In fact, I was planning on having you examine him. But he's

not crazy. This woman'she was after him. She shot at us with some kind of ray gun."

"A ray gun," Kay repeated. She was clearly not buying it.

"Yeah," Annie said defensively, "a ray gun. Did one h.e.l.l of a number on the side of my car."

"I didn't happen to see your car in the parking garage."

"That's because I drove Steve's Mini over here." Annie sighed. "My car has this awful burned gouge on

its side. I don't think the guy at the body shop is going to know what to make of it."

Kay looked at her for a long moment. "Let's just say for the time being that this guy--James'-- is from the future. How, precisely, did this result in the two of you getting it on in my condo'"

"She knew where James was," Annie explained. "She somehow tracked him to my house. We had to go somewhere else, somewhere safer."

"How come she didn't just follow you here'"

Annie swallowed. "She tried to run us off the road. I, uh, sort of ran her into a tree in self-defense. But she's still alive, and looking for James. And James says there might be more of them."

Kay shook her head slowly. "Annie, if I didn't know better, I'd think you believed all this."

Annie started to argue, but Kay held up a hand. "Never mind. Forget I said anything. How about breakfast'"

"I would be happy to cook," James said politely.

Kay looked at him with surprise. "Geez. You cook, too'"

James nodded, and Kay gave him an approving grin. "It'd be easy to overlook a little thing like insanity in a man like you."

"I've got to get to the office," Kay said, pushing back her plate and sighing happily. She had consumed five pancakes and two gla.s.ses of orange juice. Apparently she had been too busy last night to have dinner.

"Oh, h.e.l.l, the office," Annie said. It had totally slipped her mind that this was Monday. "I should be heading out myself. But I didn't bring any work clothes."

"You are not going anywhere," James said firmly.

Annie sighed. "James, I can't hole up here for the rest of my life. I have a job."

"I understand that. But until we are certain the Bureau is no longer looking for me, you may not leave this

building. I will not permit it."

"Oh, right, the Bureau," Kay said, rolling her eyes.

James looked displeased. "It is not a laughing matter."

"Not to you, maybe." Kay turned back to Annie. "So are you staying here'"

Annie sighed. "I don't know, James. No one has come looking for you all weekend. Maybe'" Maybe she'd overreacted to the incident in the car. Maybe that blue flash she'd seen, and the scar it had left on her car, hadn't been from a ray gun at all, but a ' a freak lightning storm or something.

Sure, Annie. Lightning out of a clear blue sky.

She ignored her cynical inner voice and went on with her thoughts. Maybe James really wasn't from the future at all. People who could travel through time could find a fugitive easily enough, couldn't they' And yet no one had bothered them all weekend. It didn't seem to make sense. Maybe she ought to just go on with her life and forget everything that had happened.

"It is highly unlikely they have decided to let me go," James said. "Traveling through time requires an enormous expenditure of energy, enough to power one of your largest cities for a year. Once the Bureau commits itself, its agents always follow through."

Annie frowned in thought. It didn't appear to her that the Bureau'if there really was a Bureau--was all that committed to hunting down James, but she really didn't like the thought of leaving him alone. Who knew what trouble he might get himself into' "I guess I'll stay here, if you don't mind, Kay. I've got some personal days I can use."

"Since you're staying here anyway, you mind taking care of Clark'"

"Not at all," Annie said promptly. Ordinarily Kay left Clark in the care of an older lady who ran a daycare in her house. But Kay knew how much Annie loved taking care of the baby. At any rate, Annie figured she owed her friend something for borrowing her condo.

"Thanks. I might drop by around lunch to check on him, but I really don't want to get him up right now. He was up late last night, and he hated the plane ride besides. Screamed b.l.o.o.d.y murder the whole time." She grinned evilly. "I bet he'll be a real angel today."

"Thanks a lot."

Sure enough, five minutes after his mother left Clark woke up in a rotten mood. Annie changed him and walked him around the kitchen, trying to get him to take his milk. He averted his head and howled furiously, as if he'd never seen a bottle before in his four months of existence.

James, seated at the table, watched her singing softly to the baby. "You are fond of babies, aren't you'"

She looked up for a moment and smiled. "Sometimes," she said over Clark's furious yowls. "This apparently isn't one of his better days."

James stood up. "May I try'"

She shrugged. "Can't hurt, I suppose." She transferred Clark to James' arms, noticing he cradled the baby easily, supporting the head with the expertise of someone who has held innumerable babies. She remembered he had told her he had been a nanny, and given the expert way he handled Clark she could easily believe it. The baby, snuggled against James' huge bicep, gazed up at him. Apparently the different face was a distraction, for he stopped crying and stared curiously. Moments later he was sucking milk with a blissful expression on his tiny face.

"You really are good with babies," Annie said in surprise.

"Years of experience." James brushed a finger across the baby's cheek and spoke softly. "He is a beautiful one."

Not only was he good with babies, he genuinely liked them, Annie realized with surprise. She didn't know too many men who were completely comfortable holding a baby. And most of the men she'd known failed utterly to understand the overwhelming female impulse to crowd around and moon over any baby spotted in the mall.

She felt oddly certain James would understand.

Once the baby had finished his bottle, James burped him, then took him into the living room. Annie put a blanket down on the carpet, and they watched the baby lying on it, lifting his head and observing his surroundings with wide-eyed interest.

An hour later Clark, exhausted from the enormous effort of lifting his head, had pa.s.sed out on his blanket. Annie carried him into the nursery and carefully laid him on his back in the crib. He didn't move a muscle. Picking up the baby monitor, she tiptoed out and returned to the living room. "He should sleep for a couple of hours," she said. "I've really got to take a shower, so I'm going to do that now."

James stood up and looked at her, a hot light in his eyes. "We can take one together."

Annie hesitated. "Suppose the baby starts crying'"

"Isn't that what the thing in your hand is for'"

"Oh, the baby monitor. Yeah, I guess so. But...." She paused, uneasy for no reason she could clearly define. She suspected she was feeling anxious about the idea of making love to him again. Last night she had felt powerful, in control, exposing James' weaknesses and vulnerabilities. This morning she had an uncomfortable certainty the tables would be turned. He would be the one in charge.

"It is all right, Annie," James said gently. "This morning it's my turn."

She hesitated again, then, slowly, nodded acquiescence.

Kay's black-tiled shower was easily big enough for two people. Annie put the baby monitor on the counter, turned up to full volume. Feeling awkward, she started the water and ran it until it was hot, then stripped quickly and stepped under the flow. James followed and stood next to her, far too close. She felt her heart pounding with a mixture of excitement and apprehension.

"I need to wash my hair," she said awkwardly, wetting the long ma.s.s.

"I can do that," he said. He glanced around the shower and found a bottle. "Is this hair soap'"

"Shampoo, yes."

"Shampoo," he repeated carefully, as if testing the unfamiliar term. He poured some out into his hand and

sniffed at it. "There is a fragrance in it," he remarked.

"Don't they use fragrances in the future'" She thought wryly that she wouldn't want to live in a world without Obsession.

"There is no need for perfumes and perfumed soaps in my society," he said as he began to rub the shampoo into her hair. "People ingest a tablet each day which slightly alters their body chemistry, giving their bodies the odor they prefer."

"Sounds convenient. Sort of like a deodorant and perfume all rolled into one'"

"Something like that," he agreed. "It is almost necessary when people live in such close proximity to their families all their lives. Additionally, it has the useful effect of reducing water usage, since a daily shower is not necessary."