Chapter Twenty-Nine – The Twelfth Floor
"She had to get a room on
the twelve floor, right?" Vaughn asked himself when he reached the tenth
floor. "I should have taken the
elevator!" Initially, the stairs seemed
like a good idea – it would be easy to spot a tail. But now that he hadn't seen even one other person in the ten
flights he'd climbed, he judged himself as overly paranoid.
He heard Weiss' voice,
"Relax, Mike. Everything is taken care
of."
Finally reaching the
twelfth floor, Vaughn took a few moments to catch his breath outside room
1224. His heart was still pounding when
he put the key in the lock and opened the door.
It turned out to be a suite. The first room was totally dark, and the only light in the bedroom came from a low wattage lamp on the desk near the window. He was hoping that Jess was going to meet him at the door, jump on him, wrap her legs around him, and kiss him until he passed out. But she wasn't there. In fact, he didn't even hear her. He didn't hear anything.
His senses were on high alert. Awful visions flashed through his mind. If he had been wearing his gun he would have had it in his hand by now. He probably should have just called her name, but instead, he inched quietly towards the bedroom. When he reached the bedroom and still saw no sign of her, he really began to panic.
He cleared the corner of
the bathroom so that he was fully in the bedroom. By the time he saw her crouched down, pressing herself against
the nearest wall, it was too late. Jess
jumped up, grabbed both his arms and flung him towards the bed.
"Officer Vaughn!" she
exclaimed as she followed him to the bed, "I'm so glad you accepted my
invitation!"
He had to move quickly to
roll over on his back before she jumped on top of him. She leaped on to the bed, straddled his
hips, and bent down over him to kiss him all in one swift movement.
They weren't satisfied
with just kissing for very long. Jess
unbuttoned Vaughn's shirt and ran her hands over his bare chest. Vaughn groped at the tight red dress Jess
was wearing.
Vaughn broke away from her
briefly, "What the hell is this? A wet
suit?"
Jess sat upright and
pulled the entire dress off in one motion.
"Latex, I think," she said with a laugh. "What about the wig?"
He had been so excited to
be with her that he hadn't even noticed that she was still wearing the long,
black wig. He eyed her lustfully. "I say it stays… at least for awhile," he
replied with a boyish grin.
*****
When Will returned home
that evening, he found Sydney waiting for him.
"What are you doing here?"
he asked obviously already in a bad mood.
"That's quite a greeting,"
Sydney said.
"Sorry. Hi, Syd.
How are you? And more
importantly, what are you doing here?" Will said as he unlocked the door to the
house.
Sydney followed him into
the house, closed and locked the door behind her. "Jess called me. She said
that she had some things she needed to take care of this evening, and asked if
I wouldn't mind staying here with you tonight."
"You've got to be kidding
me," Will replied. He dropped his head
and stood silent and motionless for several seconds. Suddenly he yelled, "Dammit!" and threw his brief case across the
room. Since it was soft sided and
mostly empty, it did little damage except to knock a framed photograph off the
wall. "I know exactly what she's
taking care of!"
Sydney had never seen Will
act like that before. "What is
wrong with you?" she exclaimed.
He turned to face her, his
eyes illuminated with anger. "Did you
know, Syd?"
Based on the way he was
acting, Sydney figured that he had found out about Jess and Vaughn, but she
wasn't ready yet to incriminate herself.
"Know what?"
"Did you know that Jess
and Vaughn were… are sleeping together?"
Sydney sighed. "Yeah, I knew."
Will let go of a
frustrated laugh. "Of course you
knew! Why shouldn't you know? Everybody else did! Weiss knew!
Hell, I bet even your father knew!
But not Will! Nooooooo… There's
no reason to tell Will a little detail like that!"
Will angrily pushed past
Sydney and went into the kitchen. He
opened up the refrigerator and took out a beer. He started to close the door and then had another thought. He took out the entire six-pack of Amstel
Light, grabbed a bottle opener from a drawer and headed towards the screened-in
porch.
*****
Their first round of
lovemaking was purely animal. The
second round was much more loving. Both
were highly enjoyable.
They had taken a break for
a late night room service order. After the
bellboy had left, they quickly got naked again and lay together in bed and
snacked on cheese, crackers, and fresh fruit, while enjoying a bottle of
merlot.
"So, I saw Ben Miller the
other day," Vaughn said through a mouthful of cheese.
"Oh yeah?" Jess replied
casually.
"He said you and Will beat
the crap out of each other during a workout Monday night."
Jess laughed, "He's
exaggerating." She bit into a
strawberry.
"So, he didn't take it
well?" Vaughn asked.
"No, he didn't take it
well. And actually, he's still not
taking it well," Jess replied. "He
avoids me as much as possible, and the rest of the time he just ignores me."
"Surely not when you're in
public?" Vaughn asked.
"Oh, no. In public he's playing games. Some kind of vengeance I suspect."
"What do you mean?" Vaughn
asked, his concern visible.
Jess looked at his face
and wished that she hadn't told him that.
As she tried to find a way out of it, Vaughn's concern grew.
"Jess?" Vaughn prompted
her and tilted his head like he was about to scold a child.
"It's not a big deal,
Mike, really."
"I want to know what's
going on," he replied.
She sighed. "He's just changed the way he acts," she
said knowing he would want more detail.
"How so?"
"He's kissing me
differently. He's touching me
differently. He's… he's…"
"He's what, Jess?"
Vaughn's tone was demanding.
"He's teasing me. He's trying to arouse me."
"What?!" Vaughn couldn't
have been more shocked if Will had come on to him. "We're talking about Will Tippin,
right?" After a few moments thought,
Vaughn's surprise went to anger. "He's
got no right to…"
"He's just angry,
Mike." Jess tried to calm him
down. "We should have told him the
truth from the beginning."
Vaughn stewed in silence
for several seconds. "I guess we should
have," he finally conceded.
They finished off the
remaining fruit and cheese in silence.
Vaughn looked into her eyes, "So is it working?"
"Is what working?" Jess
asked.
"Is Will getting you hot?"
he asked in that I'm-kidding-but-not-really tone.
She looked at him and smiled broadly. "Shut up, and make love to me again, Officer Vaughn."