Serafina and the Virtual Man (14 page)

Which was when she suddenly realised what water and washing really meant. “Shite, I must look like a clown,” she said in dismay, splashing water all over her face and scrubbing to get rid of all the running makeup she was sure must be there. “And then there’ll just be me, with no face…”

He caught her hands in his. “Hey, stop, you’ll get soap in your eyes.”

She blinked at him through the drips, tried to turn her face aside because no one,
no one
saw her without her war paint. Why had she agreed to the bath? It would spoil everything.

Worse, his face followed hers, insisting on looking right at her. His lips were curved into a smile, and, amazingly, his eyes were still warm. “This is virtual reality, remember? No running mascara here. Besides, you’re beautiful whatever you put on,” he added softly. “I like you best of all like this.”

She shook her head. “No, you don’t,” she managed.

His lips quirked, and he moved suggestively inside her. “I’ve got proof.”

She couldn’t prevent the slightly choked laugh that escaped her. It gave her the courage to meet his gaze.

Slowly, he lifted his hands and began to rub the shampoo into her hair. At the same time, he dropped kisses on her eyelids and cheeks and mouth. After a moment, she twisted to pick up the crystal bottle and poured some shampoo into her own hands before smothering his hair in it too. While they washed each other, he began to move in a gentle, rocking motion that she could only respond to. Gradually, the movements changed to more obvious thrusts. Having soaped his chest, loving the feel of his skin under all the slippery suds, she teasingly turned her attention to her own breasts.

He watched her avidly, especially when she lingered on her nipples. His breath hitched. “Let me rinse that for you,” he murmured and simply held them and caressed them, and then put his mouth to one nipple and sucked hard. Instinctively, she thrust onto him, and the exciting, thrilling push and pull intensified. He held her hips, increasing the speed until orgasm tore her apart for the third time. She fell backward into the water, with Adam on top of her, still pushing into her. The wildly splashing, rolling water seemed like a cocoon, enfolding her body in warm, all-consuming rapture. She held on to his bottom, loving the feel of it bucking and pushing, and then he was still, gazing into her eyes as he came, and nothing she’d ever seen or imagined had ever been so beautiful.

I did that, she thought, awed. I made him come. I gave him that pleasure…

“God, I feel smug,” she whispered, and Adam’s shoulders began to shake.

“Not half as smug as me. Did I drown you?”

“Don’t you have a safety mechanism for that kind of thing?”

“In theory,” he said cautiously. “Not sure it works.”

He shifted his weight off her, easing out of her, and propped himself half sitting against the back of the bath. Jilly twisted around to sprawl between his legs with her back against his chest. She said reluctantly, “I should go back. See if Sera’s dealt with that damned poltergeist.” Except that it was too pleasant lying here, watching his hand lazily knead her breast and feel the slow-building ache of new desire form from the afterglow of what they’d just done.

“You probably should,” he agreed and tugged her head back gently by the hair so that he could kiss her mouth. “Your other lover’s about due to charge in the door and find you with me.”

“Will he mind?” Jilly asked, finding it hard to care.

“I can’t believe he wouldn’t, but I don’t know. One of the teams developed most of this one. But at the very least, it would interrupt my mission.”

She reached behind her to touch his cheek and lifted her face again. “Better save it and get out of here, then.”

“Better had,” he agreed and kissed her. When he lifted his head, they were still in the bath. She smiled and so did he, and they kissed again.

“Maybe,” he said, “if there are no signs of Sera breaking down the door for need of you, I could fuck you again in the test lab.”

“Quick and dirty on the hard bench?”

“That would work,” he said breathlessly.

“You really want my badge to be impressive, don’t you?”

“Hell, yes.” His hand slid down her stomach and cupped between her legs. She gave a little moan of pleasure. “Or maybe we could fit just one more in here first. I don’t really want to move.”

She stroked the length of his arm down to his hand between her thighs and left it there, holding him to her. “Neither do I,” she whispered. There was another kiss, long and sweet, but his hand remained still on her pussy. It was curiously comforting as well as sexy.

“I’ll be good,” he said ruefully. “Try not to look too abandoned. Just in case Sera’s waiting for us.”

“I’ll try,” she said.

There was a pause. He frowned. A loud knock sounded at the hotel room door, making Jilly jump.

“That’ll be your lover, on cue,” Adam said. “Do you think you could try wishing to be somewhere else?”

“I don’t want to be anywhere else,” she admitted.

“Neither do I,” said Adam on the ghost of a laugh. “Which leaves us a bloody big problem getting out of here.”

A second knock sounded at the door, louder and more peremptory. “Madeleine, are you in there?”

“We could just leave him and go back to bed,” Adam suggested.

“Won’t he break the door in?”

“Let him watch.”

“Is there a program for that too? You really
are
a dirty bastard.”

“It’s up to us. We can do exactly as we like. There’s even a machine gun in the plant pot.”

Jilly began to laugh. “You mean we can shoot our way out?”

“Of course. It’s a computer game.”

“Naked?”

“If you want to.”

She sat up and turned to face him, and his eyes began to sparkle.

Chapter Fourteen

If Adam had imagined that being shot at by an angry lover and a bunch of ruthless gangsters would make it easier to wish himself out of the game, he was doomed to disappointment.

From the moment he and JK burst butt naked from the hotel bedroom into the wide hallway full of stunned, armed men, he knew it was just going to be too much fun. He blessed his team of programmers for working even this unlikely scenario into the game, for he and JK really did have the element of surprise, which enabled him to get the first shots in, sending the hoods diving for whatever cover they could find behind pillars and flimsy, decorative tables.

JK, in the meantime, seized the machine gun of the nearest gangster, kneed him in the groin to make him release it, and then forward rolled toward the stairs through a hail of bullets aimed far too high to hit her. Adam, not unreasonably distracted by the sight of her deliciously naked, tumbling bottom, left it a shade too late to leap for the stairs and felt a burning sensation in his arm. Ignoring it, he jumped over the rail onto the sloping banister just in time to meet JK, whom he hoisted up behind him. As they careered down the wide, polished banister, they fired wildly at the ceiling, dropping chunks of wood and rubble and a phenomenal amount of dust on the heads of their enemies.

Inevitably, though, the gangsters had left a watchman in the lobby below, and amid the screams of the respectable patrons, Adam felt the jolt of JK twisting and firing behind her before she hit the floor. Adam landed with a thud, narrowly missing her. He rolled backward and came up shooting at the hoods now running down the stairs after them. A few fell. He aimed at the chandelier and, with what turned out to be pretty good timing, let rip a burst of fire that brought it crashing down on top of several of their pursuers.

JK let out a low, delighted laugh as she jumped to her feet beside him and hand in hand they bolted for the nearest door. It wouldn’t budge, but Adam recognised it. This was the carefully guarded door to the speakeasy. “Show your face,” he breathed, just as the blind moved. Since she was their star performer, the door opened immediately, and Adam burst in, punching the door thug in the jaw—which bloody hurt—before he and JK dived as one under the roulette table just in time to avoid a renewed hail of bullets.

There followed a short, hilarious game of hide-and-seek among the tables.

JK said breathlessly, “The cops are bound to come now and catch or kill the bad guys. Must be points for us in that.”

“So many I’ll get a really deadly mission next time.”

The shooting was deafening, as were the screams of the patrons trying to get away, and there was glass and debris and carnage everywhere. This, Adam thought happily, was what computer games were all about. Sheer escapism, exorcising aggression and secret desires for dangerous situations without any of the actual risks. Apart from the sluggishly bleeding, barely noticeable graze to his arm, neither of them was hit. And he couldn’t remember ever having quite so much fun in any game as he did bolting around that room, avoiding bullets and planning their escape. Of course, it all had an extra edge because they were totally naked throughout. When he dived behind an upended table where a young woman was already sheltering, she averted her eyes in even more horror. He grinned and winked at her, and by the time he scrambled out to rejoin JK closer to the back door, the woman was cramming a piece of paper into his hands and saying huskily, “Call me.”

Adam laughed aloud, then landed in a heap behind the bar with JK. The barman already had his hands up. “I’ll have a gin and lime,” Jilly told him and let loose another barrage at the thugs closing in.

The barman’s jaw dropped, but he rushed to obey with shaking hands, grabbing glasses and bottles and ducking with them below the level of the bar counter.

“Two, if you please, my good man,” Adam said cheerfully. “Hell, have one for yourself—you need it.”

The barman didn’t have to be told twice. In seconds, he came up with three glasses of pale green liquid. JK stopped shooting for long enough to grin and grab hers, and clink with both Adam and the barman.

Then the cops burst in through the door. “All right, nobody move!”

The barman said, “We can get out the back door. Come on.”

He crawled through first, just as someone started shooting again. JK rolled through, treating Adam to another close-up of her gorgeous bum, and then, without warning, it all vanished. No shooting, no speakeasy, no JK.

****

It was a good opportunity. The poltergeist was so focused on breaking through whatever barrier kept it from the room beyond that it barely noticed Sera or even Blair until he walked right through the ripple of air it was creating. His hair actually stood on end. Only then did the poltergeist back off, and by that time, Sera already had her psychic teeth in it, pushing and tearing it apart.

She’d got it. She could feel its energy waning, until, with a last-ditch gust of fury, it seemed to hurl itself sideways and into the main part of the room. Sera hung on to the invisible thread linking her to it, walked slowly forward after it. Vaguely, she was aware of Blair leaping from side to side, trying to keep it away from both the computer and the trigger point through which he couldn’t follow. And deeper in the room she could see Jilly jogging on the spot and dodging around as if hiding behind various things no one else could see, except in a curiously slow, almost disjointed way that bothered Sera, even through the effort of her concentration. Was Jilly under threat in Adam’s virtual world?

Even more weirdly, Jilly held her hands out as if holding an imaginary gun, which seemed a bizarre way to protect herself from all the stuff hurling straight at her, courtesy of the poltergeist. Without warning, she suddenly fell over, did an energetic forward roll and came up again holding her imaginary gun in a different direction.

What the fuck?

But at least the poltergeist didn’t seem to be feeding off Jilly’s fear, for Sera could feel its energy streaming away. The whirling objects had less force; most of them were doing little more than vibrating on the ground. “Enough,” Sera told it. “Go. It’s time.”

And abruptly the connection between them broke, and she staggered back against Blair.

“Got the bastard,” she crowed weakly, just as Jilly rolled across the room and sprang to her feet, staring at her, wide-eyed, a smile of pure fun dying on her face.

“Sera? Blair!” For some reason, Jilly crossed her arms over her breasts, then blinked as if surprised by the sight of her own jacket sleeves. She gave a breath of laughter. “I’m out. Adam?” She whirled around. “Adam? Adam!”

She strode around the room, more panicked than Sera had seen her in years. “He’s not here! Where did he go?”

Sera went after her. There was no green light at the trigger point. “Jilly. The poltergeist’s gone. We dispersed it.”

Jilly stared at her. “It wasn’t Adam,” she said fiercely.

“No, I don’t think it was,” Sera agreed. “But they
were
connected. Adam killed Killearn. Maybe Killearn’s fury was what kept Adam’s spirit here. I don’t know. But it seemed as if the poltergeist sought him out here as it was dispersing. As if still determined to take Adam with it.”

Jilly dragged her hand through her hair and tugged hard. “No,” she said in clear distress. “No.”

Sera took her by the shoulders. “Jilly, he couldn’t stay here forever. They’ve both gone where they should, where all this stuff doesn’t matter. You have to let go.”

Sera’s heart almost broke at the expression in Jilly’s eyes, and yet it vanished almost at once. Jilly was used to life kicking her in the teeth.

“I know,” she said shakily. “It was just… I was having such bloody good fun.”

Sera took her arm and led her toward Blair and the door, speaking with deliberate practicality. “Suggest we tidy up in here and claim we cornered the poltergeist in the outer study. Since we don’t have Adam to doctor the camera recordings, can you get rid of the evidence of us breaking in?”

“Maybe. But he might have already done it.” Jilly walked briskly to collect her laptop and head out to the outer office. Her shoulders drooped.

Oh Jilly, trust you! All that long buildup of emotion and you give it to a computer program…
Helplessly, Sera watched her right Dale’s computer chair and sit in it before opening her laptop. Blair hefted the big desk upright and replaced the fallen monitor in the correct position. Jilly stood up and plugged it in.

“It isn’t the end,” she said intensely. “Adam killed Killearn in self-defence because someone sent Killearn to kill him. And after Adam killed Killearn instead, someone else shot and killed Adam and covered it up with a false trail to Australia. And my money’s on Dale.”

“Why?” Sera asked. “They were friends.”

“But not so close since Petra came on the scene. And Petra had a bit of a crush on Adam, according to Roxy. Plus, even though the Ewans were stinking rich, they were living beyond their means. They needed money and wanted to retire. Splitting the profit from the new system with Adam would have meant waiting. This way, Dale just needs to launch and grab, maybe even sell while things are on a high.”

Sera nodded slowly. They’d already earned their fee, and she was more than happy to collect. But it wouldn’t stop her grassing her client up. She’d rather liked the virtual Genesis Adam. And besides, it mattered so much to Jilly.

“Okay. Find the evidence. We’ll give it to Alex McGowan. Jilly?”

Jilly glanced up, hard-eyed in the way that reminded Sera too much of childhood hurts.

Sera said, “About Adam, you know it’s for the best?”

Jilly nodded and dropped her gaze back to the computer.

Sera returned to clearing up the lab. Half an hour later, there was no trace there of the poltergeist’s depredations. Sera left a little realistic mess in the outer study, and closed the sliding door. Jilly doctored the rest of the camera evidence, switched off Dale’s computer, and quietly left.

Blair went off on his own—hunting, Sera assumed, and tried not to care that he was receiving bodily gratification from some other human, no doubt a young and attractive woman, since he liked those best. He wouldn’t hurt her, whoever she was; she wouldn’t even remember him or anything he did to her. Only Sera had those kinds of memories. Only Sera slept in his bed and made love with him. And there was no denying that he needed more blood than he could continuously take from Sera. So she lived with the downside in her relationship. Everyone did.

As Sera went downstairs, she heard Jilly sifting through stuff in the spare room. Looking for evidence. She really wasn’t going to leave this alone.

Flopping onto the sofa in the downstairs sitting room, Sera left a message on both Dale’s and Petra’s phones to say their problem was dealt with, but that Sera would wait at the house until they came home. It was nearly two o’clock in the morning, and Sera was knackered, so she stretched out on the sofa and closed her eyes.

She hoped the Founder had fucked off for good. Why did he keep hanging around?

****

Raking through the chaotic mess of the spare bedroom once more, Jilly had no real idea what she was looking for. She just knew there had to be something they’d missed the last time, something that would prove what Dale had done to Adam.

Feverishly, starting at the door, she dug through it all, tossing the useless bits of rubbish aside one after the other and grabbing the next handful or armful. There had to be something, anything to give him away.

She
knew
Dale had betrayed his friend, paid someone to murder a fascinating, brilliant, funny man who could never ever be replaced. And now even his ghost had vanished, and she wanted to punch Dale’s face in for that too.

She shuffled forward on her knees into the tiny space she’d created and raked through a scattering of pillow feathers to a mattress spring. She flung that aside so hard it hit the wall behind her, and delved deeper, chucking things over her shoulders as she went. But she could no longer see the splintered, broken objects in her hands or anything in front of her at all. They were blurry with the tears she suddenly realised were streaming down her face and dripping onto her hands, onto the mess beneath.

“Oh Jesus.” Jilly gasped, threw herself back against the wall, on top of God knew what, clutching her face in both hands, and let the tears come because she couldn’t stop them. They flowed over her fingers and into her hair while her body shook with silent, heaving sobs.

It was a long time since she’d felt this desolate. If ever. Loneliness, emptiness crowded in on her, drowning the pointless anger. There was only despair and loss. Loss of a spirit that had made her laugh and live and
love
. And right now it didn’t matter a fuck that none of that was real. It was real to Jilly, and she
knew
it had been real to Adam. On some level, Adam
was
real, and he’d been shut down like a machine, cut off, and killed. Again. How unspeakably tragic to be killed twice…

Shuddering, Jilly dug the heel of her hand into her eye, threw her head back against the wall, and heard it crack. She wanted to hurt herself just to break into the relentless pain of knowing it was over, that she’d never see his infectious, crooked smile again, never speak to him again or even message him again. Because he was dead. He really was dead.

Slowly, she dropped her soaking hands from her face. She’d get the bastard who did it; she would. But that wouldn’t bring Adam back to her…

Only Sera could do that, for a few moments at least.

Then he’d know she was still trying, that she wouldn’t forget about him or what had happened to him. Abruptly, Jilly stood up, took a deep, determined breath that wasn’t quite steady before she wiped her wet face on her shirt and went to fetch the photographs they’d found earlier. Then she ran downstairs and discovered Sera lying on the sitting room sofa, eyes closed. How could she sleep at a time like this?