“And,” Holly said, “if we were consulting, so to speak, and we had some little problem, then the CIA might be helpful to us.”
“What sort of problem did you have in mind?” Lance asked, sounding slightly suspicious.
“Oh, nothing at present,” Holly said, “but you can never tell what might come up in the future, can you?”
“I suppose there might occur, at some point, circumstances in which we might be informally helpful,” Lance said, “but of course, I can’t make you any promises about that, it being so vague.”
“Of course not,” Stone said. “Tell me, is there a contract for this sort of service?”
“I suppose there could be,” Lance said, “if it were deemed necessary.”
They had pulled up in front of Stone’s house. “Tell you what, why don’t you send the contracts to me, and I’ll take a look at them,” Stone said.
“You’d be representing Holly, then?”
“Yes,” Holly said, “he would be.”
“All right, I’ll see what I can put together.”
“Good night, Lance,” Stone said, opening the door, “and thanks for the lift.”
“Same here,” Holly said.
Stone closed the car door and they walked up the front steps.
“Did you think that was really, really weird?” Holly asked as they entered the house.
“I think that anything to do with Lance is really, really weird,” Stone replied. They got on the elevator and headed upstairs. When Stone got off, Holly followed him to his bedroom.
She took him by the lapels and kissed him.
Stone kissed her back. “That was very nice,” he said.
“Just what do I have to do to get you into bed?” Holly asked, kissing him again.
“Well, I. . .” He was stopped by a tongue in his mouth.
“I mean, I’ve been parading around here half naked—no, entirely naked, and that usually gets results, but you actually fell asleep.”
“I’m sorry, I . . .”
She pushed off his jacket and began untying his tie. “A girl could feel hurt by such 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
STONE 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.