Wild (15 page)

She held my hand in place when she felt that I wanted to pull it back.

“Please, Vince, touch me,” she begged me.

What was I to do? How could I say no when my body wanted to say yes? I sank my lips onto hers again and started caressing her breasts. They were a perfect size for my hands, round and soft, as if they were meant for me. I could tell she enjoyed being touched, and I knew myself to be the luckiest guy in the world that she wanted
me
to touch her.

I pulled my lips off hers unable to resist the urge which had overcome me. She looked at me disappointed when I pulled away, but seconds later her lips curled into a smile when I pulled her sweater up and exposed her naked breasts. I gazed at them trying to burn the image into my memory. I had to taste those beautiful breasts with my mouth.

When I asked her my silent question she pulled the sweater over her head without hesitation and let it fall to the ground. She lay in my arms naked from the waist up.

I lowered my head to her chest and wrapped my lips around her nipple. With my tongue I stroked her gently before I launched my passionate assault on her. I played with her nipples, licking them gently and sucking them. They turned hard showing me instantly how excited she was. As if that hadn’t been enough, the sounds of pleasure escaping her mouth only confirmed I wasn’t doing anything she didn’t want me to do. I lost myself kissing her soft skin, sucking on her excited nipples and molding her breasts in my hands.  

I saw how her eyes were half closed and how she arched her back thrusting her breasts toward me, begging me for more. I was only too happy to oblige. My tongue worked its way around her nipple licking it like the most delicious ice cream ever. My hands couldn’t get enough of kneading her.

“More,” she demanded breathlessly.

I sucked harder and felt how hard her nipples became. Her body was aroused. The aroma of her sex drifted into my nose and drove me half insane. While I continued kissing her breasts, I let one hand slide down to her jeans and rested it between her legs. Her body pressed against my hand welcoming its touch. Even through her jeans I could feel the heat and the moisture emanating from her. I knew she was wet, ready for me to take her. The thought of her willing body was too much.

I couldn’t take any more than this. I felt a sensory overload and knew my transformation was close. I had to pull myself away, as hard as it was. I looked into her eyes. She looked back at me.

“You are amazing,” she whispered. I wanted to pull my hand away from her jeans, but she placed her hand onto it, holding it down. I knew what she wanted to tell me. If I wanted to take her now, she wouldn’t protest. I felt the struggle inside of me.

 “I think I’m going to have to take a cold shower now,” I echoed back in a raspy voice.

“May I join you?” She couldn’t possibly be serious.

“That would defeat the purpose.” I gave her a soft smile.

The cold shower did indeed help. I felt refreshed and knew I had passed the first hurdle. I was able to kiss her and touch her breasts, in very small doses, without running the danger of transforming in front of her eyes.

I hoped I was doing the right thing. I knew it was wrong not to tell her my secret, but as long as I couldn’t figure out a way to tell her without risking losing her, I was willing to continue my lie, as horrible as it made me feel.

I had to clear my head, since I needed to take care of an errand when Annette was asleep. Surprisingly she didn’t give me any trouble when it was time to go to bed. She seemed content and when I kissed her good night she gave me a ravishing smile.

I waited until it was past midnight and she was in deep sleep before I left the house.

Entwhistle’s house was located in Noe Valley. It had been easy to find out his private address. I parked the car a block away so I wouldn’t attract any attention.

His house was a typical Noe Valley home, located on an incline, with two bedrooms and a bath up, and one bedroom and a bath downstairs behind the one car garage. It was probably built shortly after the 1906 earthquake and looked like a little gingerbread house. Many houses in Noe Valley were of a similar style. I knew the layout well. I had lived in a similar one many years earlier.

I climbed up the trellis and found a window in the front room which didn’t have a lock. As I pushed up the sash window I could feel it was sticky, but it opened wide enough for me to slip through.

I was in the formal living room which connected to the dining room and then through to the kitchen. I noticed they had wooden floors throughout, which meant I had to tread lightly. Most of these original wooden floors creaked and could be heard throughout the whole house. I didn’t want to wake up the Entwhistles who, I was almost certain, had their master bedroom downstairs.

One of the upper bedrooms would be Entwhistle’s office, I guessed and crossed the hallway to one of the doors.

I turned the knob quietly and slowly pushed the door open. It was the nursery. The room featured a baby’s crib, a rocking chair and a commode on which to change the baby’s diapers. The walls were adorned with colorful pictures suitable for a small child. A baby was sleeping in the crib. I could hear its even breathing pattern. I looked at it. It was probably ten to twelve months old. I saw the light of a baby monitor and knew Entwhistle and his wife would be listening.

Without a sound I closed the door again and went to the next one. As expected it was his home office. I let myself in. The entire wall was filled with bookcases. A large desk stood in front of it, facing the door. I went around the desk and sat down in the comfortable leather chair. I switched on the desk light.

The lamp illuminated the entire room and for a moment I looked at the photos he had displayed on his desk. One of it was a wedding picture showing the wedding party, Entwhistle, his wife, some bridesmaids and groomsmen as well as an older gentleman.

I went through the stack of papers on his desk. It was nothing of importance. I went through the drawers. The first had a vial in it. I took it out wondering if it was filled with his serum. When I looked at the little bottle I realized that it was empty. I read the label: it was Botox prescribed for Rebecca Entwhistle.

I glanced back at the wedding picture. How old was she? Who in their thirties would already need Botox? I shook my head and placed the bottle back into its box.

I found what I was looking for in the bottom drawer of his desk. The files contained the protocol I was looking for, the list of study subjects, and lots of notes.

As I leafed through the notes to decide whether to take them or not, I recognized my own handwriting. It couldn’t be! I had to be sure. I held them under the lamp. The notes were old photocopies. They were my own handwritten notes on my research, the same notes I had destroyed in a fire more than thirty years earlier.

I didn’t understand. There was no way he could have had access to them. The only notes which were still in existence were the ones I kept in my lab at home, where they were under tight security.

Suddenly I could hear the baby fussing. There was no time now. He or his wife would be upstairs in less than a minute to check on the baby. I had to move fast.

I grabbed the files, and switched off the desk light. I didn’t care that he would find out tomorrow that somebody had stolen his files. Considering he had stolen them from me, by whatever means, I couldn’t see him going to the police to report the theft.

As I closed the door behind me quietly I could hear a door opening downstairs. I sped to the living room window which I had left open. It saved me valuable seconds. I slid through it quickly and pulled the window back down when I was safely holding onto the trellis. I jumped down and landed quietly on the front lawn. I jogged to the car and drove off. Nobody had seen me. The papers lay on the passenger seat of my car. I couldn’t wait to get back to look at them in detail. How much did he know about my research? How much had he stolen? And more importantly, how much had he duplicated in his own research?

I was still waiting for the results of Annette’s contaminated blood and hoped by the time I would be back in my lab, my tests would be complete.

11. Annette’s Departure

When I woke up, I was alone. I had slept really well and remembered my dream: being kissed by Vince again and again. Then I realized it wasn’t a dream. He really had kissed me over and over again, there on the couch. And he had touched and kissed my breasts, following a little enticement from me, but nevertheless, he hadn’t rejected my advances.

I didn’t know what had come over him, but he had started kissing me in such a tender and tentative way I had felt like floating on a cloud. Something had changed, I could feel it. Was he finally ready to go further?

I figured the fact that I was incapacitated and under his medical supervision made him feel he was taking advantage of me if he would make love to me under these circumstances. Even though I didn’t feel that way, I could understand this could be a reason why he was holding back.

I would just have to get better fast, I decided. I checked my leg and felt only a dull pain which was bearable. Vince had left the Zimmer frame next to the bed and I used it to lift myself out of bed.

When I shuffled past the stairs, I could hear some noise coming from downstairs. He was already in his lab working.

I took my time in the bathroom. The hot water from the shower felt good on my skin. I imagined the water drops to be his fingers touching me. I had been surprised when he had told me I shouldn’t let him touch my breasts, but in the end he hadn’t been able to resist.  

I felt ever since after he had kissed me in the lab, he had been much more in control of his emotions. Was I losing my appeal to him? Would he lose interest in me quickly? Was that why he wanted to take it slow, because he knew it would be over fast?

I didn’t want to think about it. Once I had dried off I applied moisturizer before combing my hair. I looked into the mirror wondering what he saw in me. Was I just some easy distraction he needed once in a while? I hoped not.

My hair was dry and there was no more reason to stay in the bathroom. I slipped into Vince’s bathrobe and used the Zimmer frame to enter his walk-in closet, where I got dressed.

Even after I was dressed, he hadn’t come back upstairs yet, and I didn’t want to wait for him any longer. I needed to see his face and make sure he was still the way he had been the night before, all tender and sweet.

At the stairs I left the Zimmer frame and used the railing for support to get downstairs. It was surprisingly easy. When I entered the lab, his back was turned to me as he sat over stacks of paper.

He heard me and turned. I could immediately tell that he looked tired and worried. Had he been working all night? His beard stubbles told me he hadn’t shaved yet.

He leapt up and with one swift move he took me by the waist and lifted me onto one of the lab benches. Then he simply buried his head in my chest.

“I’m so glad you’re alright,” I heard him mumble.

I didn’t understand. I had been sleeping upstairs. Why wouldn’t I be alright?

I let my fingers run through his hair. “Of course I’m alright. Why wouldn’t I?”

He lifted his head and his beautiful green eyes locked with mine. “Entwhistle’s research.” He interrupted himself. “I came so close to losing you.”

As he buried his head in my chest again, I realized with this one sentence he had told me all I needed to know. I wasn’t just a fling for him.

I wondered what had happened overnight. Had he found something online which told him what Entwhistle was doing? It was highly unlikely that Entwhistle had published anything yet, when he was still in the middle of the clinical trial. Even I knew that much.

Or had he analyzed the serum in more depth and found it to be more dangerous than he had suspected? It was likely, especially since it seemed Vince had spent all night up without any sleep.

“Have you slept?”

He shook his head. “I don’t need much sleep.”

I pulled his head up to look at me and could feel his stubbles. “You need to rest. How else are you going to fend off my advances?” Making a joke was the right thing to do.

He suddenly smiled. “Even exhausted I could fend you off, if I wanted to.”

“Do you want to risk it?”

“Better not. You might be stronger than you look.”

He helped me get upstairs. “It looks like you’re a lot more mobile now. How’s your leg?”

“Much better. It barely hurts.”

“Do you mind if I lay down on the bed?”

“Of course not, it’s your bed. Do you need help undressing?” I smirked.

“Not from you, I don’t!” he said, but laughed. “And I’m keeping my clothes on, just to be safe.”

“That’s no fun.”

He shook his head and headed for the bed. I made myself breakfast and decided to eat it on the couch. When I realized I couldn’t carry my bowl at the same time as holding onto the Zimmer frame, I risked the few steps without it.

It went better than I thought, but I was glad the couch wasn’t far. I kept the volume of the TV down so I wouldn’t disturb Vince. He was stretched out on top of the covers and completely still.

I resisted the temptation to walk over to the bed and lie down next to him. I wasn’t sure how he would react. He not only looked exhausted, I also got the feeling he was deeply worried about something. I would ask him about it later when he was ready to talk.

I flicked through the channels. The weather report showed it would be foggy again, which was no surprise this time of year. I switched to the next channel.

“… another breach of data security for UCSF.
” The anchor woman said. “
Dr. Entwhistle is a researcher …
” I listened up a soon as I heard Entwhistle’s name. What were they saying about him?

“
After the break-in at his home in Noe Valley last night, the University released a statement saying no confidential patient files were compromised, but notes pertaining to Dr. Entwhistle’s research were stolen. This is not the first time Dr. Entwhistle’s research files have been compromised. A fire broke out in a residential hotel in the Tenderloin after …”
she continued onto another story.