by Selena Kitt
Will chuckled. “I’ve heard that.”
“He said at first he thought it wasn’t real.” Haley’s hand cupped his neck, heating him up. Her thumb stroked the tiny hairs there. “But it turned out to be true.”
“Music is powerful.”
“Yes,” Haley breathed. She was so close now that all he would have to do is turn his head for their lips to meet. “So tell me something, Will. Are you real?”
He turned to answer her and that was all it took. Her mouth opened under his, her arms going around his neck, her body pressed hard and insistent against him.
Will tried to resist, but Haley cupped his face in her hands, exploring with her tongue, stroking the roof of his mouth the same soft, deliberate way she’d stroked his back. She held him fast and kissed him long and hard. There was no doubt or hesitation in it, and that gave him a hope he thought had flown weeks ago.
“Haley.” He breathed her name as they parted, feeling dazed. “Listen... maybe...”
“I want this.” She said this clearly, with conviction. “I want you, Will. I’ve wanted you from the beginning.”
He blinked in surprise. “Now I’m the one wondering if you’re real.”
“Do I feel real?” She pressed herself fully into him, breasts flattened against his chest. He groaned, hands going to her waist.
“You feel very real.”
“Is that a yes?” she asked, biting her lip, the very gesture that had first caught his attention. “Do you want me, too?”
“Yes.” His head cleared in that moment, with assent on his lips, and he kissed her again.
Slowly, they stood, still embracing. Will was able to get a more satisfying grip on her firm, lean body. The more deeply she kissed him, the tighter he held her. Her tongue plunged into his mouth as his hands moved down to cup her behind. He felt her trembling and knew if he didn’t break off the kiss, he was going to take her right there on the piano.
“Will, please,” she whispered against his lips when they parted.
“Where?” he murmured.
“Bedroom.” She led him and he followed, still dazed, already undressing her with his gaze.
They had barely gotten through the bedroom door when he grabbed her, pressing her up against the wall. Haley welcomed him, wrapping her arms around his neck, pulling his head to hers so their tongues could intermingle. She slid her hands down to pull his shirt out of his pants as he pressed her, pubis to pubis, against the wall.
Finally, he let go, unbuttoning his shirt as he watched Haley pull her shirt up over her head. Her bra was black with lace brimming at the top edges. His cock strained at his trousers as he grabbed her at the waist, lifting her up and whirling her around to put her on the bed. He quickly slid her skirt off, leaving her in just a bra and panties, a sight that made his mouth water, seeing her lying back on the bed like that.
“Take those off.” Haley tugged at his trousers with the toes of one foot.
Will did as she asked, sliding his shirt off, too, seeing the way her eyes lit up as she looked at him. Her hands moved over his abdomen and chest when he leaned in to kiss her. His mouth moved down her throat, tongue circling in the hollow, before dipping lower.
Haley’s head went back, her hands playing in Will’s hair, as he managed to undo her bra, letting her breasts free. They were small, perky, gorgeous.
Will sucked at her nipples, loving the sound of her moan. It vibrated through him like the sweetest music. Haley’s moans grew louder as he kissed lower down her belly, sliding his thumbs under the elastic of her panties and pulling them slowly past her thighs. She wiggled and squirmed her way out of them, parting her legs eagerly as he settled between them.
He stroked her hips and thighs, skating over them with his palms, feathering kisses over her pussy. She was shaved smooth down below, with a light spattering of blonde hair up top. It tickled his nose when he nuzzled his way in, parting her lips with his tongue.
She tasted like heaven. It had been so long, Will had almost forgotten that hot, musky taste, and he drank his fill, burying his face there, listening to her cry out for him. She moaned and shuddered when he pushed his tongue deep into her before pulling it back out to focus on her clit.
The first time she came close to orgasm, Haley let out a deep gasp and then another one, like someone surfacing after being submerged underwater for a long time. Then she began to pant heavily, moaning and quivering all over. The vibration moved up her body in long waves. He let her come down slowly, spending time kissing her wet thighs, petting her trembling abdomen.
And then he went back in again.
Haley groaned and grabbed his head, but she didn’t push him away.
He didn’t count how many times she came after that. He didn’t think she did either. But finally, Haley grabbed his hair with both hands and pulled him up, shaking all over, begging him to stop.
“One more,” he urged, reaching his tongue out for her quivering little clit. It was red and throbbing from his attention. “Come for me one more time.”
“I want you inside me.”
He couldn’t resist her plea. His cock throbbed, trapped against the bed, and Will moved to position himself over her.
“Oh Will,” she breathed, reaching down to squeeze his cock in her hand. “You’re so hard.”
“I want you,” he confessed.
“You have me.” She aimed him, her pussy full and swollen from all his attention, sliding him up and down the slit. Will moaned, closing his eyes, telling himself to gain control. This woman could be the undoing of him.
Will entered her slowly and she let go of his cock so she could put her arms around his waist. Her legs kicked out so she could grip his hips. He let his weight press on her, working his cock in and out between her legs. Haley lifted her own hips to meet him with each delicious thrust.
“You feel so good,” she whispered into his ear, her mouth soft, breath hot. “Oh God, Will, that’s so good.”
“Yes,” was all he could manage, teeth clenched, working hard to hold himself back inside of her. He wanted to feel her come for him, wanted the hot, pressing suction of her pussy all around his aching cock.
Haley arched beneath him. “Oh my fucking God!”
Will pumped deeper, harder, feeling her shuddering underneath him.
“Don’t stop!” she begged, rolling her hips, sending unreal waves of pleasure through his body. Her hands, clenched into fists, beat at his back. “Oh God, fuck me! Harder, Will! Harder!”
He grunted and obliged, giving her more, giving her as much of him as he could.
“I’m so close,” she whimpered, fingernails digging into his skin. It stung, but he didn’t care.
“Look at me,” he told her, going up onto his elbows. She opened her eyes to him. There was just enough light in the room for him to see the enormous depths there.
“Will.” She touched his cheek, fingers moving to his mouth, tracing his lips. “Please.”
“Come for me,” he urged, driving deep into her, his body threatening to explode, balls drawn up so tight they ached. “Come all over my cock, Haley.”
“Oh yes, yes,” she breathed, pressing up to meet him, grinding against him. They worked together, loin to loin, engaged in a desperate struggle to bring forth a mutual explosion.
And then it happened.
Haley came for him, suddenly, beautifully, like the time-lapse of a flower opening. And Will followed her, feeling the shudder and pull of her around him, the rhythmic vibration drawing him out.
Together, they went up and over the edge of a gigantic, overflowing dam and then down, down a vertiginous height as the dam burst beneath them.
It took him a few moments to be able to move or speak again, but when he attempted to lift his weight from her, Haley held fast.
“Stay with me.” She wrapped herself around him and refused to let him go.
So, he did.
Chapter 8
“Will, please, oh God, you have to come!” H
aley sobbed.
“What is it?” Will sat up straight at his desk, clutching his cell phone. Haley had asked him to go to lunch but he’d declined, insisting that he had to stay to go over the research. He’d been poring over it and had lost track of time. It was almost 2 p.m. and Haley had left at noon. She never took such a long lunch, although he wouldn’t have objected.
“It’s... it’s Piper.” Haley’s voice hitched, and he could barely make out her words.
“Where are you?”
“The hospital!” she wailed. “Piper’s in a coma, Will! A coma!”
“She’s... what?” Will shook his head, trying to clear it, sure he must have misunderstood her.
“I’m at the hospital. I went to see Piper at lunch. She was just playing, Will.” Haley took a breath, trying to steady her voice, and it helped. “She was playing with another little girl. The teacher had brought in hula hoops. They were dancing. And then... then...”
“What happened, Haley?” Will stood, reaching for his suit coat hanging over the back of his chair. “What in the hell happened? Did she fall?”
“She collapsed!” she cried, breathless. “Out of nowhere. She passed out.”
“She fainted?”
“I ran over and picked her up. She opened her eyes for a second and signed that she was okay.” More sobs. It broke Will’s heart. “Then she passed out again. She’s been unconscious ever since.”
“What do the doctors say?”
“They don’t know.” Haley gasped for breath. “Oh Will, please come. Please.”
“I’m on my way.”
He made it to the hospital in less than ten minutes.
Haley was sitting by Piper’s bedside, holding her hand. Will took Haley’s other hand, squeezing gently and pressing his lips to her forehead. Her face was wet with tears.
“I don’t understand,” she whispered, eyes full of fear when she looked up at him.
“It’ll be okay,” he lied, reaching for her. Haley let him hold her, rock her, murmur comforting words he wanted to mean, but wasn’t sure he could promise.
He kissed Piper on the forehead, too, before heading to the nurse’s station to make them call Piper’s doctors.
Dr. Will Pfeiffer was well known, and the entire team showed up to speak to him. They took him into a conference room and gave him all of the information they had. The MRI, the CAT scan, lab work. Everything looked normal. The neurologist, Dr. Olafsen, was the best in the country, and so far, he said Piper’s coma was a mystery.
They had questions for him about the hearing device Piper had inserted. Will couldn’t say much—his NDA precluded that—but he agreed that if no other explanation could be found, the M-TiME device should be removed to see if there was any improvement.
When he went back to join Haley by Piper’s hospital bed, he told her what the doctors suspected.
“Oh my God, Will.” Haley clutched his arm, her eyes widening in horror. “Do you think it could be the device?”
“I don’t know.” He swallowed, watching Haley smooth Piper’s hair back from her forehead. “I certainly hope not.”
Haley kissed her daughter’s cheek, tears falling onto her still face. Will put his hand on Haley’s shoulder but she shook it off. When she turned to face him, he actually took a step back. There was so much anger in her expression, it was actually frightening. Haley’s protective mama bear had awakened and was focused entirely on him in that moment.
“Haley, listen—” He gulped, trying to head off whatever was coming, but it wasn’t possible.
“You listen to me, Will Pfeiffer,” she hissed, wagging her finger at him. “I want that device taken out of my daughter’s ear today. Today! Do you hear me?”
He nodded. He wasn’t about to argue.
“I know you hear me, but she can’t, not anymore—because she’s in a coma!”
“Haley, I’m sorry, I—”
“Stop.” She held her hand up, her lower lip trembling. “I blame myself too. I do. I wanted this for her. But Will, what good is a device that allows her to hear if it puts her in a goddamned coma?”
“No good at all,” he agreed readily enough. He wasn’t about to point out that there was no proof, as of yet, that the device had anything to do with the coma. He understood her position. How could he not?
“I want it out.” She turned back to her daughter, so still and lifeless. Only the gentle rise and fall of her chest told them she was still breathing.
“Okay.” He reached out to touch her again, her arm this time, and she shook him off once more.
“And I want you out,” she said softly, not turning her head toward him. “I... I can’t be around you right now.”
“Haley...”
“Please.” She moved away from him, closer to Piper. “Just go.”
Will wanted to reach out for her again, but he did as she asked.
He left.
He found himself back at his office, just as everyone else was leaving for the day. He walked past Haley’s empty desk, seeing her presence in everything there. A photograph of Piper—upside down, swinging on the playground, her blonde hair grazing the sand—sat beside Haley’s computer. The screen saver was all photographs of Piper. A little aloe plant sat on the corner of her desk, beside a candy dish filled with Werther’s and Tootsie Rolls. A stick of Burt’s Bees lip balm was wedged between the keyboard and the monitor.
He escaped the sight of Haley and Piper, going into his own office. He was worried about Piper, he was worried about his relationship with Haley, and he simply couldn’t bear the thought that the device might have anything to do with Piper’s condition. But the scientist in him was strong, and his mind went back to and lingered on that anomaly in their data. He went over and over it, the way you worry a sore spot in your mouth with your tongue.
Sitting at his desk, he brooded, staring out the window at the view Haley had once exclaimed over, not seeing any of it. It wasn’t until the phone rang that he moved again. He picked it up, answering, “Dr. Pfeiffer,” hoping it was Haley calling with good news. His heart hammered in his throat until the voice on the other end said, “Oh, sorry, wrong number,” and hung up.
Will replaced the phone, chiding himself. If it had been Haley, she would have called his cell phone. He pulled it out of his pocket, making sure it was turned on, volume up. No calls. He sighed, putting it back, and that’s when he noticed it for the first time.
A manila envelope sat in the middle of his paper-filled desk. It was unmarked, but he was sure it hadn’t been there before he left for the hospital.
The envelope was sealed, and he used his letter opener to slit the end.
Inside were photocopies. Some of them were rather blurry. Others were crooked. They looked hastily copied. They were interdepartmental memos, and just from a cursory glance, he could see they were about the children who were participating in the study.
But Will had never received these. The “to” section of the memos didn’t include his name or any member of his team. It did, however, include Ratte and his team—a secretive clique who moved around Hamlen like they were the CIA. They attended meetings but rarely ever spoke. They never attended any of the picnics or intermingled with the other employees. They kept to themselves and reported only to Ratte.
Will began reading the memos, growing increasingly disturbed as time went on. The sun was beginning to set when he finished with the last memo and he put it down on his desk.
Now he understood the anomaly they’d seen in the data but had been unable to explain.
Eighteen percent of the children in the study were experiencing some level of neurological disorder, from tinnitus all the way to several instances of unexplained comas.
“Piper,” Will said aloud. It was the device, then. And it was all his fault.
But why had all of this been kept from him? If he’d known of even one instance of such an extreme side-effect, he would have terminated the study immediately.
And then he rea
lized—that was exactly why he hadn’t been told.
Because Ratte didn’t want the study ended. He wanted the device rushed to market, at all costs.
“Thank God for whistleblowers,” Will murmured, putting the photocopies back into the envelope. He patted it fondly before sliding it into the middle drawer of his desk, under a bunch of other files and papers. “Thank you, whoever you are.”
He found Dr. Ratte still in his office, sitting at his computer, squinting at the screen.
Will had considered how he would broach the subject as he walked down the hall and rounded the corner, how he might approach things carefully, perhaps glean more information. But he didn’t do that. Will let his emotions get the best of him. These weren’t just “test subjects” who were suffering. This was Piper. And Haley. And they were... what were they?
Will realized, as he confronted Ratte, that they were the most important people in his entire world. And he didn’t want to lose them.
“Where did you get this eighteen percent figure from?” Ratte demanded when Will finished.
Will realized his mistake in giving the exact number. “A... a reliable source.”
“I want to know where you got that figure!” Ratte’s face was beginning to redden.
Will considered telling him about the memos, but he didn’t want to unleash some sort of witch hunt. He didn’t like Ratte’s team, but if there was a mole among them, he didn’t want them punished for giving him much-needed information.
“It doesn’t matter,” Will snarled. “You’ve been withholding data, purposely cutting me out of the loop. This explains the anomalies I pointed out in our last meeting. All of the data on the harmonic frequencies was missing!”
“Any data collected is the property of Hamlen Labs.”
“Hamlen is under contractual obligation to reveal that data to the research coordinator of the project,” Will snapped. “That’s me.”
“The study is over, and the grant has ended,” Dr. Ratte reminded him. “You’re no longer the research coordinator. You have no right to any of that information anymore.”
