Page 101 of The Ampersand Effect

The words whispered in her ears, like a siren’s call to her shielded heart.

GRIER—5:23 a.m.

Hi—You’re up early! Or have you not gone to

sleep yet? Too windy to swim. Finishing

some yoga before work.

TOBIN—5:23 a.m.

Can’t sleep. Giving up on it. I was

thinking about you. I thought you might

be awake so I thought I’d say hi.

She rolled over onto her side, staring at her screen, watching the little dots appear—stupidly excited just to be talking to Grier in real-time.

GRIER—5:24 a.m.

Were you thinking about me and that’s why

you can’t sleep? Or is something else going

on? Because, if it’s me, I’m flattered… but I

can think of much better ways I can keep you

up at night.

Good gods, this woman could take her from a state of sleep deprivation to slick and wanting in a single text.

Tobin considered herself fairly versed in the art of seduction. She knew how to hood her eyes, to lick her lips, to drag her eyes over a woman’s face and body until there was no mistaking what she wanted—without saying a word. She knew where to chastely brush against a woman, to let her feel her proximity—suggestion simmering just beneath the surface. She knew how to drop her voice into that low, husky register that elicited the faintest perceptible clench in a woman’s abdomen—as her meaning settled deep in her pelvis and stirred a want for exactly what Tobin was offering.

But Grier’s ability to name her desire—to articulate exactly what she wanted and how she wanted it—obliterated Tobin’s concept of flirting and degraded her otherwise self-important aptitude.

It didn’t just turn her on. It dismantled her.

And when Grier brought that bold, unflinching clarity into the bedroom?

Tobin had never felt anything like it. And she was fuckingherefor it!

TOBIN—5:26am

Where do I sign up?

She grinned, rolling out of bed and pulling on her flight suit. She slid her phone into her pocket just as the hangar phone rang. She heard Eddie answer and, from the clipped tone, understood that they were about to mobilize.

One look from Eddie’s stormy gray eyes and Tobin knew it was a rescue. She gestured toward the Sikorsky, and after a nod from Eddie, she climbed into the box office and began the pre-flight checklist.

Within seconds, Eddie, Mike, and Jada were scrambling into their respective positions.

“Another mudslide,” Eddie declared.

“Oof, that’s the second one this week,” Tobin replied, checking her dials.

“The first with a victim,” Eddie responded. “A fisherman saw the whole thing from his boat. When he spotted a patch of yellow on the cliff face after the flow, he figured there was a civilian hanging on and called it in.”