Fever Dream sneak peek

Here’s a brief excerpt from FEVER DREAM (due out May 22).  It’s a light moment from early in the book…

I don’t know how long I’ve been lying here, completely spent, when I finally notice the champagne.  I manage to summon enough energy to sit up and reach over to the ice bucket, which has no more ice in it.  Our champagne is now sitting in a bath of coldish water, but that’s fine.  I hand the bottle to Brian, and it takes him only a moment to open it.  The cork flies off, and it is so very nice to not have to care where it went.  While he pours me a glass, I ask him, “So if you’re James Bond, which girl am I?  The one he sleeps with in the middle of the movie who’s secretly working for the villain, or the good one that he gets together with at the end?”  Not that he was thinking of anyone but me a little while ago, but I may as well play the fantasy out all the way.

He gives me a deep sigh and a shake of the head.  Obviously I ought to already know who I’m supposed to be.  “You’re Tracy, except…”  He trails off, rethinking his answer.  It doesn’t mean anything to me anyway.  “From ‘On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.’  She’s the only one he ever really loved.  He even married her.  But you can’t be her.”

“Why not?”  That’s not so bad – the only one who ever got James Bond to the altar?  That’s pretty good company, I’d think.

“Well, she dies at the end.  So obviously you’re not her.”  I don’t like the direction this is going, but, fortunately, I know how to fix that.  I drain my champagne in one long swallow and bat my eyes at Brian, and grab his left hand, holding his wedding ring in front of his face.

“Whoever I am, what do you think your wife would say if she could see you right now?”

He takes me in his arms, crushes me to him.  “Let’s find out.”  As it turns out, his wife doesn’t have much to say, but she’s awfully vocal all the same.

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