Robert Ludlum's the Bourne Evolution - Brian Freeman Page 0,44
that understood?”
He staggered back. “Yes … Miss Shirley.”
She grabbed his head tightly between her two hands and used her tongue to lick the blood off his cheek. “Better.”
Miss Shirley sauntered past him into the suite as if she owned it. Kevin followed, unable to rip his eyes away from her long legs. Her gold dress barely covered her ass. She put down her purse, went to the tall windows, and admired the stunning view, with one knee bent and her hands on her hips. Then she spun around, used two fingers to peel away the straps on her shoulders, and let the dress fall into a gold swirl at her ankles. Other than her heels, she was naked. Her rose-tipped breasts swelled like pyramids on her torso, and her build was thin.
Kevin reached for the tie on his robe so he could undress himself, but she held up a hand, stopping him.
“Leave your robe on. I’m the prize in this room. Focus on me.”
“I understand … Miss Shirley.”
“Impress me, Kevin,” she directed him.
He stared at her, puzzled, trying to understand what she wanted. In the process, he forgot the rules. “I’m sorry?”
“I want to be impressed. Any man I’m with must impress me.”
“What do you want … Miss Shirley?”
“Offer me something worthy of me,” she snapped.
“I have champagne. Would you like some champagne … Miss Shirley?”
“Champagne is a given. It’s barely even a start, but open it anyway.”
He stumbled to the wet bar and removed a bottle of Krug from the refrigerator. He struggled to peel away the foil with trembling fingers and undo the cage at the top of the bottle. He’d barely touched the cork when it shot out of the bottle and hit the ceiling, and foam bubbled over his hands.
“I trust that’s not the kind of performance I can expect from you later,” Miss Shirley sneered.
Kevin poured two glasses until they were nearly spilling over the crystal rims and brought one over to her. She was inches away, a naked goddess, and he had to adjust his robe to hide the effect she was having on him. She drank the champagne as she had the tequila, with one swallow, and held out the empty glass, which he scurried to refill.
Her gaze traveled around the dimly lit room. To the laptop. To the dining room and chandelier. To the neon of Las Vegas Boulevard.
“Impress me,” she said again. “Aren’t you an important man, Kevin? They told me you’re an important man. Prove it.”
“I’m worth nearly half a billion dollars … Miss Shirley.”
She shrugged. “That sum is below average by my standards. Which is also what I see under your robe. If that’s all you can offer me, we can proceed with the thirty seconds it will take me to finish you off, and I’ll be on my way.”
“Wait!” he begged her, his mind working furiously. No other woman had ever aroused him like this one. He couldn’t let her leave. “Wait, I can show you something amazing. This will impress you. See all those tourists down on the street?”
“Yes.”
“I can make them take off their clothes and jump in the fountain.”
Her head cocked with curiosity, and her fingertips played idly across one of her erect nipples. “Are you serious?”
“I swear! I can do it … Miss Shirley.”
Kevin grabbed his laptop and a pair of mini binoculars from his briefcase and brought them over to the tall windows. He handed the binoculars to Miss Shirley, who aimed them at the crowd. His hunger for this woman was literally making his mouth water, and he had to clench the laptop hard to stop himself from reaching out to caress her bare skin.
“How does this work?” she asked him.
“I run a company called Prescix,” Kevin explained. “It’s the hottest social media site out there…. You must have heard of it. We tell people that the software knows what you want to do before you know it yourself. The algorithm uses thousands of personal factors—where you are, who you’re with, your medical history, your social history, your likes and dislikes—and it calculates what you will want to do next. People call it spooky because it’s so accurate, but they don’t know the half of what it can do. It can also influence behavior, which is what advertisers love. Watch! I highlight the geographic area right here, and then I submit a prompt in the executive-level code: ‘Take off your clothes and jump in the fountain.’ I’ll also define a few characteristics