Total Immersion by Alice Gaines Page A

fabulous evening, I decided to get laid instead.”
    This was not his Susan. Although uninhibited in bed, she didn’t usually talk about her sex life publicly. He held out his hands toward her. “Calm down, honey. You’re not acting rational.”
    “Isn’t he cute? He still calls me ‘honey’ after we broke up six months ago.” She went to him, threw one arm around his shoulders, and with the other hand tapped the end of his nose. “I didn’t originally come for sex, but now that I’m here, what the hell? How about it, for old time’s sake, huggy bear?”
    “Huggy bear?” Madeline’s voice went down a couple of octaves in pitch, the way it usually did whenever she didn’t believe something could possibly be true.
    “A nickname,” he said. “Look, Susan—”
    “I am looking,” she said. “And you’re more handsome than ever. You been working out?”
    “I always work out.” He’d seen her tipsy from wine in the past, but this was different. Something else had gotten into her system. She’d never believed in experimenting with substances she didn’t recognize, which meant someone must have slipped her something, either just before she’d arrived here or, worse, afterward.
    “You’re doing something right. You look fabulous, fabulous, fabulous.” Susan punctuated each fabulous with a poke of her finger against his chest.
    “Adam, do something,” Madeline said softly.
    “Say, you must be Madeline,” Susan said.
    “I am.”
    Still with one arm around Adam’s shoulders, Susan swung in Madeline’s general direction. “I used to hate you because of what Adam does for a living.”
    Madeline stared over Susan’s head at Adam. He shrugged. “She doesn’t know what she’s saying.”
    “Oh, but I do,” Susan said. “I hated you, but hate’s such a nasty emotion, isn’t it? Say, you’re really beautiful. I think I love you.”
    Madeline cleared her throat. Not because she disapproved of lesbian relationships. This was San Francisco, after all. But clearly Susan was off her rocker.
    Adam slid his arm around Susan’s waist. “Why don’t I take you home?”
    “To the apartment we used to share? I don’t think so.” She smiled up at him. “If this is a sex club, then I want some. In fact, I want lots of it.”
    “Listen to me, Susan. I think you’ve been drugged. Probably ecstasy,” Adam said. “Did you have anything to drink or eat here a little while ago?”
    “Of course. One of your coworkers—super-sweet guy I met in the lobby while I was waiting for you—offered me a glass of zin. I never turn down good zin.”
    “Were you,” Adam cleared his throat, “hiring him?”
    That seemed to confuse her for a second. When her expression cleared, she said with a laugh, “Oh, you mean that. ”
    “Well, yeah.”
    “I just came to talk to you. I didn’t want to do it on the phone,” she said. “But now that I think of it . . .”
    Well, shit. “Did you happen to get the super-sweet guy’s name?”
    “Frank. No, Phil,” she said. “Definitely Phil.”
    “Phil Stewart?” Madeline asked.
    “I didn’t get his last name,” Susan said.
    “We have only one Phil. Damn it. I knew there was something off about him,” Madeline opened the door to the corridor and spoke to someone outside. “Find Phil and send him here. Immediately.”
    The new hire. She remembered that Phil had come with excellent references, and everything about him had checked out. He might have seemed a little too sincere, but everyone got nervous during job interviews. He’d performed adequately until now.
    After closing the door again, Madeline approached Susan. “I owe you an apology, Ms.—”
    “McGraw,” Adam supplied.
    “Ms. McGraw,” Madeline said. “This is, as you crudely put it, a sex club, but we never take advantage of our clients. I’d be happy to treat you to the use of our facilities at some later date.”
    What the fuck? Susan a client at Club Ecstasy? She made a good living at her