Deus Ex Human Revolution: Shadow's Showdown

Chapter 29: The Art of War

Washington

The sound of the alarm clock woke Adam with intrusive breaking into his subconscious. He was lying on his back with his right arm bent and raised above his head, feeling an odd weight on his chest. Under normal circumstances, he would have said it was probably a cat, one that was a little overfed. The man slowly turned his head to the right pleased to find it was Laura asleep and pressing her cheek to his chest. It was one of those mornings that could have lasted an eternity, but alas, good things can't last too long. The woman stirred and yawned slowly opening her sleepy eyes. She muttered something under her breath but to him, it was only intermittent streams of warm air tickling his skin.

"Holy shit..." she muttered again. "My head..."

"Good morning hummingbird," he replied, still making no movement.

"Hummi... Wait, where am I?"

Lying on her side, Laura leaned on her elbow and then sat up. She tried to piece together the shreds of information coming into her not-so-conscious brain. She knew she was not at her place but at Adam's. But how?

"You had drunk a bit too much last night..." he tried to explain, but she got into his words.

"Did I wandered to the wrong room again? I'm not here! I'm gone! Just give me a sec!" she exclaimed trying to escape from the bed.

"Wait, not so fast," he stopped her. "I brought you here myself. I didn't want to rummage through your things to find your room card so..."

The woman looked at the dress resting on the back of the armchair, then at herself. "Wait a minute. You undressed me! Without my knowledge! Without my consent! You..."

At a moment like this, Jensen was grateful for the invention of the cell phone, which ringing interrupted their conversation. He hoped Laura will cool off by the time of conversation. He looked at her apologetically and picked up the call.

"Yes, we'll be there just a little later. Laura and I need to figure out a few things. Can you guys handle it? Yeah? That's great."

Laura had lost the urge to reproach Adam for touching her when she was drunk. She looked at her watch in horror finding that it was about 10 am. She was not supposed to cause him any problems, but in the meantime, she was doing everything in reverse. When the man finished talking she was already putting on her dress.

"Running away as usual?" she heard Adam's soft murmur behind her and felt how his fingertips gently stroked her back as he helped her zip her dress.

"I'm doing everything wrong," Laura stated in a depressed tone as she took a mirror out of her purse.

"That's not true. Our job here is mostly to supervise. We don't need to be present during placing every inch of cable and screwing each bolt," he explained with calmness.

"I have to go anyway," she replied taking her shoes and heading to the exit.

She wanted to open the door, but Jensen placed his hand outstretched to the side on it. The woman stood motionless looking at it and didn't know what to do. Somewhere deep inside, an old fear had awakened. Kratos had acted similarly, but after all, the ex-SWAT did not resemble him in any way.

Adam no longer thought about how many of his rules he had broken and how many more were left to break. He leaned in and kissed her long, hot, and with passion. The woman didn't fight back, she succumbed to his will, surrendered completely to the moment. Longing, pain, fear, uncertainty, joy, tenderness, concern, lo... She felt all his emotions. They were so intense she couldn't bear them.