“A small one,” he said modestly. “Battery operated. But now we don’t need to wait so long for our clothes to dry. Do you want to toast the cattails or dry the clothes?”
“I love that both jobs involve getting warm. I’ll take the clothes; I miss using things with batteries. Um. That’s not what I meant!” She went bright red.
It took him a moment to think of what embarrassing thing used batteries. The image of Fen using a vibrator on herself momentarily deprived him of speech, so he was unable to protest that he knew what she meant.
“Anyway, it’ll be great to not be wet,” she said hastily. In the silence that followed, he was clearly not the only person who saw a double meaning in that. “Okay, you need to get toasting so I can have something to put in my mouth—I mean to stop myself from talking—oh God!”
Carter was torn between cracking up and rushing off to use the man’s equivalent of a vibrator—his own right hand—on himself.
Fen with a vibrator. Fen getting wet. Fen opening her mouth to receive his…
He gave himself a little smack on the back of the hand:Stop. Refocus.All else aside, she was obviously deeply embarrassed.
“I’m glad you like the dryer,” he said.
“I love the dryer.” She’d been alternating blowing hot air over the hanging clothes and the wet coat she was enveloped in, but now she turned it on him. The heat went beyond pleasant and into luxurious. “Isn’t that great? Thanks, Carter. Not just for making a dryer in the middle of a swamp, but for knowing that making a dryer was a fantastic use of your time and equipment. I know people call you a genius all the time so it doesn’t mean anything to you… but you’re a genius.”
“Youdon’t call me a genius all the time. So thanks. It means something, coming from you.”
She gave him a startled look, and he realized that he’d spoken his feelings without thinking about what they’d sound like. Yesterday he wouldn’t have cared what Fenella Kim thought of him. But now, after everything they’d been through together, he did. He cared a lot.
He wasn’t sure how he felt about her knowing that, though. So to make it seem less… significant… he added, “I mean, you’re not just anyone. You’re a genius yourself.”
She stiffened, all the warmth and playfulness vanishing. In words that seemed carved out of ice, she said, “I’ll thank you not to condescend to me. I know perfectly well what I am.”
Carter was genuinely bewildered. “What are you talking about? I wasn’t condescending. I meant it.”
She gave him a sharp look. “Oh? Exactly how do you think I’m a genius?”
“Who doesn’t think you’re one? I created Howe Enterprises, you created Little Bit, we both got on the cover ofWired.Anyone who thinks I’m a genius thinks you’re one too. I guess unless they’re a sexist, racist idiot who thinks only white men count. But if they’re like that, then their opinions don’t count.” When she didn’t reply, he added, “You don’t think I’m like that, do you?”
“No.” She shook her head for emphasis, sending locks of hair tumbling around her face. Her hair had dried into a sexy mess of tangled black. He’d always thought it was perfectly straight and sleek, but apparently it only was because she styled it that way. Left to its own devices, it was slightly wavy. “I’ve never thought that.”
Carter was relieved. “Then…?”
She impatiently brushed a black strand out of her eyes. “You’re an inventor. Howe Enterprises is a success because you invent new things and build prototypes of them yourself. I’m a businesswoman. Little Bit is a success because I think of little improvements on existing products and I tell the tech people on my staff what they are, and they build them for me.”
Carter was starting to get frustrated. “Iknow.That’s its whole thing.” Imitating the crisp tones of the actor who said her slogan in commercials, he recited, “‘Little Bit is just a little bit better.’”
“So, you’re the genius. I only think of little fixes and market them.”
What she was saying was so foreign to his understanding that it took him a moment to realize that she wasn’t putting him on. At last, he said, “Are you seriously saying you think doing what I do takes more intelligence than doing what you do?”
“Idon’t, but everyone else does.”
“I don’t.”
Her dark eyes widened as she took in his sincerity. “You don’t?”
“I don’t.”
Suspicion flickered across her face. “That’s not what you toldWired.”
“Our companies were—are—rivals,” he pointed out. “I could hardly tellWiredI thought yours was exactly as good as mine. Our stock would drop and yours would rise.”
“But if it wasn’t for the stock…?”
“Fen,” Carter said. “Would you like to know a secret?”
