Harper's Submission [Golden Dolphin 2] (Siren Publishing Classic) by Skye Michaels Page A

Boston on foot all day, but she had jumped right in with both feet, so to speak.
     
    * * * *
     
    Morgan was sitting on the private deck off the master suite while he made the calls he had to make to his office in New York. One was to Joe Levine, the director of the double-blind clinical trial of Maxprotem, one of the new drugs for which Court Industries was on the verge of obtaining preliminary FDA approval. It was one of Morgan’s pet projects, and he was anxious to know how it was going. So far the results of the human testing had not been stellar. He had great hopes that this new drug was going to be a viable answer for early onset or childhood diabetes. It had been in development and testing for several years. The competition between the various drug companies, especially the smaller ones, to be the first to come up with a new treatment or drug was intense. The general public did not really understand the years of work and testing that went into bringing a new drug to the market, not to mention the risks of unknown side effects. The threat of industrial espionage was very real. He didn’t need the fact that their trial for Maxprotem was not going well to pop up in the newspapers or trade journals. Bad publicity could kill their FDA application.
    “I can’t explain it, Morgan. We should be having much better results than we are getting. Actually, we’re not getting any results at all, which is very puzzling. The participants’ blood work is not showing any improvement. I just don’t get it. We had such excellent results with the lab animals.”
    “I would suggest retesting all the participants and giving the protocols another review. Get back to me.”
     
    * * * *
     
    When Harper woke up, she found that Morgan had covered her with the soft throw from the chaise. She yawned and looked around for him. She spotted him out on the deck and got up to join him.
    He looked up and smiled as she came through the glass door from the living room. “Well, sleepyhead, how are you feeling?”
    “Oh, much better.” Harper settled on the chaise beside him. She grinned at him when she noticed the tea tray complete with cookies, scones, strawberry preserves, clotted cream, iced cakes, small sandwiches, and a teapot capped by a bright quilted tea cozy. “You remembered my Boston Tea Party! You are so sweet, Morgan.”
    “Don’t tell anyone. You’ll ruin my rep.” He reached over and poured her a cup of tea. “Please notice the canister of tea leaves for you to symbolically throw into the harbor. The cook included that on her own. I wish I could take credit for that one. I believe there’s cream and sugar, as well as lemon. What would you like in your tea?”
    “Cream and sugar, thanks, but I’ll get it. What have you been up to while I was sleeping?”
    “I made some phone calls. As much as I’d like to skip it, I have to keep in contact with the office. We have two very important drug trials going on right now, and FDA approval hangs in the balance.”
    “How are they going?” Harper asked as she checked her cell phone for messages and texts.
    “It’s too early to tell, but I am hoping for some preliminary data in a few days. The animal trials were stellar, but human trials might not garner the same results.” He looked worried.
    “By the way, Natasha left me a text message that Alex Dragados, the chief mate, is going to be doing a training scene in the dungeon tonight after dinner with two of the trainee subs, and it’s open to anyone who wants to attend. Do you think you want to go? He’s supposed to be very good.”
    “Sure. That should be interesting. I think the subs are two single female passengers who won this cruise in a charity raffle at Le Club Eastside. I don’t think I know them, though.”
     
    * * * *
     
    Harmon was getting braver. He began moving about the ship not only early in the morning and late at night, but for a limited amount during the day when most of the passengers and crew had