Meaning, I was thirty minutes late, pissing off Jean Luc in the process.
“You’re late, mon ami,” Jean Luc growled.
“Embrasse moi tchew,” I growled.
Jean Luc laughed and flipped me off before he disappeared into the night.
I smiled as I remembered the first time I’d said that to Jean Luc.
Embrasse moi tchew meant ‘kiss my ass’ in Cajun French, and I’d gone out of my way to ask an old lady at a New Orleans style restaurant phrases and exactly how to pronounce them in order to say them to Jean Luc and surprise him.
He thought I was simple.
I wasn’t. I just didn’t want to talk.
Nobody could understand that I preferred to spend my time alone.
Well, I used to.
Now I kind of wanted to spend my time with a certain strawberry blonde haired wild child who kept me on my toes.
I’d admired her from afar for far too long. Getting to speak to her now, instead of watching her, was huge to me. I didn’t want to spend my entire night on watch. I wanted to spend it in my bed…with her.
The entire shift I was patrolling I was in a bad mood, and an hour and a half before dawn, when Derek finally showed up for his shift, I was so beyond a good mood that it was almost comical.
“Finally,” I muttered, walking away before I could give Derek a chance to settle.
Derek’s annoyed curse had me wanting to laugh, but I was too fucking tired to be indulgent.
Everything ached, too.
Mace, for once, didn’t fly me out of the way to get to my house. He flew me straight there, and I couldn’t help but say ‘thank you’ the moment I dropped off his side.
You’re welcome.
The moment I hit my front stoop, I unlocked the door with the keypad, punched in the code to halt the alarm, and closed and relocked the door.
Once I was inside, I rearmed the alarm, and quickly walked to the kitchen to down a glass of water.
I was careful to be as quiet as I possibly could, unwilling to wake up Wink if it wasn’t absolutely necessary.
I got into my room and was stripping out of my clothes when I realized being quiet had been all for naught when I saw Wink sitting up in bed, reading.
“You’re reading?” I asked. “Do you realize it’s nearly five in the morning?”
She nodded.
“I found a good book to read,” she admitted as she clicked a button on the side of her electronic device and set it on top of my nightstand. “Why are you so late?”
“Derek decided he wanted to show up an hour late,” I muttered, starting on my pants.
Wink watched me undress without a word, even going as far as to pull the covers back to allow me entrance.
The minute my pants dropped, she gasped, and I smiled.
“By the way,” I said as I slid in beside her. “I didn’t wear underwear.”Chapter 9Surprise sex is the best thing to wake up to…unless you’re in prison.
-Fact of Life
Wink
By the time six o’clock rolled around, I gave up trying to sleep.
How I ever thought I’d be able to with a naked man in the same bed as the one I was in was beyond me.
I rolled to my stomach and lifted up onto my elbows, my eyes taking in all that was Ian.
He was a fitful sleeper, and by fitful, I mean terrible.
His arms and legs were everywhere, and I’d never seen someone sleep so restlessly.
I thought I was bad with my legs moving.
Ian was by far the worst. He slept like he was awake. Constantly, he’d move, twitch, strike out, and sometimes even speak.
His words at first hadn’t made much sense, but after listening to him for the last two hours, I’d decided that Ian needed to talk to someone. Maybe multiple someones.
His first incoherent words were about a person named Mattie.
Mattie was apparently in danger somehow, but I’d yet to figure out how.
I’d gained over the last hour that Mattie was Ian’s long lost sister. She was his exact opposite in complexion, and she had a dog named Judy.
Judy had died right along with their parents.
That last part I’d gathered through some fucked up connection that Ian and I had.
At first I hadn’t realized what I was doing, but it didn’t take long to figure out I was reading him, somehow, by my hand placed on his.
His words and meanings had become clearer the moment I’d placed his hand into mine, and had stayed clear until I’d dropped his hand twenty minutes ago.
In the last twenty minutes, he was as restful as I’d ever seen him.
And it was eerie since the last two had been anything but.
I’d gone back to reading my book I’d put down when he came in and had done a fantastic job at ignoring the world around me.