Calliope paid with a strained laugh and shot a glance to the back of the store.
“Meeting lasts an hour.” Vernon didn’t look up from the register. When Calliope knit her brows in confusion, he added, “I’ve still got one eye, my dear.”
Calliope was out the door and hurrying down the street before he could see her beet-red complexion.
When she was safely around the corner, she contemplated her actions with a shake of her head and an eye roll. I’m a stalker. The zen-centered, live-in-the-moment, twenty-first-century flower child was following Miller Buchanan like a deranged fangirl. Twitch would be thrilled with her exploits. Calliope gave herself a mental shake and headed back to The Harlem Sentry offices.
With a mug of freshly brewed coffee, Tox rejoined the group sitting in folding chairs at a round lunch table. Brody, a PJ or Air Force pararescueman, was telling the group about his new prosthetic, and, more importantly, how he’d asked his PT nurse out for coffee, and she’d accepted. The small group gave him a cheer and applause. Brody smiled. Tox wondered, not for the first time, if Bishop Security would be a good fit for the elite operator. Brody’s employment situation was not, however, foremost in his thoughts.
Calliope Garland had followed him, followed him. One whiff of the clean, flowery smell of her shampoo one aisle over in the bookstore and he was rock hard. He never in a million years would have pegged her for that kind of behavior. Well, she clearly didn’t do it often. He almost burst out laughing on 128th Street when he realized who was tailing him.
Then he had a flash of memory of following his ex-girlfriend on a date with her new boyfriend. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Standing there distraught in the middle of the sidewalk, watching them walk hand-in-hand. Now, Tox struggled to remember what it had been about her that had left him feeling so fraught. Hell, he couldn’t even remember the color of her eyes. They certainly weren’t the snow-blue of the enchantress who had followed him today. He still couldn’t get over it. He’d had women come onto him before. Hell, he’d had women crawl into bed with him while he was sleeping before. There wasn’t a damn thing right about that.
Tox had paid a hefty price to learn and enforce his own boundary issues. It was only natural to expect the same from others. And yet somehow, knowing Calliope had followed him today…it felt fan-fucking-tastic.