Page 50 of Beyond the Badge: Nox

He hadn’t eaten one damn cookie since he didn’t need another reason to be attracted to the woman who baked them. “Jesus. I swear you’re all feral. Don’t any of your significant others feed you?”

“Are you saying it’s a woman’s job to feed her man?” Cabrera asked, taking a bite of a cookie.

He glanced over at their newest task force member. “Is that what you heard?”

“Yes, that’s exactly what I heard. If you’re unaware of this fact, men are perfectly capable of cooking and/or feeding themselves.”

He jerked his chin toward the table. “Not those men, obviously.”

Cabrera grinned. “You might have a point.”

“Look, you dropped a container of homemade cookies on the table and now you’re complaining that we’re eating them?” Crew asked. “Wasn’t that the point of putting them on the table?”

Nox ignored the task force leader by taking another sip of his coffee.

“Who made these, anyway?” Crew’s eyes narrowed on Nox. “They didn’t come from a bakery.”

“Maybe I bought them from a bakery and only put them in the container to keep them fresh.”

Rez coughed out a “Bullshit.” He lifted the container high enough so everyone could see the bottom. “Who’s James?”

Fuck.Aaliyah had used a black marker to write her last name on the bottom.

Nox kept his expression neutral. “You don’t know Jim?”

“Know plenty of people named Jim, but none of them bake cookies.”

“Then you don’t know the right Jims,” Nox told Rez.

“Did you,” Decker started carefully, making Nox brace, “switch teams? I mean, there’s nothing wrong with it, if you did.”

“We won’t hold it against you,” Finn assured him with a smirk.

“Yeah, everyone deserves to be loved,” Rez added, also with a damn smirk.

“Cross can give you some pointers, if you need them,” Crew suggested, definitely wearing a smirk.

“Fuck you all. Are we having a meeting or not?”

Finn plopped his ass in a chair at the conference table, cradled his chin in his palms and batted his eyelashes. “Once you tell us all about James. He sounds dreamy if he can bake like that.”

“Why? So you all can ride my ass?”

“Is that what James does? Are you the bottom in the relationship?” Torres asked.

“When you’re coming, do you cry out James, Jim or Jimmy?” Decker asked, now also wearing a smirk.

Crew took his seat at the head of the table. “Or Jam Jam?”

“Is Nox taking some Jam Jam up the yam yam?” Luke Rodgers dropped into the seat next to Finn.

“This is putting a new meaning to the nickname Hard Nox.” Decker took the chair next to Cabrera.

Nox scowled at Crew. “Do I need to be here for this meeting?”

“Yes. Everyone does. Anyone not here physically is calling in.”

“Tell us… Is he tall, dark and handsome?” Rez wiggled his eyebrows.

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