Page 9 of Sinful Promise
“You can help me infuse tonight.” I don’t watch her work, and I sure as shit don’t have eyes in the back of my skull. But I see her in my mind, concentrating as she directs water across my back. As she studies the ink. The scars. The souvenirs I carry from a life that hasn’t always been easy. But when she rests her cheek on my back and wraps her arms around my torso, that’s when I see her clearest. Her small smile. Her content expression. “I’ll even let you insert the needle.”
“Fuck no.” I turn in her arms and wrap her up tight, then I wish for ten minutes alone, without my best friend and partner or Minka’s assistant in the next room. “I’ll never stab you with the fucking needle. But I’ll mix the meds for you.”
“Mm.” Pushing up taller, she drops a fast kiss to my lips before spinning out of my hold and onto the tile floor outside the shower.
She leaves me cold and alone, but with a smile and a hard cock.
“I’m going to have a mountain of work when I get back to the office this morning,” she grumbles. “That’s why Aubree’s here.” She wraps a towel around her body, then grabs a second for her hair. “She’s not here to share coffee and hang out. She knows the George Stanley is a mess and I’m gonna be pissed about it.”
“It was inevitable.” I finish washing up and rinse soap suds from my skin. “First, Seraphina took time off, and she’s the one who organizes the George Stanley. Then you, the chief, hopped a plane without notice and flew to New York.”
Switching off the taps and extending my hand, I grin when Minka’s eyes come around for just a beat before she grabs a third towel and hangs it off the tip of my finger.
“Aubree would’ve tried her best to keep everyone in line,” I allow, scrubbing the towel across my chest to mop up excess water. “But she’s not you, Mayet. And no one can be Seraphina.”
“Which means…” She wraps her hair in a towel and grabs her dryer from the cupboard to plug it in. “I’m gonna walk into chaos this morning.”
“So blow your hair out, Minnnka. Makes you look like you’ve got life under control.” I press a kiss to her cheek before heading to the door and peeking into the hall.
When the coast is clear, and Fletch isn’t likely to catch a glimpse of my naked wife, I head out and close the door at my back.
The drone of the hair dryer powers up, and the grind of a coffee machine adds to the chaos of our small apartment. So I step into the bedroom and close the door for privacy. Then just a few minutes later, I come out again in fresh jeans and a shirt that always makes Minka look twice.
If she’s going to work today with freshly styled hair to make her feel better after the shit-show of the last week, then I’m wearing her favorite shirt, just so she’ll stare at me a little longer and make me feel like a million bucks.
“Do you think it’s too soon for me to… ya know…” Aubree’s pensive voice drifts down the hallway and reaches my ears. She’s not speaking to me, but the home Minka and I share is so small and cozy, I can’t help but overhear.
As I wander through the doorway into the rest of the living space, I find Aubree sitting on the L-shaped kitchen counter with a fresh mug of coffee set below her lips.
She blushes before adding, “Flash him my boobs?”
Fletch throws his head back and laughs. “It’s never too soon to show your tits, Aubs. Whether Tim appreciates the gesture is a completely separate thing.” He pushes his lips into a playful smirk I know is all for show.
He acts like he’d bang her in a heartbeat, but the truth is, he wouldn’t dare. He would never touch a woman who belongs to another. Even if theotherhas yet to claim her.
“I’ll enjoy it, if you wanna practice first. I could even provide feedback.”
“Please don’t lift your top in here.” I move across the combined living and dining room, and stop in front of the coffee machine. Snatching a mug from the cupboard above Aubree’s head, I place it under the spout and hit the button so the grinding starts anew. “What kinda mess is the chief walking into today?”
“It’s like…” She closes one eye and wrinkles her nose, like that helps her think. “A category-3 on the weather map. The building’s still standing, but bodies are everywhere. The staff are acting like it’s a full moon, caseloads are piling up, and the mayor won’t stop calling.”
“The mayor’s always calling her.” At the very last drip of caffeine into my cup, I pick it up and chug enough to make me hiss as it burns on the way down. “Does he want her attention on the business front, or is he inviting her to dinner?”
It’s no secret that the mayor has a soft spot for my wife. Still, Aubree takes her time answering, sliding off the edge of the counter and circling back to get her coffee before moving toward the living room. “A little bit of A,” she hedges, “a little bit of B. He invited her to dinner a few weeks back, but she didn’t turn up, so now he’s trying to go through Fifi, since she’s the one who organizes the chief.”
“But Seraphina’s been away,” Fletch counters with a thoughtful nod. Seraphina,unaffectionately known as Fifi, hewillbang.“Which means her inbox is overflowing too.”
“I have no doubt it is.” Aubree perches on the back of the couch and crosses her ankles. “It’ll take us a couple of days to straighten things out at work. But it’s not like we trapped another live guy in the fridges, so…”
“Success,” he chuckles.
The hairdryer stops in the bathroom, the abrupt absence of the loud droning leaving the rest of us in silence. Then the door creaks open, and my partner leans a little too far to his left to get a peek.
I stroll across the room and stop just a foot away, so when he straightens out again and brings his head back around, he jumps when our eyes meet.
Coffee sloshes over the lip of his mug and burns his hand. “Fuck, Malone! What the hell is wrong with you?”
“That’s my wife.” I hold his stare for a beat longer. “And I’m still tired, seeing as how my father died a few days ago,”I murdered a man last night,“and my life is on fire.”
