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At that, Cato peels away from the door and looks my way. “You looked at his brain?”
“Have to. This is homicide, and he hit the ground when he fell. Gotta make sure we don’t have any bleeds in the brain.”
“And he didn’t?”
“Nope. Abraded skin when he made contact with the road, but that’s it. You looking to go into forensics instead of basketball?”
He scoffs, and yanking the door open, he reveals Archer’s hand midair, right where the doorknob would have been a second ago. “But I’m always interested in education around hoodwinking the forensic scientists. Archer.” He reaches up and faux-tips the hat he’s not wearing. “Doctor Mayet and I have decided to run off to New York together and live long, happy lives in coital bliss.”
“NotmyDoctor Mayet.” He pushes past his brother and smiles when I finish looking him up and down. No bullet wounds. No bleeding orifices. Not even a torn button or scraped knee. “How are you doing, Minnnka?” He walks directly to me, cupping my jaw, angling my head, and dropping a kiss square on my lips. “You look stressed.”
“Not stressed. It’s not like there’s a cop killer roaming our streets.” I return his kiss with another and sigh when his breath fills my lungs. “How’d you go with Mercer’s Lieutenant?”
“No Fletch?” Cato holds the door open and peers into the hall to check for our other cop. “He’s not coming?”
“He went home to relieve the nanny and grab dinner with his daughter.” Releasing my face, Archer lifts one leg over the couch, then the other, and slides down onto the cushions beside mine. Wrapping his arm over my shoulder, he tugs me in, just like he knows I need, and forces my head to rest on his chest. “Mercer’s C.O. was a dick. He didn’t want to share current caseloads. But he knows he’ll have to, so he promised to have an email sitting in my inbox by morning. Until then,” he presses a kiss to the top of my head and exhales until his warm breath bathes my scalp. “I’m thinking we order Chinese, stay in, and chill the fuck out.”
“Sounds nice. Except for the fact we usually head next door to Tim’s for dinner.”
He pulls back, creating a double chin as he looks down at me. “You wanna get a burger at Tim’s?”
“I’m simply observing that we’re not. That distinct change in behavior screams, ‘there’s a cop killer on our streets and I don’t wanna be shot next’. Though your caution should comfort me, mostly it reminds me of why my stomach hurts in the first place.”
“No sore stomachs.” He drops his hand to my belly and rubs. “Caution is a good thing. Doesn’t mean I think we’re at risk, and it doesn’t mean I think he’s gonna hit someone else. Mercer’s murder comes across as pointed and personal to me. They wantedhimdead. That specific guy. I bet you a whole dollar if I asked the department psych to profile him, they’d say he hit the target he wanted and has now gone into hiding.”
“I’m gonna order dinner.” Cato can be annoying as hell,often, and immature enough to send me nuts. But I know, beneath the crazy, is a young man whoknowswhat’s right and what’s wrong. Flirting with me is fun, but giving a married couple privacy every now and then is up there on his list of priorities. “I’ll wait down at the bar till it’s here, so you two can have half an hour to yourselves or whatever.”
He snags a bright orange basketball from the corner of the kitchen, crushing it to his chest and his Fritos in his free hand, then he makes his way back to the door and swings it wide again, poking his head out to make sure no one is gonna shoot him as he emerges. “Do what you’re gonna do. But don’t talk about me. It hurts my feelings.”
“He booked our room.” I rest my cheek on Archer’s chest and play with the chain hanging around his neck. Dangling on the end, of course, is the wedding ring I went out at two o’clock in the morning to buy many months ago. “I was coming up on brick walls every time I tried.”
“Really?” He pays no attention to his brother as he leaves and the doorcloses. He massages my thigh instead and studies my eyes. “Everything is booked out?”
“No. There seemed to be ample vacancies. But the prices were ridiculous.”
“You want Manhattan glamor at Podunk prices, Mayet?” He leans in and nibbles on my bottom lip. “I can’t believe of all the gold digging, high maintenance broads on this planet, I married the cheapest cheapskate I’ve ever met.”
“Oh right. LikeI’mthe villain for not spending money like it comes from a Monopoly box. Who the hell would spend seven thousand dollars on a bed countless other people have slept on already? Never mind the fact we only get to use it for three nights. Then it’s done. The money is gone and life goes on. If I wanted to do that, I’d buy myself a new bed for half that, and enjoy comfort for the next five years.”
“Good beds last ten.”
“Sure.” I scoff. “If you want microscopic bugs eating your skin while you sleep.” I shiver when his fingers inch along my thigh. Massaging. Kneading. “I’d rather buy a new mattress and not share my space with flesh-eating bacteria, thank you very much.”
“So youdospend money.” He buries his lips against my neck, biting until I groan and chuckling when I drop my head back to give him more room. “Your expenditures are just more subtle. No Lamborghini for you. But expensive mattresses on a regular basis.”
“Do you haveanyclue what kind of breeding ground the average mattress is?”
“Odd. I enjoy breeding on it, too.” He scoops me up, smirking when a squeal escapes my throat and my arms flail, searching for something to hold on to. Then he turns, wrapping my legs around his hips and cupping my ass, his fingers dangerously close to places that’ll have me explode within a single brush.
One stroke of his tongue.
One single touch, and he’ll undo me the way he knows how.
“Come to bed with me, Minnnnnka.” He bites my neck and walks blindly into the hall. “Let’s try out the breeding thing you speak of.”
“Practice.” I bark out a sharp laugh when he nips at my collarbone and sneaks his hand around to touch my clit. “Just the practicing.” I pant like a dog in heat, turning from laughter to goo in an instant. My throat dries and my heart thunders. But when he pushes through to our bedroom at the end of the hall,tskingto get the cat skittering off the bed, he drops me downwith an undignified thud that has my hair flipping forward to land partially on my face.
He stands over me, kicking the door shut the moment Chloe bolts for freedom. Then he drags his shirt up, wasting no time as his eyes track along my body. Hungry. Needy. And completely unashamed for the want pumping through his blood. “I gotta say…” He sets his knee on the bed between my legs, then his fists on the mattress on either side of my head. Leaning over me, he takes my pebbled nipple between his lips and groans when my back arches and my muscles turn taut.
