“Do you have any immediate plans after she leaves?”
“No, why?” I asked, a bit confused.
“Have dinner with me.”
Ohmigod.
“Like, a date?” I asked, perhaps a little too excitedly, because my question elicited a sexy smirk from Hector.
“Yes, Iris, a date,” he said, that grin growing bigger as his hands moved from his hips to mine.
“Okay,” I whispered and then smiled huge.
“Shower,” he commanded and then kissed myforehead. “Go, before both of us get fired for never coming in to work today.”
I relented because now I had something to look forward to.
A date. With Hector!
Too giddy to contain my excitement, I leaned up and kissed his mouth quickly and then ran off to take my shower.
This was going to be a great day.
15
“Swipe right if you like long walks in 105-degree weather with a bad case of sunburn.”
—It’s science
Hector
This was turning out to be a hell of a day.
It started with the worst case of blue balls I’d ever had thanks to Iris. That smile on her face when I’d asked her out on a date was dangerous. Dangerous because I realized—yet again—that I would do just about anything to put that look on her face as often as possible, including possibly getting fired because I chose to stay in bed all day fucking her senseless instead of going in to work.
Instead, we took separate showers—mine being a cold one, which ended up not helping, so I took myself in hand to thoughts of her naked body underneath mine. An hour later, I dropped her off at her apartment after checking to make sure her door had been fixed properly—it had—and then mademy way to work.
Then, I’d been volunteered—more like volun-told—to assist with our junior ranger science lesson this morning.
By the time I got back to my office, I ended up eating my lunch at my desk while filling out timecards and schedules. I was mid-bite of my sandwich when my phone rang.
It had better not be anyone else calling in sick. Having Diden out today was already bad enough.
“Madeira,” I answered grumpily.
“Good morning, sunshine. It’s Agent Andrews,” she said on the other line. “Got a minute?”
“Yeah, what’s up?” I asked her, hoping she’d skip the chit chat and get to the point.
“Apparently, Steve Stanton decided to showcase our body on his podcast episode last night,” she informed me, causing me to roll my eyes.
“What did he say?” I asked, and I knew she couldn’t miss the agitation in my tone.
“I’m not entirely sure since I didn’t listen to the whole thing,” she said. “However, I was informed by no fewer than three people this morning that dear old Steve made a comment about the cotton ball found in Iris’s apartment.”
She paused, allowing me to take in what she had just said, and I knew why—that information had not been released to the public.
“You thinkin’ we got a leak? Or an unintentional confession?” I asked.
