I thought again about kissing him, about how his tongue felt in my mouth, how his cock felt in my hand, his warm cum dripping over my fist—
“Why do you have to sit here at the window when you could just watch it on the monitors?” he asked, glancing back at me. “You could kick back on the couch, relax—”
“Fall asleep?”
“With the amount of coffee you drink, I’m surprised you sleep at all.” He paused, and then said, “I wanted to make a difference in the world. Be one of the good guys.” At my quizzical look, he said, “You asked why I joined the BAU. I wanted to contribute at a federal level. I had an interest in organized crime. I wanted to knowwhy. Why do those folks do what they do? So criminology, psychology—they seemed like the right fit.”
He turned around and sat on the windowsill, not quite barring my view, but not exactly out of my eyeline. I tried to keep my eyes on the window, away from him. Away from his crotch, which was exactly in line with my eyes.
I cleared my throat. “Why not the CIA?”
“Like I said,” he drawled. “I wanted to be one of the good guys. I don’t like the idea of compromising my morals doing bad shit in the hopes that it will have a good effect down the line.” From the corner of my eye, I saw him rubbing his hand up and down his thigh.
I looked up at him. He regarded me with that steady gaze, his whiskey-colored eyes darker now as the light had faded from the room.
My immediate retort, that he seemed just fine with compromising his morals to work with me, seemed petty under that frank gaze. “Why don’t you get some sleep?” I suggested.
“Not so interested in my story anymore?”
“When you see things in black and white—good guys, bad guys—you miss a lot of the detail. I can’t use someone whose mind skates into absolutes, and frankly, you’re not very good at stakeouts. You lack focus and you lack dedication. This is the work, Baxter. And if you don’t like it in the field, I guess you shouldn’t have tried to follow me through Central Park in the first place.” I meant to shut him down, but my words whipped out so fast, covered in barbs, it was more than that.
It was cruel.
He stared at me while I stared at the front of the building opposite. “Maybe I’ll get some shut-eye,” he said at last.
For once, he appeared to fall asleep with no problems.
* * *
The next daywas the same, more or less. I woke Baxter at five, and he shot awake. “Go shower,” I told him. “Then you can sit in the chair.”
Once he was seated, I went out to buy him a breakfast burrito and the least-worst espresso I could find. He looked surprised when I came back with them, along with a wrapped sandwich for his lunch, plus a few handfuls of sugar in candy form. His eyes lit up when he saw that. “Thanks, Dad,” he said, and gave me a cheeky grin.
Evidently I had not completely squashed him the night before. “Don’t call me that.”
“Don’t call you Dad, don’t call you Boss,” he sighed. “How can we bond as partners if I can’t call you by some cutesy nickname?”
I let that pass. “Watch the building. Don’t close your eyes. If you see our mark, you wake me at once, and I’ll follow him. And for God’s sake, don’t go out to get more food. You should have enough to last. Wake me at two if I’m not up.”
“Sure, sure,” he said, investigating the candy stash.
I grabbed his face and forced him to look at me, enjoying the way his eyes went wide. “I mean it, Flynn—I need you to hold up your end. I can’t do everything. Believe me, I’d prefer it that way, but I will be relying on you while I sleep. Understand?”
His tongue flicked out to run along his bottom lip, a tempting pink flash. “Understood,” he said. I waited a moment too long before I let his face go, judging by the wary look that flitted through his eyes.
As for me, I’d been hoping the urge to kiss him would have faded by now.
It hadn’t.
* * *
I was asleep as soonas my head hit the pillow, dead to the world, until Bax shook me awake later that afternoon.
“You let me sleep too long,” I growled when I saw the clock read three.
“You looked so peaceful,” he said, quite sincerely. “And nothing’s been happening. Except I ate all the food and I need more.”
I sighed, rubbing the heel of my hand into my eye. “Just give me a minute. I’ll shower, wake up a bit. Then you can go get something.”
