I shrugged and grabbed the remote, hoping there would be something worth watching on the TV. “I’ll sleep on the couch. It’s fine.”
He scowled and pointed at the bed. “You need quality sleep. You have not slept since before we met. That object is not sufficient for decent sleep. You need a bed. I insist you sleep in the bed tonight.”
“No.”
N’kal seethed for a few minutes, and I thought the battle was won.
I was wrong.
Before I realized what was happening, he picked me up and tossed me on the bed. I tried to get back up, but he pinned me down, holding my wrists and pressing his knees into my thighs.
I’d fought off druggies and gangbangers in my day, but I couldn’t get N’kal to budge. He held firm, and when I struggled, it only seemed to make him hold me tighter. Since physical fighting wasn’t getting me out of this, I decided to try logic.
“Assaulting a police officer is a crime. I could arrest you—again.”
“Agree to sleep here, and I will let you go.”
Well, that didn’t work. “N’kal,pleaseget off of me.” Still not budging. “There’s no way I could sleep with you on top of me like this.” Nope. Nothing. “I’ll give you sugar if you let me go?”
“There is only one way to get me to let go.”
“And that is …?”
“Agree to sleep in the bed.”
Damnit. I’ll never hear the end of this at the precinct if they find out I couldn’t get free on my own, and somehow, I doubted N’kal understood the concept of keeping a secret. “Fine.”
With that, the pressure on my wrists and back let up, and I was free. I rolled over, away from N’kal, and got on my knees facing him, ready to tear into him for what he did.
Why, then, was he holding his wrists out to me?
“What gives?” I asked, rubbing the ache out of my own wrists.
“You said that you would be within your rights to arrest me again for assaulting you, yes?” He nodded at his extended arms. “I am amenable to that, since you are agreeing to sleep in the bed tonight.”
Jesus. Now I couldn’t arrest him. He was so cute about wanting me to be well rested, and he one hundred percent didn’t understand that me arresting him was supposed to be a punishment. He got that it was a consequence of his actions, sure, but he had no clue that he wasn’t supposed to agree to being arrested. He wasn’t supposed to be “amenable” to it.
I shook my head with a sigh. “No. No arresting tonight. I’ll take the bed, you’ll take the couch, and we’ll both get some shuteye.”
N’kal frowned. “The couch? Why?”
“Um … Because you insisted that I take the bed.”
“There is room for two people in this bed. More, even. Why should either of us sleep on the couch?”
“Because we’re not a couple!” My voice rose in pitch until the word “couple” came out as a panicked screech. I paused to give myself a chance to calm down. He didn’t know why this was culturally wrong. “When human adults sleep in the same bed, they’re generally dating or married or something. Mating, if youwill. We have, at best, a professional relationship. I can’t sleep in the same bed as you because it wouldn’t be appropriate.”
The jerk actually laughed. “You think I wish to mate with you tonight? No. You have made your distaste clear. I simply believe that we will both sleep better on a proper piece of furniture. That is all.”
“You’re not going to try anything?”
He grinned. “What is the phrase? ‘Scout’s honor.’”
This was a bad idea. This was aterribleidea …
“Scout’s honor?”
N’kal nodded.
