I nodded and cupped her face in my hands. “Correct.” I was gonna train drone pilots, and I was actually looking forward to it. “You’re not getting rid of me.”
She smiled into the next kiss, and I shivered as I felt her fingertips along the back of my neck.
“Good,” she whispered, “because I have plans for us. Starting tonight. Wanna hear?”
The lust in her voice probably wasn’t a good idea for me, but fuck it. Let’s hear it. I grabbed her by her hips and pulled her flush to me.
“As long as it involves us getting rid of our clothes,” I murmured.
“That’s number one and four on the agenda,” she said. “First, a shower and some serious stress relief. I’ll assist you in there, of course. Second, a big juicy steak with a baked potato and absolutely no garnish. And while we eat—in comfy clothes—we get cracking on a new puzzle. A thousand pieces—and you know what’s on it? Six sudoku designs. So once the puzzle is complete, we have the sudokus to solve too.”
I didn’t know what made my head spin more, the fact that she was the most perfect woman alive, or the mind-numbing task of sorting those puzzle pieces. Because what were we looking at here, white background and black numbers?
“And then…we go to bed.” She trailed her fingers up my chest. “I think you know what happens there.”
I smirked faintly. “Well, you told me about the blue rubbers you bought, so I assume we’re living out some weird Smurf fetish you have.”
She started laughing and immediately slapped a hand over her mouth when she realized how easily sound echoed in the lobby.
I grinned and dipped down to kiss her cheek. “Hey, I’m not kink-shaming. We’ll Smurf it up for a while, and then we can circle back to my new breeding fantasy in a bit.”
She choked on the next laugh, and she peered up at me with a mix of stunned surprise and sizzling heat. Oh, she liked the sound of that, didn’t she?
“Um, b-breeding fantasy?”
“Yeah…” I brushed my lips along her jaw. “That’s when I fuck you into next week and keep your tight little pussy full of my come.”
At least, that was what I’d thought of each time I’d rubbed one out in the shower in Ecuador.
“Jesus, James,” she exhaled. “Uh, when can we get out of here?”
The sooner, the better, considering I caught movement in my periphery. Fucking Beckett. He was heading over, and he wasn’t alone. Maybe if Kiera and I looked busy, he’d back off.
“I just need to grab my usual gear from my locker,” I said. Watch, personal phone, wallet—the shit I didn’t travel with for work. Then I sighed, ’cause Beckett couldn’t take a hint. He came to a stop right next to us, so I had no choice but to tilt my head his way. “What,” I asked flatly. Somehow, he’d roped Coach, Danny, and Darius into this too. “Seriously, Quinn?”
Darius furrowed his brow. “I don’t know what’s happenin’. Beckett asked me to come over.”
Beckett shot him a look. “Because it looks better if we’re a unit.”
For chrissakes. “Get over it, man. So you lost your burger when you tripped on a pebble?—”
“It was a grenade launcher,” he bullshitted.
“That seems unsafe and unlikely during Hell Week,” Danny noted.
“Especially at a gas station once the training was over and they were headed home,” Coach added.
“Shut the fuck up, both of you,” Beckett told them.
“Yeah, I’m out.” Darius cleared his throat and clapped Beckett on the shoulder. “Once you’re done flushin’ the rest of your dignity down the toilet, we’ll go grab a burger with the new operator. I can carry yours if you want.”
I felt my shoulders shake with laughter as he walked off, and Danny and Coach didn’t hold back for shit. Their laughter echoed more than Kiera’s ever could.
Beckett’s jaw ticked with tension, but he tried to hide his annoyance behind a smile that he sent Kiera.
“Anyway. You’re clearly new here, and given that Hyatt’s never brought anyone over to HQ, I can only presume you’re special and that this is serious. I’m Beckett, by the way.” He extended a hand.
I narrowed my eyes.
