Chapter 18
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
C hainsaw…
The hot water felt good, despite how overheated I’d gotten. I’d applied and reapplied sunscreen liberally throughout the day, but I could feel the light sting of an oncoming burn at the back of my neck and across my shoulders, even through the shirt I’d been wearing.
I soaked for a solid five minutes under the water before I even picked up anything to wash with.
By the time I got out, the air conditioning of the house finally felt like it was capable of doing something to cool me down.
I re-dressed, if you could call it that, pulling on my pair of cutoff cargo shorts from the night before. I didn’t fuck with underwear or a shirt. I felt… at home, and when I was at home, I liked to be comfortable.
Shit, if I thought she could handle it, I wouldn’t have even bothered with the shorts. I preferred nudity most of the time.
I went back out and asked if it was cool if I washed some shit. She said, “Of course!” and I headed for the laundry nook to take advantage of her stacked washer and dryer.
By the time I got shit running, she was setting plates down at her little four-seater dining table between the kitchen and living room.
“Nice,” I said, sliding into a seat next to hers where she had her laptop set up. I picked up the papers she had by the computer and raised my eyebrows, letting my eyes drift to the necklace she wore.
“Don’t trust I can handle the job?” I joked lightly, holding up the papers, knowing that she probably ordered the thing before she’d even thought to call me.
“Oh! No… it’s nothing like that at all,” she said, blanching.
I chuckled. “I’m just fucking with you. It’s a good plan, but the best defense is a good offense, so hopefully, you’ll never need it. If you do, use it, because obviously, I’m not there to handle it.”
She nodded and set a steaming plate before me.
“Holy shit, this looks good,” I said, taking up my fork. “What is it?”
“Apricot chicken over rice, so not terribly special,” she said.
“And salad, and broccoli? It’s like you want to keep me.” I put a forkful of food into my mouth and fuck! Hot!
I coughed and my eyes watered as I sucked in air past the scalding food.
Genesis laughed and asked if I was okay, even as she thrust some water at me from her glass.
“Fuck, hot – temperature hot, not spicy hot. Shit!” I coughed.
She grinned and asked, “Something cold to drink?”
“Please,” I replied, and she got up from where she’d just sat down and went to the fridge.
I heard the familiar hiss and pop of a bottle cap, and she returned a moment later with a cold Michelob in her hand. It wasn’t my first choice in beer, but it wasn’t awful either. I sucked some down, and the cold felt good against the burn in my mouth.
“Thanks,” I said.
“Maybe let it cool off a little,” she said with a slight giggle.
“Smells fuckin’ good,” I said. “Got a little ahead of myself.” I took another drought of the cold beer and smiled. “How are you single?” I asked. “You sure know how to treat a fella.”
She almost choked on the bite of food she had carefully blown on several times before putting the bite in her mouth.
“I’m a doctor,” she said with a shrug, and I raised an eyebrow.
“You say that like it should explain everything,” I said and couldn’t keep the smile from creeping onto my face.
She was cute, sexy, and a whole bunch of other things that I was really starting to like.
“I mean, it does! Doesn’t it?” she asked.
I laughed and shook my head, trying another bite of food after blowing on it liberally. It was really fucking good.
“Well, between the brutal schedule and all the schooling in front of that , it doesn’t leave a lot of time for socializing except with other doctors. I guess the guys on rotation with me just didn’t really appeal.” She shrugged.
Interesting .
We chatted amicably throughout the rest of dinner, and I caught her yawning as she rose to take our dishes to the sink.
She cooked, so the least I could do was clean up. I got to my feet, my body paining me from its overuse of the day, but I ignored all that and slipped into the kitchen behind her, grasping her wrist before she got the chance to pick up a dish to rinse it.
“I’ve got it,” I said. “Go get ready for bed.”
“Oh, are you sure?” she asked, and her green eyes were wide as she looked up into mine.
“Absolutely. Go on now.” I gave her a light little shove in the direction of her bedroom.
She smiled and left me to it, calling out, “Okay, Charlie boy! Time for bed.”
I rinsed the dishes and loaded the dishwasher to the low sounds of running water and beneath that, Genesis moving around in her bedroom.
I felt myself sigh and eased into the domesticity of it all. It was entirely too fucking comfortable.
As in, I could get used to this. As in, it was a real nice reprieve from having to be on all the time…
The weight of the tiredness in dealing with Ruth and his bullshit all over again, even after thinking we’d firmly put his ass in our dust trail, was something I couldn’t describe. I was ready for this motherfucker to be dead for good. Ready for the world to spin on without him.
Slippery fuck.
If it was one thing he was good at, it was hiding. We hadn’t been able to pin him the fuck down for shit. He was always on the move and never stayed any place more than a single night.
By comparison, finding the fuckin’ mouth breather that was terrorizing Genesis would be easy. You would think…
Axe was on it for me, and if anyone was the man for the job in catching a serial killer, it was Axe. Pretty sure he was one himself.
I finished putting up dinner and getting everything into the dishwasher. It wasn’t loaded enough to run it yet, so I closed things up tight and let it go.
I went back into the living room and settled onto the couch with another gusty sigh, and the cat jumped up next to me.
“Hey, buddy.” I gave his soft tabby fur some pets and asked him, “Don’t you wanna hang out with your mamma?”
He gave a soft little mew and purred harder, head butting me in the side of my knee before flopping down against the length of my thigh.
I chuckled and petted him some more, figuring either he decided he liked me, or that he somehow had it into his furry little head that he was punishing his mom for not letting him outside.
Either could honestly be true.
“Furry little traitor,” I heard behind me, and I looked back over the couch. She was standing there, wrapped in a light cream satin robe.
“I was coming to say goodnight. I didn’t want to be rude.” She blushed a light pink, and it was delightful the way it crept up her chest and dusted her cheeks.
“Not rude at all,” I said. “G’night, though. I’ll get you to the hospital just fine and head on in to work myself.”
“Sounds good,” she said… and she lingered a moment before saying, “Night,” one more time and turning for her bedroom. I liked the way her robe clung to her figure as she went.
“Ow! Hey!” I looked down at her wildly purring kitty and lightly smacked his paw where he’d dug claws into my knee.
“What’s that all about, huh?” I demanded.
He head-butted into my hand in response.
“Demanding little shit,” I muttered, but I was smiling. I obliged Charlie in all the pets he wanted until he got up, jumped down, and relinquished the entirety of the couch over to me, opting to go back to his chair.
I sighed, an almost contented one this time, and stretched out.
I fell asleep watching some television with the lights out, the blue glow of the boob tube, and the low volume of one of the Aquaman movies lulling me to sleep.
I jolted awake not terribly long later, as the credits rolled, and sat up. Listening intently, all my senses on high alert.
Something had roused me, and I waited, listening hard and trying to home in on whatever it’d been.
The cat was looking at me curiously from his spot on his chair, and if the cat wasn’t missing or freaked out – I wasn’t… yet.
A light but sharp sound came from behind the couch, and I sat up, the cat jumping down, and I nearly had a heart attack.
Genesis was standing there. She took a shy, half-step back and asked, “Aren’t you coming to bed?”
I pushed off from where I’d been lying against her couch to sit up better and said, “Yeah, sorry.” I picked up the remote and turned off the television.
I didn’t want to scare her by getting up too eagerly, so I got up slowly and deliberately stretched before taking her offered fingertips and following her into the bedroom.
She got into bed first, and I sat down gently on the bed at her hip, taking up her hand.
“You sure?” I asked, and she looked at me like I was some high school idiot.
She scooted closer and put her arms around me.
I wrapped mine around her lithe form and held her close, pressing her forehead into my shoulder, the strands of her blonde hair like silk against my rough fingers.
I massaged the back of her skull, where it met the long line of her neck, trying to ease the tension out of her.
She pulled back and looked me in the eyes. “You’re being stupid,” she complained. “We’ve already done this once.” Before I knew it, her soft lips were on mine, and I was drowning in the siren’s song of her touch all over again.
I pulled back just enough to defend myself and say, “I didn’t know if it was just a one-off thing, you know?”
She smirked, shook her head, and, saying nothing, just returned to kissing me. Fuck, that was hot.