Chapter 7 Lake
Chapter seven
Lake
The word “surly” comes to mind, more than attitude, when Quinn and “Mini-Riley” come into view. He’s hunched forward, hands in his pockets, frown on his face. Sullen, not angry. Dejected.
Riley grunts at me when introduced, and I bite back my response. I’m not at work, and he looks uncomfortable enough without me going all officer on him.
“Use your words,” Grady says, doing it for me.
I’m glad I didn’t say anything, because I like seeing this side of Grady. It’s like watching a mama bear with her cub. My fingers tingle with the urge to touch him, rub myself against him like a cat in heat.
“Nice to meet you,” Riley mumbles in response, not looking me in the eye.
Not unusual behaviour for a teenager, really, but something tells me there’s more to it than that.
Watching people, noticing people, is part of my job.
And okay, I can admit that those instincts don’t work all the time.
Hey, there’s an off button for a reason, and it’s important to flick that switch so nothing overheats.
An overheated brain sounds bad. I don’t want to catch fire from the inside.
I don’t even want to catch fire on the outside.
“Behave,” Grady warns Riley. “Don’t talk back, watch your mouth, and stand up straight.”
Beaming, I stretch up and kiss Grady. “Don’t worry, big guy, I’ll keep an eye on him.
” The kiss’s supposed to be quick. A goodbye peck, an “I have to touch you one more time before you leave” kind of thing.
It turns into something else entirely when Grady slides an arm around me, tugging me against his broad chest. I’m not a small guy, but damn if he doesn’t make me feel like that.
Even more so when he’s pressing me against the bed and covering all of me.
Mmm. My favourite position.
Quinn clears his throat, and I pull away with a sheepish grin. Oops. Got a bit carried away. It’s not my fault. Quinn’s seen Grady, right? How does anyone keep their hands off? A mystery never to be solved.
“Wait, you’re actually gay?” Riley asks, mouth open like a surprised goldfish.
“Well, I’m not, but my boyfriend is,” I answer. The goldfish look gets worse.
Grady frowns, pulling me against his side. “So?”
“You don’t look…” Riley trails off, glancing between us. What I wouldn’t give to know what he’s thinking right now. Maybe nothing. Too shell-shocked for brain activity.
I assume by the comment that Grady’s told him about his sexuality, so why is he surprised? What does Grady look like? A glance at him doesn’t tell me anything. Unless he’s looking for some kind of badge to recognise him by. Should we get one?
“I don’t look like what?” Grady growls, hand tightening on my hip.
Quinn coughs, but I’m pretty sure it’s to stifle a laugh, not to interrupt. We share an amused look.
I pat Grady’s stomach and lean up to kiss his jaw. If I go near his mouth again, things might get more awkward. “Don’t you have to go?”
“Yes. Don’t let him give you lip.”
“I’ve dealt with worse, don’t worry.” He’s already better behaved than some of the new recruits that come through each year.
“See you at home later?”
“With bells on.” Maybe there’s a store around here that actually sells bells.
Grady’s face will be worth the effort. Avery probably has some.
Art stores have bells, right? Maybe. I’ll check it out.
“Do you want me to bring home dinner?” I ask hopefully.
It’ll be worth a trip back to Holsworthy to get some more of those burgers. I’d take a longer trip for them.
The curve of Grady’s lips says he knows exactly what I’m doing.
Busted. “No,” he says, confirming my suspicion and ruining all my carefully laid plans.
“You had your grease and salt already. I don’t know how you and your brother survived this long, but it’s my mission in life to unclog your arteries.
As long as this doesn’t take long, I’ll make something when I get home. ”
Can’t argue with that. It’s way better than any restaurant or fast-food joint could produce. Even that one meal with the weird green stuff in it. Does Grady think that’s punishment? It’s not.
I splay my hands over his sides and then down. Big hips. I love wrapping my legs around them. Every inch of him makes me think of sex, all the time. I can’t get enough.
“Something with cheese?” I ask, a playful tilt to my lips. “Nachos? Like the night we met, only, you know, we can end it a bit differently this time.” Well, actually— “Although we did end up in bed toge—”
“Do I have to tell you to behave as well?”
I won’t say no to that. “If you want to,” I answer slyly.
He kisses behind my ear instead of responding to my blatant suggestion and then murmurs, “Call me if there are any problems.”
“What if I call you just because I want to hear your voice?”
“Give me at least an hour or two so I can wrap up the crime scene first,” he says in amusement. “I’ll let you know when Quinn and I are free.”
“Deal. We’ll be fine, promise,” I assure him.
I bite my bottom lip, lust curling in every corner of me, as I watch Grady walk away with Quinn.
His suit shapes his ass so well. Tailor-made for my perving needs, just how I like it.
I can’t say I’ve given much thought to suits in my life; I rarely wear one, and they’ve never done much for me aesthetically.
Women look nice in them, sure, but what a person wears hasn’t been much of a consideration for me, or shaped how I think and feel about them.
Grady’s changed my opinion exponentially.
He looks fantastic in everything but especially in his suit.
He doesn’t wear it all crisp the way that Quinn does.
Sometimes it looks like he dragged it on in his sleep, and he gets so caught up in whatever he’s thinking about that he forgets to tuck his shirt in.
But damn, does it look good. I like it even better when the reason he doesn’t dress himself properly is because of me.
“You’ve got a bit of drool,” Riley says, touching the side of his mouth. “Right here.”
I wipe my mouth with the back of my hand, just in case. Grady’s definitely drool-worthy, and it wouldn’t be the first time. If anyone can make me leak, it’s him.
“So,” I say, dragging the word out, eyeing the teenager still hunched over in front of me.
“What?” he asks defensively.
He’s prickly. Doesn’t surprise me that someone like that is doing work experience with Grady and the detective squad he works with. They’re an eclectic bunch. He reminds me of an echidna. Doubt he’d appreciate the resemblance.
One of them got on base once, making itself comfortable in one of the hangars.
Grown-ass men were too afraid to go near it.
I’d been willing to take one for the team, but I got vetoed.
Apparently, “taking it home” wasn’t the great solution I thought it was.
In the end, two women braver than any of us lured it out and got it back to waddling in the grass in the nearby bushland.
“I bet doing work experience with a bunch of detectives is pretty cool,” I try.
That’s a good conversation starter, right?
I’d have loved to do that kind of work experience in high school.
I worked in a noodle shop instead. Fun, and delicious, but not half as interesting.
Wonder if it would have changed my career path if I had?
Nah, I’d be a terrible cop.
Riley’s shoulders ease a little, still cautious. “I guess. They won’t let me see a dead body, though.”
“I’ll have to side with them on that one, sorry.” I’ve never seen one myself, but that kind of thing has to be traumatic at the best of times, let alone for someone as young as he is. He can’t be more than sixteen if that.
“Figures,” he says under his breath.
I grin. “Sorry to disappoint, but it has nothing to do with my relationship with Grady. That kind of thing is… It’s not like the movies.
If you really want to see one, you can have a closer look at your career choices.
” I lift my fingers and start ticking them off as I go down a list. “Serial killer, morgue person—what are they called? Never mind, I’ll google it later. Cop, flight attendant, waste disposal—”
“Waste disposal?” he chokes out.
“Mmm.” There are probably more, but those are the ones I can think of off the top of my head. I didn’t know there’d be a test about corpses and where to find them.
“Wait, why was your first thought serial killer?”
For someone who wants to see a dead body, he’s being awfully prudish. “I think they’d have lots of experience with death,” I say with a shrug. Sometimes the truth isn’t pretty.
“Why was flight attendant on that list?”
“A lot of people die while they’re in the air. Sometimes the attendants don’t bring attention to it, just drape a blanket over them like they’re sleeping.”
Riley looks a little green around the gills now. Guess he’s rethinking his choices. He eyes my uniform and says, “Why didn’t you add Army to that list? You shoot people, right?”
“I have,” I admit. “But it wasn’t to kill, and it entirely depends on what corps you’re part of.
I’m a pilot, not infantry. I enlisted at seventeen and had my wings by the time I was nineteen.
I’m almost thirty-two now, and I can tell you that in all that time, including some pretty hairy deployments, I’ve rarely seen a body of any kind.
I don’t recommend that being the reason you sign your life away in service to your country. ”
Riley jams his hands back into his pockets, shoulders back around his ears. “Noted.”
“Alright, so, I need to go look at some flowers at the florist in there”—I gesture at the plaza with my head—“and take a bunch of pictures for Grady.” Riley’s wide-eyed expression turns a little scared when I follow up with, “My mum’s gonna be there but don’t worry, she’s gonna love you.”
“Why are we looking at flowers?” he asks, following me into the air-conditioned space. Much nicer. The heat won’t last much longer, and I’m looking forward to that. My uniform is way easier to handle when it’s not forty degrees outside.
“Grady and I are getting married; we need flowers.” Apparently. The list of “must-haves” for a wedding seems excessive, but what do I know? I’ve never gotten married or even close to it.
Riley’s steps falter, and I’m forced to stop. “You two are really…?”
“Did the kiss not clue you in?” It’s not really how I greet all my friends. Wonder what Zach would do if I plant one on him the next time I see him? I’m tempted to do it just to find out.
“No, I mean, yeah, but—I thought they were saying it just to make me feel better.”
“Why would they—” Oh. Oh. “Because you’re into men?”
Riley nods stiffly.
“Those two are great guys, but they wouldn’t lie to someone just to make them feel better.
” That could be a white lie? Do they do it to people they deal with at work?
Say things to soften the blow when they deal with the hard stuff?
No. I don’t think they’d be that cruel. As much as lying in the moment feels like the right thing, the truth always comes out, and then the barbs are that much sharper.
“They’d find other ways to put you at ease.
Well, Quinn would. Grady is…” Not less warm, because he has a heart that’s so much bigger than he lets on.
He cares so much more than he wants anyone to know.
But he’s a little sharper around the edges than Quinn.
Two sides of the same coin, perfectly complementing each other.
It’s obvious why they’re paired up at work.
“Surly?” Riley suggests with a dry smile.
“Good word choice.”
“You said you weren’t gay, though, so I don’t understand.”
“Technically I’m bisexual, but mostly I’m just Grady-sexual.”
“You’re what?”
I can’t help laughing at the expression on his face.
“I was straight before I met him. Well, no, my sexual orientation didn’t change, I just learned more about myself.
He changed my whole world, and now he’s stuck with me.
” I tap his elbow lightly. “C’mon, let’s see if we can get a look before my mum gets here and takes over.
After that, you up for a hunting expedition? ”
He eyes me warily. “Hunting for what?”
“Bells.”