Chapter 8

Emi

A dull buzzing sound rings in my ears, and I swat at the nightstand to stop it. Instead of coming into contact with the hard wood, I whack something warm.

“Shit, Emi!” There’s a hiss, waking me fully.

I jolt up and push the hair off my face, looking around at the unfamiliar surroundings. There’s another loud grunt, and I squeak when the foundation under my elbow shifts and I fall back.

“Jesus, do you always wake up violently?” Walker’s face comes into my line of sight, his hand cupping my cheek.

“Walker,” I whisper, remembering where I am.

“I sure as fuck hope so, considering it’s my bed,” he quips.

“I forgot where I was for a second. The buzzing disrupted my dream, and I was trying to make it stop,” I explain.

His expression softens, his eyes roaming over my face. “You’re even more beautiful in the morning.”

Dread sets in because I know exactly what I look like when I wake up. My hair’s a nest, considering I twist my head a hundred times during the night. I’m certain there’s make-up rimming my eyes since I didn’t thoroughly wash my face, and the sour taste of my last lemon drop is on my tongue.

He, on the other hand, looks amazing. His dark hair is ruffled in a deliciously sexy way, his hazel eyes bright, and the scruff on his face looks fuller than when we fell asleep. My eyes run along the design of his tattoo, and my heart starts to race. I stare at him, momentarily forgetting my hot mess.

“Good morning.” He leans in to kiss me, and I stop him by slamming my hand over my mouth.

“Morning breath,” I garble.

“I don’t give a shit about morning breath. I want a kiss.”

My head shakes back and forth. “Too gross.” I swallow the nasty taste.

His eyes start to dance with humor as he stares, waiting for me to relent. When I don’t, he kisses the back of my hand and rolls to the side, taking me with him.

“There’s a toothbrush in the bathroom drawer. It’s hot pink. You can’t miss it. I bought it for you yesterday.”

I remove my hand and nuzzle into his shoulder, soaking in his warmth. “You bought me a toothbrush?”

“I did.”

“What if I’d insisted on going home last night?”

“I knew, eventually, it would come in handy.”

The buzzing returns, and I lift up looking around. “What is that?”

“My alarm.”

“Can you make it stop? It’s horrible.”

He chuckles, his chest vibrating under my hand, as he twists and grabs his phone. “We need to get up, babe. It’s almost six-thirty.”

“Oh my God, no, it’s too early.” I dig deeper into his side.

“There’s nothing I’d like more than to lay in bed with you all day, but I have shit to do at work, and I need to take you home.”

“Next time, we’re staying at my house. This is ungodly.” Realization of what I’ve said strikes me, and I suck in a deep breath.

He doesn’t miss a beat, scooting down to eye-level and tucking my hair behind my ear. “Okay, beautiful, tonight we’ll stay at your place.” He kisses my nose and rolls out of bed. “Twenty minutes and I’m coming back to get you.”

He goes to his bathroom, my eyes trained on him until he disappears behind the door. The water starts, and I sigh, snuggling in and stealing his pillow. The whole bed smells like him, and I wonder if he’ll think I’m a nutcase if I refuse to leave. My eyes drift closed, but I don’t sleep; instead, I replay last night over and over in my head.

He didn’t have to try hard to convince me to stay. I was an easy sell. There was no hesitation.

“Stay the night with me, Emi,” he said, holding me close. “I want to wake up with you in my bed.”

“Okay,” I whispered.

See? Easy sell. No girl in her right mind would turn down the chance to spend the night in Walker Scott’s arms. After we cleaned up his kitchen, we moved to his sofa for another drink until he led me to his room and handed me a t-shirt to sleep in. You’d think I would have thought about a toothbrush right then, but instead, I shed my clothes easily, ran cold water over my face, and crawled in his gigantic bed.

When he came back into his room, I remember the way my heart started racing. He changed into loose shorts and nothing else. The picture of him in the boxing ring was nothing compared to the real-life vision. My eyes raked over his bare chest and ripped muscles, then landed on the tattoos that covered his left bicep and shoulder. When he got into bed, my hand instinctively reached out to touch them. His body went still as I traced each line, swirl, and curve of the intricate design. Halfway down his bicep was the American flag waving with a bald eagle in the middle, the words US ARMY underneath. Once I reached the last point of the ‘y’, he kissed me deeply, then shuffled me to lay on his chest. He ran his lips along my forehead a few times, and I curled into him quietly. My stomach was full of delicious food and three lemon drops, so I easily fell asleep.

My dreams were filled with the memories of the night: the way he looked at me when he picked me up, the way he kissed me that first time in his living room with all the deer staring at us, the way we made out until the steaks almost burned. Then the tattoos, his hard chest, the plains of his muscles beneath my fingers.

All of it drifted through my head as I slept on top of him until that damn buzzing sound. We may have to have a chat about this six-thirty wake up time.

But maybe early mornings with Walker could be worth it?

I’m dozing happily when his lips brush the back of my neck, and I grin into the pillow.

“Baby, how do you take your coffee?” He kisses along my earlobe. His cologne mixed with body wash fills the air around me. I inhale deeply, enjoying the fresh smell.

“Dash of milk and half a package of sweetener,” I answer dreamily.

“Meet me in the kitchen. We need to get a move on. I put the toothbrush on the counter.”

“I’ll get dressed and be there soon.”

“You don’t have to get dressed.”

“I’m in my panties and your t-shirt. I need to wear clothes home.”

“Throw on your jeans and keep the shirt. I like you in it.” He pecks my jaw and leaves, but surprises me by yanking the covers with him.

“Hey!” I yell when the cold air hits my skin. “What are you doing?”

“Getting you up. Saturday, we can lay in bed longer.”

“Ass,” I say under my breath and crawl to the other side of the bed.

His laugher doesn’t fade until I shut his bathroom door. As I suspected, I’m a hot mess. There’s not much I can do except whip my hair into a high bun and wash the remaining make-up from my face. I open the toothbrush and smile when I see it’s a rotating bristle, exactly like mine at home. After I’m done, I slip back into my jeans, throw my sweater in my purse, and head to the kitchen.

Walker hands me a mug of coffee but keeps it gripped in his hand, stepping close. “Is it safe to kiss you now?”

“I’m gonna say yes, but know if you wake me at this hour again, we may have serious problems.”

His grin grows wider right before he trails his lips across mine in a gentle, closed-mouth kiss. I don’t hide my disappointment when he steps back and releases the coffee mug.

“What’s on your schedule today?” He picks up his own cup and looks at me.

“Fraud, fraud, and more fraud.”

“Sounds like fun.”

“Maren will be at my house around five to drag me to her yoga class, pretending we need to exercise, but actually, she’ll drill me for details on last night.”

“Yoga, huh?”

“Yeah, she swears by it. We used to do Pilates until our instructor slept with Carlton, then Maren decided yoga was better. I think she likes to see me make a fool out of myself. That stuff is hard.”

“I’d like to see you do yoga.”

“Believe me, it’s not pretty. Some women are graceful, elegant, and really pose with form. I resemble a pretzel unraveling. Last time I went, she almost peed on herself when I went elbow over knee and ended up doing a somersault into the lady in front of me. Now, they ask me to stay in the back corner, far away from anyone.”

Humor lights up his face and he grins wide. “I bet it was sexy.”

“Are you crazy? There was nothing sexy about it.”

He takes another sip of his coffee, staring at me in a way that says he thinks differently.

“What about you? Any huge police things happening?”

“Car theft ring is making its way around the area. I’m looking into it. A few other things.”

“Do you ever do stakeouts?”

“I do, why?” his eyes narrow.

“No reason.” I shrug nonchalantly. “I just wonder if I could do one with you sometime.”

I don’t dare mention that I’m actually interested in learning professional techniques to share with Maren.

“Emi, you realize the last time we were together in a parked car, you were plastered on my lap, grinding on my cock? I’m not sure you and me on a stakeout would be a good idea.”

“Good times,” slips out as I remember that fondly.

“Fuck me.” He places his mug in the sink and reaches over, taking mine as well, then tugs me close. His hands slide down my sides until he’s cupping my butt. “You want to go on a stakeout with me, or you want to sit on my lap and tease me by wiggling your sweet ass?”

“Both,” I answer unashamed.

He squeezes and lowers his mouth to mine. “It’s going to be hard to concentrate today, knowing what I have waiting for me.” Then he kisses me until that’s all I can think about, too.

“Get in here!” I throw open my door and sling Maren inside.

“What the hell?”

“I’ve been dying to talk to you.”

“Ooh-la-la, did someone finally get laid?” She thrusts her hips suggestively. “It’s about time.”

I slap at her. “Ugh! Stop gyrating. You look like a fool.”

Her face falls and she stops moving. “Oh, God, he was awful in bed. All those looks, and shit between the sheets. What a shame.”

“No, you dingbat. I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about the fact that Marcus is a divorce lawyer. More importantly, he’s Jean’s divorce lawyer, and her friend’s, too.”

She stares at me with indifference, tossing a hand in the air. “So?”

“And, he’s got the video and pictures from the other night.”

“I’d guess he does. I told you she had a lawyer and was moving forward.”

“Yes, but with Marcus? Doesn’t that freak you out?”

“Not at all.”

“But Marcus is Walker’s best friend,” I squeak out, trying to express how bad the situation is.

“Emi, come here.” She takes my elbow and leads me to the sofa to sit. “What’s got you so freaked out?”

“What if we’re discovered?”

“How? We are completely anonymous, or did you forget?”

“I didn’t forget, but even anonymous can be uncovered.”

“Yes, but we’ve taken a lot of steps to be careful. Calm down.”

She mimics deep breathing by inhaling and exhaling loudly, encouraging me to do the same. I take a few breaths, blowing them out and trying to release the stress. Oddly, it works, and I’m calm enough to explain my rationale.

I tell her about my conversation with Walker last night and the surprise of learning Marcus was handling their divorces.

“Okay, I can understand the initial shock, but now, it’s done.”

“You’re right,” I agree. “We’re fine.”

“I personally think it’s cool to have a divorce lawyer in our crew. We can punt business his way without him knowing. Then we can let him buy us twenty-dollar martinis knowing we earned them. It’s like taking from the rich and scummy and paying us back.”

“That’s a terribly demented Robin Hood reference.”

“Maybe, but it’s true.”

“I guess I freaked because of the close connection, but you’re absolutely right. We’re not doing anything illegal, and the chances of Walker finding out are slim.”

“Right, so are you cool now?”

“Absolutely.”

“Good, because we have a new client.”

“I saw the email. What’s going on?”

“This one’s a little out of our wheelhouse.”

“How so?”

“We’re being hired to follow a woman.”

“We’re women. Shouldn’t be too hard.”

“It also requires us to go to Myrtle Beach.”

“When?”

“This weekend.”

“All weekend?”

“Saturday night only.”

“Okay,” I agree.

“Now, we have to think about our cover story.”

“What do you mean?”

“Walker.”

“What about Walker?”

“Emi, you have a boyfriend now. We need to have cover stories. For someone so worried about Marcus, you sure don’t seem too concerned about yourself.”

“Boyfriend?”

“Are you dense?”

“Hey.” I smack her shoulder. “That’s not nice.”

“Well, open your eyes. Yes, you have a boyfriend, and that boyfriend is the type of man that’s—” She keeps talking but I tune her out.

I whisper the word in wonder. Do I have a boyfriend? Two dates… one sleepover… Does that make him my boyfriend? Then I think about this morning, the toothbrush, the coffee, the kiss when he dropped me off and promised to be back around seven.

Boyfriend doesn’t seem like the right term, but what would I call him?

“Earth to Emi.” Maren claps her hands in my face, jarring me from my thoughts. “Come back to me.”

“Sorry, I was lost in the fact that I may have a boyfriend.”

“Well, snap back to reality.”

“Let’s go back to what we’re going to tell him about going out of town. In case he asks.”

She purses her lips, scrunching her eyes in thought. “I despise saying this, but let’s play on me being depressed about my broken engagement a little longer. Use it as an excuse to leave town for a night.”

“I hate to lie, but it’s the best idea.”

“Okay, so let’s go.” She jumps up, yanking me with her. “Pam is teaching tonight.”

“Can’t we skip it? Maybe have wine instead?” Anxiety forms in the pit of my gut. Pam is brutal. She’s a contortionist, I swear. Her body can twist, turn, bend, and stretch like a rubber band.

“Nope, and on the way, I want all the details on last night.”

“I’m not telling you shit if you force me to go.” I stand firm, thinking she’ll cave. To my surprise, she shrugs and starts for the door.

“It’s okay, I’m not going to make you admit he’s bad in bed. Maybe things will get better with time.”

“He’s not bad in bed!”

“If you say so, honey.” She placates me with a sympathetic smile.

“We didn’t have sex!”

Her smile grows wide, and I realize I’ve fallen for her trick. “Maybe tonight’s your night. Let’s go limber you up.”

I mutter behind her all the way to the car then stay silent, pouting. She laughs at me and turns up the music until I’m forced to sing along.

Maybe she’s right. Yoga could definitely help loosen me up for a night with Walker.