Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 74501 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 373(@200wpm)___ 298(@250wpm)___ 248(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74501 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 373(@200wpm)___ 298(@250wpm)___ 248(@300wpm)
“No fuckin’ clue. It’s just what’s happening tomorrow night.”
“Righty ho.” She was whispering again and now looking like she was about to crack up laughing.
“So, we on the same page with all of that?”
“Well, um…yes, of a sort.”
“What’s the ‘of a sort’ part?”
“I can’t tomorrow night.”
“Why?”
“Well, you see, my source in the DPD chose this unfortunate time to realize I was using his fascination with my breasts to semi-kinda-but-mostly-definitely score information from him and he pressed the issue. So, in order to learn what the cops know about Carlyle’s dad’s case, I have to go out to dinner with him tomorrow.”
Dutch took a beat.
Then he took two.
Then he said gently, “Right, baby, you know that biker research you did?”
She nodded.
“And that hardcore stuff you learned?” he continued.
She nodded again.
“Well, there is a definite Chaos version of that,” he told her.
“Do I want to know?” she asked.
“Maybe not, but after that kiss, and what’s gonna come next, you need to anyway.”
She took her own beat before she invited, “Right then, sock it to me.”
“You are not going out on a date with a guy who has a fascination with your breasts when you’re in my bed.”
“I’m not in your bed yet, Dutch, and pointing out, it was you who put a stop to that.”
“I’ll amend. You are not going out on a date with a guy who has a fascination with your breasts when it’s a certainty you’re gonna be in my bed.”
“Dutch—”
He asked a question he did not want to ask.
“You into this guy?”
She scrunched her nose.
She was not into this guy.
He straightened, and he’d never heard it come from his own throat, but he could not deny it was an actual growl when he started, “Georgie—”
“He’s not a cop, but he has electronic access, and he can give me good stuff, Dutch.”
“Yeah, and I know actual cops, a number of them, who also have access, who not only won’t mind sharing, I’ve already got a sitdown planned with two of them tomorrow.”
“Oh,” she mumbled.
“Cancel your plans.”
She tipped her head to the side. “I kinda can’t.”
“You absolutely can.”
“Well, see, now, if I screw this up, he’s gonna be mad, and I’ll lose my source in the DPD. I know someone else who’s got loose lips, but they don’t have his kind of access. And, as previously mentioned, I’m soon to be assigned articles on the crime beat, so I need a good source. So I have to go, regardless.”
Dutch looked to the ceiling.
“I was right,” Georgiana said.
He looked back to her and saw her grinning.
“It’s totally cute, the protective, and in this case, possessive thing,” she explained.
“I’m not feelin’ cute,” he informed her.
“Well, you are,” she muttered to the neck of her beer bottle before she took another sip.
“You go, you’re done, you come here to me,” he demanded.
“There’s a problem with that too,” she admitted.
Jesus.
“What?” he asked.
“I have a cat, that’s not really my cat, but I’m claiming him. He was not a big fan of substitute momma leaving him overnight to go meet a douchebag, deadbeat attorney in DC. So, in order to assist him in getting over his trauma of spending the night alone, I really shouldn’t make him spend the night alone again so soon.”
For the second time with shit she was saying, this time especially after that kiss, he couldn’t believe his ears.
“You’re not gonna come to me because of your cat?”
“Again, not my cat, though he is because I’m claiming him. He’s my roommate’s cat. She’s a doctor without borders. And I suspect, since she’s on stretch number two, she’s never returning home. So I’m taking this as an abandonment issue even though all of her belongings are still in my apartment, including her cat. But if by chance she does return, and she tries to reclaim my-cat-not-my-cat, I might have to catnap him and go on the lam.”
After she delivered that, so they didn’t have sex for the first time on his kitchen floor either, in that moment he considered it a very good thing the bar was between them.
“Are you always this cute?” he asked.
“I hope so. Are you always this cute?” she asked back.
“I’m not cute, babe.”
“You so totally are,” she mumbled, again to the neck of her beer bottle.
She took a sip and then grinned at him.
Okay, what the fuck?
Why was his dick getting hard just watching her grin?
“So, how many books do you have?” she returned to her earlier question.
“Bring your cat here, before your date-not-date.”
She huffed out a disbelieving laugh and asked, “You’re going to hold my-cat-not-my-cat hostage so I’ll come to you after my date-not-date?”
“Yup,” he confirmed before he took his first sip of his own beer.
“And you want me to serve my-cat-not-my-cat up as hostage by bringing him to you before my date-not-date?” she asked, now smiling huge.