Chapter 14: His Couch

The lock turned at ten past eight, and I was on my feet before I knew I'd woken.

I had slept the whole day on his bad couch under an Army blanket, in a borrowed gray T-shirt that hung to my knees.

Reuben shut the door behind him and stood there with a grocery bag in one hand.

He had gone back to the Aurora at noon so no one would wonder where the head of security was.

Eight hours of looking calm had left a line between his eyebrows.

"The patrolmen left," he said. "Finnegan thinks you're in Reno. Leigh thinks I'm loyal."

"Are you?"

"To the night crew."

He put the bag on the counter without looking at it.

His eyes had gone to my bare legs, and stayed there.

"That's my shirt," he said.

"It was the only clean one."

"It was the only one in the drawer that I wanted to see you in."

My mouth went dry.

The apartment was one room, a kitchen on one wall and a lamp with a yellow shade.

The coffee machine on the counter was the nicest thing in it.

He crossed the floor and stopped in front of me.

He didn't touch me.

He looked at me the way he'd looked at the folder, patiently, like a man who read everything.

"I've been angry at you since the truck," he said. "I'm going to tell you what else I've been thinking all day."

"Tell me."

"Every time Finnegan looked at you, I wanted to break his hand. Every time you looked at me, I wanted this."

His palm came up and cupped my jaw.

I leaned into it the way I had on the dock, only this time nothing stopped me.

"Then take it," I said.

His mouth came down on mine, hard.

My back hit the wall beside the window, and his hands went under the borrowed shirt and up my ribs, rough and hot.

I pulled his tie loose.

I tore at his buttons, and one hit the floor and rolled.

He didn't care, and neither did I.

His chest was broad and scarred, with a long pale line under his left collarbone.

I put my mouth on it, and he groaned and pushed his fingers into my hair.

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