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She laughed and scooted closer. Zaxx wrapped her up and rolled to his back, so she could settle her head on his chest. She immediately began rubbing his belly as she had repeatedly last night. He was now pretty sure he was at least forty-percent canine, because holy shit, belly rubs were awesome.
“Cancer,” she answered. “Which is objectively the worst sign. Worst name, worst symbol. No way I’d have that as a tattoo or a piece of jewelry.”
He laughed. “I understand. But, you know, Cancer is a water sign.”
“Is it? That’s important?”
“Well, if you go in for that sort of thing, it could be. Sagittarius is a fire sign.”
“If we went in for that sort of thing, wouldn’t it mean my water douses your fire, or something?”
“Mmmm, kinda, but not necessarily. Fire and water are opposites. Together, they’re balance. But sometimes they’re chaos.”
She laughed. “So we’d bring out the best or the worst in each other. Well, that clears things up. This is why I don’t get into all that shit.”
He shifted his head so he could see her face. “Real talk for a sec?”
She met his gaze. “Sure.”
“I want to talk about what’s going on here. Between us, I mean.” Deciding on the spot not to make Gia put herself on the line first, he added, “For me, I hope this wasn’t a one-off.”
She tipped her head back so they were really face to face. “What do you hope it is?”
“Something we take some time and explore. It’s way too early to know more than that, but I know I want to do that exploring.” Another thought occurred to him. “You’re back, right? You’re done at school and live here now?”
She cast an ambivalent look around the room before she looked at him again. “Yeah, I’m back. I’m gonna have to do some traveling for research, but that’s down the road a ways, and even then, Signal Bend is my address for the foreseeable. When my PhD is in hand, I mean to try to get an academic job, and who knows where I could end up, but that’s way down the road. At least a couple years.”
He heard the strong possibility that she wasn’t here forever, but that was too far away to worry about. Zaxx could not hold that much future in his mind with any clarity. The important thing: she was here now, and she planned to stay long enough for them to do some exploring.
“What do you want, Gia?”
She set her hand on his cheek. “I don’t want this to be a one-off, either. That’s all I know—actually no, I also know I don’t want a fuckbuddy in my hometown. So if you want to be exclusive while we explore ...”
The thought of Gia with anyone else made that heavy heat of jealousy rise in his chest again. There was no way he could share her. “Yeah, I was thinking exclusive.”
With a grin, she pushed her hand into his hair and scooted up to reach his mouth with hers. “Good. I am an excellent researcher. Let’s explore.”
As her mouth claimed his, Zaxx closed her up in his arms and rolled, putting her on her back. She spread her legs so he could settle between them, and his cock soared to its full length. He was out of condoms, but there was plenty they could do that didn’t require one.
Right then, with comically bad timing, his club phone rang.
With a groan, Zaxx rolled off of Gia and reached down for his phone. Before their shower last night, they’d taken a few minutes to put the room to rights, and he’d made a neat stack of his clothes on the floor beside the bed. His phone lay on top.
“It’s Badge,” he said, rolling to his back while he checked the screen. Gia had sat up and was watching him, but she didn’t say anything. Which was fine, because Zaxx’s head was already loud. Getting a call this early on a Sunday morning couldn’t mean anything but trouble.
He answered the phone. “Hey, boss. What’s up?”
“I need you in the Hall inside the next half hour.” Badger’s tone was impatient, working its way to pissed off.
“Is there trouble?”
“Get here. Less than thirty.” Before Zaxx could say more, Badger ended the call.
He took the phone from his ear and stared at it. The club president was pissed, apparently at him. Since he hadn’t gone extracurricular with the handsy cop, there was only one thing he’d done he could imagine would piss off his president.
“I think word got around already about you and me. Badge is pissed and calling me in right now.”
With a loud, rhetorical noise, half raspberry, half scoff, Gia flung herself against the ironwork headboard. “Jesus motherfucking Christ. I am so sick of being treated like I’m both a child and some kind of holy relic. What the fuck does Badger have to say about who I fuck?”
