“I was asking how your day was before I took advantage of your half-naked state.”
“If the sight of my hairy legs is what revs your engine—”
“Good God,” he said, now laughing.
“Hey, do you know if water buffalos sweat?”
Calvin reached for the top button of my shirt, undid it one-handed, then hooked his finger in and tugged me closer. He kissed me again before asking, “Remind me which of us proposed?”
“You did.”
“I must have had a reason,” he said, almost thoughtfully, as he let go.
“Jerk.”
“Don’t fill up on ice cream,” Calvin continued as he headed toward the hall. “I’m going to bake that—”
But before he could finish, I slid across the linoleum floor in my socks, grabbed Calvin around the waist from behind, and tugged him back against me. The heat pouring off his body was like hugging a furnace, his back damp from the suit coat and left side from his holstered weapon, but I held Calvin tighter and breathed in the lingering whisper of his cologne and clean sweat after a long day.
“Did you catch any bad guys?” I asked, speaking against his shoulder blade.
Calvin rubbed his hand along my arm. “Sure did.” He always said that, regardless of the truth of the matter.
“Let’s skip the chicken tonight,” I continued. “Get delivery. How about Japanese? The zaru soba you like.”
Calvin twisted around in my hold so that we were chest-to-chest. “Is there a particular reason you don’t want me cooking?”
“It’s too hot.”
“It’s June, baby. It’s only going to get hotter.”
“I know. But if we have something cool to eat and sit in front of the AC for a while, I won’t mind getting a little sweaty again in order to show you a good time. And you’ll be really relaxed and happy, and I can tell you about how your supervisor came to the Emporium this morning, asking questions about an 1850s curiosity that wasn’t thought to have survived the test of time.”
CHAPTER TWO
I won the dinner debate.
Zaru soba, seaweed salad, gyoza, yakitori, and the sushi-for-two special, which was just for me, of course, because Calvin didn’t like sushi. Oh, and more beer. Calvin eyed the buffet set out on the table in the front room with suspicion. He’d changed into a T-shirt and a pair of drawstring shorts he usually wore to the gym, which were a treat for me, but I’m sure there was a gym bro or two who appreciated the view as well. I was still in nothing but my boxer briefs and now-mostly-unbuttoned button-down.
Calvin took a seat across from me. “Do I want to know what you spent on delivery?”
I snapped apart my chopsticks and yanked the lid from the sushi container. “Probably not.”
He chose one of the skewers of chicken, took a bite, then said mildly, “You wouldn’t let me cook the chicken we already have, but went ahead and bought takeout chicken….”
I held out sushi with my chopsticks. “Want some yellowtail?”
“Nope.”
I put it in my mouth.
Calvin finished off the skewer before opening his container of cold noodles. “So my lieutenant walks into an antique shop, like a bad setup to an even worse joke.”
I smirked and pointed at Calvin with the chopsticks. “That’s what I thought.”
“And he was there about a particular artifact.”
“Uh-huh.”
