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“I’m not sorry.” Malik waggled his thick eyebrows at me. “That was damn amazing. And this is what I’ve been saying. It doesn’t have to be more complicated than us both liking it.”
“Like isn’t the right word. Jesus, I felt like I inhaled straight oxygen. Or maybe nitrous. All giddy. Drunk on you. And I keep replaying every damn moment.”
“Right there with you.”
“I’m not sure where we go from here,” I admitted. I liked plans, particularly when I didn’t have to come up with the details. Give me a decent commanding officer any day with a good plan for me to carry out. Not knowing was bad enough, but I wasn’t sure I cared for the total freedom Malik offered, the ability to decide for myself what I liked and who I was.
“Do we have to know?” Malik shrugged when I knew damn well he’d been the kind of intelligence officer with plans A, B, C, and D in carefully footnoted reports. But apparently, now he was all-in on living in the moment. “We’re buds who occasionally like to kiss and stuff while we’re stuck on this assignment. I know you want a roadmap, but what if we simply see what happens?”
“Not get ahead of ourselves,” I said slowly, warming to the idea. Maybe it helped that Malik was also uncertain. He might not have a plan I could follow, but I could trust him to look out for me. He wasn’t going to lead either of us into dangerous terrain.
I used that newfound peace as we met with the temp agency supplying a few day workers for things like big shoots with lots of extras. I actually managed to pay attention and not solely daydream about more kissing with Malik.
As we were coming out of the downtown office building, Malik glanced at his phone and grimaced.
“The star’s flight has been delayed due to weather. Now we’ve got at least two hours to kill in Denver. No sense in doing the long drive out to the airport until we have to.”
Trying to keep to my resolve to be nicer, I bit back a groan. “We could get a late lunch? I’m sure your foodie self has some favorites from your other visits.”
“I do indeed.” His smile made any extra effort on my part totally worth it. “How do you feel about Ethiopian food?”
“Are you prepared to tell me what to order?” I laughed, but I was totally serious. “I’m game for whatever if I don’t have to decode the menu and make choices.”
“You’re giving me carte blanche to choose? I’m excited already. You’re going to love this, baby.”
I wasn’t entirely sure what the French word meant, but my stomach galloped like a happy pony to see Malik so excited over lunch choices. My stomach might have also been twisty over the non-bedroom use of baby, but since he was relieving me of the responsibility of thinking, I let it slide.
And lunch was beyond fun, a giant platter of food, lots of tiny dishes to try, some fiery hot, others sweet and sour, and tons of amazing injera bread to soak it all up. Malik’s approval every time I willingly tried something new had me glowing by the end of the meal. We still had time to kill before the flight’s new arrival time, and I wasn’t ready to break the peace between us.
“Want to walk before we go back to the car?” I suggested after we split the tab.
“Great idea.” Malik nodded with more of the praise that had me mildly turned on even though he hadn’t touched me all day.
But a block and a half into walking, I regretted my choice when a chilly wind snuck up on us. “Brrr, it’s cold.”
“Cali boy.” Stopping on the sidewalk, Malik turned and pulled my coat collar more securely around me, a simple gesture that completely disarmed me. There was no one around, the locals having more sense than us, and I let myself have the moment’s luxury of leaning into the brush of his fingers.
He took the hint and started rubbing my shoulder. I sighed happily and stretched toward him, which made me notice the shop we were in front of.
Delectable. A violet-and-silver elegant logo over a series of recessed windows with velvet-lined display cases. At first glance, it seemed like a jewelry store or maybe a candy store, but a closer examination revealed something far more startling.
“Are those what I think they are?” I stepped away from Malik to get a better look. Yup. Those were definitely sex toys. “What kind of place is this?”
Malik chuckled richly. “This, my friend, is an upscale adult shop. It’s a chain. They have ones in LA, San Francisco, New York, and apparently here now.”
“Just out in the open like this? I thought these triple-X places were always in seedy strip malls or truck stops.”
