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“I’ll pick you up from yours.” I drop a kiss to the corner of her lips. Then another to her jaw. “The rest is a surprise.”
“Oh?”
“Mm. And that’s another thing. Married people don’t have two different apartments, so…”
“Good thing we’re not married, then.” Aggravated, she shoves away from me, away from the wall, and heads toward the George Stanley. “You’ve lost your damn mind, Malone. I’m not marrying you, and I’m sure as shit not letting go of my apartment.”
“That’s cool about the apartment.” I stride to catch up and do so easily, considering she’s in heels and my legs cover twice as much ground as hers. “I don’t have any particular allegiance to mine. It’s no bigger than yours, and not a hell of a lot closer to work, so I don’t mind. But I can’t leave Chloe behind. You’re gonna have to be okay with me bringing the cat.”
“I’m not moving in with you!” She barely slows, as we approach the next corner, before dashing into the street and crossing the road.
Lucky for us both, traffic is light, so I’m not forced to carry her out of danger’s way.
“You’re not moving in with me, Archer. And you can’t bring your cat.” She fakes a sneeze and looks back at me with a sly grin. “I’m allergic.”
“We both know you’re not.” I tap her ass and step up onto the sidewalk on the opposite side of the street. “You’ll need to talk to your landlord about me bringing the cat. I don’t wanna get you in trouble, but leaving her behind is not an option. We’re gonna have to figure something out.”
I stop speaking for a moment and yank her by the coat when a guy on a bicycle moves entirely too close and zings by. “This is called compromise,Minnnka. Look it up sometime.”
“Great. Well, until I do, I’m thinking we keep the status quo. You stay at your apartment, and I’ll stay in mine. And sometimes, in the middle of the night, one of us will sneak across and rock the other’s world for an hour.”
“But why accept so little time,” I slide my hand around hers as we cross over to the George Stanley, “when we could have all night, every single night? I mean, sure, sneaking can be hot, but imagine going to bed, satiated from coming so fucking hard you can’t speak anymore. Then I wake you up again in a couple of hours and do it again. Then again at five in the morning. Then I’ll make you breakfast.”
“Waking me in the middle of the night will have the exact opposite outcome of what you expect.” Stopping on the sidewalk and turning back to face me, Minka looks up and runs her tongue along her top teeth. “Never wake me up and expect a warm welcome.”
“What if I just fuck you while you sleep?” The building at her back stands fifteen stories high and has constant foot traffic coming and going. Dead folks in, cops come out. Cadavers arrive, and funeral directors leave. “I won’t wake you, but I’ll make you come so you can’t even tell if it’s real or a dream.”
“Do that.” She pats my chest and steps closer. Puckering her lips in a rare show of public affection, she moves to her toes and waits for me to oblige, then as she backs away once more, her dimples pop and flicker as she studies me and my back faces the traffic. “Let’s experience this for now, Archer. Let’s experience being new and together and happy, because god knows we haven’t had stability up to this point.”
“Because of you,” I counter petulantly. “You keep breaking up with me.”
“You keep inviting new women into your life. Starting with Chloe and including, but not limited to, a felon, as I discovered today.”
“Wouldn’t be my first time,” I argue with a playful smirk.
Cops—some I know from my building, and others I can pick out simply because of the way they walk—pass us by. They go about their business and discuss whatever case is on their mind. Amidst it all, I openly acknowledge that the woman I love, the one I’d like to legally and permanently bind myself to, is none other than the Copeland City vigilante.
She’s no cape-wearing, roof-prowling, snatched-purse-collecting superhero, worthy of a comic strip. What she does is not nearly so glamorous. But Minka has killed; for the innocent, she’s slain. And she makes no promises, not even to this homicide cop, to stop.
And that… that’s what our relationship will need to work hardest to overcome. Apartments, sleep schedules, landlords, and cats will be the least of our worries. Not even her crush on my best friend and partner, Charlie Fletcher, will pose a true problem for us.
“I don’t snitch,” I murmur. “And let’s not pretend we’re strangers, Mayet. I know enough to know I’m in love.”
“You think you have to commit quickly, because you’re afraid of something happening and one of us being hurt.” Stepping closer again, she looks up into my eyes, more serious this time. “But I’m not rushing into anything. I just want to try us out and see where we—”
“I want more.” I grab her jaw with my right hand and draw her closer. “You know enough about me to know I want what I want, and I’m not gonna stop till we’re on the same page.”
“Sounds to me like you’re a spoiled brat attempting to coerce me into something I’m not ready for.”
“Harsh words, Doc. But we both know that ain’t the truth. A man who works homicide knows how fragile life is. He knows how precious time is. And I swear to hell and back,” I slide my lips across hers until she exhales and fills my lungs, “I remember every single family I’ve had to notify about the loss of their loved one.Every single time, they cried and begged for more time.”
I study her eyes and know, beneath her smug words and teasing comebacks, is a woman whose heart beats for mine too. She’s scared of commitment, yet she’s terrified of losingus.
“So this is me, babe, standing here and refusing to waste a single minute of what we’ve got.” Pressing one last kiss to her cheek, I release her and spin her toward her building. I tap her ass to get her moving, but I don’t slap it the way I might’ve before knowing her.
With Minka, I don’t get to be rough. I can be a little handsy, and I can push her to her very limits, inside and out of the bedroom. But physically touching someone with a dangerous bleeding disorder means I learn to adapt fast or I put her life in danger.
And the latter, I refuse to do.
