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"Okay, come on. But forewarning, only sleeping tonight. I want to be fully alert when I ravish you."
"Fine by me," I say as I let out a yawn.
We go to his bedroom. It's enormous and just as colorful. His bed cover is a pale green. Who is this man? We get into bed on opposite sides, both knowing we are not in the right place to cuddle yet. As soon as I hit his bed, I'm drifting into a peaceful sleep.
***
When I wake up, Archer's gone, and I smell something
unique. I stretch and get up. Hopefully, it's not too late. How long has he been up for? I go use the en suite and splash water on my face. I feel like I haven't slept that well in ages, but that seems about right with the timeline of my dating life.
Since I was a kid, I've always found comfort in having someone in my room or sleeping with me. Cordelia used to fill in that spot until I got my first boyfriend. We do still have sleepovers. Always sleeping in each other's bed because why dirty a guest room?
I leave the bathroom and walk down the hall seeking Archer. I find him standing at his kitchen island overlooking a laptop and something that's cooking on the stove behind him.
"Need some help cooking?"
He looks up at me and gives me a little smirk. His black hair is somehow wavy in the morning. Does not make any sense when I have to brush my hair twice before I leave the house.
"I figured I would cook some breakfast since we will probably be at work all day. I'm making breakfast sandwiches. I hope you don't mind turkey bacon. I make me and Nisa a loaded salad every day, and ever since, I've come to love turkey bacon more than anything."
I sit diagonally from him at one of the seats under the island. "That's perfectly fine. You make Nisa a salad every day?"
It's probably because Nisa is always thinking about everyone else while she never gets enough sleep or, I'm assuming, food.
"Nisa is teaching me how to cook some of her favorite dishes. In exchange, I provide her a salad each day that I'm working. She'd seen me eating mine one day and fell in love with how it looked. Of course, she couldn't try it because it had pork in it. That night, I bought a new pan and turkey bacon to make her a salad for the next day."
My heart warms. I never knew Archer to be the chef type. "So, what is in this famous salad of yours?"
"Hm, that's a secret for you to find out."
I laugh, never knowing Archer could be this carefree. Every time I saw him, or he came down to my lab, he always acted like he
had a stick up his ass.
"Here," he says as he places a plate with a sandwich in front of me. The sandwich looks fantastic. There's bacon, egg, and what I'm assuming is pepper jack cheese melting out of the side. I take my first bite and let out a little moan.
"This is delicious." I look up and already find him staring at me. I must've moaned really loud for him to be staring at me with that heat in his eyes.
"I'm glad you enjoy my cooking. I'll have to do more of it for you."
I nod my head yes as I finish up the sandwich. I look at the laptop that he's also looking down at.
"Whatcha doing?" I ask because I'm very nosy.
"I had the surveillance sent to me and you. I'm working on a little right now since there's like six hours total to watch. I didn't want you doing it by yourself."
Again, I feel my heartstrings tug. Nobody has ever cared
about my work. I've dated guys who thought that women in STEM was a horrible idea. Now I can see what a real man looks like. "Have you found anything?"
"Nothing yet. When he got there, the place was dead. Many of those people have already left. I guess that we want someone who had his eye on Rory for a while or someone who stayed the whole night and left after Rory."
"Yes, exactly. You're looking at females, too, right? I'm not sure a female would be able to carry him from point A to point b, but I shouldn't really downplay a woman's strength. I didn't see any girlfriends reported on his sheet. Did you get any information when you got put back on?"
"Just a few known friends. They've been interviewed already, and they all have alibis. None of them had anything bad to say about him. And no girlfriend that they know of, so likely no revenge killing."
"After examining him, it looks like torture for information, so it is likely the killer knew him, but he didn't know the killer. Well, we should get back to the station. I have the rest of the surveillance to watch, and you probably have important stuff to do."
