“Little bit? I heard you were shaking with worry.”
“Who did you consult with for this information seeing as Dave barely spoke to you before going to sleep?”
Shepherd thinks about it a moment. “Bear. Bear told me you were like ‘please let my magnificent Shepherd come home safe.’”
“Yeah, well, Bear also has a pastime of licking his butthole, so who do you really think you’re going to listen to?”
Bear, hearing us talk about him, slithers forward on his stomach to see what we’re up to. When he can’t break the hold I have on Shepherd, he decides to climb on top of us to check us out. And then he immediately falls back asleep.
“Your dog is crushing me again,” I cry.
“At this point just give in and admit he’s our dog,” Shepherd says.
I suppose I kind of like the dog. “Fine.”
He squeezes me as he presses kisses against my cheek and lips and forehead. I feel like every inch of my face has been kissed when he’s done, but I just lean in for each one.
“How’s your shoulder?” I ask.
“Has to be better than the wound I left in your heart when I took more than an hour to return,” he says.
“Which shoulder is it again? I’d like to dig my thumb into it for you being so mean to me.”
He just shuts me up with another kiss. This one isn’t just a peck and I push myself into it. I’m not sure I can ever get enough of him no matter how many times I kiss his lips or hear his laughter or any of that.
What’s happened to my brain?
When he breaks away from the kiss, I say, “You’ve made my brain mush.”
“Nah, you smarts, remember?”
“Vaguely. When you’re around, I’m dumb and my brain’s filled with images of you surrounded by roses and lovebirds.”
“Wow, that sounds horrible.”
I grin at him. “I know, right? That’s what I’m saying. It hurts inside my body. I might have a disease or something.”
“The love disease,” he says.
“That sounds like an STD, so please don’t ever say that again,” I say.
He starts laughing as he rolls a little, which causes Bear to slide off our bodies and onto the bed. “Well, I could have come up with much worse names if you want. I was just trying to be gentle.”
“No, you were being weird and creepy and it’s kind of sexy,” I say.
“I aim to please,” he says.
I reach down and give his ass a little squeeze. “I like it.”
“I never really got the act of flirting, and I’m still not sure I do,” he says. “Is this flirting?”
“Are you turned on?”
He thinks about it for a moment. “A little bit.”
“Then yes, this is flirting,” I tease.
He snorts as he hugs me again. “Perfect. Good night, Killian. I love you.”
I instinctively squeeze him when I hear that. “I love you too.”
And while it takes me a long time to fall asleep, having Shepherd by my side brings me comfort. Because I know that we can get through all of this together.
Thirty
“I’m still waiting for my fed buddy to reply,” Dave says the next morning. “But while I wait, I’ll do what I can. I’ve got to go fix the hot water heater in one of the cabins I manage, so you two just hang around in the house. Stay away from windows and find something to entertain yourselves with.”
With Shepherd wearing one of Dave’s shirts that is ridiculously tight on him, I happen to know what I’d enjoy doing… taking it off him.
But I don’t feel like that would be very good company, so I decide something a bit more proactive would be better. “We could make a list of everything while he does that?” I suggest.
“Good idea,” Shepherd says as we head to the table.
We go over things that could incriminate my father, ranging from the things I’ve seen, to the things I’ve suspected. I also make a list of all the officers I know are involved, but I’ll need proof of that.
“What if Dave can’t figure out how to make this work?” I ask. “Do we keep fighting for it or do we just run?”
Shepherd taps his pen against the table. “We’ll assess it tomorrow. I would really love to bring your father down. Even if we don’t end up disrupting the whole thing like Dave thinks we need to, just stopping your father would be enough for me.”
I nod, understanding that and knowing I would be fine with