a cold shower. Get your head out of
your whatever. And I’ll be back in the lobby in twenty minutes.”
As I watch that perfect ass of hers disappear into the
women’s locker room, I have no choice but to hope to god that I’ll see her
again.
In twenty minutes.
Chapter Thirteen
Knox Cole
By the time Tatiana reappears in
the lobby, I’m sweating and I think I may have developed an ulcer. The clock
has ticked away thirty, forty-five minutes, and I’ve paced every inch of the
floor. A security guard has explained to me five times that I can’t go into the
women’s locker room, and I’ve come painfully close to punching him in the jaw. I’ve
run through every possible scenario of what will happen to me without Tatiana
and the laptop. They all end the same way and it’s not pretty.
And then there she is, fresh as a
daisy, standing before me with an innocent smile as if she hasn’t just caused
my cortisol to spike through the roof.
“That was not twenty fucking
minutes,” I bark, hiding my relief in anger. “You almost gave me a heart
attack!”
Tatiana looks remade, fresh and
clean, her skin bright, her hair blown out. She’s wearing makeup, sunglasses,
and a baseball cap, and smells like fucking springtime. It makes me want to
take her straight to bed, where I could smell every inch of her skin and drink
her up until I’m full. It’s also not lost on me that she’s somehow produced a
new outfit—a tight casual black dress that shows off everything I like looking
at, complete with a pair of colorful, practical trainers on her feet. An
army-green duffle bag is slung around one shoulder and brushes tantalizingly against
her left hip with every step. It draws my attention to those hips, the way she
moves, and that makes me even angrier.
“So what,” she grunts. “I’m the
first woman to take a long shower?”
She laughs and loops a slender
finger through the belt-loop of the jeans I’m wearing. Then her hand slides
over the black t-shirt I’ve commandeered. The skin burns under my clothes where
she’s touched me.
“Where did these come from? They
actually fit! You look human again.”
I take a deep breath, willing
myself to calm down and focus.
“Jimmying open lockers is not
exactly a tricky skill to master. I’ve had that down since junior high.”
“I see I have the right partner in
crime.”
“Flattery will get you everywhere. You
have the laptop?”
She frowns. “What is this obsession
with the laptop? I have what we need for the next step. Come, let’s get going.”
I grab her arm as she tries to walk
past me. “Wait. What do you mean, next step? If there’s no laptop, we’ve got no
leverage.”
“We don’t need the laptop.”
“What do you mean, we don’t need
the –”
I stop myself, my jaw locking in
anger. Roughly, I snatch the duffel bag, not caring that Tatiana is still
attached to it, and yank the zipper open. She stumbles after it with a gasp,
closing the distance between our bodies as I rifle through the bag. I feel her
weight against me as I search. Inside the duffle are papers, papers, papers.
Nothing but papers! A folder. A passport. A small ornate box. A teddy bear.
A teddy bear?
“Shit,” I hiss. “Where is it? Where
is Breslin’s laptop?”
“It’s not here,” she says.
“Obviously!”
“I told you Knox, we don’t need it
now. I have everything we need. We are ready for the next step. Trust me.”
To say that I am angry is like
saying The Incredible Hulk is Incredible.
“Don’t try to play me, Katja.
Dammit, I mean Tatiana. Fuck. What the fuck is going on? What next step are you
talking about? Am I going to have to die because you think you have everything
under control? Because I gotta tell you honey, you don’t have anything under
control! You don’t even have me under control, and I’m supposed to be on your
side, right? We need that laptop. It’s the only thing that we can use to
bargain with.”
In spite of my
your whatever. And I’ll be back in the lobby in twenty minutes.”
As I watch that perfect ass of hers disappear into the
women’s locker room, I have no choice but to hope to god that I’ll see her
again.
In twenty minutes.
Chapter Thirteen
Knox Cole
By the time Tatiana reappears in
the lobby, I’m sweating and I think I may have developed an ulcer. The clock
has ticked away thirty, forty-five minutes, and I’ve paced every inch of the
floor. A security guard has explained to me five times that I can’t go into the
women’s locker room, and I’ve come painfully close to punching him in the jaw. I’ve
run through every possible scenario of what will happen to me without Tatiana
and the laptop. They all end the same way and it’s not pretty.
And then there she is, fresh as a
daisy, standing before me with an innocent smile as if she hasn’t just caused
my cortisol to spike through the roof.
“That was not twenty fucking
minutes,” I bark, hiding my relief in anger. “You almost gave me a heart
attack!”
Tatiana looks remade, fresh and
clean, her skin bright, her hair blown out. She’s wearing makeup, sunglasses,
and a baseball cap, and smells like fucking springtime. It makes me want to
take her straight to bed, where I could smell every inch of her skin and drink
her up until I’m full. It’s also not lost on me that she’s somehow produced a
new outfit—a tight casual black dress that shows off everything I like looking
at, complete with a pair of colorful, practical trainers on her feet. An
army-green duffle bag is slung around one shoulder and brushes tantalizingly against
her left hip with every step. It draws my attention to those hips, the way she
moves, and that makes me even angrier.
“So what,” she grunts. “I’m the
first woman to take a long shower?”
She laughs and loops a slender
finger through the belt-loop of the jeans I’m wearing. Then her hand slides
over the black t-shirt I’ve commandeered. The skin burns under my clothes where
she’s touched me.
“Where did these come from? They
actually fit! You look human again.”
I take a deep breath, willing
myself to calm down and focus.
“Jimmying open lockers is not
exactly a tricky skill to master. I’ve had that down since junior high.”
“I see I have the right partner in
crime.”
“Flattery will get you everywhere. You
have the laptop?”
She frowns. “What is this obsession
with the laptop? I have what we need for the next step. Come, let’s get going.”
I grab her arm as she tries to walk
past me. “Wait. What do you mean, next step? If there’s no laptop, we’ve got no
leverage.”
“We don’t need the laptop.”
“What do you mean, we don’t need
the –”
I stop myself, my jaw locking in
anger. Roughly, I snatch the duffel bag, not caring that Tatiana is still
attached to it, and yank the zipper open. She stumbles after it with a gasp,
closing the distance between our bodies as I rifle through the bag. I feel her
weight against me as I search. Inside the duffle are papers, papers, papers.
Nothing but papers! A folder. A passport. A small ornate box. A teddy bear.
A teddy bear?
“Shit,” I hiss. “Where is it? Where
is Breslin’s laptop?”
“It’s not here,” she says.
“Obviously!”
“I told you Knox, we don’t need it
now. I have everything we need. We are ready for the next step. Trust me.”
To say that I am angry is like
saying The Incredible Hulk is Incredible.
“Don’t try to play me, Katja.
Dammit, I mean Tatiana. Fuck. What the fuck is going on? What next step are you
talking about? Am I going to have to die because you think you have everything
under control? Because I gotta tell you honey, you don’t have anything under
control! You don’t even have me under control, and I’m supposed to be on your
side, right? We need that laptop. It’s the only thing that we can use to
bargain with.”
In spite of my
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