Ah. Had I ever heard his name?
How long had Austin known his name?
“Okay, I’m going to leave the details toyou and Wade if you don’t mind, but everyone needs to be vetted through apersonal reference or background check.” Austin gave me a look that said hethought I was being overprotective, but I’d rather be safe than sorry.
“Simon should have the site up and runningby that point, so we’ll be able to steer people to the application if it goeswell.” Austin’s excited squeal left me partially deaf.
“It’s done?” He giggled. “I would havethought that with all the sex you’re probably having it would have taken a lotlonger.”
Rolling my eyes, I ignored the commentabout my sex life. “It’s almost done, but yes, most of the big pieces arefinished.”
I didn’t even have time to take a breathbefore he charged in.
“How does it look? And why do you look soguilty? Is he bad in bed? Will it draw everyone’s attention?” He glanced at mycomputer like I could make the site magically appear.
I was assuming the comment about attentionhad nothing to do with my sex life or how Simon was in bed, so I ignored it.
“Perfectly boring. I wouldn’t give it asecond glance if I didn’t know what it was hiding.” Boring wasn’t Austin’spreferred lifestyle, but his smile said he understood the necessity.
“Wonderful.” He started fidgeting in hisseat again. “And the hidden pages? And don’t think I’m forgetting about yoursex life.”
“The window pops up when you hit a letterin the business name at the bottom of the site. It’s out of the way and mostpeople won’t ever scroll that far if they randomly find the site.” T was forteach, but I was never going to admit that. Simon, however, found it hilarious.
“Great.” The sound of the door opening outfront had both of us stilling.
Austin was there so often he was startingto recognize the regulars, but as a quiet voice spoke and Silas just made adisgruntled sound, I could see that Austin wasn’t sure who it was. Silas’svoice was low, but he didn’t sound angry, just frustrated which could mean anynumber of things.
Peeking around the curtain, Austin turnedback to me with wide, excited eyes. Whispering quietly, he gestured for me tocome over. “It’s the cute cop.”
The cute cop?
Oh, the little one.
“What does he want?” Moving closer, I triedto listen, but he was talking too low. I really didn’t care, but since it wassaving me from having to explain that we hadn’t made love yet since he wantedthree fucking dates first, I’d play along.
I thought the drunk evening should count asnumber two and our date to get Chinese the other day should count as three, buthe was putting his foot down that the drunk night didn’t count. I also arguedthat the number of calls and video chats we’d had over the past two weeksshould count, but he thought I was crazy.
So between our schedules and him notwanting to rush, we were heading into week three without sex. And that was notsomething I was willing to explain to Austin. Because the only reason he’d beable to think of for dating someone that long and not having sex would involvea four-letter word that was not appropriate when we hadn’t even had a thirddate.
Thankfully, the cop said Austin’s name andmade sure that his attention was focused on the front of the store. When Silascrossed his arms over his chest and told him “No” in a flat voice, Austin apparentlydecided he’d been patient enough. He probably also realized that he couldcontinue my interrogation another time. The cop was something new to play with.
Straightening, he put on his going-to-warface and stepped through the curtain. The smile always made people underestimatehis anger and determination. They’d get flattened before they even realizedhe’d declared war. It was fun to watch and still brought back good memories.
“Oh, I didn’t realize we had guests.” Hefluttered his eyelashes at the little cop. “Do I need to call a lawyer or maybeBertie? We haven’t had dinner in weeks.”
The cop’s eyes widened and he stepped back,hands going up. “No, I just wanted to say thank you in person.”
It wasn’t until he moved that I realized hewas dressed in jeans and a T-shirt. Yeah, not quite his normal work clothes.
Austin’s smile must have lost some of hispredatory nature because the little cop relaxed his hands as his eyes dartedback and forth between Silas and Austin. It was nice to see someone whounderstood Austin was just as dangerous as Silas.
“I…um…” He swallowed hard. “I just wantedto thank you.”
How was he a cop? I wanted to dominate thelittle thing and I had almost no interest in that side of BDSM.
Austin must have sensed the same thingbecause I could see his body language changing. He was still smiling, butsuddenly he was just more welcoming. That had the cop relaxing even more and heseemed to be able to finally breathe.
“You didn’t have to tell the captain that Iwasn’t involved in the…well, in everything that was…” He took another deepbreath and stuck his hands in his pockets. “I just wanted to say thanks. A lotof the guys got transferred and demoted when it all came out. So thanks, mycaptain made it clear you were the only reason I still had my job.”
