Just Kidding (SWAT Generation 2.0 Book 1)

by Lani Lynn Vale

  “I brought tacos,” I said.

  He blinked.

  Then the most adorable smile lit his face as he said, “For me?”

  I snorted and pushed past him, forcing myself not to stop when I got a whiff of how freakin’ good he smelled.

  Dear, sweet baby Jesus.

  I could do this.

  I could get through this night without jumping the man.

  I could do it.

  I could do it!

  I shivered.

  “Cold?” he asked gruffly.

  I nodded.

  “You have it freezing in here,” I told him. “I would’ve put on a sweatshirt had I known you kept it this cold.”

  The front door closed quietly behind me and I turned to watch him flip the lock and then turn to survey where I was standing in the middle of his living room.

  “Let’s take it to the bar,” he suggested.

  I turned to survey the bar to see it covered in mail.

  “Umm,” I said. “That’s a lot of mail.”

  He snorted and shoved it all to one side.

  “My mom comes over and sorts through it for me,” he said. “For some reason, I get every single bill I pay by auto-pay in the mail each month. Then I’m getting all sorts of magazines now.” He paused. “Do you think when you hit a specific age that random places get your name from some master list and start sending you shit that they hope you buy?”

  I snickered.

  “Now that you mention it.” I set the tacos down onto the counter. “I’ve noticed an increase in my magazine amount, too.”

  He laughed at that, his eyes going down to the bag of tacos on the counter.

  “I’m starving,” he said, his eyes flicking up slightly over the bag.

  That was when I realized that my nipples were on prime display.

  Seriously, had I known that he kept it this cold, I would’ve worn a bra and brought my sweatshirt.

  He looked away with a faint flush to his cheeks, and I tried not to think about what that meant.

  Instead, I started to unload the tacos and queso from the bag, as well as the chips and guacamole.

  In all, I’d gotten twelve tacos.

  I wasn’t really sure how many the man could eat on his own, but I’d hoped that it wasn’t more than ten, because I was eating two of those bad boys myself. The last time I’d taken my brother out he’d eaten six, ordered four more, and had eaten what was left of my chips and queso.

  So… I got a lot, anticipating that he had a similar appetite.

  “I hope I got enough,” I said, bringing my hands up to my arms and running them up and down.

  His eyes went to my hands, once again to what I assumed were my nipples, and then he turned.

  I watched as he paced to the couch and came back with a black KPD SWAT sweatshirt and tossed it my way.

  “I wore it today,” he said as he tossed it. “But only after I took a shower and came home. I slept in it until I got too hot.”

  I immediately slipped it on, both grateful that he’d given me something to cover my should’ve-worn-a-bra breasts as well as the fact that it was indeed cold as the dickens in his duplex.

  “You got hot?” I asked him. “It’s like a meat locker in here.”

  His mouth twitched.

  “It’s like sixty degrees at the lowest,” he countered. “And what’s the point of paying for heat to come on when I like it cold? I sweat all damn day at work in my body armor. And when I was deployed, it was even fucking hotter. I just… being hot isn’t a good thing for me. So when I have a choice, I keep it cold.”

  I studied him for a bit before bringing the sweatshirt up.

  I sighed as I pulled it over my head and held in the moan that wanted to escape right along with it.

  Jesus, he smelled good.

  “This smells fantastic,” I couldn’t stop myself from saying.

  “Deodorant.” He chuckled as he reached to grab a taco.

  Then, like the man he was, he ate it standing up.

  I took the stool next to him and ate two tacos in the time that it took him to eat eight.

  “Don’t forget the guac,” I told him, pushing it toward him.

  He popped the lid off and dug a chip in, bringing it up to his mouth with a happy groan.

  His eyes met mine and he gestured to the guac with a tilt of his head.

  I shook my head.

  “I’m probably the only person on the planet that doesn’t like guacamole.” I paused. “Or avocados, for that matter.”

  He frowned.

  “You don’t like avocados?” he asked.

  I made a disgusted face with my tongue hanging out.

  “That’s a big fat no,” I said as I brought my queso toward me. “I like queso, though. Guac and avocados make me think of green snot.”

  I got another whiff of Dax straight to my nose when I moved, and I shivered.

  “You’re still cold?” he asked, eyeing me worriedly.

  I shrugged.

  “I keep my house warm,” I told him. “But it’s fine. I’m okay.”

  He didn’t like that I was cold.

  I could see that on his face clear as day.

  “What brings you over here?” he asked.

  I wouldn’t tell him that I’d heard about his shitty day.

  Instead, I made up a small lie.

  “I bought these tacos with every intention of asking you and Derek if you wanted some,” I said. “But he wasn’t home. So you get all of them.”

  Derek had never even gotten a knock on the door from me.

  Not because I wouldn’t have shared, but because I knew that he was out drinking his troubles away.

  “Nice,” he said. “More for me.”

  I smiled, then dug another chip into the queso.

  It was as we were finishing up that I said, “Do you want to watch a movie with me?”

  He looked at his living room.

  I did, too, seeing that he didn’t have a television almost immediately.

  I would’ve groaned, but that might have given me away.

  “I would but I usually just watch shit on my laptop.” He paused. “Or my iPad.”

  I shrugged. “I have my brother’s Netflix password.”

  He grinned then.

  “I have Amazon, but Netflix isn’t something I usually go to,” he admitted. “I know, that’s sacrilegious of me.”

  “What do you have against Netflix?” I asked as I pushed away from the counter, now thoroughly stuffed.

  He gestured to the queso that I hadn’t finished, then finished it up in five bites before answering.

  “Nothing really,” he admitted. “Just not really willing to waste money on it. I’m saving for a house, and it seemed like a frivolous item that I didn’t need to be spending it on.”

  I could understand that.

  “That’s why I’m stealing my brother’s account,” I admitted. “Though sometimes I do give him money or tacos or something in exchange.”

  He grinned at that, then started gathering our trash.

  “My computer’s right there on the coffee table.” He gestured in the direction of the couch with his head. “I’ll get this cleaned up and go grab the blanket off my bed for you. What are you wanting to watch?”

  I made my way over to the couch, bringing the sweatshirt up to my nose and surreptitiously smelling it before falling into the sofa.

  I glanced over my shoulder to see Dax bent over picking something up off the ground, his sweatpants cupping his tight ass like a glove.

  I groaned as I leaned over and grabbed his laptop.

  “What’s the passcode?” I asked, feeling my stomach tighten.

  “0004,” he answered.

  I typed that in and was immediately signed into his laptop.

  I blinked at the show that was pulled up.

  “What is this?” I asked him, holding the lapto
p up for him to see.

  I heard a drawer slammed closed, and then him throwing stuff into the trash.

  Moments later he was leaning over the back of the couch, both of his large hands on either side of my head.

  “Umm,” he said. “I think that I started watching a scary movie the other day. But I never really got started on it before I got too tired to finish it.”

  I clicked on it, then read the synopsis for it.

  “The Conjuring?” I asked him.

  He shrugged then disappeared from behind me.

  Moments later he was back with a white duvet cover.

  He tossed it at me, and I was immediately enveloped into a cocoon of Dax.

  This time, I did moan.

  Not only was it warm, but it blissfully smelled of him.

  He laughed and rearranged the covers so that it was around me, but not covering my head.

  Then he disappeared again.

  I started the scary movie back from the beginning, then became entranced.

  “We’re watching this?”

  He came back into the room shaking his hands free of water, then started flicking out lights.

  “Yes,” I said. “I can handle it.”

  He shrugged and plopped down onto the couch in between the arm and the cushion that I was sitting on.

  The movement caused me to lean slightly into him, and I felt my breath catch.

  He moved so that his long legs were propped up on the ottoman and then took the laptop from me, placing it on his outstretched legs and then moving slightly.

  “Scoot closer,” he ordered.

  I did, leaving about six inches of space between us.

  The movie continued playing and there was whispering, causing me to lean forward.

  He caught me by the hip and tugged me closer, until I was plastered up against his body.

  “Better,” he said. “This is as loud as it gets, sorry.”

  I wasn’t sorry.

  How the hell could I be sorry when the man’s body was like a massive heater and I was pressed up against the man that’d been the star of my dreams over the last few weeks?

  I tried not to allow my mind to get away from me, and instead once again focused on the movie.

  “This movie is fucked up,” he rumbled.

  I agreed wholeheartedly.

  Minutes later, in the movie, the kids were playing a clap game.

  The game was simple. The mom had a blindfold on, and the kids clapped from various places in the house as she tried to find them with her blindfold on.

  “That’s cute,” I said.

  He grunted something unintelligible.

  “What was that?” I snickered.

  “This is going to come back and bite her in the ass,” he said. “I just know it.”

  I had a feeling he was right.

  And that was proved correct a while later when, late at night, the mother heard clapping.

  Thinking that it was the kids playing, she followed the sound to the basement.

  “My kids were down there,” he said. “I’d call for them to stop fucking around and go to their rooms. No way in hell would I go down there.”

  I snickered at his comment.

  “You’re telling me you wouldn’t go down there?” I teased, knocking into him playfully with my shoulder.

  His face turned so that he could study me.

  I quit breathing.

  “I’m telling you that I would’ve gotten the fuck out of that house at the first sign of something fucked up being there,” he told me. “Her going down into that basement would’ve never been a possibility. I protect what’s mine.”

  I protect what’s mine.

  Oh, boy.

  He tapped my nose with his finger, then turned back to the screen.

  “See,” he said. “I’d lock their asses in, too.”

  I watched as the mom on the screen threatened to lock whoever was in the basement in, then gasped and jumped as the door slammed in her face.

  Seconds later she was tumbling down the stairs.

  The big man next to me tensed.

  “Fucking hell,” he said when she finally landed.

  A ball came rolling across the floor after that, and I moved closer to Dax.

  He pulled up his arm and tucked me in tighter to his chest, his hand going to my shoulder and squeezing it lightly.

  Comforted in his arms, I nearly missed the next thing that happened as the mom ran up the stairs.

  Seconds later the light burst and the screen was plunged into darkness.

  “Fuck,” I breathed, legs tensing.

  Dax was still fairly relaxed next to me.

  That was until a few scenes later when she lit up a match and started shining it around.

  “She’s gonna see a fucking face,” he said.

  The match went out.

  She lit another one.

  That match went out.

  She lit yet another one.

  That’s when there was a loud clap that nearly sent me straight off of the couch.

  I screamed and covered my face, completely missing the rest of the scene as I covered my head and prayed for it to end.

  “It’s over,” Dax whispered.

  I lifted the blanket from my head where it was tucked into Dax’s shoulder, then looked at the screen.

  “I’m going to have nightmares,” I informed him.

  He chuckled then.

  “If you do, I’ll come sleep with you and make sure nothing touches your foot that’s hanging off the—” I slapped my hand over his mouth so he couldn’t finish that sentence.

  “Don’t you fucking dare,” I growled.

  His lips turned up into a smile against my hand.

  I pulled it away before I could allow my fingers to explore his lips, then turned my face back to the screen.

  I didn’t move out of his hold, though.

  I stayed exactly where I was, head on his chest.

  He’d moved the laptop to the outside of his thigh so he could see but didn’t make a move to dislodge me in any way.

  I felt things inside of me start to flutter with excitement at how close I was.

  The movie played away, and each time that I got scared, his arm would squeeze around me tighter.

  It was at the point that the end was near that I realized that his hand was resting perilously close to my goods.

  Not that he knew that since the blanket was wrapped around me still.

  But I could feel the heat of his hand as it pressed against my mons.

  I licked my lips and tried not to breathe. Because if I breathed, it might dislodge his hand, and I really wanted his hand where it was.

  Any moment he was going to move it because the movie was over.

  Any minute…

  “Hey,” I croaked. “There’s a Conjuring Two!”

  Why did I sound so excited to get the shit scared out of me again?

  Because anything, even being scared out of my mind, was preferable to leaving his arms.

  Anything.

  By the end of the movie, I was so scared that I knew without a shadow of a doubt that I wouldn’t be getting a wink of sleep.

  Dax, being the sweet man that he was, walked me over to my door and waited until I walked inside.

  When I had the door open, I turned in the opening and surveyed him.

  His eyes were sleepy again. But his hair was no longer a mess. At some point during our night, he’d gone into the bathroom and had come back out with it combed into a semblance of control.

  “Thanks for the dinner and the company,” he said, his eyes going soft. “Today was… bad.”

  Bad.

  That one word summed up the death of eight people perfectly.

  It had been bad.

  Really bad.

  And without the quick thinking of the SWAT team and them helping clear the mass casualty car wreck, add
itional wrecks were avoided.

  My hand curled into a fist as I stared at the man’s worn face.

  Even tired, he was sexy as hell.

  “You’re welcome,” I said, a small smile kicking up the corners of my lips. “I…I wasn’t sure that you were going to want me there tonight. But I’m glad that you did.”

  He brought his hand up and trailed the knuckles of one huge hand down the apple of my cheek.

  Then he was gone, leaving me watching him go.

  ***

  I went to bed in his sweatshirt.

  I woke up with it pulled up to my face and inhaling his scent.

  The darkness was still in full force, so I knew that it wasn’t time to get up yet.

  So what had woken me?

  It took me a long minute to orient myself, and when I did, I realized that I could hear singing coming from the window that led outside to the shared back yard of Dax and me.

  Curious now, I got up and made my way to the window, barely parting the blinds in order to see out.

  I saw the flickering of a candle, or a flame of some sort, before it’d flick out.

  Over and over and over again.

  That curiosity got the better of me and I exited my bedroom and went out to the living room that would lead to the back yard.

  Stopping at the door that I’d yet to get blinds or curtains on, I looked out.

  I could see the flame now, but not from the same direction.

  But it was so dark outside that there was no light at all.

  Meaning when I went outside, I hoped that it was Dax in the shadows and not some random man.

  Turning the lock and stepping out without much thought to what I was wearing or what I was doing, I wasn’t surprised to hear the singing abruptly stop.

  “Shit, did I wake you?” Dax’s rough voice said.

  The tendrils of excitement at seeing Dax again started to seep through me.

  “No,” I lied, my eyes going to the Citronella candle at his side. “I was already awake. Those nightmares are intense.”

  He snorted. “You’re such a liar.”

  I shrugged. “Well, I would like to point out that you’re right outside my window. It was inevitable, and I think that you know that.”

  He paused as if he considered lying.

  Then laughed softly. “Maybe I did.”

  I walked over to the bench that Dax was sitting on and gestured for him to scoot over.

  He did, opening up a spot big enough for me to park my ass on it. Barely.