Devil’s in the Details (64 page)

I set my own wine down, moving closer to the brunette who looked stunning with her wet hair piled on top of her head, pink cheeks with the cutest pout. "Alex, I asked you to move in for completely selfish reasons. Sharing bills and the other boring things in life never entered my head when I asked you."

I pushed her legs open so I could wrap them around my waist, smiling as I saw it melting her stubbornness when our skin touched. "I wasn't lying when I said I wanted to come home to you, wake up to you and spend every minute I can with you. My request, if anything, was born out of pure selfishness." I ran my hand up her arm, "I want you to be happy as you make me." My fingers glided over her collarbone, "So, if it makes you happy, you can pay the cable bill and every other week of groceries."

I felt her sigh under my touch, her legs pulling me in further. She finally looked in my eyes, a small smile playing at the corners of her mouth. I settled my hand against her neck, right over a racing pulse, "Alex, I love you and there isn't a thing I wouldn't do for you if you asked me." I rolled my eyes, "Well, I still won't ever eat kale, but you get the point." I looked back down at the grinning brunette, her hands running up and down my sides.

"I've always been independent, Victoria, never relied on anyone and I don't want you to think that I'm ever taking advantage of you. I trust you and I want you to trust me." She searched my eyes in a way that told me she was asking more of me than sharing bills. "For the record, you make me happier than I have ever been, just by the little cheesy romantic things you say. It's one of the reasons why I love you." She bent forward kissing the tip of my nose, leaning back to meet my eyes again she smiled lightly, "Can you turn on the hot water? The water's getting cold."

I grinned, watching her gaze shift behind me where the taps were. "I have an idea, how about we get out of the tub, reorder another pizza, eat it downstairs while watching a movie in the living room. Celebrate out first night in this house together." She was barely paying attention to my other hand moving slowly between us.

Alex nodded, still smiling, "Can't shake the gross out factor, can you?" She went to reach for the taps and the drain.

I bent forward, meeting her halfway and kissing her hard, pulling away enough to murmur, "Not yet, I want to warm you up the old fashioned way and christen this tub before we replace it."

Alex went to make a comment, when nothing but a gasp came out as my fingers moved easily into her. Her skin flushed instantly, her eyes closing as she took a deep breath, "Victoria…."

I grinned, kissing her again while my fingers moved, shutting down all of her thoughts and reducing the woman to gasps and soft moans followed by her hands gripping on to mine to prevent from slipping under the water. I continued moving in and out of her, watching the woman unravel in the most beautiful way under my touch. It was another thing I had grown selfishly addicted to, and would do as often as I could now that Alex was living with me. I loved her, I trusted her and I would show her every chance I could.

There truly wasn't a damn thing I wouldn't do for Alex if she asked me, and I knew that promise included telling her everything when the time came, and it was coming soon.

~Saturday ~

Alex had gone back to work on Thursday, and even though it had been barely a week since she moved in, it felt like she had always belonged in the house. She still slept in as much as possible, growling like a hibernating bear when I tried to wake her up for breakfast. Learning that she would wake up on her own and find me on the back patio for coffee before we decided on what to eat.

I would pack her lunch and send her off with kisses, handing over the keys to my BMW with the adamant instructions that she was to drive my car instead of that old mini for her safety. Dale had taken on the task of rebuilding the entire engine on the car and embarked on a restoration project with Alex's help on her days off. I didn't need the car. I never had to leave the house unless it was for work or grocery shopping. She fought me for a day until I forced her, then she found that the car had satellite radio and consistent working air conditioning. Now I knew I would rarely ever drive that car again and should start looking for a new one.

While she was at work, Alex would text me, call me and ask me what I was doing. Stacy was on a week off and she was left with the new nurses to talk to. She had been on back to back doubles since going back and I hated it. I missed her as much as she missed me, and I couldn't fall asleep until I heard her keys in the front door. Hear her tossing her bag in the laundry room, then raid the fridge before trudging up the stairs to crawl on the bed and wake me up by asking, "Are you asleep?" I would tell her no, open my arms and let her crawl in them. We would then talk about her day while she ate cookies in her scrubs and whatever sweatshirt of mine she had stolen for the day.

Everything was perfect until Friday night when Dani sent me a reminder.

-Hate to burst the happy frappy bubble fun, but tomorrow at one p.m. yearly eval fun.–

And now I stood in the bathroom, fixing the last button on my khaki uniform, staring back at myself, wishing I could take all of my six hundred hours of vacation and look for a new job.

Alex was running around the bedroom, trying to find her clean scrubs. "Are you sure I washed them after unpacking?"

I nodded, smoothing a few strands of hair back into the tight bun, looking away as the black hooded figure appeared behind me, reminding me. I looked away, putting away the hair brush, "You did, then I folded them last night and put them in the dresser. Third drawer next to my sweatpants."

Walking out of the bathroom, I spotted a pantless Alex rummaging through the drawer, pulling out a pair of dark purple scrubs. "You are amazing." She turned to look at me, clutching the scrub pants to her chest, "And you look amazing. I don't think I'll ever get tired of the way you look in uniform." She winked at me before sitting on the bed to cover up legs I dreamt about. "How long is your meeting?"

I tore my eyes away the second they were covered, "About two hours, it's the yearly teacher evaluation and then they go over the new class of incoming midshipmen." I moved to the dresser, grabbing my watch and wallet, "I might stop by the hospital when I’m done, bring you lunch if that's okay?"

Alex grinned, "It's always okay, but be warned, Stacy is back today and she might interrogate you." She stood up, gathering her hair in a ponytail, "I asked Dale this morning if I could borrow his truck, since my mini is in pieces in his garage."

"You can take the BMW. Dani is picking me up." I ran my hands down the front of my shirt, "She’s meeting with Ward. He wants to bring her on next semester as a student advisor." I smiled, catching the ring on Alex's finger and that she had no negative reaction to hearing Dani's name. It seemed that after the formal and concreting my feelings for Alex in words and actions, she was no longer super suspicious and jealous of the redhead.

"Are you sure? I can always take a cab or the metro." Alex was hustling around, picking up clothes and straightening the bed.

I felt my stomach twist in knots when I heard the metro. The faces of those four men flickering through like a cheap movie reel, "Take the car, I'm sure." I let out a slow breath, trying to calm my rolling stomach. "On Monday can we stop by the dealership before we grocery shop? I want to look at a few new cars, find something for you while Dale works on your car."

Alex gave me a look, stuffing random things in her bag. "Okay, but I can only afford…"

"Just a rental, Alex. I don't want you to ever take the metro, a cab or anything again. You work too late to not have something reliable." I swallowed, or put me in a position where I have to kill shitheads with the audacity to think about harming her, glancing at the clock, "You should probably get going or you'll get stuck in traffic and Dani should be here in five minutes."

Alex sighed, picking up her bag, "I know." She walked over to me, lifting her hands to the sides of my face. "I'll be home at two. Will you have cookies and cuddles ready?"

I couldn't help but grin and wrap my arms around her, "Don't I always?" I bent down to kiss her, absorbing and memorizing the way Alex felt in my arms and in my heart.

"Yes you do, but we’re running out of cookies." Alex kissed me once more before sighing and moving out my arms. We both hated having to leave the warm bubble we had created in this house over the last few weeks. I hated it more knowing what my outside held.

I walked down with Alex, grabbing her lunch and walking her out to the car. Kissing her once more with a rib crushing hug and promises of stopping by after my meeting.

As Alex turned down the last curve out of my subdivision, Dani pulled into the driveway in a black sedan. Stepping out and smoothing down her identical khaki uniform.

"Afternoon Professor, you ready for this bullshit?" She squinted at me, leaning on the top of the sedan.

"Nope." I turned to her, "Are you any further with…things?" I looked down, idly noting I needed to cut the lawn.

"Two steps further than I was, but still a thousand steps away from the end." She sighed, "But I'm getting closer." She cleared her throat, "Where's nurse blue eyes? I haven't seen her since the formal. I see you two shacked up."

Before I could give her a dirty look she pointed at the mini up on a ramp next door, "Her car is in pieces next door and your beamer is missing. More importantly, you have forgotten that I’ve been monitoring her. She filed her change of address at the post office online yesterday from the hospital, which I conveniently buried away from prying eyes."

I furrowed my brow, "You are prying eyes." I let out a breath, "Let me get my briefcase and then we can go. I might need you to stop by the hospital afterwards, I promised to get Alex lunch."

Dani chuckled, "You are whipped like whipped cream, Professor." She winked at me, "It's the most beautiful thing I have seen in a long time." She tapped the top of the car, "Hurry it up, I want coffee before we visit the old ones. The old lady bores me to tears."

I glared at her one more time, turning back the way Alex had driven. Wishing I could follow her and never look back.

Voltaire's main headquarters was near the Pentagon and the NSA building, disguised as a typical federal government building. Tall, wide and covered in black glass, it looked like any other building with people in suits and military uniforms walking in and around the halls.

I felt my entire being shift the second we entered, like the black hooded figure and I merged back into the same person, not the split personalities I had been carrying for the last few weeks while I started a life with Alex. I was beginning to struggle maintaining a dual identity, widening the cracks that started to the form the day Alex stood in my office almost a year ago.

"You ready?" Dani glanced at me, sticking her palm in a biometric scanner next to the one bank of elevators.

I sighed, sticking my hand in, letting the scanner read my hand. My stoic face popped up on the small screen with a green light, opening the elevator doors. "Not really, but the sooner I get this done, the sooner I can go home."

Dani and I stepped into the elevator, "Don't forget, the old man wants to see you after. He also wants to see me after he sees you." I turned to look at Dani, she was clenching her jaw and picking at the ribbons on her chest, "I hate the one on ones."

I felt my fear rise, "Do you think he knows?"

Dani waved her hand at me, smirking, "No, trust me. I'm the best for a reason." She looked up at me with wide green eyes, "I hate the one on ones because it usually leads to a big job for the both of us." Her smirk faded into a tight lipped smile. I nodded, turning back to the floor counter.

She was right, anytime she had a one on one with the old man or the old lady, she and I would be shipped off to the ass end corners of the world for two or three weeks on an endless run of jobs. Sniper hits, interrogations, close up work. All were messy and physical, and I would return home with a few more stitches and bruises. I clenched my jaw, I couldn't do it this time. I couldn't leave Alex and come home with bruises and stitches, if I did, she would push harder for the truth.

And I would lose her.

The elevator doors opened up the same time Dani laid a hand on my back, drawing my thoughts back into the present. "Victoria, I promised you I would find the way out." She looked at me with intense green eyes, "And I will, but pull it together and put your Professor face on. The old man will read through you like a cheap newspaper." She smiled, patting me, "Think about nurse blue eyes in scrubs, waiting for you to bring her lunch. Everything else, zone out like I do until they say your name."

I rolled my eyes, smiling, "You are so very strange."

Dani shrugged, walking out the elevator, "And you are so very stiff, quite the pair we make." She motioned towards the large oak doors to the right, "Let's get this bullshit over with."

As we both turned to put on our tight game faces, Dante strolled around the corner in her crisp Marine uniform. “Ladies.” She smirked, folding her arms. “It’s always a pleasure to see the dream team together.”

I felt my jaw twitch, “Dante.” The woman was what my grandmother would call a beautiful devil. Stunning in her looks, her Argentinean roots giving her a sensuality that had more than all of us looking twice at the woman, but the devil side of her was what kept me back. Dante was sneaky, slimy and killed without a thought other than how quickly she could get paid and on onto the next job. This was why she was the old lady’s favorite, confusing me why she was seen with the old man as of late.