Total pages in book: 57
Estimated words: 51803 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 259(@200wpm)___ 207(@250wpm)___ 173(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 51803 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 259(@200wpm)___ 207(@250wpm)___ 173(@300wpm)
“Check.” O’Brian was still laughing, although not as maniacally as before. “Better pack a different aftershave, Nicky.”
“Check.” Valenti was still laughing right along with him. If we can still cut up together, maybe everything will be okay, he thought, enjoying the sensation of being at ease around his partner again. Maybe these feelings I’m having for him are just some crazy phase I’m going through and it’ll all work out in the end ...
His hopes lasted until the next morning at work at the Metro precinct.
* * * * *
“Hey, buddy, must’ve had a hot date last night, huh?” Johnson smirked at him, and Valenti frowned and put down the stack of paperwork he’d been trying to get through.
“Why does everybody keep asking me that?” he demanded. “You’re the fourth person who’s made some kind of smart-ass comment to me today. I don’t get it.”
“Well, maybe it has something to do with the huge hickey on the side of your neck, lover boy.” Maria from Records grinned at him. “Who are you dating, a vampire?” She leaned over his desk and ran a finger playfully down the left side of Valenti’s neck. The side O’Brian kissed me on last night, he realized. Last night ... oh, my God ...
“Hey, Valenti, how ya doin’?” It was his partner right behind him. Valenti rose from the desk and grabbed O’Brian’s arm, towing him toward the men’s room. “Hey, what gives?” his partner protested, but Valenti didn’t say a thing until he’d gotten them both safely into the room and checked to make sure there was no one in any of the stalls.
“Look at my neck,” he demanded in a low voice, after glancing briefly at it in the mirror. Sure enough, there was an enormous hickey, a dark, purplish-red spot right under the big pulse point beneath his ear. He must have missed it that morning because he hadn’t had time to shave -- no wonder everyone was asking if he’d gotten lucky! O’Brian looked puzzled, but he glanced obligingly at the spot his partner was pointing to.
“Hey,” he said admiringly. “You get some action last night after we went home?”
“No, I went home and went to bed. You did this to me,” Valenti hissed fiercely, turning back to the mirror again. He hadn’t had a hickey this size since the night of his senior prom, when he’d gotten lucky with Ginger Foster. “What were you thinking?” he asked his partner. “What were you trying to do -- mark me or something?”
“Or something,” O’Brian agreed. “Look, Valenti, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you’d mark so easy; you’re not exactly the pale, easy-to-bruise type. I didn’t do it on purpose, honest. I just ... well, I guess I got carried away. Tryin’ to prove we could act the part, ya know?” he added quickly, perhaps seeing the incredulous lift of his partner’s eyebrows.
“Damn right you got carried away.” Valenti frowned sternly, but it was impossible to stay angry with O’Brian for long, especially when he got that hang-dog look on his face. Also, he couldn’t help thinking about the way he’d gotten the hickey -- O’Brian’s crotch rubbing against his, those warm hands on his back, that hot mouth on his neck ... To his horror, Valenti found he was getting a hard-on just thinking about it. He crouched closer to the mirror, hoping his partner wouldn’t notice.
“Look, I know things got kinda weird last night, and I feel like it was my fault, so I apologize,” O’Brian continued. “I feel like I’m pushin’ you into this thing and you don’t really want to go. I mean, if it weirds you out that much, we can drop it, Nick. I want this case, but it’s not more important to me than our partnership -- than our friendship, understand?” His voice was disappointed but firm, as though he expected Valenti to jump at the chance to get out of the assignment. But his body language was tense with longing.
“I know,” Valenti muttered. He looked at his partner bouncing on the balls of his feet in the cool tile sterility of the men’s room, and knew that, for whatever reason, O’Brian really wanted this case. It was the first big one they’d been offered since his partner had been nearly killed by a trip-wired junkie strung out on PCP in the dirty back alley of the Chinese restaurant they had decided to try that fateful night six months ago. O’Brian had been stabbed multiple times before Valenti could get to him.
Valenti still had nightmares about it -- about blood, so red it looked black, gushing out between his fingers onto the filthy pavement as he begged O’Brian to hold on, partner, help is coming, just hold on. It was so good to see his partner back on top of his game. O’Brian’s recovery from the vicious wounds had been long and painful, and now that he was in top form again, Valenti knew his usually active partner was tired of being desk-bound and was itching for action.