Shift Work: Night Shift: Book One by TA Moore

Author:TA Moore [Moore, TA]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rogue Firebird Press
Published: 2021-03-18T18:30:00+00:00

A scab stitched Marlow’s lower lip together, and the dark smudge of a bruise decorated his cheekbone. It made him look younger. Dangerous.

“What happened?” Cade asked as he got out of the car. Marlow had made his own way there. The patrol car parked on the cultivated greenery cut through Cade’s fuzzy infatuation with a flicker of irritation as he tallied the paranoid complaints he’d get.

For a second, Marlow looked surprised, as if he’d forgotten about the marks. He reached up and brushed his fingers along his lower lip until he hit the tender spot. Cade’s body tightened with awareness, and he wondered what it would be like to kiss Marlow’s bruised mouth. The taste, the texture, the way Marlow would pull back or lean in…

“Got punched in the face,” Marlow said.

“You paint a picture with your words.”

The sarcastic edge to Cade’s voice made him swear silently. Despite the pep talk he’d given himself on the way over, he had not brought his best self to play. He tried to cough up an apology, but the flash of a sudden, unexpected grin from Marlow interrupted his attempt.

It was a nice enough smile—wider and more mobile than Cade had expected from Marlow’s lean, sharp-boned face. Nothing about it, though, justified the rush of gooey, soppy warmth that rose from Cade’s stomach and filled his chest. It just felt good that he had been the one to coax something more than half a crooked smile out of the self-contained TAC officer.

Idiot, he jabbed at himself with wry disdain. It was true, but it was hard to care much when he could just… enjoy it.

“Yeah, well,” Marlow said as he pushed the sleeves of his fitted tee up over his forearms. “The full story would just sound like I was boasting.”

“Nothing wrong with that,” Cade said as he turned away—he didn’t plan on pushing his luck with this whole “not being a jerk” thing—and headed over to the front door. “How else will the rest of us know anything worth a boast or two even happened?”

The building was locked up again after their earlier visit. Cade used his company skeleton key to open the front door.

It still reeked inside—more than he’d remembered—the rancid smell of decomposing sugary sauce thick enough to taste.

“Good question,” Marlow said. “Maybe I need to work on it.”

Cade found the control panel on the wall and flicked it open. That was as far as he got. It looked like Macroy’s uninvited guest had lost her temper with the system and smashed it with—Cade measured one of the divots with his fingertip and guessed—a high heel.

“What are you looking for anyhow?” he said as he turned back around.

Marlow shrugged, an off-kilter hitch of his shoulder that made Cade remember the scars on the other.

“I don’t know,” he said. “Something?”

“That narrows it down.” He didn’t get the grin this time, but the amused quirk of Marlow’s mouth at his jibe topped up the warm flush that filled his stomach. This time

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.