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“Must be true love,” she snorted, “if you really think that in the state I’m in.”

With a chuckle, Quinn lowered herself down to kiss her on the lips.

“Correct. You are sexy, and I love you, even when you are all sweaty and in a bad mood. Even,” she added with a grin as she flicked her finger under her armpit, “when you forget to shave.”

“Get off,” Lia instructed. As Quinn moved to a seated position next to her, she straddled her lap, wrapped both arms around her neck, and held her tight. “I love you so damn much,” she gasped in a voice thick with emotion.

Quinn embraced her. She rubbed a soothing hand up and down her back.

“So do I, darling,” she murmured. “I love being married to you. Nothing makes me as happy or matters more to me than you and our relationship.”

Lia pulled back to regard her fiercely, with the same sort of emotion blazing across her eyes. Then she kissed her, deep and hard, just the same.

“Okay, tell me what’s wrong,” Quinn prompted.

“It’s to do with the blogs.”

“The last one was nasty.”

“They all are,” Lia growled.

“Agreed.”

“And now I think I know who is writing them.”

“What? You do?” Quinn blinked in surprise, then promptly narrowed her eyes. “Well. Who?” she grunted.

Lia shook her head. “I need to show you stuff before we get to that.”

“What stuff? Lia—”

“No, really, it won’t make sense just to tell you without the supporting evidence.”

“Huh. Spoken like a real cop, actually.” Quinn liked that. It made her smile. “Or the hardcore investigative reporter that you are, of course.”

“I feel disgusting,” Lia declared. She sniffed her sweaty t-shirt. “Let me take a quick shower first, and then I’ll fill you in properly. Okay? And you can tell me what you think.”

“You could tell me now.”

“No. We can’t cut corners with this.”

“Okay, then. So long as you let me shower with you, I’ll let you keep the suspense going a bit longer.”

“You’re clean as a whistle. And you smell wonderful.”

“Yeah.” Quinn grinned. “So?”

???

Twenty minutes later, they settled on the couch in front of her laptop. Every muscle in Lia’s body ached, but she had needed to let off steam after uncovering said evidence. Kicking the shit out of the punching bag felt like a good idea at the time. Quinn’s hand on the back of her neck, stroking gently, was wonderful now. So was the way she had taken care of her in the shower. Another brilliant thing about being married, Lia discovered soon after they got together, was that you always hadsomeone to wash your hair for you if you were too tired to do it yourself. Today, like every time Lia let her do it, Quinn had turned the exercise into a drool-inducing, exquisite massage.

“Thanks for being patient,” Lia told her.

“I never have much of a choice when you’re so stubborn, do I?” Quinn snorted ironically in reply.

“I’m not stubborn,” Lia answered, nicely tongue-in-cheek.

“Of course not. Hey, I won’t argue. I’ve seen how well you can punch, so...”