Page 70 of Covert Affections (Shadow Agents/PSI-Ops #5)

Chapter Fifty-Three

Lindy

“Okay, I’m going to try this, but if it kills me, I’m haunting you,” said Waverly, her tone warning as she took the wing from Bill’s outstretched hand.

Lindy had given up trying to warn Waverly away from eating one.

Bill seemed as if he were rethinking letting Waverly try it. “What kind of haunting are we talking about? Friendly neighborhood ghost or full-on walls are bleeding and they’re gonna find my body at the bottom of a set of stairs with my head facing the wrong way?”

“Guess,” Waverly said with a wink, the threat hanging in the air.

Bill swallowed hard as he watched her take a bite of the chicken wing.

Huh,” she murmured. “It’s actually really good and not too…” Everything seemed fine for about ten seconds, and then Waverly’s eyes started to water as they widened. Reaching up, she touched just under her eyes.

Bill shot forward, shaking his head. “Don’t go touching your eyes! My sauce is a registered lethal weapon. It could blind you!”

Waverly’s eyes instantly reddened and she’d not even come into full contact with them. She squeezed her eyes shut. “Ohmygod, it burns!”

A sheepish expression crossed Bill’s face. “Yeah, um, it has a tendency to do that.” He swung around to face Lindy. “You don’t happen to have an emergency eye wash kit, do you?”

Lindy launched into action, rushing for the small safety cabinet to the left of the kitchen sink. There was a fire extinguisher there as well as an eye wash kit. Lindy pulled it off the wall.

Waverly coughed and pounded on her chest as Bill lightly patted her back, as if he’d been expecting that reaction. Waverly tried fanning her face, but it didn’t seem to be helping. “Water!”

“Let’s get your eyes rinsed,” said Lindy, going for her.

Waverly lunged for the kitchen sink at the same time as Lindy yelled, “No! Milk! I’ll get some, but first, let’s rinse your eyes.”

Waverly didn’t wait. She was at the sink in record time, her eyes squeezed shut as she grabbed for the handles with such gusto that the cold water one snapped off in her hand.

Water immediately began shooting upward in a powerful jet, soaking the ceiling and raining back down on all of them.

Waverly grabbed at the stream, pulling handfuls of it toward her face and rubbing her eyes.

Bill sighed. “Graverly, you’re rubbing more sauce in your eyes that way.”

Lindy grabbed for Waverly, trying to calm her so she could begin the eye wash procedure.

Waverly wasn’t having any of it. She rubbed more water on her face. “It burns.”

“Here,” said Bill, taking the eye wash kit from Lindy. “I got this. You handle the water.”

Lindy raced for the sink, trying to deflect water while bending and going for the shutoff that was under the sink.

She got hold of the shutoff valve and tried to turn it.

It didn’t budge. Water soaked her back from the above and her knees from the puddles forming on the floor.

The fiery smell of Bill’s wings filled the kitchen and Lindy coughed, trying the valve again.

No luck.

Bill slid on the water-covered floor and bumped into the center island, knocking the plate of wings over.

Some fell onto the floor. He looked longingly down at them before assisting Waverly.

He opened the orange eye wash case and began yanking out the contents from within.

He opened a saline bottle, sniffed it and then licked it, which had to negate any type of sterilization it had.

He held up the bottle along with a plastic eye wash cup.

“Waiver-Lee, you need bend down. I like my women tall and all but I can’t reach your eyes. ”

She patted at him, her eyes squeezed shut still. She found Bill’s shoulder and nodded before squatting down next to him.

Bill tilted her head back gently. He held the bottle of saline above her eyes. “Blink. We need to get them peepers flushed out. Had me a buddy in Nam that got special shit put in his eyes by the government. He can see the future. All I got was bad flashbacks. Uncle Sam can bite me.”

She blinked as he administered the saline rinse, the eye cup all but forgotten.

Lindy continued with her attempt to shut off the water.

Waverly opened her eyes and blinked a few more times. She went to rub them but Bill swatted her hands.

“Woman, you want to put sauce in your eyes again?” he asked as he shook his head.

“I swear. Without me, you’d all be well and truly fucked.

” He lifted the saline bottle and grinned mischievously.

“Speaking of sex. I’m gonna keep the rest of this.

It’ll come in handy the next time my Wee-Willie-Winkie squirts in the face of a… ”

“Do not finish that sentence,” warned Waverly as she peeked out at him from one eye.

He shrugged. “As I always say, if you can’t talk about it, you shouldn’t be doing it.”

“Lindy,” said Waverly, sounding exhausted. She stood fully and took a step. Her feet slid out from under her and she fell to the floor, splashing water in the process since an inch or so had now accumulated.

“Are you okay?” asked Lindy as she grunted, trying the valve yet again.

Waverly stood slowly and rubbed her backside. “My butt isn’t happy. But I’m fine and thankfully, didn’t lose my sight.”

Bill bit his cheek. “May want to wait a couple of days to be sure that holds true.”

Waverly rounded on him, so angry no words came out as she pointed at the man.

He smiled up at her. “You know, this response is one I get a lot from women. I render them speechless.”

Lindy kept trying to the valve like it might suddenly give. It didn’t. “I can’t get this shut off.”

Bill dove for her, belly sliding in the water over the tiled floor. He slammed into Lindy, knocking her into the wall with a loud thud. He was left with his face planted in her cleavage, which was soaked.

Bill mumbled something inaudible, his face still buried in her breasts.

Lindy grabbed him by the back of his hair and tugged his face up, giving him a hard look.

He smiled in a way that said he’d been perfectly happy where he was. “You’ve got a great rack.”

Lindy pointed at the shutoff valve.

Bill bent fast and twisted the valve, breaking it off. He was left holding the broken valve handle in his hand, his paper hat reduced to pulp on his head, his wiry hair dripping with water. A clump of wet newspaper fell onto Lindy’s jean-covered thigh. “Sorry.”

The back kitchen door swung open with force, striking the wall.

Lindy came up fast and knocked the back of her head on the sink. “Son-of-a…”

Gus filled the doorway of the kitchen. He walked, or rather waded, in, wearing a giant pair of flippers on his feet, a wetsuit, arm floaties (which were inflated), and a snorkel mask.

The mannequin head was under his left arm and was wearing a diving mask.

In the man’s right hand was a large wrench.

Waverly tipped her head back and opened her mouth, letting water fall into it.

She paid little attention to Gus and the spectacle he presented as she continued to catch water in her mouth, seemingly unconcerned with the fact the water she was drinking was bouncing off the ceiling first. Apparently, Wild Bill’s Outlaw Wings warranted any means necessary for relief.

Lindy took a step in Gus’s direction and slipped.

Her feet went out from under her, and she went down.

Before she would have hit the floor, strong arms wrapped around her, catching her and dragging her up and against a chiseled, hard, masculine frame.

Her succubus side ignited as heat and need flared through her.

Blinking, she found herself staring up into brilliantly green eyes.

Eyes she’d dreamed of nightly for a week.

Jesse stared down at her, his gaze on her lips.

Her darkness tried to break free, wanting the man’s mouth on hers. To hell with the chaos around them. Time seemed to come to a standstill as Lindy found herself powerless to look away from Jesse’s full lips. Memories of her dream hit her hard—reminding her of what his mouth had felt like on her.

Heaven.

Water rained down on them, but neither moved. They simply stared at one another; each seemingly locked in the moment.

“Kitty-Scat, are you gonna stand there holding her like you’re thinking about railing her or are gonna actually be useful and help shut off this damn water?” demanded Bill, irritation in his voice.

“Rail her,” whispered Jesse as he lowered his head, his mouth dangerously close to Lindy’s. “I’m going to do that.”

Waverly began to laugh in between her bouts of coughing. “We need a picture of this.”

“On it,” said Bill, yanking his phone from his apron pocket again. He snapped a picture of Lindy and Jesse and then took the wrench from Gus, who was facing the wall where pictures of the cook and his catch of the day had been.

Waverly peek out from one eye at Jesse. “Hey, I know you. I thought your name was Tom.”

“Tom?” asked Bill.

Waverly nodded. “As in peeping.”

Jesse cringed.

Lindy wasn’t sure what she meant by that.

Bill thrust the wrench out in Jesse’s direction. “Here. Help. You can hump Lindy-Lou’s leg later. Fix the water now.”

Jesse released Lindy, much to her dismay, and took the wrench to the sink.

He bent and had the water shut off in mere seconds, making it look easy.

When he stood, his dark T-shirt clung to his rippling muscles.

Jesse used the bottom of his T-shirt to wipe the water from his face.

Between the glimpse of his amazing, rock-hard abs, to the way his shoulder-length, wet blond hair clung to his face, the man was walking sin.

Silence fell over the kitchen as Lindy wiped at her glasses, trying and failing to get the water cleared for a better look at Jesse, her darkness beating at her from within. It pushed at her to leap on the man and make her dreams a reality.

Jesse moved his wet hair back from his face with one hand, and Lindy was fairly positive she moaned.