Page 32 of Her Paramedic (Men in Uniforms #3)
“T hanks for picking me up. Axel got called into a situation at work,” Killian said as Slate pulled out of the airport pickup lane.
“It’s no problem. I planned to spend the day with Talia tomorrow since they’re celebrating Journee’s birthday tonight.”
The women were going to dinner, and Slate knew that Kaydence had informed Axel it was a girls’ night dinner and that they were going to a club afterward.
Killian and Axel had both assumed they could meet them there if they wanted to, and since his cousin had flown in to surprise Journee for her birthday, even if that hadn’t been what Kaydence meant, it was now.
It seemed they were both surprising their girlfriends.
Twenty minutes later, they pulled into Axel’s driveway.
Killian grabbed the spare key from behind the porch light and let them in.
While the newly married couple primarily stayed at Kaydence’s house until they found one they wanted to buy, Slate knew Axel still stopped at his place when he was pulling a double and needed to change, since it was closer to the station.
They didn’t have plans until later that evening, when they would go out for dinner before meeting the women at the club. Since it was a surprise, they’d hang out at Axel’s until then.
“Have you heard from Ace?” Killian asked as they sat on the couch. “I texted and invited him, but he didn’t respond.”
“His NSW is running drills this weekend,” Slate informed, and his cousin nodded in understanding. Their friend would be radio silent until it was over.
“Did you consider joining the naval reserves before you were discharged?” Killian asked. “I don’t think I’ve ever asked you.”
“Briefly, but I had no interest in Naval Special Warfare or Explosive Ordnance Disposal. I’d been shot at enough and damn near blown up enough. I still wanted some excitement, but not quite that.”
His time enlisted had been worth it; he’d served his country and wouldn’t change it.
Well, he might change having to set his bone, cauterize two wounds, and still be responsible for saving two other people’s lives, but it’d worked out.
Slate felt that he’d given all he could, and when his last contract ended, he’d shifted his focus.
For some people, like his cousin, Jax, and Ace, to an extent, it was a lifelong career.
For him, it was a part of his life that he’d lived, learned something, and walked away better because of it.
They settled on a movie to watch until Axel got off, and they needed to prepare to leave.
“N o one at our table is interested,” Slate said to the two women sitting at the table beside them.
They kept leaning over now and then, batting their eyelashes, trying to hold conversations or butting into the one they would be having.
Which meant they were listening far too closely because the three of them weren’t loud.
They hadn’t taken the hint the first two times, which were hard to miss when they comprised Axel stating he was married and Killian throwing out a bored, “You’re interrupting.
” Yet, it hadn’t bothered either of the women as they kept up their round-robin flirting.
“I’m sorry?” one woman questioned.
“You should be,” Slate countered.
“You’re rude,” the other woman replied.
He shrugged. “And you’re disrespectful and oblivious. But if you kept your focus at your table and out of our business, you would have never learned I was rude. Blame yourself.”
He returned his attention to their table, and Axel chuckled, shaking his head. “I sometimes forget how much of an asshole you can be.”
“Only when necessary,” Slate countered, and he could feel the women staring daggers at him.
He was fed up with the two women and had no intention of dealing with them butting in any longer than he had.
It also ticked him off because they acted as if their actions were okay.
If the roles were reversed and it was the three of them constantly hitting on the women after being dismissed, they would have felt violated and uncomfortable. The double standard was crazy.
“What time are they going to the club?” Killian asked.
“They should be on their way there,” Axel responded.
Killian flagged their server and asked for the check. Slate and Axel pulled out some cash to leave the server a tip, while Killian handed the young man his card when the bill came.
A few minutes later, they exited the restaurant. Slate and Killian slid into his car while Axel got into his. It’d made more sense since they were going to separate destinations once they ended the night.
He followed Axel to the club, and they paid to park in a lot a block away.
As luck would have it, their spots were close to Kaydence’s car.
They paid the cover charge, and it didn’t take them long to find half of the women as they entered.
They were seated at a table to the right, away from gyrating bodies.
When they approached the table, Axel went to his wife to kiss her as everyone else greeted one another.
“Your girlfriends are on the dance floor,” Nova informed them, and Slate turned his attention to the dance floor and spotted them.
He and Killian weaved through the thin crowd, which he was sure would thicken as the night went on. He stepped behind Talia, winking at Aryah as she smiled at him over his girlfriend’s shoulder. Slate leaned down and ran his tongue up the side of her neck. She immediately stepped away.
“Have you lost your fuck—” she stopped short as she turned to him, and he smirked at her. Aryah’s laughter rang with the music. “I was about to go to jail,” Talia informed him.
Slate chuckled, pressing a kiss to her lips. “You and me both if it were someone other than me, and I found out.”
She wrapped her arms around his neck. “That makes it sound like you got the information from someone else. I would tell you,” she informed as they swayed to the music. “I didn’t think you were coming until tomorrow.”
“I wasn’t, but my plans changed.” His hand slid down to her left ass cheek. “And I’m glad I did, or I would have missed seeing you in this dress.”
“And taking it off of me,” she supplied with a playful smile.
“That would have been tragic.”
She laughed, and they continued to sway to the slow melody.
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T alia sat beside Slate, his hand high on her exposed thigh from the slit in her dress. His middle finger rubbed along the inside of her thigh.
He leaned over and whispered in her ear. “Are you wearing panties, baby?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” she responded.
“I plan on finding out.” He pressed a kiss below her ear before turning his attention back to the table, and she followed suit.
Talia listened to Aariah ask Killian if he saw what Journee was wearing. He responded that he had, but he could fight and had excellent aim. She laughed with the other women before her sister and Axel volunteered to grab drinks for everyone.
“Slate, the bracelet you got Tal for her birthday is pretty, and I love the sentiment behind it,” Nova said.
“Thank you,” her boyfriend responded. “I wanted her to know whenever I was thinking about her.”
“That’s sweet,” Zuri stated.
“Where’d you get it?” Alivia asked. “I might be interested.”
Talia furrowed her brow. The purpose of the bracelets meant they came in pairs. At least Talia would assume so. Why Alivia would want to buy two so she could have one was beyond her. Unless she’d started dating someone.
“You want one?” Talia asked.
“I might,” Alivia responded.
“Or you could ask,” her boyfriend countered. “Since what you really want to know is how much I paid for it.”
“How much did you pay for it?”
“Alivia,” Talia reprimanded.
“What? He told me to ask. I’m curious. Besides, if it’s out of my price range for how many I’d need, there’s no point in me looking.”
“That isn’t the point,” Talia responded, turning her attention to Slate. “Don’t answer her,” she told him.
Talia didn’t care how much the bracelet cost. What mattered to her was the sentiment behind it. She didn’t know why Alivia wanted to know how much it cost or what she was getting at, especially if it was a reason other than her wanting to buy one.
“She has a point, baby. I told her to ask,” Slate said.
“No,” Talia responded. “Alivia, if you want to know, look it up.”
Her friend knew the bracelet’s function, and Google was free. She could figure it out on her own if she really wanted to. Talia sat back in her seat, listening to the conversations at the table, barely audible over the music.
When Kaydence and Axel returned with their drinks, she took a sip of hers, wincing at how strong it was before stirring it.
It didn’t matter. She wasn’t driving, and a little liquor in her system would either help her keep up with whatever Slate planned to do to her that night or make her a pliant little pillow princess. Either way, she’d win.
After she finished her drink, she pulled her boyfriend onto the dance floor and they danced to a couple of songs before she asked him to get her some water.
He walked her over to the table and asked the group if they wanted anything before he and Nova, who volunteered to help him carry the drinks, headed to the bar.
“Will you come to the bathroom with me?” Alivia asked before Talia could sit.
“Sure,” she responded, and they headed to the ladies’ room.
Instead of going into the bathroom, Alivia pulled her past it to the emergency exit, away from everyone. The music in the central area was muffled.
“I wasn’t doing whatever you think I was. I wasn’t trying to be funny. I wanted to know how much it was because I thought it would be nice to get for Mama, Nana, and me,” Alivia said.
Talia hadn’t even thought that was what Alivia wanted to know for, and she felt bad for thinking she was starting up with her Slate dislike train again.
The bracelets could be set in different ways, and since Alivia typically only saw her mom and grandmother two to three times a year, it would be a nice way to always be together, in a sense.
“I didn’t think of that. I’m sorry,” Talia apologized. “It’s just—”
“I know,” Alivia cut in. “I haven’t done myself any favors recently when it comes to your relationship, and I can’t blame you for thinking I was trying to start something, but I meant what I said.
I’m fine as long as he doesn’t give me a reason not to be.
I also apologize if I upset you. It honestly wasn’t my intention, but if he’d said something like they were five hundred dollars apiece, then I wouldn’t have had my hopes up for them being something I could purchase without saving for the occasion and wasted my time looking.
” Talia nodded, and Alivia pulled her into a hug. “Come on. Let’s get back.”
They returned to the table, and several minutes later, Slate and Nova returned with drinks. The night continued without the sourness that Talia had thought would settle.
“B aby,” Talia called, gaining Slate’s attention as he removed her shoes later that night.
“Yeah, gorgeous?”
“I wanted to apologize for what happened with Alivia. Even though she told me why she was asking, she could have gone about it differently.”
“Why are you apologizing for her?” he asked, standing.
“I’m…apologizing for the situation.”
“One that she caused. So why are you apologizing?”
“I don’t want any bad blood between you two,” Talia told him honestly.
“There isn’t any. I don’t care that she doesn’t like me,” he responded, pulling her up and slowly removing her dress.
“It’s not that she doesn’t like you. She’s protective.
My relationship track record isn’t the best. I dive headfirst into them too quickly.
Then the other person and I are seldom on the same page.
She’s always there to make me feel better when it blows up in my face.
She just doesn’t want that happening again. ”
Slate undid the buttons on his shirt with one hand as he reached behind her and unclasped her bra with the other.
“You and I are on the same page, in the same book, on the same line,” he responded, tossing her bra aside.
He removed his shirt. “Right now, I need us to be on a page that does not include talking about Alivia and has everything to do with you screaming my name.”
Talia’s pussy tightened in reflex at his words, and warmth pooled in her stomach. “Yeah,” she stated as he picked her up and laid her on the bed. “I want to be on that page,” she responded before his lips covered hers and his hand snaked between them.