Page 57 of The Triple Threat

He bent over at the waist and put his mouth close to my ear.

“Davis is in the locker room, so you don’t have to whisper.”

“He has the hearing of a bat. I think I do. Now what do you want?”

I could feel his breath on my cheek, and I could smell his soap and cologne and damn it, I wished I could turn the clock back twenty-four hours. I wouldn’t change a damn thing, except maybe savor the hot sex a little bit more. Oh, and maybe take a photograph of his huge wang.

“Like I said, we need to talk.”

Hunter straightened up again and shoved his hands into his jeans’ pockets. He still had a steely look in his eyes, but he didn’t have the Hunter Delaney confidence I’d grown used too.

“Nothing to talk about.” I wheeled my chair away from the desk and put the meds list into the top tier of a yellow tray and then wheeled further back to flick the switch to dim the ward lights.

“Ellie, stop messing around back there and get back here now.”

He pointed a finger down at the desk and let out a long, slow exhale.

“Messing around?” I asked, trying hard to regulate my breathing. “I happen to be working, not messing around.”

Hunter let his head drop back onto his shoulders for a moment and let out a groan.

“You know what I fucking meant,” he replied, shifting his gaze back to me. “Now move that cute little ass of yours back here so I can talk to you.”

I opened my mouth to protest, but the locker room door burst open and Davis swanned out ready to go home.

“Okay, I’m off home to dream about a certain someone.” He wiggled his eyebrows and leaned in closer to Hunter. “Please don’t tell her you’ve changed your mind about the calendar shoot. She’s in a strange mood already tonight, so poor Joella doesn’t need you spreading bad vibes around.”

“I’m not,” Hunter retorted with his eyes on me. “Quite the opposite.”

I frowned, but Hunter carried on talking and saved me the trouble of working out what he meant.

“I’m offering to do two pictures, three if necessary. That way you won’t have to ask Delphine’s nephew. Him not being a local and all.”

“Delphine has a nephew?” Davis asked, eyes wide. “Is he cute? We need to get her fixed up with someone cute.” He pointed at me.

“Oh yeah,” I replied enthusiastically. “He’s real cute.”

“Why do we need to fix her up with someone? And did you not hear me say, he’s not local.” Hunter practically added ‘duh’ to the end of the sentence, he was so agitated.

Davis didn’t bite but grinned at me. “He kinda has a point. Would Mrs. Callahan be happy with looking at someone she doesn’t know throughout the month of May? I think not. You know how she likes to perv on all the local boys.”

Hunter shuddered. “She’s eighty.”

“Seventy-six,” Davis corrected. “But the point is, she’s excited to see the flesh of the locals, so that she doesn’t have to imagine it when they visit her gas station. Some non-local won’t give her that joy, Ellie.”

“Yeah, what Davis said,” Hunter agreed with a grin.

“I promised Delphine and I don’t go back on my promises. Now,” I said turning to Hunter. “If there’s nothing else I have work to do. Davis can walk you out.”

Hunter glanced at Davis and then shook his head. “Nope. I have other stuff we need to discuss. Night, Davis.”

Hunter's eyes were firmly back on me, so my colleague took the hint and flicked his scarf over his shoulder.

“See you tomorrow then,” he said to me with a look that said: ‘what the hell is going on and I will interrogate you when we meet again’.

I didn’t have a chance to argue because he was gone.

“Right,” Hunter growled. “Let’s get to it.”