Page 102 of Her Paramedic
Déjà vu,Slate thought. “I have to go, baby.”
“Okay, be safe. Let me know when you make it home.”
They both knew she’d be asleep when he did, but he’d text her. “I will. I love you.”
“And I love you.”
They ended the call, and he got back into the van. “What are we walking into?” Slate asked as he glanced at the address on the screen.
Jonah gave him the code of the call, and they headed in that direction, Slate glad that he hadn’t jinxed them yet.
31
Talia’s eyes fluttered open, and she glanced at the clock on the nightstand as the weight over her waist registered. It was almost ten in the morning. Slowly, she turned to face Slate and found him sleeping. He’d been at work last night when she arrived. She felt when he’d gotten into bed with her and wrapped his arm around her when he’d come home.
Even as he slept, Talia felt like he’d been plucked from the page of some model magazine. It had to be a crime for one man to be that fine. She was content to lie there like that until he woke up. Her bladder was not and made that known a couple of minutes later.
She slid out of bed carefully so as not to wake him and went into the en suite, closing the door. After washing her face and brushing her teeth, she left the bedroom, closed the door behind her, and went into the kitchen. Talia decided not to make breakfast and instead grabbed some yogurt and strawberries from his fridge. She’d make them lunch when he woke up in a few hours.
She turned on the television, keeping the volume low, and turned to the game show network. There was some trivia game on, and she settled in to see how well she’d do.
It was a quarter past one when Slate emerged from the bedroom. Talia was lying on the couch. She’d switched from watching game shows to a movie onLifetime. He joined her onthe couch, settling between her legs as he lay his head on her chest.
“Good morning to you, too,” she said. Well aware it was afternoon. She ran her fingers through his hair. “How was last night?”
“People’s stupidity was in full effect. We had three consecutive calls where people injured themselves doing shit they knew they shouldn’t have been doing. One tried to jump over a car that his friend was driving towards him, he didn’t succeed. Another tried to sled down a steep hill on his bare stomach, couldn’t stop in time, and skidded across concrete. Then the last stuck a bottle up her ass because someone dared her to, fell, it broke, and she did not have a good night.”
Talia winced. They just kept getting worse. It never surprised her that some people did idiotic things, but it always surprised her by the creativity of said things. If nothing else, they weren’t basic. None of those things were something she expected anyone to try. At least, not without a trained stunt coordinator.
“You had an exciting night, and not in a good way.”
“Not at all,” Slate replied, wrapping his arms around her, and Talia ran her free hand up and down his back.
They lay like that for several minutes in silence before she shifted to get up. “I’ll make us lunch.”
He tightened his arms around her. “Five more minutes.”
“You big baby,” she teased with a smile. Slate bit her sternum, pulling a gasp from her.
“Yours. Deal with it,” he responded, and Talia couldn’t help but laugh.
She gave him more than five minutes before she finally got up to make them lunch. When she returned to the living room thirty minutes later, he was in the same position she’d left him in. Talia handed him a plate as he sat up and placed hers on the table before retrieving drinks for them and returning to the livingroom. The movie she’d been watching previously had gone off, and from the look of the one starting, it was going to be similar.
“What do you want to do today, baby?” Slate asked, breaking the comfortable silence between them.
“We can stay in if you want to.” She knew with the way his shift went, he might not be up for doing anything.
“I want to take you out, but if you want to stay in, we can.”
Talia thought about it. He’d taken her out more throughout their relationship than she had been in any other. And even though they were dating, and had been for almost nine months, it was never with the expectation that they were having sex afterwards. That was never the expectation when they stayed in either. The contrast between the past and present was glaring, and she didn’t know what she’d done in a past life to have this man enter hers, but she wouldn’t question it.
“I haven’t beaten you at pool in a while. You feel like losing tonight?” she smirked.
“I should ask you that question, gorgeous. But we can do that. Dinner, then pool.”
“And a movie in bed,” she added, to round out their evening. Her boyfriend nodded in agreement, and they settled back into comfortable silence.
“That sounds disgusting,” Slate stated after Talia finished reading him the list of ingredients on the specials menu they’d been given when they were seated. She refrained from laughing. The combination was odd, but it apparently worked. Or maybe it didn’t, and that was why it was one of the specials.
