Page 38 of Hidden By the Convicts
“Damn, the old man outplayed me.”
She wiggled her backside against Harlis. “Maybe, maybe not.”
“Oh, don’t get me started, princess, or neither of us will get any sleep.”
Teagen shut her eyes, more relaxed than she was when she’d entered his bed. He wasn’t Bowen, but she felt wanted, loved even, and that made falling asleep a whole lot easier.
* * *
Before Teagen rosefrom the bed she’d shared with Harlis last night, he leaned over her and kissed her goodbye. Not a simple kiss, either. A long, exaggerated, tongue-down-throat kiss with a wandering hand to get her entire body thrumming. She lost all sense of time and place.
“I said I wouldn’t touch you in bed. I’m out of bed now.”
“You’re good at finding loopholes. You should have been an advocate.”
A throat cleared. Gavin. “We’ve got work to do. And if you’re late for first shift again, Harlis, Mozely will hang on you like an annuvian creeper. Don’t give him any reason to start scrutinizing our unit any more than usual. We don’t need him focusing his search for Teagen on us.”
Harlis stole another quick kiss. “Share that with the old man,” he said as he tore out the door.
“That’s twice he called you old man?” she said. “He called Bowen old yesterday too.”
“I guess, to Harlis, everyone over thirty is old. But Bowen’s not old. He’s only thirty-two.”
“Just how old are you, Gavin? Thirty-three?”
“Forty-one,” he said as he rose from his bed. He didn’t look that old, especially not with the heat she often saw in his eyes.
“That’s not old. That’s ancient.”
Gavin’s face soured, and her stomach twisted as she approached. “I was joking.” She tapped his cheek. “You don’t look a day over sixty, I mean sixteen.”
“Very funny. Go eat, smartass.” He lightly smacked her backside.
She shook her booty at him, not sure what had come over her except the inexplicable need to get Gavin to notice her. He always seemed so distant, like he tolerated her presence. And yet she loved how loyal he was to Bowen and Harlis. He tempered each in different ways.
“I saw that,” he called over his shoulder as he picked up all the strewn clothing on the floor.
“Good,” she replied, but not loud enough for him to hear.
“I heard that too.”
“Pretty good hearing for an old guy.” Hmm. No reply this time. Was he playing mind games with her? She had yet to figure this guy out.
From what she’d seen, Gavin took extreme pride in his work in the greenhouse. That day she’d hidden there, she’d watched him for at least two hours before Bowen and Harlis arrived. She’d been terrified to leave her hiding spot without an idea of where to go. She’d felt safe in there, mostly because of how Gavin walked around, talking to his plants and trees like he respected them. She’d felt a tinge of jealousy. Ofplants.
“God, I’m so screwed up.”
“What was that?” he asked as he returned from dumping the clothes in the wash bins outside.
“Nothing. Just wondering what I should be doing. I want to go to the greenhouse.”
“Bowen wants you here. It’s safer.”
“You don’t need me, do you?”
“Oh, darling, I’d love to have you there, but be patient. I’m sure he’ll feel comfortable allowing you to go to the greenhouse again soon. And when you do, I’ll show you how to transfer the seedlings to the trays and prepare them for insertion into the planters.”
“Do you ever get lonely there?” she asked as she took a melon from the chiller.
