Page 108 of Knot That Serious

“It sounds like we’ll see you next week, then,” she said, beaming. Beckett was going to love it.

“Now, do you want your usual, or do you wanna spice it up today?” he asked, waggling his brows.

Eli knew she was going to regret it, but they chose the latter option.

They ordered and went back to their bikes to wait, spying Javi and his chef walking back and forth through the window.

They made quick work of their meals before sliding their little cardboard baskets of tacos and water bottles across the silver bar.

“I’ll get it,” Eli said, and stood from her bike. She felt Jack’s eyes on her as she went, and tried to remember how to walk like a normal person.

“Thanks, Javi,” Eli said, balancing a box in each hand before spinning on her heel—

To find Jack reclining across his bike like a model about to request someone paint him as a French girl. His elbow was pressing into the end of his seat, feet carefully balanced over the handlebars.

Eli couldn’t help but chuckle at him as she returned, affection winding through her like the roads they’d taken to get here. “Don’t knock your bike over,” she told him as she drew closer.

“Oh, whatever,” Jack said, and then nearly knocked his bike over as his foot got caught.

“Told you,” she said smugly, and Jack whined at her, making her laugh again.

Some moments with him were easier than others, she realized. Sometimes it felt just the same as it always had, and then the silence would settle and something uncomfortable would pinch in her chest.

It had been a few weeks since they’d been on a ride like this, and for the first time in their life together, Eli wasn’t sure what to talk about.

They crunched through their tacos, and moaned drastically at the taste.

“Javi!” Jack shouted, almost startling Eli off her bike.

A head of dark hair poked out of the serving window. “What?”

“This is fucking good, man!”

“Thank you, Javi!” Eli yelled at him.

Even from the distance they could see Javi’s grin, and he waved at them before ducking back inside the truck.

“So, like,” Eli began. “What’s up with you?” she asked casually.

Jack smirked at her through a bite of taco. “Really wanna know?”

“I asked, didn’t I?” she drawled, uncapping her water to take a sip. Javi had laid on the spice today.

“I blew Beckett in a dressing room yesterday,” Jack said, as if he were talking about the weather.

Eli choked on her sip of water, wiping a hand over her mouth and glaring at Jack’s satisfied expression.

And so the tale began. About the professor outfit, the roleplay. Dropping to his knees.

She could’ve stopped him. Could’ve told him no, that she didn’t want to hear what he had to say. But it wasn’t the first time Jack had told her a tale of his sexcapades, and it would be obvious if she told him to stop now.

Besides… if she stopped him, how would she squirrel the stories away under lock and key to be brought out and examined later, the next time they were fucking through the thin walls of their apartment, her fingers between her legs as she imagined everything Jack was telling her?

She always knew he was a brat, but the image of him finally being brought to heel under Beckett’s manicured touch?

Eli shifted in her seat.

“You alright?” Jack asked.

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