Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 93267 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 466(@200wpm)___ 373(@250wpm)___ 311(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 93267 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 466(@200wpm)___ 373(@250wpm)___ 311(@300wpm)
Where and when had Gregori even bought it? Because Salem sure as hell didn’t have one!
“I don’t know all your favorites yet,” Gregori said almost apologetically. “So I made a variety. Share whatever you don’t want to eat. Hello, who’s this?”
Alexis wasted no time introducing herself. “Alexis. This idiot’s best friend. Nice to meet you.”
“Charmed, Alexis. Please help him eat all this, I know I made too much.”
“I’d be delighted,” she assured him brightly.
“Good, good. I’ll go back to playing with the kids, I promised them I’d only be gone five minutes.” Gregori set the lunchbox—could it really be called such a simple thing?—down on the only clear spot the desk had to offer.
Then he caught the arm of Salem’s chair and yanked him in close.
Startled, Salem instinctively braced with his hands up, which meant they landed on Gregori’s shoulders. He had no time to do more than open his mouth on a protest when Gregori put his mouth right next to Salem’s ear.
“So how many pictures did you take?” he breathed.
Heat shot to his face as the full impact of his sentence hit home. This rat bastard; he had noticed Salem! He just hadn’t let on so Salem could dig himself right into a grave!
Gregori chuckled softly, pulling back just enough to catch Salem’s mouth in a firm kiss. Tongue was definitely involved. Salem may have been sucked into the kiss before he realized what Gregori was doing, and could the dragon stop being so damn smooth?
Gregori broke the kiss, winked at him, and straightened. “I’ll see you later.”
Then he left. Like he hadn’t managed to upend Salem’s morning in a minute flat.
Dammit!
Alexis watched the door close behind Gregori, and she blew out a breath.
“Salem.”
“Don’t say it.” He groaned, this time dropping his head into both hands.
“I love you like a brother, but goddamn, man. What the hell is wrong with you?”
“Aleeeeeexis, please, you know I’m bad at relationships! Gregori is too good. I’d run roughshod over him and break him without even meaning to. Would you inflict me on him? Knowing how badly I sabotage relationships without even trying? Be honest.”
“It’s really a pleasant reminder of your emotional growth, you now being self-aware enough to know when you’re being an ass.” Alexis shook her head and for some reason reached for the landline phone on his desk. “But yes, in this case, I would.”
Salem stared at her over the tips of his fingers. “He’s not done anything to offend you, has he?”
“Look, any man who can take your personality in stride and then manage to tease you? Clearly isn’t looking at you with rose tinted glasses. I have never in my life seen you blush until today. And you still let him kiss you, which tells me volumes.”
Oh. Oh shit. He rather had given too much away by not breaking the kiss. “I was taken by surprise!”
“Honey, I’ve seen you dead drunk and still able to punch a man out for trying to kiss you.”
Shit, she would remember that incident.
Alexis bent down enough to look at the directory taped to the wall, then punched in three numbers.
“What are you even doing, anyway?”
“Calling the Psych department. You need an examination.” She shot him a deadpan look that screamed try me, motherfucka. “You’re normally a smart man, but this? This is stupid. I’m getting you checked out.”
Salem just sighed. At least the lunch was guaranteed to be good. The rest of the day looked like it was going to suck, though.
Salem came in from work absolutely dead tired. He’d had one emergency surgery after the next, with upset parents—one had actually attacked his nurse, and Salem had jumped down the man’s throat before security got there, throwing his screaming ass out—then he went an hour over his shift time due to the paperwork about the incident. He’d not eaten the lunch Gregori had dropped off—had in fact left it in his office—breakfast was a faraway memory, and honestly, he was so tired he wasn’t even sure if he was hungry at this point. Appetite? What was that? Must be something for people who had energy. AKA, not him.
He really should eat, though. Salem had been exhausted like this many, many times before. Ever since he started med school, really. He and energy deprivation were old buddies at this point. He knew from experience, if someone put food in front of him right now, he’d consume every bite like a starving wolf. He also knew if he didn’t eat, and slept instead, he’d wake up at three a.m. absolutely starving.
All right. Food. Food that was fast. Ramen?
Maybe ramen. Yeah.
He stumbled over to the stove, turned it on, rummaged for a pan, found a clean pot and got it on the stove. Then he rummaged in the pantry.
Ramen? Raaaamen? Yoo-hoo? Dammit, where was the ramen? Oh no. Oh no, was he out? Dammit, unless the ramen pack had developed ninja powers, there was none to be found in this pantry.