Free Portrait in Death by J. D. Robb Page B

Galahad stared at her. "A big one, aren't you?"
    "He eats like a draft horse," Roarke said. "I'm grateful, Caro, for you coming in at such an ungodly hour."
    "I stopped noticing the time working for you years ago." She straightened. "I'll take care of Tibbons. Give my best to Summerset."
    "I will."
    "Have a good day, Lieutenant."
    "Yeah. Bye." Eve shook her head when the holo vanished. "Does she ever look messed up? Hair out of place, coffee stain on the jacket?"
    "Not that I recall."
    "I didn't think so. What are you calling it?"
    "What would that be?"
    "The vehicle. You were talking about a vehicle, right? With the German guys."
    "Ah, well, we're still kicking that about. Coffee?"
    "Yeah," she said as he moved to the AutoChef. "Did you get any sleep?"
    "A couple hours." He glanced back as he retrieved the cups. "Are you worried about me, Lieutenant? That's very sweet."
    "You've got a lot on your plate. You've always got a lot on your plate," she added as he brought her the coffee. "I just don't usually notice."
    "Once you've been hungry, you prefer a full plate to an empty one." He leaned down to kiss her. "How's your plate doing?"
    "I've got plenty of portions left. Listen, if I can manage it, I'll try to swing home this afternoon for a bit. To-I don't know-help you out or something."
    His smile was warm and gorgeous. "See there. You're acting like a wife."
    "Shut up."
    "I like it," he said, backing her against the door. "Quite a bit. Next thing I know you'll be down in the kitchen, baking."
    "Next thing you know I'll be kicking your ass, and you'll be the one who needs round-the-clock care."
    "Can we play doctor?"
    She lifted her cup to hide a reluctant smile. "I don't have time for your perverted fantasies. I'm going to grab a swim before I leave." But she grabbed his chin, planted a hard kiss on his mouth. "Feed the cat," she told him, and walked away.
    ***
    To save time, Eve swung by to pick up Peabody and headed straight for the lab. It was easier to squeeze results out of lab-tech king Dickhead Berenski in person.
    Stopped in traffic, Eve studied her aide. The rosy cheeks and sparkling eyes didn't quite blend with the spit and polish of the uniform and hard, black cop shoes.
    "Why are you smiling all the time? It's starting to make me nervous."
    "Am I?" Peabody kept on grinning. "I guess I had a really enjoyable wake-up call this morning. That's a euphemism for-"
    "I know what it's a euphemism for. Christ." Eve punched through a gap in traffic, then braked a breath away from the bumper of a Rapid Cab. "Just get your mind out of bed with the rest of you."
    "But it really likes it there. It's all warm and soft and..." She trailed off at Eve's fulminating look, and studied the roof of the vehicle. "Somebody didn't get their enjoyable wake-up call this morning."
    "You know, Peabody, when you started to have regular sex, if such a term can be used to describe whatever it is that goes on with you and McNab, I figured you'd stop thinking and talking about sex all the damn time."
    "Isn't it nice to be surprised? But since it's making you grouchy we'll talk about something else. How's Summerset doing?"
    "I'm not grouchy," Eve muttered. "Old men who hang out in the park and shake their fists at small children are grouchy. Summerset's all right. Well enough to give Roarke a shitload of grief about being in the hospital in the first place."
    "Well, Roarke should be used to that."
    Eve sucked air through her nose. "The next person, the very next person, who says that is going to know my wrath."
    "I'm on a first-name basis with your wrath, sir. I guess this isn't the best time to tell you that McNab and I are thinking of cohabitating."
    "Oh my God. My eye." Desperate, Eve pressed her fist to the twitch. "Not while I'm driving."
    "We're going to start to look for a place because both of our apartments are too small." Peabody spoke in a rush, wanting to get it all out before her lieutenant imploded. "So I was wondering, after things