Free Like a Fox by J.M. Sevilla Page A

breakfast.
    I nod, unable to control a fat grin.
    “Tell him your mom and I want to have him for dinner this Sunday. I’ll make my famous lasagna.”
    “I don’t know…” Vic doesn’t seem like the meeting-the-family type.
    “Oh, come on,” he comes around the desk, wrapping an arm around my shoulder and giving me a shake. “I’ll be on my best behavior.”
    “You can’t be high,” I warn. “Or make any of your ‘special’ desserts. Or play John Denver.” I add the last one in, more for myself, “ Or burn sage around him to cleanse his aura.”
    My dad chuckles, “Anything else?”
    “Wear a shirt.” He usually takes it off as soon as he gets home. It was beyond embarrassing growing up with friends over.
    “Fine, fine,” he waves a hand. “Easy peasy.”
    “Ha!” I bark. “We’ll see.”
    I hear him laughing as I leave.

 
     
     
    Chapter 11
     
    To my surprise, Vic is in my living room resting on the couch when I arrive home. He places a finger up at me to wait a minute, pointing to the phone that’s to his ear.
    His eyes have hardened, a slight sneer to his upper lip, “Give me another week and you’ll have your answer…It’s only been seven weeks. Anybody else it would have been at least double, if at all…I’m not the kind of man you want to threaten…” He hangs up with a grunt.
    “Business?” I guess.
    “Unfortunately.” Vic gestures for me to join him and I plop down on the couch, snuggling close to his side. His arm wraps around me, holding me tighter to him.
    “Want to talk about it?”
    “No,” he says into my hair, kissing the top. He lifts his free arm and peers at his watch, “Our appointment’s in an hour.”
    “Appointment?”
    “Mm,” is his confirmation.
    “What kind of appointment?”
    “You’ll see.”
    I roll my eyes and shake my head, moving to straddle him, “Do you purposely try and be mysterious, or were you born that way?”
    Vic lifts my top over my head, “Both. I like the look on your face when I’m confusing you. It’s cute. I like it when you’re cute.”
    “As opposed to other times…I’m what? Not cute?” I joke, squealing when Vic swiftly moves us, my back slamming against the couch cushion, his body weighing down on me.
    “Sexy,” he mouths along my skin, lips voyaging downward. “Sexy and forbidden.”
    “Forbidden?”
    He stills, dropping his forehead to my thigh, his breaths shallow and heavy. “Yes,” he confesses, low and deep.
    I stroke his hair, growing uneasy, “Vic…”
    “I shouldn’t be falling for you.”
    Falling for me .
    I wonder if he can hear how fast my heart is beating.
    “I disagree.” If I’m falling over that cliff, I’m glad he’s going with me.
    “Do you?” I can feel him smirking, head still to my leg, but now it’s turned to the side and he’s laying along my leg like it’s a body pillow while I continue to play with his hair. “My job forces me to travel a lot. Can you handle that?”
    “Yes.”
    “I could be gone as long as a month.”
    “Can you call me?”
    “Sometimes yes, sometimes no.”
    “And what is it you do exactly…” I trail off, remembering our conversation from before.
    “You can never repeat what I am telling you. To anyone. Not ever. Are you ready for that?”
    “Yes,” I respond with firm assurance.
    He sighs, his breath hot down my leg, “I find the impossible.”
    “Oh, so you’re like a private detective.” That’s not so bad. I had far worse ideas running through my head.
    “In a sense…”
    His guarded tone has me uneasy again. “What happens when you find them?”
    Another heavy sigh, “Nothing good.”
    I swallow a bit too loudly, “And that’s why you’re here? To find someone?”
    “Yes, but that’s all I can tell you. You will never be able to know who or why, or who I’m even working for.” Vic lifts up his head, resting his chin above my knee, eyes on mine.
    He has worry in his brown eyes, darkening them. I smooth out the crease