Free Darwin's Natural Selection by Katie Allen Page A

come that hard and also because he really, really needed to stop babbling.
    “Yeah. So, I was talking about the other thing. Um…earlier. Than the good part.
    Right.”
    “So…which part were you talking about again?” Darwin’s voice held a tremor of amusement.
    “Fuck off.” Tom couldn’t hold back a little smile though.
    “Not until you promise to go out with me again.”
    “Oh, is that what we were talking about?” Tom asked in his most innocent tone. Teasing could be a two-way street.
    He was rewarded with Darwin’s growl.
    “Friday.”
    “Hold on,” Tom said, holding back a pleased grin. “Let me check my schedule.”
    He waited a few moments, trying to pretend there was something else going on in his life.
    “Friday should work.”
    Darwin’s satisfied grunt shouldn’t have sounded sexy, but it did. “Drive separately and meet there?”
    Relief eased the panic Tom hadn’t even realized had crept into his muscles, tightening his grip on his phone. “You don’t mind?”
    “Nope.” There wasn’t any trace of muffled resentment in Darwin’s voice. In fact, he sounded downright happy. “I don’t mind anything. You’re going out with me on Friday.”
    “That makes you this happy?” Tom asked doubtfully. “Seeing me?”
    “Ecstatic.”
    *
     
    “Be careful,” Calvin snapped.
    Darwin pulled the phone away and stared at it for a second before returning it to his ear and asking his friend, “Is this a safe-sex lecture? ‘Cause if so, it’s a little weird and uncomfortable coming from you, buddy. No offense.”
    Cal heaved a sigh that screamed exasperation. “Of course I’m not talking about sex, dumbass. I’m talking about your entire fucking life. I’m talking about your motherfucking cheerful ass being found and hauled back to that shithole of a lab. I don’t give a flying fuck about your condom use.”
    “Okay.” Darwin still wasn’t sure what the other man’s point was. “Why? Do you know something?”
    “Yeah, I know you’re being a lovesick moron,” Cal grumbled. “They tracked down Ed. What makes you think for a second they won’t be able to find you too?”
    With a frown, Darwin protested, “I don’t have a suspect sketch of me floating around on the news. How are they going to find me?”
    “I don’t know, but they can tell you all about it on the ride back to the lab,” Cal said, his voice thick with sarcasm. “Why couldn’t you and Ed just keep it in your pants?”
    “It hasn’t been out of my pants,” Darwin protested and then caught himself. “Okay, so it’s been out, but Tom wasn’t in the same room—or the same town even. Phone sex.
    Really great phone sex though.”
    “Fuck,” Cal sighed. “I could’ve lived without knowing the details.”
    “You’re the one giving the safe-sex advice,” Darwin teased, feeling a little steadier now that he knew Calvin didn’t have any concrete information that the lab goons were closing in on him. “How’re things going in the mailroom?”
    “Shitty,” Cal growled. “It’s a fucking mailroom.”
    Darwin swallowed a laugh. “Don’t worry. You’ll find someone of your own soon to practice safe sex with—maybe even in the fucking mailroom.”
    There was a tiny pause before Cal’s noncommittal grunt—just long enough to make Darwin’s eyebrows shoot up.
    “Seriously?” Darwin asked. “You’re dating someone?”
    “No.”
    “You like someone though.”
    “Of course not.” Calvin’s scornful tone wasn’t quite convincing. “I don’t even know her.”
    Darwin grinned. “You might not know her but you like her. What’s her name? What does she look like? You going to ask her out?”
    “Shut the fuck up,” Cal grumbled.
    “You should ask her out, C,” Darwin said.
    “You’d be less cranky if you were gettin’
    some.”
    “No,” Cal corrected him. “I’d be more cranky, because it’s a big fucking mistake to get caught up with people and drag them into our mess. If you like