Clapping drew their attention to the side, where they found Bonnie, Rene, and Wheeler all standing down from them just a ways, smiling. They continued to clap before Wheeler lifted his hands and put his fingers in his mouth, whistling loudly.
Rene laughed. “That so beats saying hi! Wonder what they’ll do for the next step in the getting-to-know-you stage of the game.”
“Bet whatever it is, they do it minus clothing,” said Bonnie, appearing amused as well.
Wheeler grinned but his smile wasn’t quite as big as the others, as if he wasn’t one for showing his teeth. “That would be my guess too.”
Cody lifted his brows slightly as he wrapped his arms around Gena protectively, drawing her against his steely frame. He sheltered her from the view of the others and it took her a second to realize he was laughing silently.
Her face burned with embarrassment. If he’d have been data, she could have easily figured him and the situation out, but outside of a research setting, she was as hopeless as Rene and Bonnie liked to accuse her of being.
He winked. “Wrong that I hope they’re right? That the next step happens minus clothing?”
“Yes, minus clothes,” she said, her head still in a fog of sorts as she tried to rationalize how it was the man from her dreams was not only real but had already crammed his tongue down her throat.
Cody laughed harder.
“What?” asked Gena before thinking more on it all. It hit her then. She’d agreed to getting naked with him. Jerking away, she took a deep breath and then began to straighten her dress as if it had been jumbled.
She then practically ran at her friends. When she got to them, they were cackling.
They looped their arms through hers and proceeded to drag her in the direction of Stanley’s as Wheeler and Cody followed close behind.
Chapter Twelve
Cody wrapped his hand around his beer as he leaned against the bar, his gaze never leaving Gena. She and her friends were throwing darts as they shared a pitcher of beer. Gena had barely touched any of the alcohol. Instead, she’d spent the forty minutes they’d been at the bar doing her best to stay hidden from his line of sight.
He’d have been offended if he didn’t find the act somewhat adorable.
At the moment, she was trying to use the tall blonde as a shield once more. It was kind of cute, watching as Gena snuck peeks at him when she thought he wasn’t looking. She was curious about him. That was good. Because he wanted to know everything about her.
Like had she really dreamed of him too, as her friend had suggested? If so, had her dreams been racy?
Wheeler poured himself a shot of tequila and faced the women as well, putting his elbows on the bar behind him. “Is it me or is Stanley’s busier than normal?”
He was right.
The bar was fuller than normal for the night of the week and time. The place normally played classic rock or even soft rock from the past through its sound system. Tonight it was playing music with more of a dance beat to it.
Cody hated it.
Wheeler had been doing whatever it was he did that kept humans from getting too close to them and Cody was thankful. He just wanted to observe Gena, even if she was doing her very best to look as if she wasn’t interested in him as well. He didn’t want to deal with anyone else.
“You should blink or something,” said Wheeler, pressing shoulder to shoulder with him.
“What?”
Wheeler nodded in the direction of Gena, who was watching Bonnie as Bonnie took a turn throwing darts. “You’ve been watching her for a long time. Blink. It will make you slightly less creepy.”
Cody brought his beer to his lips and before he took a drink, he spoke. “I’m not creepy.”
“Okay, sure. And I don’t have issues with bloodlust,” said Wheeler, sarcasm dripping freely from his every word. “Any other lies we’re telling ourselves tonight? Like, say, oh, I don’t know, why it is that your little shark picked that little human to swim to shore for?”
The man’s analogies were something indeed.
“Stop calling my dick little,” snapped Cody, only to find Rene walking toward them. She held an empty pitcher. From the look on her face, she’d overheard at least part of their conversation.
Wheeler chuckled and raised his shot glass in Rene’s direction. “To him not being little.”
Rene smiled and gave Wheeler a good once-over. “What about you?”
“One way to find out,” said Wheeler, never missing a beat or an opportunity to get laid.
Rene pressed in close to him, pitcher in hand, as she motioned for the bartender. “I don’t know. I’m told there is more than one way to skin a cat. I’m sure there is more than one way to find out about you. All of you, that is.”
Wheeler poured himself another shot and glanced at Cody. “If I go home with her tonight, you’re sleeping in your van, got it? Not the house.”
“The two of you live together?” asked Rene. “Are you sure you’re not a couple?”
Cody snorted.
The bartender took the pitcher from Rene and began to fill it. She used the time to focus on Cody. “Are you going to keep watching her without saying anything? It’s creepy.”
Wheeler chortled. “Already said as much to him.”
“Talk to her,” said Rene.
“Pretty sure talking isn’t what he has his heart set on,” added Wheeler, earning him an elbow to the gut from Cody.
Wheeler didn’t seem to mind as he downed another shot.
Rene smiled and took the full pitcher of beer back in the direction of the table she was sharing with Bonnie and Gena.
Wheeler watched her walking away as if the act was soft-core porn.
“Really?”
Wheeler shrugged. “What? She’s hot.”
Cody’s gaze locked on Gena. Little shark picked then to harden again, making itself known in a not-so-little way. So far in one evening his dick had gone from not working to not wanting to shut off. All he wanted to do was go to Gena, inch up her dress, and find paradise in her silken depths. “No. She’s the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.”
“Uh, we still talking about the same person?” asked Wheeler. “Because I’m thinking we’re not.”
“Hmm?” asked Cody, his concentration off as Gena’s scent wafted over him, doing nothing to help his cock calm down. If anything, her scent made his erection all the more difficult to manage.
Wheeler propped himself against the bar and crossed one ankle over the other as he leaned. Everything about his posture screamed self-assured. That summed the man up perfectly. “Planning to keep at least fifteen feet from her at all times the rest of the night?”
Cody sipped his beer. “I make her nervous. Can’t you sense it on her?”
“Yes, but I don’t sense she’s scared of you,” admitted Wheeler. “What I’m getting is that you excite her. Since I already saw the tent you pitched when you first saw her, and the one I’m doing my best to avoid drawing attention to now, I’m going to go out on another limb here and say she excites you too.”
“God yes,” breathed Cody, watching as Gena went to take her turn at darts.
Rene bent slightly near Gena and whispered to her, but the supernatural males could hear it with ease. “He’s still looking at you.”
“Stop,” returned Gena, also in a hushed tone, throwing a dart that went wild and hit the wall near a light-up beer sign instead of the board. “He is not looking at me.”
“He’s hot,” said Rene in a sultry manner. “They both are. Admit it.”
Gena lowered her gaze and nodded. “Yes. They are.”
Cody found himself giving his friend a dirty look. “Asshole.”
“I’m an asshole because she thinks I’m hot too?” asked Wheeler, seeming somehow even smug than he had been only seconds prior.
Cody had half a mind to kick his foot out from under him and watch him fall on his ass. It would serve him right.
How dare he be a gu
y Gena thought was good-looking.
Asshole.
“Which do you think is hotter?” asked Rene, her gaze flickering to Cody and Wheeler as a grin spread over her face.
“I don’t know,” said Gena, lining up to throw another dart. “I don’t want to talk about it anymore.”
“Okay. If you’re not interested, I’ll see if they want to take off with me and have some between-the-sheets fun,” said Rene with a shimmy of her shoulders.
Wheeler groaned lightly as if in pain. “Please, please, please let that be true.”
“You’re an asshole,” said Cody.
His friend snorted. “You already said that.”
Gena’s hand tightened around the dart and she lowered her arm, no longer lining up a shot.
Rene touched her shoulder. “What’s wrong? Was it something I said?”
Gena remained quiet.
“You know, if someone was throwing their trash in the ocean, you’d yell to the point you were blue in the face and probably deck them a good one,” said Rene. “So how is it you can be outgoing and vocal when it comes to that but clam up when it comes to staking your claim on a guy you find attractive?”
Bonnie poured herself another beer and took a sip. “Probably because Gena isn’t exactly sure how to deal with it all. Hitting something is easy. Telling it you think it’s hot is very different.”
“Yes, that,” said Gena with wide eyes and an enthusiastic nodding of her head.
Rene licked her lips. “So, do you find one of them more attractive than the other? And you haven’t said anything about the kiss you and the one I’m guessing you do find hotter shared. Any reason why? Is he a shit kisser?”
Wheeler choked on the shot he was doing as he laughed.
Cody grunted.
Gena glanced nervously over in Cody’s direction and he stared up at the ceiling quickly, trying to appear as if he hadn’t been looking at her.
“Smooth,” said Wheeler from the side of his mouth, barely moving his lips.
“Asshole.”
“He’s a really great kisser,” said Gena with a breathy sigh.
Cody had to fight to keep from jumping up and down with the knowledge she thought he kissed well.
“Contain yourself there, Sparky,” said Wheeler.
“He’s a great kisser and we know you think he’s hot,” said Rene with a small laugh. “And I feel safe saying he’s way into you, too. Why hide over here? Talk to him. Unless I have it all wrong and it’s you that aren’t into him like that. Maybe the kiss was a fluke or something.”
“Oh, I’m into him,” said Gena. “I keep thinking about the kiss and then I keep wanting to go over there, grab him, yank him out back and pin him to the ground while I have my way with him.”
Cody kept glancing up. “Please, please, please.”
Wheeler huffed. “Now who is the asshole?”
“Still you,” said Cody as he looked back at Gena to find her staring at him as well.
This time, neither of them averted their gazes.
“Bet he’s got a rocking body. And I have it on good authority he’s working with some impressive equipment in the nether regions as well,” said Rene, still bending slightly to be closer to Gena’s ear. “You should totally take him home for a test drive. He’d be one heck of a way to celebrate the funding you secured us.”
“I didn’t secure anything,” countered Gena. “That was all Bonnie. She’s put so much hard work into the team. Clearly it was noticed.”
Rene touched Gena’s arm lightly. “Listen, I’m normally all for being as wild and crazy as a woman wants to be with their sexuality, but I have a hinky feeling about this lunch date Bigwig asked you out on.”
“It’s not a date. He just wants to discuss…” Gena fell silent a second and then gasped. “Ohmygod, it is a date, isn’t it?”
Bonnie eased up closer to the other women. “Oh yeah, hon. It’s totally a date. He was on you like flies on honey the second he saw you. Granted, not as on you as the blond god over there, but still. You’re having a very male-tastic day. Run with it.”
Rene stiffened. “Maybe we should go with her on this lunch thing tomorrow.”
“We weren’t invited,” said Bonnie, grinning. “He only has eyes for her. Really wondering how this is going to play out, since she’s now met another hottie. My money is on her waking up in his bed come morning. Awkward to then go on a lunch date with some other guy, but you’re a grown woman who is not in any relationship, let alone a committed one—you do you, hon.”
Gena tossed her hands in the air, still holding the dart as she turned to face her friends fully. “I’m not waking up in any man’s bed. And I’m not going on any romantic lunch with the guy funding our project. I’ll reach out to him in the morning and let him know I can’t make it. Unless you think it will hurt our funding. If you do, I could maybe still go but I don’t know how I feel about going out on a boat alone with him.”
Bonnie offered a sympathetic smile. “If you’re not comfortable, then don’t go. We’d never really push you to go on a date with a guy for us to stay funded. Not our style. We’ll joke, yes, but that is where it ends. If you want, I’ll reach out to him tonight and tell him something came up and you won’t be able to meet with him. If he really wants to talk to you about your thesis, he can set something up through me and come to the center. A place you feel more comfortable. But he seemed like a nice guy to me. Eccentric for sure. I mean, come on, huge shark paintings…and let’s not forget his fetish for mermaids.”
Gena nodded. “I’d like it if you called him for me. Thank you.”
“Not a problem,” offered Bonnie.
Chapter Thirteen
At the mention of mermaids, Cody and Wheeler jerked upright, each taking notice. There were coincidences and then there was that.
Cody glanced at Wheeler. “You heard what I heard, right?”
Wheeler nodded. “I did.”
Rene tipped her head. “Bigwig has a thing for mermaids? Really?”
“He has this massive fountain out in front of his place along with inlaid tiles forming one at the entrance,” said Bonnie. “And don’t even get me started on all the mermaid stuff he has in the house. He has this one ginormous oil painting in his den that has a mermaid on it. She looks a lot like the fountain one but with more details and in full color. Not to mention, she looks like Gena. Like, just like her. It was so weird.”
“For real?” asked Rene.
Gena cringed but nodded. “Yes. I didn’t like the way he stared at the painting either.”
“Like he wanted it to come to life to do it?” asked Bonnie with a laugh.
Gena shook her head. “No. It was as if he wanted to own it, possess it, control it.”
Rene stepped back. “That is all too weird for me. I say we don’t let her go anywhere alone with him. Not until we know more about him. I have a bad feeling.”
“You didn’t even meet him or see his oddities,” said Bonnie, chuckling. “You’re overreacting. He’s rich and eccentric. And let’s not forget, nearly fully funding us now.”
Gena set the darts on the table. “Bonnie, for a man who claims to be all about protecting sharks and conservation, why would he have that huge painting of the great white in a holding tank being tortured? I know he gave me an explanation, but it felt forced and wrong. Like it was a lie. Not the real reason. When he looked at that painting, I swear to you that he seemed almost gleeful about it—about seeing a shark being tortured like that.”
For a split second, all Cody heard was his own heart beating. Everything else faded away as he focused on what Gena had just said. Flashes of his time in captivity came flooding back to him, and he remembered vividly what it had been like to be forced into shark form, held in a tank, and tortured.
He clutched his beer so tightly that one second he was holding it, and the next, beer was exploding all over his hand and arm as the bottle shattered. Glass sliced through his palm, ripping him from his r
emembered pain of the past. With a jolt, he stood there, realizing he’d lost control of his strength to the point he’d broken the beer he’d been holding and cut himself.
In the next second, Gena was there, snapping her fingers, demanding a clean towel from the bartender. She went from quiet and shy to totally in control as she then proceeded to check his palm and remove a chunk of glass.
Her wide brown eyes found his face. Worry showed.
“What happened? Are you okay?” she asked, holding his hand in hers as she then went to work wrapping the clean towel around his wounded hand. “We need to get you over for stitches. Now.”
The edges of his lips drew up slightly as she continued barking orders at him.
He’d thought she was adorable when she was shy. Seeing she was quite capable of laying down the law when the need arose only served to turn him on more. He didn’t even know that was possible. But the woman was finding new ways to heighten his need for her.
She pressed her small frame against him, holding the towel around his hand. “I can call for a ride for us since you’ve been drinking.”
“I’m fine, thank you though,” he said, liking having her so close. “I don’t need any stitches.”
“Fine?” she asked, her eyes managing to widen more. “Uh, no. You cut the heck out of your hand. It needs to be looked at.”
Cody used his uninjured hand to push stray strands of her dark hair back from her cheek. “It’s okay. I promise. It’s not as deep as you think. I’m guessing it’s already stopped bleeding.”
Explaining he was more than human and could heal something as small as what had happened with ease wasn’t something he relished having to do. Lying was the next best option.
For now.
Wheeler made quick work of the broken pieces of the bottle on the floor, gathering them with care and then boldly walking back and behind the bar to the trashcan. The bartender glanced at him, and Wheeler locked gazes with the man. “Nothing out of the ordinary here. All is good. Go on about your business.”
Wrecked Intel (Immortal Outcasts®): An Immortal Ops® World Novel Page 18