Under Fire (Love Over Duty #1)(37)

Details, details, details. She'd have to go through everything in her head and document as much as she could. The lab had very specific security guidelines. Laptops were company property, and had to be left at the lab, which made all of this even more strange. Though Louisa hadn't given anyone her passwords, she was certain that any half-brained IT person would be able to quickly access the files and information. She'd never been able to bring information home, or even email files to herself. Always one to abide by the rules, she had never once tried to circumnavigate them. So all of her research notes were now property of VNP Laboratories. She needed to spend the day getting down every single thing she could remember. Thankfully, she made personal notes every day when she got home, so she had plenty of reference material. The problem, though, was that her handwritten notes didn't prove to anybody that the sample actually existed. 

Crap. And church. She'd promised her mom she'd take her to the afternoon service, and get her some groceries.

She opened the door to her closet and pulled out a turquoise dress, which she cinched with the brown leather belt. She found her favorite brown ankle boots at the bottom of her closet, so she put those on too. Of all the things she was ready to face, Six wasn't one of them. Science in general had laws, equations that always added up. It was neat and orderly and could always be explained. But biology was a world unto itself. Sure, the anatomy of it all was well understood, but the heart of it, not the physical beating organ but the parts that allowed a human to dream, to experience complex emotions, and to cry at the stupid videos that went viral every second day were still a mystery. If they were fully understood, there would be no use for apps like Tinder. You'd just be able to load in your biological profile to meet somebody who would feel the same way about you as you did him or her, and the rest would be guaranteed. She had no biological explanation for her feelings about Six, but she knew she owed him a thank-you and couldn't hide away in her bedroom for the rest of the day.

Louisa cautiously stepped downstairs and braced herself by the kitchen door. There would be cleaning up to do, but for now, for her own mental health, she needed to ignore the bloodstain that she knew covered the tiles on the other side. She pushed the door open and was greeted by the smell of coffee and bacon. And as much as she loved both, neither were a match for the arresting sight of Six wearing nothing but a pair of shorts which rode low on his hips as he cooked. Holy shoulders. Learning the major muscle groups was biology 101, but she had no idea that the latissimus dorsi and rhomboid major could look so freaking-

"You okay there, Lou?" he asked without turning around.

There was humor in his voice, and she knew immediately that he'd caught her staring-though she wasn't sure how.

"Your footsteps stopped as you walked through the door," he answered, reading her thoughts. "I didn't hear the door swing closed, which means you're still holding it, and to top it off," he said, turning to look at her, "I could see your reflection in the window. Good morning, Louisa."

She immediately let go of the door, letting it swing shut behind her, and looked away, desperate to find something that could take her attention from him and the sexy-as-all-hell tattoo that crept up his back and over his shoulder.

Her eyes went straight to the shelves, which now hung straight.

"Hope I put everything back okay," Six said, waving his hand in the direction of the crockery and glasses that were randomly placed on them. She could fix them later.

"I appreciate that. Thank you," she mumbled as she headed over to the coffeepot, still embarrassed at being caught staring. "Can I fix you a cup?"

As she reached for it, a hand slid over the top of hers. He'd silently beaten her to it. "I was just teasing you, Lou. How did you sleep?" he asked, moving her hand. He pulled a mug out of the cupboard and poured it full of steaming-hot coffee. As he handed it to her, he did that thing, the one where he pushed her bangs from her face, but she couldn't bring herself to slap his hand away. Instead, she braced herself and looked up at him.

Louisa forced her shoulders to relax. "Better than I thought I was going to. Did you sleep on the floor?"

Spitting and hissing from the pan made her jump, and Six hurried back to the pan to scoop the bacon out and place it on paper towels to drain the fat.



       
         
       
        

"That's quite literally the second time you saved my bacon," Louisa said, and sipped on her coffee to help fight back the grin.