Chaptered Fic: No Other One, Chapter 1
Title: No Other One
Author: Duckie Nicks, aka
lieueitak
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Yelina Salas, Horatio Caine, the whole Caine family
Author's Note: WARNING: SPOILER FOR SEASON 6. Fulfills
fanfic100 prompt, 089, Work.
Summary: Almost two decades ago, Horatio made a decision that would change his family forever. Will they ever be able to get past it? And will he ever tell Yelina how he feels? Spoiler for season 6. HY romance in the future.
I don't own it. Don't sue.
Previous Chapter: The Prologue
No Other One
Chapter One: Of Dolls and Imps
By Duckie Nicks
“There is a fine line between recklessness and courage.” - Paul McCartney
By her count, there were at least three men leering at her. One sat behind her trying to read a book, finishing the last of his omelet, another to her left, and the last was the waiter. There had been other lookers, of course, through out the day. And sitting at a table outside at a café made her a prime target for passersby.
It made her job all the more difficult with so much unwanted attention coming her way. She hadn’t been caught before, which was either due to her smarts or to the average criminal’s stupidity, and she wasn’t about to guess the answer. Though she supposed she’d eventually find out which it was, and Yelina wasn’t sure if it was that fact or the four free lattes the waiter had brought her that made her feel uneasy.
Or maybe it was the fact that Kyle, her mark, was doing absolutely nothing that had her on edge. Her mind wandered to Horatio then. Had he hired her again to keep her out of trouble?
Her fingers tightened murderously around her coffee mug.
The worst the teenager had done was buy and smoke pot on the beach early that morning. Which was illegal, but hardly worth the hourly fee Horatio was paying, she thought. And so, unless this boy was a serial killer in disguise, this too was another on of her brother-in-law’s ruses.
She should be used to that, Yelina thought. He had been doing this for a while, ever since one of her clients had tried to get too close, but still… Horatio had taken an almost suffocating interest in her life. And it was wrapped, not in friendship or feelings, but in business and a cool demeanor. Given the way he treated her, the brunette felt like one of the porcelain dolls she’d owned as a child; they truly were too fragile to enjoy and were best left on a shelf to be looked at.
It made her miserable.
The feeling was only amplified as her too friendly waiter returned at that moment and placed a croissant down on her table. The light yellow dish made a small clatter as it hit the glass tabletop, and Yelina instinctively looked up at the dyed blonde.
“I didn’t order this,” she said, trying to keep the frustration out of her voice. Noticing it hadn’t worked, the brunette gave a mental shrug.
He placed a hand on her shoulder. It was not a friendly action, not with the way his palms greedily spread out over the strap of her black tank top. And it certainly wasn’t out of kindness as she felt him stretch his fingers out, the tips aching to reach the golden expanse of skin, desperately trying to reach the top curve of her breast.
“It’s on the house,” he replied, his brown eyes raking over her. The waiter opened his mouth to say more, but a voice filled the air interrupting them.
“Leave her alone.” The waiter was momentarily forgotten as Yelina turned towards the direction the threat had come from.
Who she was expecting she didn’t know, but Kyle Harmon was definitely not on the top of the list. For a moment, the brunette thought that his voice was nothing like he’d expected, given his mug shot. He was soft spoken, but each syllable was rounded with the sound of something more dangerous flowing underneath.
She quickly pulled herself out of her thoughts, and placing a blank expression on her face, Yelina hoped she had successfully masked the look of recognition.
“And who are you?” the waiter finally scoffed, though he took his hand off her shoulder in any case.
Which didn’t surprise her really. What Kyle lacked in age, he more than made up for in height. At least, he easily towered over the perverted shrimp waiting on her. There was no doubt in her mind that the teenaged delinquent could seriously hurt the waiter. And if that happened, Yelina had no intention of telling Horatio about it - not when her fists were aching to punch the waiter herself.
Kyle stalked closer to the table. “She’s my mother,” he lied, “so you should leave her alone before I rip your balls off and feed ‘em to you.” His voice was darker then, but clearly effective as the waiter scurried from the table, his tail between his legs.
Yelina gave the teenager in front of her a small smile. “Thank you.” But Kyle did not smile back, his eyes cold and hard. After a moment, when she was sure he wasn’t going to say anything, she reached behind her back and plucked her white linen jacket off her teak chair. The brunette, still thinking of the waiter, placed the coat on, fumbling to button it up.
Then the blonde boy stalked closer to her before plopping unceremoniously down on the chair in front of her. His dark eyes looked her up and down, assessing her. Finally, with a shrug, he leaned forward and grabbed the croissant. Kyle asked, “You gonna eat this?” But he’d already taken a large bite out of the pastry before Yelina could respond.
She shook her head, noting the way his skin seemed stretched over his bones. Despite knowing that he had spent time in juvy and was her mark, the mother in her wanted nothing more than to feed him.
Kyle chewed thoughtfully for a minute, swallowed hard, before asking - “You a cop?”
Definitely not the question she was expecting, Yelina thought, and she didn’t know what to say.
“Are you a cop?” he asked again, his voice rougher this time.
She forced out a “no,” as she slowly picked up her latte and sipped on it. At least not anymore, the brunette mentally added.
It was a fact that she purposely avoided these days. She had given up a lot to spend a year in Rio. And Yelina liked to ignore the reality of it all because if she truly did take stock of the situation… she’d have to accept that nothing had changed, and everything had changed. It would mean that she had foolishly trusted Horatio and her husband. She had to work to dampen the heated resentment rushing through her.
“You have a fetish for teenaged boys?”
The question took her by surprise, and the coffee burned her throat as she clumsily swallowed. “Of course not,” she snapped, the desire to feed him replaced by the need to smack him. “Why would you -“
“Don’t get me wrong,” he explained. “You’re kinda hot -“
“Thank you,” Yelina said snidely.
“And I’m game,” he said, talking over her. “But you’re a little old…”
“I am not old!” She put her coffee mug back on the table a little too roughly, and her irritation evident to him, he grinned before returning to the croissant. “Let’s be clear,” she told him. Her accent was thicker than normal. “I have no intention of seducing you. At all.”
Kyle shrugged. “So then… why is that every single time I turn around today, you’re somewhere nearby?”
She was glad that she’d put her coat back on as she could feel the heat rise in her chest. “Excuse me?” Yelina feebly asked.
“You’ve been following me. Don’t think I haven’t noticed,” he said, pulling his chair closer to the table. “It’s a little hard to miss when you attract so much attention.”
“I don’t -”
“Half the guys I’ve passed today have been staring at you. Like I said, it’s a little difficult to ignore you when everyone within a five mile radius wants to bang you.”
“That is…” She didn’t really know what to say and shifted in her chair.
“Don’t try to act like you didn’t notice.”
“I try not to,” she said honestly.
“You’re still not answering the question,” he pointed out, returning to the original topic at hand.
“I -" But whatever she was about to say had to wait as her cell phone rang. Grateful for the interruption, Yelina rummaged around through her purse before plucking the phone out. Flipping the lid open with as much authority she could muster, she said, “Hello.”
“It’s Horatio,” the familiar voice said. “Where are you?” She’d barely given him the name of the café when he barked, “Where’s Kyle Harmon right now?”
The question gave her pause. With the teenager sitting across from her, the former detective knew she couldn’t say, “I’m looking right at him.” She pursed her lips briefly before settling for, “I just told you.”
There was another pregnant pause before Horatio half-whispered, “Are you all right?” The worry in his voice, though cloying, couldn’t be ignored.
She tucked a curl behind her ear as she told him, “Of course.” But it didn’t seem to matter because she could already hear the sirens through the phone.
“I’ll be right there,” he uttered in complete seriousness. He really did have a compulsive need to save the day, she mused.
Mentally rolling her eyes, the curly-haired woman hung up the phone and focused her attention onto Kyle once more. He still eyed her with great suspicion. “Who was that?” he boldly asked.
Yelina chose to deflect the question instead. “You’re awfully nosy, I hope you realize.”
The blonde shrugged. “It’s my nature.”
He wolfed down the rest of the pastry, and with a frown on her face, the brunette said, “I can tell.”
His suspicion was momentarily forgotten, it seemed. Not that it really mattered because within minutes, Horatio’s Hummer came roaring down the street. Rather than watch the unnecessary display of machismo, Yelina focused her attention on Kyle.
She couldn’t ignore the way he seemed to fidget in the seat, and she watched him, fascinated. Her hazel eyes focused on the boy, but she dimly heard her brother-in-law close his car door.
But it wasn’t until his shadow fell on her that she chose to acknowledge his presence. “Horatio.” And when he not so subtly put a hand on his hip, drawing attention to his shield, she didn’t even try to hide her displeasure.
“Is this really necessary?” she asked him. Yet her brother-in-law didn’t even attempt to answer the question as he asked her, “Are you all right?
It was her turn to refuse an answer, but she thought the annoyance that had to be playing on her features was answer enough.
Seemingly satisfied, at least temporarily, Horatio turned his attention to the obviously nervous teen. “Kyle Harmon?”
The boy blanched at the mention of his own name. Cautiously, he responded, “Yeah?”
Horatio cocked his head ever so slightly and smoothly told him, “You are going to need to come with me.”
There was a small window for everything to go right, Yelina realized. But she could see the confusion, fear, and anger flit through the boy’s eyes, and the brunette knew that this wasn’t going to go well. It seemed that her brother-in-law had reached the same conclusion as he took a step forward to grab Kyle.
The teenager kicked the chair out from behind him as he stood up. Without pausing, he turned and ran.
Horatio yelled out an ineffective, “Hey.” But it didn’t matter because Kyle had barely made it ten feet before the irritating waiter from earlier came rushing out. The man pounced on the teenager, and they both collapsed onto the cement pavement.
Onlookers gasped, and Kyle, his face now bloody, tried to get up, but to no avail. The puny waiter was determined to hold on. “Get off of me,” the teenager said gruffly.
Yelina stood up, straightening her white pants, and grabbed her unused napkin. There did seem to be an awful lot of blood, and she had an inexplicable desire to tend to him. No doubt the boy was hurting. But if it concerned Horatio, he didn’t show it as he and a newly arrived police officer pulled Kyle up off the ground.
“Let’s try this again. Son, you’re going to have to come with me,” Horatio said. The cop snapped handcuffs around Kyle’s wrists, but the teenager said nothing in response.
Which Yelina thought was probably for the best.
As the police officer quickly put Kyle in the cop car, Yelina’s attention turned to her brother-in-law; he was now talking to the waiter from earlier, thanking the man for stopping the teenager, and it was more than Yelina could bear.
She dropped her napkin, still unused, back onto the table. It had never escaped her how good Horatio was at his job. Really, it was almost impossible to miss just how capable he was. But here he was congratulating the man who had been so foul earlier, and she thought when Horatio got it wrong, he really got it wrong.
This was definitely one of those times.
Yelina was incredibly tempted to tell him, as she watched the two men shake hands, that it was this very waiter who had bothered her earlier. She practically itched to explain to Horatio that he was thanking the sort of person he seemed so determined to protect her from.
But she was more than aware of what the consequences would be. Gone were the days, it seemed, where Horatio would let the law handle these sorts of matters. He was more serious these days, she’d noticed; he was almost singularly focused on his job, obsessed with it. His demeanor was cool, but it barely belied the fire burning inside of him, aching to be released.
She didn’t push him, was almost afraid of what lie beneath the surface, because while others ignored it, she hadn’t forgotten Rio.
No, Yelina was more than aware of what might happen if she told him about the waiter. At best, her brother-in-law would implore her to quit her job. And she was not going to do that. Not when she knew she was more than capable of handling herself and certainly not when the possibility of Ray Junior going to college was lurking around the corner.
The thought, however, was cut short as the waiter approached her once more. “Hey,” he told her, his eyes lasciviously looking her over. She instinctively gazed over towards Horatio. It was incredibly childish, but she really did want him to see this. Unfortunately, he was talking on his cell phone.
“I know we got off on the wrong foot earlier,” the waiter told her. It was this unwanted attention that piqued Horatio’s curiosity, and Yelina smiled (just a little bit) as she noticed him turning towards them.
The waiter, thinking the smile was for him, kept talking loudly, fumbling over the words. “So… I don’t know… maybe you’d want to go out sometime?”
When Horatio slapped his cell phone shut, there was no doubt in her mind that he’d caught that bit of the conversation. She didn’t bother to hide her grin.
With effort, Yelina forced herself to look the waiter in the eyes. “Well -“
“Or your phone number? Maybe I could call you sometime, girl.” He was absolutely horrible at wooing a woman, that much she knew for sure. But caught up in the enjoyment of making Horatio jealous, Yelina only hesitated for a moment before saying, “Sure.”
The waiter scrambled for a piece of paper, handed her the pad he took orders down on. But she had no intention of giving him her actual number (she would at least be somewhat sensible) and instead wrote down the first digits that came to mind. Handing the pad back to him, she said, “Bye,” dismissing him.
Pushing her purse strap up over her shoulder, Yelina started walking in Horatio’s direction. The redhead looked irritated, which made the imp inside of her cheer. Closing the distance between them, she fought to remain serious and asked, “Do you need me for anything?”
He took a moment, grabbing the sunglasses out of his pocket before sliding them on. “No,” Horatio told her quietly.
“All right,” she said brightly, the lilt in her voice a stark contrast to the softness in his. “I’ll talk to you later.”
Best case yet, she thought. And as she walked past him, Yelina couldn’t help but smile.
Go to the next Chapter
Author: Duckie Nicks, aka
lieueitak
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Yelina Salas, Horatio Caine, the whole Caine family
Author's Note: WARNING: SPOILER FOR SEASON 6. Fulfills
fanfic100 prompt, 089, Work.
Summary: Almost two decades ago, Horatio made a decision that would change his family forever. Will they ever be able to get past it? And will he ever tell Yelina how he feels? Spoiler for season 6. HY romance in the future.
I don't own it. Don't sue.
Previous Chapter: The Prologue
No Other One
Chapter One: Of Dolls and Imps
By Duckie Nicks
“There is a fine line between recklessness and courage.” - Paul McCartney
By her count, there were at least three men leering at her. One sat behind her trying to read a book, finishing the last of his omelet, another to her left, and the last was the waiter. There had been other lookers, of course, through out the day. And sitting at a table outside at a café made her a prime target for passersby.
It made her job all the more difficult with so much unwanted attention coming her way. She hadn’t been caught before, which was either due to her smarts or to the average criminal’s stupidity, and she wasn’t about to guess the answer. Though she supposed she’d eventually find out which it was, and Yelina wasn’t sure if it was that fact or the four free lattes the waiter had brought her that made her feel uneasy.
Or maybe it was the fact that Kyle, her mark, was doing absolutely nothing that had her on edge. Her mind wandered to Horatio then. Had he hired her again to keep her out of trouble?
Her fingers tightened murderously around her coffee mug.
The worst the teenager had done was buy and smoke pot on the beach early that morning. Which was illegal, but hardly worth the hourly fee Horatio was paying, she thought. And so, unless this boy was a serial killer in disguise, this too was another on of her brother-in-law’s ruses.
She should be used to that, Yelina thought. He had been doing this for a while, ever since one of her clients had tried to get too close, but still… Horatio had taken an almost suffocating interest in her life. And it was wrapped, not in friendship or feelings, but in business and a cool demeanor. Given the way he treated her, the brunette felt like one of the porcelain dolls she’d owned as a child; they truly were too fragile to enjoy and were best left on a shelf to be looked at.
It made her miserable.
The feeling was only amplified as her too friendly waiter returned at that moment and placed a croissant down on her table. The light yellow dish made a small clatter as it hit the glass tabletop, and Yelina instinctively looked up at the dyed blonde.
“I didn’t order this,” she said, trying to keep the frustration out of her voice. Noticing it hadn’t worked, the brunette gave a mental shrug.
He placed a hand on her shoulder. It was not a friendly action, not with the way his palms greedily spread out over the strap of her black tank top. And it certainly wasn’t out of kindness as she felt him stretch his fingers out, the tips aching to reach the golden expanse of skin, desperately trying to reach the top curve of her breast.
“It’s on the house,” he replied, his brown eyes raking over her. The waiter opened his mouth to say more, but a voice filled the air interrupting them.
“Leave her alone.” The waiter was momentarily forgotten as Yelina turned towards the direction the threat had come from.
Who she was expecting she didn’t know, but Kyle Harmon was definitely not on the top of the list. For a moment, the brunette thought that his voice was nothing like he’d expected, given his mug shot. He was soft spoken, but each syllable was rounded with the sound of something more dangerous flowing underneath.
She quickly pulled herself out of her thoughts, and placing a blank expression on her face, Yelina hoped she had successfully masked the look of recognition.
“And who are you?” the waiter finally scoffed, though he took his hand off her shoulder in any case.
Which didn’t surprise her really. What Kyle lacked in age, he more than made up for in height. At least, he easily towered over the perverted shrimp waiting on her. There was no doubt in her mind that the teenaged delinquent could seriously hurt the waiter. And if that happened, Yelina had no intention of telling Horatio about it - not when her fists were aching to punch the waiter herself.
Kyle stalked closer to the table. “She’s my mother,” he lied, “so you should leave her alone before I rip your balls off and feed ‘em to you.” His voice was darker then, but clearly effective as the waiter scurried from the table, his tail between his legs.
Yelina gave the teenager in front of her a small smile. “Thank you.” But Kyle did not smile back, his eyes cold and hard. After a moment, when she was sure he wasn’t going to say anything, she reached behind her back and plucked her white linen jacket off her teak chair. The brunette, still thinking of the waiter, placed the coat on, fumbling to button it up.
Then the blonde boy stalked closer to her before plopping unceremoniously down on the chair in front of her. His dark eyes looked her up and down, assessing her. Finally, with a shrug, he leaned forward and grabbed the croissant. Kyle asked, “You gonna eat this?” But he’d already taken a large bite out of the pastry before Yelina could respond.
She shook her head, noting the way his skin seemed stretched over his bones. Despite knowing that he had spent time in juvy and was her mark, the mother in her wanted nothing more than to feed him.
Kyle chewed thoughtfully for a minute, swallowed hard, before asking - “You a cop?”
Definitely not the question she was expecting, Yelina thought, and she didn’t know what to say.
“Are you a cop?” he asked again, his voice rougher this time.
She forced out a “no,” as she slowly picked up her latte and sipped on it. At least not anymore, the brunette mentally added.
It was a fact that she purposely avoided these days. She had given up a lot to spend a year in Rio. And Yelina liked to ignore the reality of it all because if she truly did take stock of the situation… she’d have to accept that nothing had changed, and everything had changed. It would mean that she had foolishly trusted Horatio and her husband. She had to work to dampen the heated resentment rushing through her.
“You have a fetish for teenaged boys?”
The question took her by surprise, and the coffee burned her throat as she clumsily swallowed. “Of course not,” she snapped, the desire to feed him replaced by the need to smack him. “Why would you -“
“Don’t get me wrong,” he explained. “You’re kinda hot -“
“Thank you,” Yelina said snidely.
“And I’m game,” he said, talking over her. “But you’re a little old…”
“I am not old!” She put her coffee mug back on the table a little too roughly, and her irritation evident to him, he grinned before returning to the croissant. “Let’s be clear,” she told him. Her accent was thicker than normal. “I have no intention of seducing you. At all.”
Kyle shrugged. “So then… why is that every single time I turn around today, you’re somewhere nearby?”
She was glad that she’d put her coat back on as she could feel the heat rise in her chest. “Excuse me?” Yelina feebly asked.
“You’ve been following me. Don’t think I haven’t noticed,” he said, pulling his chair closer to the table. “It’s a little hard to miss when you attract so much attention.”
“I don’t -”
“Half the guys I’ve passed today have been staring at you. Like I said, it’s a little difficult to ignore you when everyone within a five mile radius wants to bang you.”
“That is…” She didn’t really know what to say and shifted in her chair.
“Don’t try to act like you didn’t notice.”
“I try not to,” she said honestly.
“You’re still not answering the question,” he pointed out, returning to the original topic at hand.
“I -" But whatever she was about to say had to wait as her cell phone rang. Grateful for the interruption, Yelina rummaged around through her purse before plucking the phone out. Flipping the lid open with as much authority she could muster, she said, “Hello.”
“It’s Horatio,” the familiar voice said. “Where are you?” She’d barely given him the name of the café when he barked, “Where’s Kyle Harmon right now?”
The question gave her pause. With the teenager sitting across from her, the former detective knew she couldn’t say, “I’m looking right at him.” She pursed her lips briefly before settling for, “I just told you.”
There was another pregnant pause before Horatio half-whispered, “Are you all right?” The worry in his voice, though cloying, couldn’t be ignored.
She tucked a curl behind her ear as she told him, “Of course.” But it didn’t seem to matter because she could already hear the sirens through the phone.
“I’ll be right there,” he uttered in complete seriousness. He really did have a compulsive need to save the day, she mused.
Mentally rolling her eyes, the curly-haired woman hung up the phone and focused her attention onto Kyle once more. He still eyed her with great suspicion. “Who was that?” he boldly asked.
Yelina chose to deflect the question instead. “You’re awfully nosy, I hope you realize.”
The blonde shrugged. “It’s my nature.”
He wolfed down the rest of the pastry, and with a frown on her face, the brunette said, “I can tell.”
His suspicion was momentarily forgotten, it seemed. Not that it really mattered because within minutes, Horatio’s Hummer came roaring down the street. Rather than watch the unnecessary display of machismo, Yelina focused her attention on Kyle.
She couldn’t ignore the way he seemed to fidget in the seat, and she watched him, fascinated. Her hazel eyes focused on the boy, but she dimly heard her brother-in-law close his car door.
But it wasn’t until his shadow fell on her that she chose to acknowledge his presence. “Horatio.” And when he not so subtly put a hand on his hip, drawing attention to his shield, she didn’t even try to hide her displeasure.
“Is this really necessary?” she asked him. Yet her brother-in-law didn’t even attempt to answer the question as he asked her, “Are you all right?
It was her turn to refuse an answer, but she thought the annoyance that had to be playing on her features was answer enough.
Seemingly satisfied, at least temporarily, Horatio turned his attention to the obviously nervous teen. “Kyle Harmon?”
The boy blanched at the mention of his own name. Cautiously, he responded, “Yeah?”
Horatio cocked his head ever so slightly and smoothly told him, “You are going to need to come with me.”
There was a small window for everything to go right, Yelina realized. But she could see the confusion, fear, and anger flit through the boy’s eyes, and the brunette knew that this wasn’t going to go well. It seemed that her brother-in-law had reached the same conclusion as he took a step forward to grab Kyle.
The teenager kicked the chair out from behind him as he stood up. Without pausing, he turned and ran.
Horatio yelled out an ineffective, “Hey.” But it didn’t matter because Kyle had barely made it ten feet before the irritating waiter from earlier came rushing out. The man pounced on the teenager, and they both collapsed onto the cement pavement.
Onlookers gasped, and Kyle, his face now bloody, tried to get up, but to no avail. The puny waiter was determined to hold on. “Get off of me,” the teenager said gruffly.
Yelina stood up, straightening her white pants, and grabbed her unused napkin. There did seem to be an awful lot of blood, and she had an inexplicable desire to tend to him. No doubt the boy was hurting. But if it concerned Horatio, he didn’t show it as he and a newly arrived police officer pulled Kyle up off the ground.
“Let’s try this again. Son, you’re going to have to come with me,” Horatio said. The cop snapped handcuffs around Kyle’s wrists, but the teenager said nothing in response.
Which Yelina thought was probably for the best.
As the police officer quickly put Kyle in the cop car, Yelina’s attention turned to her brother-in-law; he was now talking to the waiter from earlier, thanking the man for stopping the teenager, and it was more than Yelina could bear.
She dropped her napkin, still unused, back onto the table. It had never escaped her how good Horatio was at his job. Really, it was almost impossible to miss just how capable he was. But here he was congratulating the man who had been so foul earlier, and she thought when Horatio got it wrong, he really got it wrong.
This was definitely one of those times.
Yelina was incredibly tempted to tell him, as she watched the two men shake hands, that it was this very waiter who had bothered her earlier. She practically itched to explain to Horatio that he was thanking the sort of person he seemed so determined to protect her from.
But she was more than aware of what the consequences would be. Gone were the days, it seemed, where Horatio would let the law handle these sorts of matters. He was more serious these days, she’d noticed; he was almost singularly focused on his job, obsessed with it. His demeanor was cool, but it barely belied the fire burning inside of him, aching to be released.
She didn’t push him, was almost afraid of what lie beneath the surface, because while others ignored it, she hadn’t forgotten Rio.
No, Yelina was more than aware of what might happen if she told him about the waiter. At best, her brother-in-law would implore her to quit her job. And she was not going to do that. Not when she knew she was more than capable of handling herself and certainly not when the possibility of Ray Junior going to college was lurking around the corner.
The thought, however, was cut short as the waiter approached her once more. “Hey,” he told her, his eyes lasciviously looking her over. She instinctively gazed over towards Horatio. It was incredibly childish, but she really did want him to see this. Unfortunately, he was talking on his cell phone.
“I know we got off on the wrong foot earlier,” the waiter told her. It was this unwanted attention that piqued Horatio’s curiosity, and Yelina smiled (just a little bit) as she noticed him turning towards them.
The waiter, thinking the smile was for him, kept talking loudly, fumbling over the words. “So… I don’t know… maybe you’d want to go out sometime?”
When Horatio slapped his cell phone shut, there was no doubt in her mind that he’d caught that bit of the conversation. She didn’t bother to hide her grin.
With effort, Yelina forced herself to look the waiter in the eyes. “Well -“
“Or your phone number? Maybe I could call you sometime, girl.” He was absolutely horrible at wooing a woman, that much she knew for sure. But caught up in the enjoyment of making Horatio jealous, Yelina only hesitated for a moment before saying, “Sure.”
The waiter scrambled for a piece of paper, handed her the pad he took orders down on. But she had no intention of giving him her actual number (she would at least be somewhat sensible) and instead wrote down the first digits that came to mind. Handing the pad back to him, she said, “Bye,” dismissing him.
Pushing her purse strap up over her shoulder, Yelina started walking in Horatio’s direction. The redhead looked irritated, which made the imp inside of her cheer. Closing the distance between them, she fought to remain serious and asked, “Do you need me for anything?”
He took a moment, grabbing the sunglasses out of his pocket before sliding them on. “No,” Horatio told her quietly.
“All right,” she said brightly, the lilt in her voice a stark contrast to the softness in his. “I’ll talk to you later.”
Best case yet, she thought. And as she walked past him, Yelina couldn’t help but smile.
Go to the next Chapter