Kobe, Bad Blood (Blood Roses Book 1) by Danielle Norman (great reads TXT) 📕

that doesn’t make sense to me since the only media I want to work on is skin. I do have to take a blood-borne pathogen class though. Then I can get my license. Where she works, it’s a pretty cool setup.”

“Huh, sounds like it,” I said and watched her toes slide up the leg of the coffee table and rest on top. “So, you’re going to work where she is?”

Kobe shook her head. “Nope.” She finished off her glass of wine. “We are definitely going to open a shop. We got the name picked out and already have the website domain.”

“Are you going to tell me?”

Kobe bit her lower lip and gave me a crooked smile. “Kinky, we are going to capitalize the letters I-N-K in the middle of the word to emphasize we do ink.”

“Sounds like you,” I mused.

She grinned as her fingers traced along my knuckles.

“Kinky? That’s an interesting choice.” I paused, searching for the words. “You’ll definitely attract an interesting clientele.”

“I’m counting on it,” she said, beaming up at me before she closed her eyes and reclined between my splayed legs. “Will you be my first client?” she asked, her voice hopeful.

“Of course, you can do anything you want to me.”

“Okay, enough talking about me, what about you? What are you going to do?”

I had been waiting for this to come up. My job was going undercover. Sure, I had been given some time off after the last case closed but any day now, I would be alerted to my new job.

I took her hand in mine, pressing a kiss against the soft skin of her wrist. “I’ll go back to doing what I do.”

“Pretending to be part of a gang to take down a murdering drug lord?” Kobe smirked.

“More or less,” I agreed. “I will get another case though. Then I’ll go undercover.”

“That sounds exciting to me. It’s like being a spy in a James Bond movie.”

“Yeah, it was thrilling when I first started,” I said as I moved my arms away from her and reached for my beer. “I felt like a total badass. I shook hands with some scary people, I’ve worked with a cartel and was part of a multiagency operation that worked to take down a company that had mafia connections. They smuggled in seventy-two kilograms of narcotics on a weekly basis. We arrested sixty-five of the seventy men who were involved.”

“Is seventy-two a lot?”

I smiled at her innocence. “It’s more than you weigh, and it was all being brought into a small Georgia town so yes, that was a lot.”

“Jesus, I had no idea.” Her lips parted in surprise and all I wanted to do was kiss her. “What happened to the other men, the five from that seventy who got away?”

“Two were found dead, and the other three fled. We have reason to believe they went to family in Cuba and won’t be coming back here for a while.” I finished my beer and lowered the bottle to the table.

“I wish you would have told me that you were an agent and that I didn’t have to find out the way I did.”

“I know, and I wanted to tell you, but I couldn’t. If I’d said anything, it would have compromised the entire operation and put you at risk.”

“I suppose that’s true,” she said and rested her chin on my knees. “It sounds like you’ve been doing this for a while. You must have all kinds of stories—you should tell me more.”

“Some day.” I looked into her big bright eyes. “And as fun as this lifestyle is, I’m not excited for the next case.”

“Why not?” A frown line creased between her sculpted brows.

“Because, it means that I’ll be seeing less of you,” I explained, my heart heavy in my chest. “I was undercover with the Coyotes for almost four years. The interagency operation had me undercover for a year before that. I don’t know how long the next one will be or how often I would be able to call you.” I exhaled sharply, fighting the pain in my chest. “Our dates would be few and far between.”

“How long have you been doing this?”

“Six years. My first year was as a plain clothes agent. I came in once the cover was blown. Now though, I’ve been undercover for what feels like forever.”

Kobe turned on her knees and then knelt back resting on her legs. “We can get through anything. Look, it’s been seven years and I still have a crush on you.”

“You’ll see me less.”

“That’s okay.”

I quirked a brow. I wasn’t sure whether to be offended or pleased by her words.

Kobe laughed. “No, that’s not what I meant. Of course, I would love to see you more, but I’m also okay with taking it slow. I’ll wait for you as long as it takes.” Kobe reached forward and rubbed her fingers down my thighs. “I have had a lot of drastic changes recently, and I’m going to need time to figure out who I am when I’m not driven by revenge. That could take some time for me. So, if you can be patient with me then I can be patient with you.”

“I guess that’s true.” I leaned forward and inhaled the sweet scent of Moscato on her breath.

“What I’m trying to tell you is that I’m okay with taking things one day at a time and enjoying the moment until we can find our footing again. We can go slow,” Kobe said and took my face in her hands, pressing a gentle kiss to my nose.

“Really slow?” I asked as I searched her face for signs of truth.

“Even if I go three months without a date, we can make it work.” She lowered her hands to my chest. “Besides, the DEA must have some way for the agents to keep in contact with their families—it’s not like you’re in the witness protection program.”

“They do,” I said, touched by her acceptance. “We might be able to have Skype dates or