Low Sided by A.J. Downey (best detective novels of all time txt) 📕

bed against the back wall facing the windows. There was a small kitchenette just inside the door and she absently slid the bag of her gross candy and the box of pull apart bread onto the little kitchen counter by the farmhouse sink basin.

I’d been through listing after listing online looking for the perfect place for us, and this one had been booked fucking solid for months. I’d put myself on the waiting list in case of cancelation and it must have been meant to be or something, because at the eleventh hour, it’d opened up and I can’t tell you how fast I smashed the booking link in that email with my finger.

By the look on my girl’s face, it was totally worth it.

She drifted through the place, past the low dividing half wall hiding the toilet from view of the rest of the cabin to go over to the copper tub. She put a hand on the rim and turned back to me, blinking like an owl she seemed to so badly wanted to see.

“This is… this is stunning,” she said.

I smiled and cocked my head and told her, “Only the best for you, babe.”

She dropped her shapely narrow butt to the edge of the tub, completely knocked off her feet while I put the cider in the mini fridge to chill.

“You good?” I asked.

“I’m more than good!” she cried, stunned.

“I’m going to get a fire going out back,” I said. “Why don’t you settle in?”

I left her sitting on the edge of the copper tub, which I was pleased to see was big enough for the both of us, and went outside. Availing myself of the woodpile just off the deck to get a fire going in the pit the deck was built around.

There were a couple of Adirondack lounge chairs out here that we could make use of. A couple of blankets to drape over our laps inside. All in all, it was about to be a cozy evening out here.

I looked up and caught Raven through the glass, making up some of her tea that she’d brought at the little kitchenette. It made me smile. By the time the fire was going, she was slipping out the back door with a couple of steaming mugs.

“Oh, hey, thanks,” I said, taking the one she offered me.

We settled into the couple of chairs and basked in the fire’s glow as the sun finished setting somewhere off to our left behind the trees.

Raven sighed in contentment.

“It’s so quiet,” she said, and I smiled.

“Whole point was to relax and unwind, right?” I asked.

“Absolutely,” she answered and leaned way over the arm of her chair with her lips puckered invitingly. I met her halfway and kissed her softly, and damn. It didn’t matter, the first time, this last time, every time she kissed me, I got hard.

We sipped hot tea in the cooling evening temperatures by the fire and laughed and talked. It had been a long day on the road, even with all the stops, and we were tired. After about her third yawn, I had to smile and say, “Alright, sleepy girl. I think it’s time for bed.”

“Mm, I can’t argue with you there,” she said.

It was then an owl called somewhere out in the night and the look on Raven’s face, her eyes lit up, her excited grin was everything, and damn if I wasn’t hopelessly in love with her.

The next morning, I woke my sleeping beauty with a kiss on every rose of her darkly colorful tattoo. She smiled, and breathed in deep, stretching luxuriously like a cat, reaching back to cradle the back of my head and draw me closer.

“Good morning,” I murmured against her skin.

“Good morning,” she greeted me back and tipped her face back to kiss me.

She hummed in pleasure, and I trailed a hand down her body, caressing her silky soft skin with my rough palm.

“How’d you sleep?” I asked, wanting nothing more than to make love to her right here and right now, but exercising restraint. If I started now; we would spend all damn day in bed. I wouldn’t let her out, and there was far too much I wanted to show her out here.

“Mm, good.” She bit her bottom lip, her smile escaping the hold of her teeth, her eyes alight with joy and I caressed her cheek, committing her face, this moment, to memory.

“Hungry?” I asked.

“Starving, actually.”

“Let’s have some breakfast.” I pecked the tip of her nose and she crossed her eyes and laughed.

We got up, and each used the restroom and got dressed. She made some hot tea while I heated up the pull apart and we breakfasted out on the deck listening to the morning birdsong and watching the morning light filter through the mist and trees.

“What are we doing today?” she asked.

“I thought we’d poke around Port Townsend and check out some of the shops. Maybe have some lunch and take a hike out to the sea glass beach.”

She perked up.

“Sea glass beach?” she asked.

“Ahhh, I thought you might like that,” I said.

“Absolutely! Sounds wonderful.”

That’s what we did. We took a ride into Port Townsend, stopped for some coffee in this quirky little strip mall since the tea didn’t really do much for me by way of caffeination, and leaving the bike parked with three others, struck out on a walk down Water Street and the main drag through town.

A lot of things weren’t quite open yet, so we just meandered along picking out the places we wanted to go when they finally were open. There was a steampunk shop that had some clothing pieces in Raven’s aesthetic, and a metaphysical shop she got excited over. There were bookstores and antique stores that I admittedly got a little excited to check out, and a rock and gem shop that looked promising.

We held hands and walked along at a sedate pace and looked at just about everything there was to see before going in