Kiss Me When the Sun Goes Down (7 page)

“One sec.”  He stopped me when I got to the bottom of the front porch, my eyes level with his, thanks to the height of the step I was on.  “There’s something I want to say before we go any farther.”

“What’s that?”

“This.”  He leaned in to press his lips against mine, gently begging entrance in a slow, lingering kiss.  I returned it without hesitation, my arms settling atop his shoulders as if they belonged there. 

“You definitely have a way with words,” I smiled when we drew apart. 

“I really don’t,” Bishop admitted with a wince.  “So, I thought I’d let my heart do the talking for me before my big mouth landed me in hot water.”

“I think you’re doing fine with your words.”  Better than fine.  Who needed the fancy restaurants or sold out shows?  This was a romantic Bishop I could get used to, sweet and genuine.  “And I’ll tell you what else...” I added, my voice falling conspiratorially as I leaned in closer, letting my kiss speak for me as well. 

“There now, we’re automatically off to a better start this time.  And I put the word out, no work calls unless the city’s in flames around us.”

“Same here, and Carter’s out of town, so we shouldn’t have to worry about him lurking in the shadows along the way.”

“Was that a concern?” he frowned, leading me down the walk to his SUV. 

“He’s a little protective of me,” I shrugged. 

“Maybe he and I should have a talk,” Bishop muttered, and I shook my head.

“Or the complete opposite of that.  Look, you have to give him some time to get to know you.  The same goes for Maggie and Lee and those guys.  Let them get to know and love you the way I do, and then everything will fall into place, I promise.”

“So you’re saying you love me,” he grinned, holding open the door.

“Is that seriously all you got out of that?” I shook my head, his laughter echoing in the street as he jogged around to the other side of the car once I climbed in. 

“Where are we off to?” I asked when he revved up the engine.  “I’m assuming no opera tonight.”

“Nope, I have something bigger in mind.”

“Bigger?  I thought we were keeping things simple tonight.  I’m not dressed for anything fancy.”

“I didn’t say fancy, I said bigger.” 

“How big?”

He turned to face me.  “How big is the universe?”

That was all he’d say until we rolled into the parking lot of the California Academy of Sciences, and I caught on to his plan. 

“I didn’t know the planetarium was open at this time of night.”

“Yep, once a week,” he nodded, leading me past the line to hand over the tickets he’d already bought.  “I’ve never been here before though, how about you?”

“Not since my seventh grade science class field trip.”  I accepted the slick pamphlet they gave out at the door, scanning the page quickly.  “Ooh, the program’s called
Dark Universe
?  How shiny is that?”

“That’s what I was hoping you’d say,” he chuckled, leading me inside. 

We spent the next hour sitting in the dark, holding hands, oohing and ahhing over the spectacle of the universe projected on the seventy-five foot dome.  I didn’t want to move once it was over, I wanted to watch it again, but Bishop nudged me out of my seat, taking me for a walk through the Water Planet exhibit at the adjoining aquarium, and the natural history museum, before the announcement came over the PA that the facility was about to close. 

At first I thought maybe Bishop was trying to cater to my nerdy interest in science, but it quickly became evident that he was having a good time too, and surprisingly knowledgeable about a wide variety of subjects.  I supposed a guy would pick up a lot of trivia being alive for four hundred and sixty-five years.  It made me wonder if I’d ever go back to college, or have a career beyond Elder of the West.  Forever was a long time, I could do anything – as long as it was at night. 

“How am I doing so far?  Better than last time?” he asked when we stepped out into the night. 

“That’s not setting the bar very high,” I teased him with an elbow to the ribs.  “But yes, you’re hitting it out of the park this time.  Where to now?  Or was that all you had planned?”

“The night’s barely getting started,” he grinned, rubbing his hands together like a cartoon villain.  “How about something sweet?  There happens to be an ice cream parlor right around here.  I saw the perfect flavor for you to try.”

“Oh really?”  My brows rose with interest, and he was right.  Thirty-One Flavors had a brand new flavor that was right up my alley – Snacknado.  Salty caramel-flavored ice cream loaded with chocolate-covered potato chips and pretzels, all swirled together with candy pieces and chocolate fudge and salted pretzel ribbons.  It sounds like kind of a mess, but it was pretty tasty.  Not as good as Chocolate Explosion, but pretty darned good. 

We kept walking with ice cream in hand (he had mint chip), and before I knew it, we found ourselves in front of my favorite comic book store, open late for the weekend.  “You planned this, didn’t you?”

Bishop shrugged, but I caught the twinkle in his eye as he pulled the door open for me.  It felt like forever ago that I’d last been there, and the place hadn’t changed much in the year or more since I’d last stopped in looking for an Agent Coulson bobblehead.  “Do we have time to look around or do you have something pressing planned?” I asked, checking out a sweet set of
Star Wars
ships on display.

“We don’t have to be at our next stop until midnight, and it’s only a few blocks away, so look around to your heart’s content.”

“Midnight, huh?  What happens then?”

“I’d tell you, but then I’d have to kill you,” he teased, and I arched a brow at him.

“You think you could?  I’ve been training with Carter, you know.  I think I could hold my own.”

“Oh you do, do you?”  He edged into my personal space with an amused tilt to his lips, and I backed up, finding the wall behind me. 

“As long as no weapons were involved, I feel pretty good about my chances.” 

“We might have to test that out sometime.”

“Why, do you
want
to kill me?” I said with a nervous laugh.

He was close enough that I could feel his t-shirt barely grazing the fluff on my sweater.  Another millimeter and I’d feel his hard body pressed up against mine, but he kept that tiny cushion of space between us.  “No, but I wouldn’t mind seeing what you’ve got.”  His eyes dipped to my lips and dragged back up again to meet my gaze. 

What were we talking about again?  “What I’ve got?” I breathed, mesmerized by the cool amusement in his eyes, the sure knowledge that he knew exactly what it did to me to get so close. 

“Skills-wise, I mean.” 

“Right, of course.” 

“I could always give you a few pointers, you know, if you’re interested.”  He leaned past me to prop his arm on the wall over my head, and his t-shirt rode up to reveal a tantalizing flash of toned abs, and the hint of his tattoo.  I had a brief but almost uncontrollable urge to lick it, before he spoke again.  “Carter’s good, but I’m better.”

I had no doubts there.  “I’m not so sure that’s a good idea.”

A furrow appeared on his forehead.  “Why not?”

“Because I have a feeling that if we end up rolling around all sweaty together, it’s going to turn into a different kind of workout.”

“Nothing wrong with that, is there?”  He still hadn’t touched me, but I felt his presence all around me like an electrical field, crackling with current. 

“I guess it depends on what kinds of skills you wanted to evaluate me on.”

“I’m more than happy to assess any skills you care to show me.”

The little curve of a smile on his lips was so tempting, and he knew it was too.  He knew
exactly
what he did to me, and I felt the primal urge to surrender to it, but I had power too.  Maybe he needed a reminder of that.  My palm slid against his, and his fingers opened to thread between mine, but instead of holding his hand, I spun his wrist into a painful lock, using the element of surprise to force him down onto his knees before me. 

“How about that?” I smiled down at him with a challenge.  “How do I rate?”

“Sneaky, I like it,” he replied with a good-natured grin.  Instead of trying to break my hold, he seemed content to stay down there.  “Is this where you want me, on my knees?”

“It might be a good place to start,” I pretended to consider with a flippant toss of my hair, and he gave a half shrug. 

“I can work with that.”

“I bet you can,” I laughed, sobering when I saw the earnest look on his face. 

“I’ll do what it takes to make things up to you, Anja.  If you want me on my knees, you just have to say so.”

I released the hold I had on his wrist, threading my fingers through his.  “You don’t have to do anything like that.”

“Maybe I do, and maybe I don’t.”  He shook his head, and when he found my gaze again, there was an intensity there I hadn’t seen in a long time.  “But we belong together, and I’m not going to walk away from this again.  I want...”

“Anja?”  I tore my gaze away from his to see a familiar face.  “Hey, it is you.  Long time no see.” 

“O
h, hey, Kyle,” I blinked, my brain taking an extra moment to come up with his name.  Jeez, it hadn’t been
that
long, had it?  Okay, so I hadn’t hung out with any of my gamer buddies since I’d joined the undead club, but he used to be one of my best friends.  Why did it feel so weird to see him again?  “Yeah, long time no see,” I managed to get out with an awkward smile.

“You’ve been pretty busy, huh?  I haven’t seen you in any of the forums in ages.  Lei thought you’d died.”

She wasn’t wrong.  “No, I’ve been good, super good.  I started a new job about a year ago and it’s kept me pretty distracted.” 

“Yeah?  Oh, I think I heard something about that.  You joined a touring company or something, right?  Are you in town for a performance?  I could get the gang together and maybe we could hang out together afterwards.”  He looked so hopeful, like a lost puppy, and I stared back at him, out of practice lying on the spot. 

“No, I’m, ah... being completely rude.”  I realized Bishop was still on his knees between us, following the conversation with mild interest.  “Sorry, Kyle, this is Bishop.  Bishop, this is my old friend, Kyle.”

“Hi,” Bishop said with a fair rendition of a friendly smile, rising to his feet and offering a hand.

“Hi,” Kyle started to say, stretching his hand out, but his jaw went slack as Bishop rose to his impressive height.  “Wow, you’re... so he’s your...” From the look on his face, I could see he thought maybe Bishop had been proposing or something, having been down on his knees. 

“It’s our second date,” I said, my eyes on Bishop, with a teasing smile.

“And you brought him to the comic book store?  Brave,” Kyle snorted.

“Actually, it was his idea,” I replied.  “He knows what I like.”

“I’m learning, anyway,” Bishop smiled back, the both of us staring at each other, and I couldn’t have said if Kyle was even still there until he spoke again.

“Are you into any books?”

Bishop broke eye contact, turning to reply.  “No, I can’t say that I follow any.  Though, I did enjoy the
Serenity
series Dark Horse put out.”

“No kidding, you’re a Browncoat?”  Kyle’s brows came up in surprise. 

“I guess you could say that,” Bishop replied.  “Actually... check this out.”  He dug into his pocket and pulled out his phone, skipping through a few screens before he held up the pics of him dressed as Mal for the Halloween ball at Vetis. 

“Wow, that’s a great cosplay,” Kyle said, impressed.  “You definitely pull off the Captain thing.”

“You should see the replica gun he got,” I chimed in.  “It’s a thing of beauty.”

“I’d love to,” Kyle nodded with the beginnings of a man crush, from the look on his face.  “Hey, do you think you guys are interested in joining a new LARP we’re trying to get together?  BSG, the reboot, obviously.  I remember you had a cosplay for that already, Anja.”

Had
, being the operating word there.  It’d been pretty much destroyed during my first introduction to ACBT, the night Evan had died.  Still, that didn’t mean I couldn’t put something together again, especially with the resources I had now.  “Canon or original characters?”

“Strictly original, Battlestar Whitewolf.  I’m thinking we’ll meet up on Saturday nights, since Jay’s still running his Hobbit thing on Fridays.”

If we’d left Bishop in the dust, he gave no sign of it.  He at least seemed to know what a Live Action Role-play Game was.  “Nice.  Can we bring real guns?” he asked, and Kyle’s mouth sagged open.

“Ah...”

“He’s kidding!” I jumped in, smacking Bishop’s chest harder than I probably had to, but he didn’t so much as flinch. 

“Oh, sure,” Kyle eased, rolling with it.  “You should come down, we meet in Dolores Park after dark.”

“BSG is the one with the Cylons, right?”

“Yes, the ones that pass for people, not the toasters,” I nodded. 

“Right,” Bishop replied, looking like he was actually considering it.  “I’ll think about it.  I work nights, so it can be rough to commit.  And of course it depends on whether or not my girl here wants to come along.”

It made me smile to hear him call me his girl, even if we were under the guise of our second date.  “I think it could be fun, and I’d love to see some of the old gang again.”  Not that I didn’t love my new life, but it was getting harder and harder to remember what it was like to be a normal person who didn’t have to go look at eighteen million dollar mansions and try to figure out the logistics of supplying fresh blood for a dinner party. 

Bishop scratched at the scruff on his jaw.  “I don’t really have any gear for that sort of thing though.”

“I can help you with that, if you like,” I offered.  “No pressure though.  I know it’s not really your thing.”

“Running around in tactical gear, trying to uphold the law and save the human race?  That’s sorta my thing,” he quipped with a lopsided grin.  “Besides, I’m open to trying new things.”

Since when?  What’d happened to the guy who hadn’t changed more than his hairstyle for the past three hundred years?  “I guess maybe we’ll have to get back to you after we figure out some logistics.  How’s that for a definite maybe?”  I turned to Kyle with a smile.