Waves of spice and tart sweetness unfolded over him, enveloping the man in a cloud of unique flavor. Emily had boasted that he would beg her for the recipe and he was damn close to doing so, but he wouldn't betray his envy of her skill in the kitchen.
Nolan kept quiet throughout the meal, ignoring Emily's smug look of triumph. She knew he was enraptured by the dish and that he was fighting every second of it.
"Was I right?" She prodded when he reached to serve himself another helping.
Nolan hesitated before answering. "It's...mmm, decent."
"Just decent?"
He licked his bottom lip, swiping away a drop of sauce. "I've had better."
Emily raised a brow at him. "You've had better? Where?"
"Um…Tokyo." Nolan mumbled around a mouthful, teasing her now.
She nodded, her disbelief clear. "Sure you did. Fine, I'll just have to do better next time."
Nolan looked up at her and sipped his wine. "I guess you will. Do you want to watch another movie tonight? I have G.I. Joe: Retaliation or the Dark Knight Rises."
His eyes were bright as he listed the films, still thrilled to have access to the blockbusters that had yet to be released to theaters. Emily was still coming to understand that, at his core, Nolan Ross was very much a boy obsessed with movies, video games and building better, faster toys.
Still, his taste in film left something to be desired. "So my choice is between Batman or G.I. Joe? Is there a third option?"
He narrowed his eyes. "Battlestar Galactica."
"Say no more, Batman it is."
After dinner and after the film, Emily had changed into a satin camisole and shorts, then padded up the stairs to Nolan's bedroom. She knocked on the door, knowing he expected her.
Nolan poked his head out of the bathroom, a foamy toothbrush in his hand. "Can I help you, Miss?"
"I wanted to see if you still needed me to wrap your arm tonight?"
Nolan eyed her, and she knew what he wanted. "That depends. Will you lotion it again?"
Emily smiled at him. It was ridiculous, this dance they'd come to do for the last few nights. Nolan could slather his wound in aloe just as easily as she could, but he had grown spoiled by her masterful touch. Not that she minded, Emily was glad to do whatever she could to ease his pain.
"If you want."
"Then yes, I am in desperate need of your medical skill." He gestured to his nightstand where she'd left the lotion the night before. "Just give me a second."
While Nolan finished brushing his teeth and changed out of his day clothes, Emily rolled the bottle between her palms and took her usual spot on the edge of his bed. She had come to like his bedroom; while Nolan liked his gadgets and his clothes, Emily had found that he liked simple comforts as well. The bed she rested on was large to accommodate his height, its sheets were soft, the blanket was warm and the mountain of tossed pillows were either very soft or very firm, depending on his needs for the night.
It was a strange thing to live with Nolan. Emily trusted him, she did, he had proven himself beyond bribing and intimidation by their shared enemies. He fulfilled his promise to David Clarke ten times over, and yet here he still stood, her ally, her one friend.
She wondered sometimes, if her life had been different, how Nolan might have fit into it.
Interrupting her thoughts as he strode out of the bathroom, clad in his usual uniform for the evening, a pair of burgundy lounge pants, Nolan flopped down on the bed beside her, extending his injured arm like a prince fully expecting to be pampered for the night.
"Grease me up, woman."
"I'd smack your arm for that, but I don't want to make you cry." Emily said as she pumped lotion from the bottle into her palm.
The woman moved closer, until she sat beside him in the center of the bed, and took his bandaged hand into her own. Nolan laid back and watched as she began to unravel the gauze. The man cherished this time with her, perhaps more than he should, but he was unable to help himself. He liked having Emily tend to him, but more than that, he simply liked having contact with a woman he trusted.
Obliging, Emily was careful to unwrap his bandages and tossed them into the bedside trash.
The injured skin wasn't as furious red or blistered as it had been the first night that she'd seen it, several days ago now. His arm was an ugly thing and would likely be healing for several more weeks to come, and Emily was determined to tend to the wound for him until only the scars remained.
She felt Nolan tense as the burn was exposed to fresh air, but she shushed him soon enough by smothering his wound in the soothing lotion. Her hands were light on his skin as she began to massage the cooling balm over the burn, coating it, smothering the wound.
Nolan watched her slick hands moving over his arm in the dim quiet of his room, and tried to ignore the wicked thought of being the one to spread lotion over her body in a full nude massage.
Emily was careful and slow in wrapping his arm in fresh bandages. Glancing to Nolan, she realized he was already half-asleep, his breathing even and his eyes half-hooded.
She started off the bed but Nolan sat up and grasped her wrist, "Stay with me."
It was not a command of her, and nor was it a plea.
Emily looked at him, his eyes telling her that he only wanted her company, nothing more. If she was being honest with herself, it was almost disappointing.
The woman did not protest or hesitate. She only moved to lay down beside him and soon found herself nearing sleep at his side.
When Emily woke beside him in the morning, she told herself she couldn't let it happen again.
Later in the morning, after being nudged awake by Emily and dragged along for her early morning run, Nolan set to work on a bolt of inspiration. It'd been a snap, one moment
the idea was not there, and in the next, he could see it - the next step in the evolution of technocom.
"I can see it, I can build it, I just need...where's my notepad?" Nolan muttered as they came in from the beach, sweaty and sandy from their jog up and down the shore.
Emily watched as Nolan moved about the kitchen in erratic circles, talking to himself like a lunatic. It was clear the genius needed to be alone to make his next great breakthrough.
Monumental leaps in technology couldn't make themselves, after all. It took someone special, someone with a sharp mind and the vision to execute an idea into fruition, someone like Nolan Ross.
Emily went off for a shower and to dress for the day, while Nolan set up an improvised work station on the kitchen table. He was so consumed with his idea that he barely noticed as she went off to the lower bathroom. He could see the system in his mind's eye, all it took was the effort to bring the project into reality.
He sketched out a drawing of the finished project and made a quick list of the material he would need to build it.
Minutes later, Nolan looked up in irritation at the sound of impatient pounding at his front door. He hated being interrupted when working. Add some loud banging on his door and Nolan was not in a mood fit for outside company.
"Nolan, open up!"
Especially not his company.
It's about time you showed up, I was starting to think you didn't care!
Not bothering with the security monitor, Nolan pulled open the door and raised his brows. "Wow, what the hell are you doing here?"
Daniel stood on the other side of the threshold, unimpressed with Nolan's greeting. "I came to see Emily."
"I'll just bet you did. And how's that conversation going to go, hmm? She would've been dead if I hadn't been on the phone with her and heard her being attacked!"
That got Daniel's attention. "You saved her?"
Nolan nodded, fixing Daniel in his icy stare. "Yeah, I saved her. I carried her out of a fire set by your whacked-out monster of a mother who was just standing there watching while the house went up in fla-"
"Enough, Nolan!" Emily emerged from behind him, clothed only in another of his long t-shirts. She'd been about to step into the shower when she'd heard the raised voices and ran out to see what was happening, their plan be damned.
Her expression was earnest as she appealed to him, "Please, let Daniel and I talk."
Nolan turned his irritation from Daniel to Emily. Her eyes were there before him, hinting at a need for privacy. He was sure he knew why.
"Oh, you want to talk to him, huh? Fine. Take all the time you need, I'm going for a drink."
The man slammed out of the house, leaving Emily and Daniel alone.
Hours later, Nolan scowled into his empty glass, muttering quietly to himself in the rustic security of the Stowaway. Jack had the day off, leaving Declan and Bull to manage. It was just as well, he had grown used to being alone and for all he knew, the house might be empty by the time he made it home.
"I don't know what he was thinking, coming to my house, and her? She asked me to leave so they could talk! I should've said no – no, Daniel cannot set foot in my house and no, I will not leave the two of you alone to talk. You think that's all they did was just talk?"
Declan was only half-listening to the older man's complaining, his attention mostly focused on the new waitress as she took orders from the booths on the far side of the bar. He liked Nolan, odd bird that he was, though he wasn't clear on what was bothering him, exactly. The man had stormed into the bar, taken a stool, ordered a stiff drink, then another and then several more, and he had only just started going on about Daniel Grayson and some girl.
Declan had enough manners not to ask Nolan outright, but he'd always thought that if anyone would be getting under his skin, it'd be another guy, not a girl. He shrugged the thought away, to each own.
"Come on, man, you need to calm down."
Nolan glanced up to the young man and then back to his drink, or what few drops remained of it in his glass. "Just calm down, like it's so easy. Dec, you can't understand it, I was close. This was all over and then he shows up and ruins everything. He is his parents, much more than Charlotte ever was."
Declan rolled his eyes, finally paying a bit of real attention at the mention of Charlotte. He hadn't had contact with her in months, but that didn't mean he didn't still care about her. She had been his first love.
"What're you talking about now?"
"More time, we just needed more time together and she would've left it all behind. But I saw it, I could see it in her eyes, she's right back where she started because she can't let it go. She won't. Not for me, not for herself." Nolan speared his fingers through his hair, wondering if it wasn't too late to have Emily shipped off to a deserted island somewhere far away from everything she'd ever known, somewhere far away from what remained of the Graysons and her vengeance.
"She's just addicted to this thing, it's sick. I need to put her in rehab. I could, you know. I am her next of kin."
Seeing that this was getting them nowehere, Declan moved the empty glass away from Nolan and refused him another drink, placing a cola before him instead. "You're a wreck, who're we talking about here?"
Nolan sighed heavily and took the soda without further complaint. "Oh, don't listen to me, Dec. I'm just yacking the day away." He reassured him and checked his watch. "I should get back. God, I hope she's still there."