The Sleeping Arrangements

"Damn you, Kenton." Joanette glared at her partner for the sixth time since they'd been put in their shared bedroom. The agent simply grinned at her from where he was lounging on the king sized bed, hands weaved behind his head in a most casual manner.

"What, are you nervous?" He bat his eyelashes at her, and Joanette had to resist throwing something at his stupid face. "I know I'm good looking, but you don't have to be afraid of sleeping with me."

Her expression darkened even more. At that moment, Joanette wished she'd stuck to a desk job rather than being a field agent. Surely being in an office all day as an analyst was less stressful than this.

"I'm going to pretend you didn't say anything at all." She pointed a bottle of lotion at him from where she was sitting, applying the cream to her body. "You say too many stupid things to be considered a functioning being."

"Ouch." He watched her, the flex of her endless legs as she stood up and the power in her stride. Ken couldn't help but be impressed by his partner most of the time. They'd been together for years, since she was twenty and he twenty-two, and he was still impressed by her.

Joanette Bordeaux was not a woman to be trifled with. He'd sported enough bruises in his lifetime to know that personally.

She crawled onto her side of the bed, a thoughtful expression on her face as she kneeled to pull her hair back into a loose braid.

"What?" He pushed up on his elbows, watching her eyes sharpen back into focus.

"I'm wondering who Saverio could be allied with to be doing this now." Joanette shifted in her oversized tee, pulling herself under the covers and turning to face Ken. "Do you remember when we were still new at the Agency? That night Jean-Louis sent in a report of what had happened at the grand opening of the Letter M?"

Ken nodded, observing her face closely. "Katarina and her allies killed his allies."

"All of them." It was a massacre, there was no other way to describe it. "They broke code, waited until everyone was gathered at a truce event and struck. Saverio lost his entire army in one night."

"What's your point?"

"Where did he get more?"

Kenton paused to think. That night, the heads of the Chinese mafia and their heirs were all killed. If there had been any more left, he was sure one of the western mafias would've found and eliminated them immediately. Joanette was right in that it didn't make sense where he would find more allies, especially considering that the crime groups of Oceania were allied with the Spanish mob.

Unless there was a traitor.

"Oh, fuck."

"Exactly." She reached for her cellphone on the bedside table. "We need to speak to my cousin."

"This just became so much more complicated." Ken flopped back down on his back, blinking up at the ceiling. Prosthetics removed, he sported a bare face to bed, as did his partner.

"Or exciting." Joanette had been waiting for some action. She was going stir crazy in Hollywood. "Don't hog the blankets."

"I don't hog the blankets." He scowled at her, shifting his own body under the covers. His powerful muscles strained under his t-shirt, flexing with each movement, both abnormally, large and just perfect for his height.

"You <i>always</i> hog the blankets." She scowled right back. "The second you start, I'm kicking you off the bed."

"It's a king sized bed, Joanette, I'm sure you'll live." A wicked grin spread over his face then. "Besides, if you get cold, we can always cuddle again."

"That was one time and we were literally freezing to death." And even then, Joanette had insisted that she preferred the hypothermia. If Ken hadn't hugged her anyway, they would've most likely died.

The fuckface laughed at her, turning off the lamp on his side and burrowing under the sheets to sleep. Joanette turned back to her phone, texting her father minor things about their arrival to the DiBiancci palazzo.

Alistair wanted to know every single detail of what had happened since they'd reached Sicily, the nosy bastard. He couldn't even wait until the end of the week when their official report was going to be sent in.

Typical Alistair, thinking the rules don't apply to him.

Joanette rolled her eyes at her father's ridiculousness and turned off her phone, curling up on the comfortable bed.

Seriously, anyone could've told her that the mattress was a cloud and she would've believed them. She made a mental note to ask Marco where he bought his beds from later.