Hatched

Chapter Thirty-Three

July 3nd, 2021

1300 hours

"Shit!" Garcia swore, interrupting the silence of the office.

Robyn startled, the sudden movement causing her hands to lose their grip on the file she had been studying. It fell to the floor, papers scattering in a jumbled pile.

"Damn it, Garcia!" She cursed right back, glaring at the lieutenant as she bent over to retrieve the mess. She grumbled discontentedly as she shuffled them back into numerical order.

Her back tweaked with the tell-tale ache of a body that had been in one position for far too long. Her legs had long ago lost feeling from lack of circulation. She stretched achily, noting that Quinn's eyes casually roved her form as she did. A sudden, incensed desire to stir the pot hit her, and she slowly bent over, carefully retrieving the last piece of paper from the file, careful to accentuate the movements of her bottom and thighs as she did.

Really, she'd just wanted to taunt him, but when she looked up, and caught the intense desire reflecting in his eyes, turning them a dark, coal color, she paused, frozen, heart pounding wildly as his gaze penetrated her core.

"Fuck this shit." Garcia swore again, rubbing his eyes and slamming the file down on the desk. Robyn jumped, startled, and quickly shoved her file together. "I'm too tired to comprehend any of this." Garcia groaned, rubbing his eyes.

"I second that." Robyn whispered, placing her file on top of his. Besides the brief, sexually primed look she'd shared with Quinn, she had previously read the same sentence for ten minutes, trying not to doze off in the stifling room. "This won't do us any good. We're all reading different material. Unless we read every file, none of us will know our head from our ass."

"That will take entirely too long." Quinn nodded; eyes distant. Robyn had spent enough time with him to know that his mind was whirring in a far-off realm of thought, and briefly wondered what was on his mind.

"Do you have a dry erase board or something?" Robyn ventured, hoping the answer was yes.

"No, I don't." Quinn answered in a wafting tone, clearly more lost in his own thoughts than she initially realized.

"Typical." Garcia voiced in a gravely, unused voice. "I'm done here."

Quinn jerked out of his reverie, eyes narrowing dangerously. "No, you most certainly are not." He bit out coldly. "Pick up that file." The command was laced with disdain.

"Quinn," Robyn began softly, reaching over to brush her palm on his arm "we can't gain any ground like this." She trained her blue eyes directly into his stormy ones, trying not to get swept away in the current that rolled into her stomach. Her whole body felt a like a shock of electricity as he roughly placed a firm hand over hers, removing it from his arm. He didn't dismiss it, but rather held it in his larger hand. Robyn's palm burned with unbridled expectation.

An unspoken understanding passed between them, during which Robyn refused to back down. Those gray eyes searched hers, probing, burning with intense passion. She could see the drive in them, the desire to discover a breakthrough. Finally, he tipped his head, bringing her hand to his lips and leaving a chaste, chivalrous kiss on the back of it.

"I will send Gordon to procure a dry erase board." He caved, grinning slightly as he released her hand. It tingled where his lips contacted her skin.

"Bloody wonderful." Gordon scowled, snapping his file shut. It was placed with the others, and soon everyone followed suit.

"Shepp," Quinn ordered, turning to his other agent "please stay here and guard these files with your life."

"Yes boss." Shepp's response was more civil than Gordon's, though still laced with a hint of defiance.