Chapter 29
I was getting ready to jump from the moving SUV. Thad and Max had been droning on about football for the last two hours. Two. We still had four more hours to go.
Update, the topic had changed to basketball.
No less boring and I was still considering throwing myself out of the vehicle.
The only good news was, we only had an hour left of the drive.
Other than stopping on the side of the road to pee, yes, the side of the road, there were no restrooms in the middle of the desert, we hadn’t stopped.
I could’ve gone my whole life without having to drop trou next to a car full of hot men.
They, however, had no issue when nature called. They did their business with a smile.
There was one more good part about the drive. Brooks had put his arm around me and tucked me close. I’d dozed off a few times using him as a very hard, very muscular pillow. The ride gave me a lot of time to think. About Brooks, about my life, about where I was going when this mission was over.
There was no way I would be continuing my employment with The Company.
I wasn’t sure where I was supposed to send that particular resignation letter, but it would be short, very short, two words actually: Fuck Off.
Unprofessional, yes. Juvenile and beneath me, yes.
I’d considered a more professionally penned notice of my departure, but I figured a death threat was the best I could do and it would be no less-welcomed.
I’d also had time to finally start to process the hurricane that was Brooks Miller.
I’d come to a few frightening conclusions: I liked him and I had feelings for him that went beyond sexy fun times.
How in the world that had happened I had no idea.
It was insanity, but I couldn’t deny that when I felt his eyes land on me, my skin heated.
His touch overwhelmed me. When he spoke, I felt his words deep in my soul, they soothed my tattered heart.
Even though I’d come to the uncomfortable realization I was falling in love with a man, who may or may not want me for more than a roll in the hay, I still had no clue how I was supposed to proceed.
We were in the middle of an op, I was going to be jobless and homeless.
The last thing I should’ve been worried about was the way Brooks made me tingle.
I shouldn’t have been behaving like a giddy schoolgirl with her first crush.
And he shouldn’t have been flirting and asking me out on dates.
I wasn’t about to condemn him for the sex we’d had, even though that shouldn’t have happened, either.
I liked that part, and hoped before everything was over, I could convince him it needed to happen more.
There were a lot of shouldn’t haves swirling around in my head.
I cut my eyes to the handsome man sitting next to me and wondered what was stopping me.
He wasn’t James. Far from it. Even when James was trying to get me to go out with him, he never made me feel the way Brooks did.
They were night and day. My ex was a sweet talker, always trying to bullshit.
Brooks was straight with his words and honest with his reactions.
He’d never massaged the truth so I would like his answer.
I pushed all the red flags that were waving in front of me to the side and decided to throw caution to the wind.
I had to see where things would lead with Books.
If I didn’t let down the walls I’d built to protect myself, I’d regret it.
“Everything okay?” he asked.
“Yeah. Just thinkin’”
“Come to any conclusions?”
“A few.”
“Any of those conclusions gonna piss me off?” he asked then leaned in close. “Your death stare doesn’t work on me, Doll.”
Smug bastard.
“I know it doesn’t. You have yet to vanish in a puff of smoke.”
His face lit with humor. His hazel eyes danced with mirth. And finally his head tipped to the side and his laughter filled the SUV. Damn, he was hot. Looked even better when he was smiling.
“You’re funny.”
“I wasn’t trying to be.”
He was back to invading my space and whispered, “I don’t know about the smoke part, but when we’re together, you set me on fire.”
The eye roll was instinctive and immediate. “You should stop talking.”
“Why? You like my mouth.” His words were spoken against my skin and when his tongue came out and touched my skin I was reminded how right he was. I did like his mouth.
“You like my fingers, too.”
Okay. He had me there.
“But I think there are other parts on me you like more.”
What could I say? He was right.
“I think you may need a reminder.”
I didn’t argue when he told me I needed the reminder even though he was wrong.
I didn’t need one, but I wasn’t so stupid I’d turn down the offer.
The times we’d been together were forever woven into my memories.
Even if he walked away tomorrow, I’d never forget.
Not a single second of it. Not his mouth, not his fingers, not other parts of him.
But what I would remember the most was, how he’d given me back something huge.
A piece of myself I’d forgotten I possessed—courage.
He’d reminded me I was strong and brave.
I was smart and good at my job. He’d made me feel sexy, he didn’t care about my scars, he embraced them.
I was grateful for that, too. But nothing could trump him giving me back my self-worth.
With a masculine chuckle, he righted himself but kept his arm around me. I tried my best to curb the lust he’d built and went back to thinking about our day.
After one last briefing with Zane where he’d confirmed we were mission go, we headed to the meeting location Matek Nazari had been sent to.
The smug bastard had been sitting in the outside dining area of one of his favorite restaurants.
Kyle had taken the shot. I’d also learned that he was the best of the bunch with a long gun.
Though all the guys had bickered, he was only better by less than a fourth of an inch.
Which in some cases was the difference between a hit or a miss.
Kyle hadn’t missed, it was clean and precise, and Matek Nazari was dead.
I should’ve felt some relief that the man was no longer alive and able to send hitmen after me, but I wasn’t.
While extinguishing the scumbags of the planet was a necessary evil, I’d never rejoiced in it.
Though, once Al Issa was in the ground, I may feel differently.
I wanted him dead for personal reasons. They were biblical actually; an eye for an eye.
No, he hadn’t physically killed me, but a part of me had died while his men carved me up.
Kyle’s voice giving Declan directions to the house we’d be staying in pulled me from my thoughts of death and retribution.
“Are you fuckin’ sure about this?” Thad asked from the third row of seats where he and Max were sitting behind me.
“You handling nav, or am I? That’s right, I am . I got the GPS out, asshole.” Kyle’s outburst was dripping with sarcasm.
Good to know. Everyone was as cranky as I was from the world’s most boring road trip across the barren, sandy, desert. There weren’t even trees to look at. Nothing.
We passed a sign warning us there were only five kilometers until the Kuwaiti border crossing and Kyle spoke again, “Slow down, the dirt road is coming up in five hundred feet. Turn right.”
Declan found the road and slowed even more now that we were back onto a gravel road.
Maybe I should back up to the part of the day where travel routes were discussed, and clarify.
There was indeed a faster route from Al Qatif to the Raqa’i Port.
One that was full of paved interstates and places to stop and eat.
However, the team, much to my chagrin, chose the scenic desert route minus the scenery.
This was bumpy. It also added two hours to the already five-hour drive.
Seven hours sitting in a car had made me crabby, too.
I don’t think I’d ever been so happy to see a single level, tan colored, L-shaped…
hut? Maybe it could be called that. I wasn’t sure what defined a structure as a hut versus a house, but looking at the building, I was leaning toward hut.
Nothing about it screamed safe, however my ass was so numb and I had to pee again so I wasn’t going to suggest we call Zane Lewis and tell him the accommodations he’d provided sucked.
“We’re here,” Kyle unnecessarily announced.
Brooks shook his head and smiled. “Ready?”
“God, yes.”
If he didn’t hurry up and move out of my way, I was going to climb over him to exit.
“Eager, huh?” His eyebrows wiggled, and as childish as his statement was, I couldn’t help laughing.
Maybe I was delirious from the mind-numbing ride. Maybe I was eager to sample some more of his hot body and talented tongue. I wasn’t sure what I blamed my next move on, but I leaned toward him as he was exiting the car and kissed him square on the mouth in front of everyone.
Nothing like jumping in with both feet and a blindfold on. I prayed I knew what I was doing.