Chapter 12 #2
“You’re right. It’s not. I’m just trying to say…
I understand sacrifice. Asking Kinley to consider WITSEC isn’t high on my list of fun things to do.
” Cruz then reached into his pocket and pulled out a business card.
He placed it on the table in front of Kinley.
“If anything comes up, no matter how inconsequential you think it might be, that’s my contact info. You have a burner phone?”
“Yes,” Gage answered for her.
“Good. It’s probably best not to get a new cell in your own name for now. You’ve done a good job of staying under the radar, but with all the texts and emails Lefty sent you before you got here, if someone hacks into your accounts, they’ll assume he has a connection to you.”
Kinley had been afraid of that. “But I didn’t answer him.”
“True. But that doesn’t mean someone won’t come looking for him to see if he’s had contact with you. It’s another danger of staying here with him.”
Kinley ground her teeth together. She’d known coming to Gage could be dangerous for him, but she trusted him to keep them both safe. Anything else was too difficult to contemplate.
When neither Kinley nor Gage commented, Cruz stood, and Gage and Kinley followed suit.
They all walked to the front door together. Cruz reached for one of her hands and squeezed it gently. “For the record, I think what you’re doing is amazing. It’s not easy to stand up to bullies. And from the little I know about Stryker, he’s definitely a bully. I’ll be in touch soon.”
She nodded and thanked him again for coming all the way up to Killeen. Then he was gone, and Gage had shut the door behind him.
Jerking in surprise when Gage abruptly grabbed her hand and started towing her back into the apartment, Kinley couldn’t do anything but stumble along behind him.
He sat on the end of the couch and tugged on her hand. Kinley landed on his lap. One hand went behind her neck to hold her in place, the other clamped over her legs.
“I can keep you safe,” he growled.
Instead of being scared of him, or irritated at the way he was manhandling her, Kinley felt her nipples peak in excitement and she got wet between her legs.
No one had ever dared treat her this way before.
They either kept their distance because they thought she was strange, or they barely touched her.
Gage was handling her as if it was his right. As if touching her was a normal part of their relationship…which she realized it kind of was. He’d touched her more than anyone ever had before.
From the time she could remember, she’d always been on the outside looking in when it came to affection. She didn’t really get kisses or hugs from her foster parents. And the older she got, the fewer the rare affectionate touches.
Some people would be pissed if they were dragged down a hall and forced to sit on someone’s lap. They’d really be upset if they were held in a grip so firm, they had no choice but to look into the extremely emotional face of the person holding them so tightly.
Maybe Kinley was more messed up than she realized, because she liked the way Gage was holding her.
She liked it a lot. It was forceful, but not painful in the least. It reminded her of how he held her in bed; of how, even asleep, he held her close, as if he’d never let anyone snatch her away from him.
She held onto his biceps with one hand, the other clenching a handful of T-shirt at his side.
“Did you hear me, Kinley?” he asked. “I can keep you safe.”
“I know,” she told him.
“Do you?”
She nodded as best she could with his hand holding her nape. “But Cruz was right, you can’t be with me all day, every day. You have a job. You’re gonna get called to go sooner or later.”
She could tell he wasn’t sure what to say to argue that point. A muscle in his jaw ticked as he stared at her.
Feeling bolder and more feminine than she’d ever felt in her life, Kinley moved a hand up to his cheek. “I knew when I saw that news show about that murdered girl that my life had changed. I just didn’t know it would lead me to you.”
Her words did what she hoped, lessened a lot of the torture she saw in his eyes. “I can’t lose you when I just found you,” he said softly.
Kinley’s throat closed up, and she couldn’t respond if her life depended on it. She’d told this man over and over that she was nothing special. She had no idea what in the world he saw in her that no one else in her entire life had. But she felt the same way about him.
“We aren’t making any decisions right this second,” she said when she’d gained her composure. “The FBI might decide what I saw was nothing. That there’s no way Stryker can be a killer. I might’ve imagined someone pushing me; I wasn’t exactly in a good frame of mind after being fired.”
“You saw what you saw,” Gage said firmly. “Don’t downplay it. And if you said you were pushed, you were pushed. I’m not a big believer of coincidence,” he told her. “The timing for everything that happened is just too perfect.”
That’s exactly what Kinley believed as well. It felt good to hear him validate her thoughts.
“I don’t want you going into WITSEC,” he said after a moment.
“Everything in me rebels against it. You’d be on your own, and whoever is after you could still find you, making you a sitting duck.
At least here with me, you’ve got friends and people who have your back.
It’s not ideal, I know that, but I can talk to Ghost, a friend of mine who used to be on another Delta team.
He’s still in the Army, but he and his team retired from Delta.
They can help keep you safe when I’m deployed. ”
Kinley didn’t want to be pawned off on someone else, but at the same time, Gage was trying to think of anything he could do to keep her safe when he wasn’t around. How could she not appreciate that?
Without thought, Kinley leaned forward and touched her lips to Gage’s.
She stilled when she heard him growl.
For a second, she thought she’d gone too far, overstepped her bounds. But when she tried to pull back, the hand on the back of her neck tightened, and he held her in place. Gage’s lips opened under hers, and he tilted his head, giving them both a better angle.
With her hand still on his cheek, and his at her nape, she couldn’t help but feel surrounded by Gage.
His kiss was nothing like she’d ever experienced before. She’d kissed other men, more out of curiosity as to what the fuss was about than anything else. But nothing prepared her for the rush of feelings that coursed through her body when Gage’s tongue slipped past her lips and joined with hers.
Kinley gripped his shirt even tighter and leaned into him, wanting more. And Gage gladly gave her exactly what she needed.
How long they sat on his couch and made out, she had no idea, but when he finally pulled back, Kinley moaned and tried to follow his lips. She didn’t want to stop. Didn’t ever want to stop.
“Kins,” he whispered. “As much as I love this, we have to stop.”
She opened her eyes and saw he was inches from her face. His pupils were huge and his lips were pink and slightly swollen. She imagined she probably looked the same way.
She whimpered.
The smile that spread across his face was almost enough to make her okay with him stopping their kiss. Almost.
“I know, believe me, I don’t want to stop either.”
“Then why are we?” she whined.
He leaned forward and kissed her forehead before saying, “Because if I don’t stop now, I’m going to end up taking you right here on this couch.”
“And that’s bad because…?” she asked.
“Because your first time will not be on my couch, right after a hard morning talking with the FBI about putting a serial killer behind bars,” he said firmly.
Kinley could only stare at him. She’d known Gage was a good man. How could she not? But the more time she spent with him, the more she realized just how amazing he really was. “Most men wouldn’t care,” she blurted.
“I’m not most men,” he retorted without missing a beat.
“I know. You’re the kind of man who worries about a woman he’s never met who walked into danger even though she didn’t know it at the time.
You’re the kind of man who keeps his word, even if the woman he’s trying to communicate with doesn’t.
The kind who would welcome a sick woman into his apartment and take care of her for two days, even when she’s out of her mind with fever and pukes all over the place.
You’re the kind who would give up your bed to said woman even when she’s not sick anymore.
And you’re the kind of man who sees something in me no one has ever seen before. ”
“No,” he said with a shake of his head. “I’m the kind of man who has no idea what the fuck is wrong with every other guy in the world who’s ever met you…and who’s staking his claim.”
“Is that what you’re doing?”
“Yes,” he said firmly. “I want to date you, Kinley. I want us to be exclusive.”
She chuckled a bit at that. “Gage, it’s not as if there are any other guys who’re remotely interested in going out with me.”
“Good,” he said succinctly. “I know this is out of the ordinary,” he went on.
“I mean, we’re living together, but I don’t want to take advantage of you.
I want to continue to get to know you. Watch movies, cook, read…
and this is one of the stranger things about our arrangement, but I want to continue to go to sleep with you in my arms and wake up to you in the mornings. ”
His hand was still on her neck, but he’d loosened his hold, and his thumb was caressing the sensitive skin on her nape, making goose bumps break out all over. “I’m afraid the longer you spend time with me, the more you’ll realize that I wasn’t lying about being weird,” she said.