Chapter 2
TWO
CASEY
“Would you quit pouting?” Aiden murmured against my neck as I forced myself not to enjoy the bliss that was his heat and stubble rubbing against my skin.
I wasn’t even actually upset, but I had a bratty persona to follow through on, so the scowl on my face stayed put.
“It was a three-minute shower. There’s literally no way I could have washed my ass, let alone the rest of me, and finished in that time frame.
I’m not eighteen anymore. I can’t just come from the wind. ”
One of my eyebrows perked up.
He did have a point there.
I grumbled as I snuggled impossibly closer to him, even though it was his entire weight on top of me, rather than the other way around. “You know you’re only thirty-six, right? You act like you have the penis of a seventy-year-old some days. And even then, some of those old men could still get it.”
Slowly, he picked his head up to look at me, and I chortled at the expression on his face. “Sometimes, I truly forget who has the most daddy issues until you say stupid shit like that.”
“What? Take some testosterone and an ED pill. Right as rain. I’d fuck one.”
“We are not inviting a seventy-year-old man into this house.” Aiden deadpanned.
“Oh, c’mon. It could be fun! You don’t want to feel a wrinkly ball sack? Maybe even call him grandpa? Talk about a power dynamic, for sure.” I groaned as his head smacked down on my chest. Hard.
“No. Hardest of passes. It would just remind me of raisins, and I would rather croak before he could at that point.”
“That’s just disrespectful to grandpa,” I chided.
“Casey,” he groaned out slowly, shaking his head. I chuckled as I ran a hand down his back comfortingly. His muscles were tense—his posture was always on guard, even when he didn’t have to be. Almost like he was prepared for a masked gunman to walk through the door at any given point.
Granted, with our careers, it wouldn’t be too far of a stretch.
I was more than positive there were hits on us from other countries at this point.
It didn’t matter, though. We were contracted to the government to act as the boogeyman.
And while we were more skilled in hunting and tracking than the final blow, nothing could scare what has already been scared to death and back.
Aiden’s voice cut through my thoughts. “I can literally feel you thinking your brain away. It’s already made its way to the Midwest. It’s running as fast as Forrest Gump.”
“Yeahhhh,” I droned out as my hand continued rubbing the tension away from his back. “It’s been one of those kinds of days.”
“I thought you said you had a good day?”
“I did. You know how I get, though. That last mission fucked with me. It always gives me some more perspective.”
His response was dryer than the desert. “Any more perspective, and I’m gonna have to start calling you Gandalf.”
“Now look who’s bringing up old men.”
Once again, his head lifted, and our eyes collided. Though, this time, his gaze was laced with concern as he stared directly into my soul. The man knew me better than I knew myself, and as endearing as it was, it was also utterly annoying.
“I’m okay. I promise. They just…” I scrubbed at my face tiredly. “There were kids. You saw them. You’d think it would get easier—the missions, the shit we see—but when they go after innocent children, it hits harder.”
“I know, baby.”
“How do you manage it so well?” I asked.
It was the one thing I always admired about the man above me.
His call sign was Wolfe in the field because he was an elite tracker and hunter. But after knowing him for so long, I thought it fit his strength more than his skill.
Always the leader.
Even when he saw the horrors of his own men firsthand.
He shrugged. “Nothing can hurt me as much as my dad used to. Not only did he hurt me, but he hurt Rosie and Caleb, too. And I had to watch it all. I grew up knowing that evil existed in this world far before I got into international affairs, pretty boy.”
I knew his answer.
I knew him.
That didn’t stop the pang in my heart, though.
Aiden continued as he laid back down on me.
Who would have known that the 6′4 muscular giant was such a snuggler?
“Let’s get off this subject. How about instead you tell me why the hell you signed us up for a kink app—of all apps—on a work email address?
I’m not letting that one go, Wraithe. You’re lucky I unsubscribed from the marketing and updates shit as soon as I saw it. ”
That question made my face scrunch up sheepishly.
Okay, so it was a very bad decision on my part. I could have used any other email address. Using a government one was definitely out of pocket.
But…“It got your attention, did it not?”
He grunted. “Obviously.”
Picking my head up, I wiggled away enough to grab my phone off the nightstand—nearly impossible due to the two-hundred-something-pound man on top of me, but I persevered.
Once it was in my hand, I quickly unlocked the phone, opened the app, and handed it to him.
“It’s called Preyless. I found it on a random forum. ”
“I saw that much. Why do we have it? And on the work email?”
I groaned. “I’m getting there!”
“Speed it up, grandpa lover.”
My eyes rolled petulantly. I already knew he was never going to let that one go.
“Well, we’ve been talking about adding in a third for months now, yeah?
And obviously, all of the dating apps are an absolutely horrendous way to go.
You’re too grrrrr, imma eat you, and I’m too play with my hair for the rest of eternity.
No girl is going to want us there. In fact, with us being military men on top of that, they will probably call the police on us. ”
“…okay,” he said with his face pinched as he started scrolling through the app.
I had to swallow my laugh.
Oh, how I found myself hilarious. Even if he didn’t.
We already knew that unless you were a barrack bunny, you probably didn’t actually like military men. The abusive assholes gave all of us a shitty reputation.
But if you happened to like certain kinks…it worked out.
I continued. “So, I present to you, Preyless. An app dedicated to the darker side of kinks, or so it is advertised. Similar to that one BDSM website we were on once upon a time. But… less forum-y. There’s not as many help columns or things on this one.
It’s actually meant to connect you with others who know what they want. ”
“Alright. So, you’re hoping that we find our dream girl on a fetish app. I gotta hand it to you—that is a new one. And here I thought you couldn’t surprise me anymore after six years.”
I smiled cheekily. “Well, even if we did join Finder, they would run for the hills the second they found out that you wanted to chase them through the woods and breed them in the mud.”
He scoffed, indignant. “You don’t know that!”
“I guarantee you they would point out the logistics of fucking in mud and how it would probably give them a UTI.”
“We have a doctor on base. It’s fine,” he grumbled again.
“Okay, whatever. So, let’s say that all the cards fall in order, somehow, and we find our dream girl.
What then? We’re not looking for a threesome—we’re looking for a third.
Nothing less. Shouldn’t we try some polyamorous websites or something first? ”
I raised one of my arms and laid it behind my head.
I watched with humor and cockiness as his eyes drifted away from my phone to my arms, and I had the sneaking suspicion that he was going to bite the shit out of me soon.
I started again before he could have the chance to bruise me.
“I thought about that. Until I started scrolling…and I found someone.”
His eyes snapped to mine in shock, biceps forgotten. “What?! You found someone? Already?”
“I did. I haven’t messaged her yet, obviously. I wasn’t going to do anything without your approval—”
“Except masturbate.”
“Oh, get over it! I didn’t even do it. I was just trying to get under your skin.” An awkward silence filled the air before I coughed and continued. I was going to get bruised from that outburst and bratty fib alone. “...but I think she could be a good fit for us, based on her profile.”
He stared at me, analyzing.
I stared back at him plainly.
I meant every damn word.
He handed me the phone. “Alright. Show her to me.”
“Yeah?”
“I want to see what you’re talking about. Then we’ll see if it’s something to proceed with.”
A genuine smile lit my features, and for the first time all day, I saw Aiden visibly relax.
It only made me happier.
I wanted to tell him I loved him, but I didn’t even have a chance to before his mouth was on mine, my phone now pinned between our chests.
I groaned loudly as his tongue prodded at my mouth, and his own groan reverberated through me as our tongues swiped at each other. I moved my arms fast, clutching his head and raking my hands through his hair.
He pulled away after mere moments, and I all but whined at the loss of contact.
I needed more.
“What do you want, Wraithe?”
My answer was immediate. “You.”
“Me? Or her?”
I blinked at him. That was an unexpected question, and frankly, an unfair one when the only thoughts rolling around through my brain were getting his hands back on me. “I don’t know her yet. We don't know her.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
Realization started running through me as my heart began beating far too fast.
That wasn’t the general caveman tone he was filled with when he had any sense of jealousy. Instead, that was the tone he used when he wanted something he didn’t know he could have. Something that he thought was impossible.
A chance.
My head quirked to the side as I grabbed his chin with my thumb and pointer finger. I wanted him to genuinely hear my next words as our eyes focused on each other. “I want us. And if that us happens to include a girl who seems to have even more issues than we do…then so be it.”
He leaned down to kiss me again. His mouth was gentle and sweet compared to the rough and feverish tone from mere moments ago.
After a few minutes, with the both of us panting and filled with need, he rested his head against my own affectionately and rubbed my thigh with his hand. “Show me our girl.”
I chuckled. “Already possessive over her, are we?”
“What’s mine is mine. Including you.”