#2
One week later Devi pulled up to the private airfield and wished she knew more about this secret mission her Dom was going on.
He’d told her the bare minimum.
They had a good shot at getting a bunch of information on some doctor guy they’d been checking out.
He was a bad guy according to Zach, and Aidan had an invite to his house because of some kind of medical conference, and they were all flying into Canada.
She parked the car and Zach turned to her, reaching for her hand and pulling it in both of his.
“I don’t want to go.”
Only a few days and she was in so damn deep. They’d spent pretty much every minute of the week together when he wasn’t working. While he was at the office, she worked on commissions. She had three right now, two corsets and a catsuit. Being with Zach, though, had inspired her, and she’d designed several fet wear costumes that would bring her Dom to his knees. She liked him on his knees. When he was there he usually had his face buried in her pussy.
“I don’t want you to go. I want to walk in there and tell my uncle he sucks because we haven’t even had a second night at The Hideout.”
He squeezed her hand.
“I promise when I get back we’re playing every night it’s open. You need to think about what kind of scenes you want.”
His voice went low and that tone went straight to her pussy.
“I want you to write down your darkest fantasies. Write them down and send them to me and I’ll make them happen, sweetness. All those dirty things you dream about, I’ll give them to you in a safe fashion. But I promise, it won’t feel safe.”
Yeah, she was pretty crazy about him. The L word was creeping into her brain.
“I should warn you that some of my fantasies are complex.”
He brought her hand to his lips.
“I can handle it, Devi. I can handle you.”
She was a lot.
Could be a lot.
She could be overly emotional and passionate when she thought she was right.
She pretty much mostly thought she was right and could be super stubborn about it.
How many times had someone told her she was too much? The only reason she wasn’t considered the Queen Bitch of her friends’ group was the fact that her cousin was in the group.
Kala often made her look good.
Zach liked Kala. Liked her. Liked complex women.
“I can handle you, too, you know. I can handle this. I’ll be okay without you, and I won’t ask questions when you come home. This is your work. Both my parents were military.”
“Not when they had you. You didn’t have to watch them leave. What if I get pulled from this assignment and deployed?”
“Then we have some decisions to make,”
she replied honestly.
“I would leave. I would see if Ian would hire me on at MT, and I would be here with you. I would let all the rest of it go and see the whole thing as fate.”
“Or I could go with you,”
she said quietly.
He shook his head.
“No. I want you to have the life you want. I don’t think you can find that on a base, and if I’m out in the field we wouldn’t even see each other. We’re lucky it’s all short-term assignments right now. If it gets worse, I’ll look into pulling that lever. If I hate leaving you right now, how am I going to feel in a couple of months?”
“You might be sick of me in a couple of months,”
she pointed out.
He leaned over and kissed her. “I won’t.”
She believed him. Zach Reed seemed to know what he wanted, and he wanted her.
“Well, I can give you something more to look forward to. I think when you get back you should come to dinner at my parents’ house.”
His lips spread in a slow smile.
“And we’ll introduce me as…”
“My boyfriend,”
she admitted.
“They can extrapolate the Dom part. It’s weird talking about the lifestyle with my parents.”
“Boyfriend is good.”
He kissed her again. “For now.”
He sighed and glanced down at the clock.
“I should go.”
She didn’t want him to go. She was like a love-struck teen, desperate to keep the object of her affection close. But she was a whole grown ass woman, so she sucked it up.
“We’re getting you a car when you get back. I talked to Kala about it and everything.”
He snorted.
“I’ll do as she says.”
He sobered slightly.
“You like double dating with them, right? I ask because I really like it, but we can slow play that if you want to.”
“I love it. I love watching them date when neither of them will admit they’re dating. It’s so weird. Are they like that in the field?”
He sighed.
“So much worse. Coop is useless because he can’t even pretend to flirt with anyone else. Huh, I guess that’s going to be hard for me now, too. I didn’t think about that.”
He was adorable.
She kind of loved that about him.
It was honestly hard to think of him as some scary spy who did in the bad guys. He was Zach. Sure, he could be a hardass Dom, but that was all about play.
When her cousins talked about Zach it was like he was some larger than life killing machine, and that just wasn’t Zach.
He was like her brother and her dad. Yes, they were military, but in a huggy, Golden Retriever way. She kissed him again.
“No flirting in the field. I like that rule. But seriously, you have to come to dinner. My mom wants to get to know you better. She likes you. She was the one who suggested—and I mean that in the Erin Taggart definition of the term—I haul your ass to family dinner. Her words, not mine.”
His grin amped up.
“I like her, too. Your mom is a legend. And I’m glad she married your dad because I’ve heard he makes a mean brisket.”
Oh, she was going to miss him.
“I’ll make sure he knows you’re looking forward to it.”
He opened the car door and got out, grabbing his bag from the backseat.
“Well, come on, sweetness. Let’s get this part over with.”
She was unaware there was another part. She looked at him through the open door.
“I thought I was just dropping you off. Aren’t we supposed to play this cool?”
He snorted and closed the door, jogging around to open hers.
“Kala knows. And we haven’t exactly been playing it cool with her and Coop. They know we’re serious, so everyone knows we’re serious. Although I don’t think your brother knows, so he might punch me. I can take it.”
She took the hand he offered her and grabbed her purse with the other.
“He will not punch you. But my uncle might be surprised I know you’re leaving on a classified op.”
Zach held her hand as she locked the car and then started to lead her toward the terminal.
“Then he shouldn’t have made this a whole family thing. Everyone knows. We’re the worst kept secret ever. Look, it might be different if your last name wasn’t Taggart, but I’m not going to pretend to keep things from you. Mostly. I mean, baby, you know…”
She waved him off.
“I do not need to know. If I needed to know my brother or my cousin would tell me, so I’m going to add you to that list. I’ll trust you to tell me the things that would affect me or us.”
He stopped in front of the doors to the lounge.
“I’m crazy about you, Devi. Don’t forget that while I’m gone.”
“Promise, and same to you,”
she said, her damn stupid heart so full. She was falling hard for this man. So hard.
She already pretty much loved him.
He guided her into the lounge. The overflowing with her family lounge. It wasn’t only the team. Uncle Sean was here, and so was Liam O’Donnell. She glanced over and her brother was half asleep on one of the benches, wrapped around Lou. Such a cute couple. She should have taken more pics of her and Zach. She had a couple of selfies, but looking at Lou and TJ she wanted a phone full of pics so she could remember him when he was working. She didn’t get to tag along like Lou.
Uncle Ian stared at them, his eyes narrowing. So neither her mom nor her cousin had told on them. It was a little surprising since they both were on the gossipy side.
“Dude, did you not get the not-a-family-reunion memo? You brought my niece to an Agency meeting? You know she’s not supposed to know who you work for.”
Zach’s arm tightened around her shoulders, and she leaned against him.
“Everyone knows, and every day with this team is a freaking family reunion. Devi gave me a ride.”
“I just wanted to say hi, and y’all go and get whatever bad guys need to be gotten.”
She could be the cheerleader. Go team spy.
Her uncle sighed, his head shaking.
“We’re leaving now. Zach, we’re going to have a talk.”
“I expected we would, sir.”
Zach turned to her and didn’t even hesitate. He leaned over and kissed her, lightly at first, and then like he was going to make her remember him while he was away.
When Devi came up for air, she remembered she was supposed to remind him. He’d done some work while he’d been at her place and mentioned he was worried about something.
“Hey, don’t forget you were going to warn them about the Tara person.”
Zach winced.
“Yeah, uhm, we’re going to have to be careful with the twins because Tara’s already in Montreal. I’m sorry, Tris. I just found out about it. Did she call you?”
Her cousin Carys looked to Tristan. “Tara?”
“She works as my technical assistant when I’m dealing with The Jester missions.”
Tris moved into her space, cupping Carys’s face.
“There’s no reason for any jealousy. She’s nothing but a woman I work with.”
“Oh, I wasn’t warning anyone because I was worried she would upset Carys.”
Zach’s hand moved over her waist as though he didn’t want to stop touching her.
“I’ve worked with them both for years. Nothing there but work. However, she doesn’t have clearance to know about the twins, so we need to be careful and make sure she’s not waiting at the airport to give us a briefing. She said she’s already met with CSIS, and they’re going to have an operative liaising while we’re in Canada.”
She did not understand the alphabet soup of intelligence agencies. When Zach, Coop, and Kala started in on shop talk, she usually let her mind drift or ended up sketching. At first it seemed to worry Zach and he tried to pull her back into the conversation, but the truth was she liked it. It had been a long time since she’d felt so inspired. She was working on a corset with wings. Like a fairy. Who was going to get hard railed by a hot Dom.
“It better not be Ben.”
Kenzie stood and sighed.
“Someone tell me when I have to hide. I hope she’s not there because I’ll have to hide in the stupid plane and get an Uber. A Canadian Uber.”
Kala started for the door to the terminal.
“Hey, if you get an Uber, you can stop at Tim Horton’s. Dad won’t let us. There’s an upside.”
Her cousins were a hoot.
“It’s only because they didn’t have lemon donuts the last time, and now Dad won’t forgive an entire country,”
Kenzie pointed out.
“But you’re right. I’ll totally grab some donuts. And maybe stop and get some crêpes. You know, now I see the advantages.”
Tasha huffed.
“Now she’s going to try to sight-see, and I’ll be the one who has to point out all the CCTV cameras and that other intelligence agencies also know how to use logic and technology. Mom, maybe I should stay and make sure Uncle Alex and Uncle Li don’t burn down the company.”
“I won’t burn anything down. You know I’ve been running this company for a long time while your parents gallivant around the world,”
Uncle Liam replied in his lyrical Irish accent.
“She’s trying to stay with Dare.”
Aunt Charlotte followed her daughters toward the door.
“He can’t go with us this time because he’s actually working and not using his job as a cover. It’s refreshing. Come along. TJ, wake up. Your sister’s being manhandled.”
“Am not.”
Though she totally felt Zach’s hand dangerously close to her ass. He might want to get one more squeeze in.
“I mean not in a way I’m not happy about.”
Her brother yawned as he straightened up.
“Is it time to go?”
His gaze shifted her way.
“Hey, sis. What are you doing here?”
She was going to throw her brother right into the fire. Everyone was moving into the terminal, but her brother stayed back.
“Dropping my boyfriend off.”
Lou elbowed TJ as she stretched and grabbed her bag.
“I told you I thought something was going on between them.”
“Dude, you know she’s my sister, right?”
TJ put the question to Zach.
“What is happening? I’m very confused. Dude takes one little nap…”
Devi broke away from Zach and moved in to hug her brother.
“I’m sure he’ll fill you in. And we’re going to have family dinner when you get back. All of us. The parents are excited about both of their kids being in stable relationships.”
Her brother hugged her back, but when he released her, his eyes were on Zach and there was all kinds of suspicions there.
“It can’t be too stable since I happen to know he wasn’t with you a couple of weeks ago when he…”
Nope. They were not going there. The terminal was empty with the exception of the four of them, and she shushed her brother.
“I don’t care about what he did before we got together. Go and take out the bad guys. I’ll see you when you get back.”
TJ leaned in, his voice going serious and low.
“Dev, we should talk about this. He’s… Do you know what he actually does? I’m not sure he’s telling us everything. I think he might be working for someone else.”
Who else would he be working for? Her cousins liked him. Her mom liked him. TJ was being overprotective.
“I’m good. I know everything I need to know. If you don’t like the fact that I’m dating one of your teammates, then you’ll have to get over it because I’m not going to leave him to make you more comfortable.”
TJ frowned and looked over to Lou, who was shaking her head like he was on his own here.
“I’m only trying to look out for you.”
Zach was quiet during the conversation, but she could practically feel his discomfort. Like he was on the outside and worried the door to that warm, nice place with all the food and love and fun was about to be slammed in his face and locked. She moved back to him, putting her hand in his and showing her support.
She loved her brother, but she wasn’t about to let him dictate who she saw and who she didn’t. He never had before, so this was a bit of a surprise.
Lou took her brother’s hand.
“How about we let them say good-bye and I’ll see if I can find you a snack. You know Aunt Charlotte always has the best snacks.”
TJ frowned Zach’s way.
“Yeah, I think I’ll need it since it looks like I’ll be having a conversation on this flight.”
They turned and walked away but only after Lou had thrown her a sympathetic look.
Zach winced.
“Well, it seemed to be going way too smoothly.”
She shook her head and went on her toes to kiss her gorgeous captain.
“My brother will get over it. Share a beer with him and tell him how much you like me and everything will be fine.”
She kissed him again and then watched him walk off.
It would be okay. A week or two and he would be back and they would move him into Coop’s and get him a car and start their lives.
She stood there until the plane took off, a weird feeling of anxiety in her gut.
She shook it off because it would all be okay.