Epilogue
Two Years Later
“Reno, get your ass out of that fucking tree before your dumb ass gets hit by fucking lightning!” I snarled up through the boughs of the tree as it swayed heavily with the wind, the thick scent of rain in the air.
“I just need a couple of samples to make sure this isn’t an infection and—”
“Now! Or I’m calling Jake over to shake the tree and get you out.”
“Then I would fall and break something.”
“But you wouldn’t be climbing trees anytime soon, now would you?”
He thought about that for a moment. “Fine, but I hope this is enough or—”
Which was when I stopped listening because I knew the idiot wasn’t going to get out of the tree until he got whatever samples he apparently needed.
I had been warned, back when I brought Mika and Reno onto the team, that having scientists around would be a test of my nerves.
I’d thought, hey, how bad could a couple of eggheads be?
Bad enough to get on my nerves, that was for sure.
“Jake,” I barked into the bay doors. “Go get Reno out of that tree. If I don’t see him on solid ground within the next three minutes, I’m getting Colin out here, and you know how that’s going to go.”
Jake gave his same, stupid grin and jogged past me. “Reno! They’re gonna get the Doc if you don’t get down!”
How sad was it that my boyfriend was scarier than me? When the fuck did that even happen?
“Don’t start,” I jabbed a finger at Trevor, who was smirking at me as he stayed partially buried in the front of one of our trucks. Not enough that I couldn’t see him smirking.
I wasn’t buying his innocent look, but I kept walking, knowing well enough to pick my battles as I walked back into the main building.
“I understand, Cait,” I heard Colin saying in his ‘I’m trying to be patient, but you’re testing that patience,’ voice that was a warning to everyone, including me…
except for one person. The one he was talking to.
“But you don’t get to give Xander hell for not taking his meds when you’re not doing the same.
You’re not following any part of the lifestyle recommendations. ”
“They’re bullshit,” she said stiffly.
“Hypocrite.”
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me,” he said. “You’re a hypocrite. Aren’t you?”
“Who do you think you’re talking to?”
“I’m not Colin right now, Cait. Remember that,” he said, and I waited to see who was going to win the battle of wills. I thought I knew, but that was literally because he was playing Doc right then, and not Colin…as he’d said.
I heard pills rattle in a bottle. “Fine. But don’t think I’ll forget this.”
“Don’t forget your medication, and I won’t complain about any grudge you hold,” he said and stepped out of her office. His pale cheeks were flushed, a product of butting heads with Cait, but they made the freckles stand out in sharp contrast.
I caught him before he could walk away. His eyes went wide, but then a smile crossed his face as I pinned him against the wall. Cait was still muttering in her office, used to odd sounds in the place before she shut down and the music went on again.
“Done terrorizing the boys?” he asked in a low voice as I pushed my knee between his legs, using my hip to hold him in place.
“Done courting death?” I asked him, pressing my face into his neck and kissing it.
We’d both been busy for a couple of days, and while I had seen him a couple of hours before, he had been preoccupied.
It was the first time in the past forty-eight hours that I could remember seeing him free of worries or duties.
And if there were any worries, he was forgetting about them as I pressed close.
He was just as easy as he had been a couple of years ago.
A little force, maybe some growling, and he molded to my will.
Then again, after two years, all he had to do was flash those sunlit eyes at me and I was grumbling, bitching, and doing exactly what he wanted.
It was a give and take sort of thing, and right then I was sorely tempted to give him all I knew he could take.
“For the moment,” he said, wriggling against me. “Now…what exactly are you courting?”
“You,” I said, grinding on him.
“You know they’re going to come in here anytime; you really want to scar them?” he asked, sounding completely unconcerned by the idea. “Again.”
“That was their fault,” I said.
“You were the one who insisted I had to jerk off in the showers for you, the communal one,” he mused. “I presented the idea a few times, and you were all over it.”
“At least it was just Jake,” I said with a shrug. “That idiot is immune to being psychologically traumatized, I swear.”
“I don’t know about all that,” he said with a snort. “But he certainly wasn’t afraid to tell everyone what he saw. So maybe, just maybe, we shouldn’t court another two weeks' worth of bad jokes about dropping the soap.”
“Ugh, fine,” I said with a grumble. “Finish what you’re doing so we can get to the cabin. Maybe we’ll get a quiet night, and I can have you all to myself.”
“Now there’s a promise I can look forward to,” he said with a wink and walked off.
I watched him go, tilting my head to the side to watch his ass. Two years and that thing still hadn’t quit.
Someone cleared their throat, and I saw Carter watching me as he popped chips into his mouth. “What?”
“Perv,” he said with a grin.
“You really want to play stupid games?” I asked him.
“You know, no one wanted to be brave or stupid enough to say it, but you’re a lot less scary since the power of love softened that icy black heart of yours,” he said and when I glared, he wiggled his hand back and forth. “A little scary, but to be honest, Big Boss, love looks good on you.”
“Fuck off,” I told him.
He snickered and walked into the rec room. “Move your ass over, Mav, fucking fat ass, why do you always have to take up the whole couch with your…ow!”
“Idiots,” I muttered, but there was a warmth there too.
I was in love. Crazy, madly, insanely, psychotically in love.
After the disaster that had been my first marriage, I had honestly believed love wasn’t something I needed to play with again.
Then some smart-mouth medic came strolling onto the property…
at my approval, got on my nerves, got into my pants, and it felt like my heart was wrapped around him more than I was wrapped around his little finger.
I didn’t know if I wanted to get married again.
I had once thought I was too jaded to fall in love again, so maybe I could change my mind about marriage too.
Truth was, if he had asked me, I would have proposed within the week.
It had been two years, and yet I still looked forward to those moments where we could just be ourselves together.
Where I could curl up with one of the slowly growing collection of repeated books while he lay on my stomach and simply breathed.
Or how I could sit there after a long week and look up to see him come out of the shower, steam curling everywhere, and find my worries disappear when he gave me that bright smile of his… right before I dragged him into my lap.
Waking up with him was still wonderful…most of the time.
It turned out that despite being smaller than me; he required more space in our bed.
I wasn’t sure how that worked. He swore it was a medical necessity, but I didn’t think it was required to spread out and have his hand slapped over my face just to be comfortable.
Just like it wasn’t necessary for him to jiggle his leg sometimes when quiet was what I wanted, and I didn’t think it was possible to eat popcorn annoyingly, and yet he managed it.
He was barely out of the door when I caught him again, and he laughed when I yanked him against me. “I have paperwork!”
“There’s a laptop; you can do it on the bed.”
“And why would I do it on the bed when your desk is right there?”
“Because you might not want to sit on anything too firm for the next few hours.”
His eyes lit up. “Promise?”
“Now, aren’t we supposed to be careful about promises? Maybe I’ll take it slow instead and just leave your legs wobbly instead of your ass being sore,” I growled as I nipped his jaw.
The first rain fell, heavy and noisy, as I heard Jake swearing something I didn’t think was right for public consumption to Reno if he just got out of the tree right then.
“Love me?” Colin asked.
“Promise,” I said, because it was the easiest one to make.
“Then let’s go, Big Boss,” he said, and I was helpless to do anything but follow.