Chapter 33 #2
“No!” Charlie answers instantly. Realization dawns across her face. “Wait, do you think he followed me to my house before? Do you think he broke in?”
I did extra training when I began working at FIRE to be able to tell if someone is lying. Charlie is telling the truth. I’m still too mad to try to help quell her rising panic. I exhale and glare at her again.
“Dammit, Ross! I cannot believe you didn’t catch this sooner!” I run my hand through my hair. I want to throw something else. To break something. It doesn’t matter that I trusted Charlie, because she was unknowingly passing information.
“Sorry I’m not an expert in evasive spy techniques or whatever you’d call it.” Charlie crosses her arms, defensive. The sea breeze is whipping her hair about, the dark strands swirl around her face.
“A strange guy pops up multiple times and you don’t think it’s weird?” I ask.
“It’s not exactly a stretch to think a guy is genuinely interested in me.” Her mood has shifted; I’ve hit a nerve. Charlie’s face grows red as she speaks. “I thought at worst he was hitting on me, at best maybe I could make a new friend in a new city.”
“Did you kiss him?” This has nothing to do with any compromised information and everything to do with what I’m feeling right now, the jealousy bubbling inside me. But I need to know.
Charlie gives me a firm answer. “No.”
“Did he touch you?” I picture the worst things my heart could imagine. I need to get all of this out, like poison from a snake bite.
“No,” she says calmly.
“So, what, was this a date?”
“Declan, I’m still in my work clothes!” Charlie says but doesn’t answer my question.
“Was this a date?” I’m grateful the beach is relatively empty because our voices are loud. To anyone who could hear us, we sound like a couple having a fight.
“Just because YOU have a no-dating rule doesn’t mean I have to have one,” Charlie spits at me.
I shake my head. How could I have been so dumb to think for a second that I had a chance with Charlie? To have let myself catch feelings for her? To not act sooner? “So it was a date,” I say, and it isn’t a question; I can’t even look at her right now.
“Why do you care? You have your ‘no relationship’ rule.” There is a clip to her voice that catches my attention. I glance at her and her blue eyes brim with tears before she lets out a sigh and blinks them away. “And then you kiss me! And you say nothing about it!”
I wait for her to say more. Will her to say what I am longing to hear. That she wanted to be out with me instead. That she wants me.
Charlie glances over at me before focusing her gaze on the water. She lets out a deep exhale and covers her face, hiding her emotions. She shakes her head and crosses her arms. “Whatever. It was for our cover, right?” She snaps her lips shut, forcing herself to stop talking.
I take a step closer to her, then another. I cross the distance between us.
Charlie fidgets, looking every way but mine.
Once I’m next to her, I reach out and touch her arm.
She lets out a small gasp and I swear it takes everything in me not to lift her up and pull her close.
She glances up at me, and I recognize the look in her eyes before her focus darts to the sand at her feet.
She wants me to say it, to say that I wanted to be with her.
At least, I hope that’s what I’m reading.
Because if not, I’m about to embarrass myself.
“That’s how it started,” I say, and I move my hand from her arm to her chin. I wait until she looks up at me. Once her cobalt eyes are trained on me, I tell her, “That’s not how it ended.”
I look at her mouth, slightly parted and perfect.
I take a deep inhale and take my chance.
I close the space between our mouths and take my opportunity to hold the woman I’ve been fantasizing about all week.
As our lips touch, I pull her close. Her body relaxes against mine; she leans into me with her whole being.
The sea breeze is pelting us, spinning around us.
I can’t get enough of this woman. I let my hands move from her shoulders to her lower back.
She presses herself closer to me. One motion of her hips that tells me everything I need to know.
She wants this too. In a brief second, when our lips are not touching, she lets out the sweetest moan that sends my mind racing.
What other sounds can I bring forth from her?
If we stay on this beach until dark, can I lay her down on that towel and get her to release every passionate sound in her?
I harden at the thoughts running through my mind.
Of me and Charlie and our bodies connecting.
My hips vibrate as my phone rings and for a second I think of our inappropriate conversation the other day. I break our kiss and give her a devilish grin. Her blue eyes are staring up at me, then she bites her lower lip and I’m about to claim her mouth once more.
“Declan,” she breathes.
How I long to hear her call my name out loud, uncontrollably.
“Charlie.” I smile and press my lips to hers.
To my surprise, she breaks our kiss and says my name again. “Declan,” she utters, and places her hands on my chest, a little pressure to push me a half-inch away from her. My blood is still racing, wanting more.
“Your phone,” she says, and I realize the buzzing in my pocket is still happening. Her lips are slightly swollen and her face red. It is the sexiest look on her. I want to chuck this phone in the water too, but instead I check the caller ID.
It’s Oliver.
My libido is doused in cold water. “Davidson,” I say as an answer, grateful the sea breeze is likely muffling my voice so he can’t hear how husky it is.
Charlie is eyeing me, and her coy smile dissipates when I say, “Yes, she’s with me. We’ll come back to the office now.”
She grabs her bag and shakes out the towel as I finish my brief conversation with Oliver, assuring him we’ll be there as soon as possible.
We walk back to the SUV together and I open the passenger door for her.
I’m desperate for answers. I want so badly to find these weapons and put a stop to the Order.
But right now all I can think about is getting this information exchange over with in the hopes that Charlie and I might continue the conversation our bodies were just having.