12. Ari
12
ARI
T hree days until D-day. Three days until we were going to be tested.
Hell, that wasn’t true; we were being tested now. Had been since we’d met with Reaper. We’d spent the last three days acting in love. Spa days, exploring museums, restaurants. The funny part was, Damon fully took to his role. He was cultured, well-traveled. Knowledgeable about art. Charming, funny, and easy to be with.
And then every night, away from prying eyes, we’d been drilling the schematics and plans.
I was doing a final check of everything—running through the maps, the schematics, our options—making sure I’d memorized it all. I liked to sit in the dark and mentally walk myself through the plan.
A knock sounded on the door. I tried not to be irritated, because, after all, how was he supposed to know that I needed silence to work?
“Come in.”
When he opened my door, the dim light from the hallway illuminated his face. “Why are you in the dark?”
I reached over to the bedside table and turned on my lamp. “Sorry. I like to walk the plans through in the dark with a timer. Just to think through everything.”
“Do you do this a lot?” He wasn’t frowning, but his brows were lifted quizzically.
“Yeah. Not for me, of course, but for the field agents. It’s part of my job as an analyst. It helps me see where the pitfalls might be.”
He sighed. “Right. It’s clever. You’d make a hell of a field agent if that’s what you wanted.”
“Yeah, that’s not in the cards for me. It’s a one-time gig.”
“Right. Anyway, I was going through the supplies Jazz brought over, and I got these for you.” He walked over to the bed and handed me a box.
I opened it. “Gloves?”
“Yeah. I know that Galen and Lucas provided some, but I like these better. The ones I use will be too big for you, so I had these made to fit. They make great climbing gloves, and technology allows them to stick to glass. You can also recharge them.”
I lifted my brows. “Are you serious?”
“Yeah. They also have a great grip for rappelling. They work with kinetic energy.”
“You’re shitting me.”
“Nope. They’re military-grade design. They’re not even on the market.”
“You use these?”
“I have before. They come in handy and have saved my life, and I wanted you to have a pair.”
I stared at the box, my eyes stinging and dangerously close to welling. If I allowed that to happen, they would certainly leak.
I’d been given gifts before. Things people were expecting me to be excited about while they stared at me expectantly. I never had a great response. I always tried to smile and be appreciative, but usually the gifts had nothing to do with me. They were more about the giver. The glove had everything to do with me, and shit, was I going to cry?
I blinked rapidly. “Um, thank you. I don’t think I’ve ever been given a gift like this before.”
He shrugged. “I figured. No big deal.”
Shit, why wouldn’t the right damn words come out? “No, these are actually really thoughtful. They’ll be useful. It’s something I need.”
“Um, right.” He shifted on his feet. “You should, you know, always get gifts that you want.”
“I don’t usually want anything,” I said with a shrug.
He looked confused. “What do you mean, you don’t want anything?”
“I mean I don’t really make wishes. I’m not the wishing-on-a-star kind of girl. If I want something, I get it myself. These are useful, and it’s something I never would have thought of.”
“Okay, you recognize that’s a dare now, right? You’re the kind of woman who should always make wishes.”
“What’s a dare?”
“You deserve a gift that you want . Not just something you need. One wish come true.”
“I don’t know. I’m hard to get gifts for.”
“Ari Denton, you forget I also know your birthday is coming up in six months.”
“Oh my God, please don’t.”
But he was already shaking his head. “Nope, now you’ve put my mind to it.”
“Okay, fine. It’s your money.”
“That it is. And wouldn’t it be funny if I never spent a dime?”
“This is ridiculous.”
He cocked his head then. “Can I ask you a question?”
“Yeah, what’s that?”
“Do you never want anything because you don’t want to be disappointed?”
Well, he’d gone right for the jugular. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Uh-huh. Sure, you don’t. Well, in that case, challenge accepted.”
“You’re different than I expected, Damon.”
“I know. In a couple of days, we’re going to the field, Ari. You and me. We’ve got to make it count.”
“Yeah, we do. Do you regret not trying to do this by yourself?”
He crossed his arms and leaned on the doorjamb, looking like sex on a stick. Did he have any idea how sexy that leaning was? “About that... I was mistaken, Ari. You commit wholeheartedly. There’s no one else I’d rather be in the field with. Get some rest.”
He turned and closed the door behind him. The worst part of it was that his words had hit me harder than the gift. As I stared down at the gloves, I couldn’t hold back the tears anymore. I swiped them from my cheeks angrily. This was not real. A kiss and a gift and a compliment did not make him my boyfriend. This was not real, and I would really be better off if I remembered that.