Chapter 14
Chapter
Fourteen
Taking a walk with Indigo possibly wasn’t the smartest thing to do, not when he’d been staring at her for a good five minutes before he even spoke to her.
That was peak creeper move.
But she’d looked so lovely standing there in her casual clothes, her long hair draped over one shoulder.
He scanned the split laptop screen to see if anyone had responded to his questions about the guy Damon and the others were looking at taking down. His questions weren’t the obvious fishing for information ones, but worded in a way where he could get the intel he needed and pass it on.
The other screen was working on tracking who sent the message to Indigo. He’d made some changes to his program, and was confident that he would soon have the answers he needed.
His questions about the teams’ target remained unanswered. Sometimes it took a few hours before anyone responded, and so he was okay walking away from it for a little while.
Besides, he wanted to spend time with Indigo. Which wasn’t a good thing for him. He could admit to himself that he’d crossed the line from professional to personal when he’d almost kissed her in front of everyone.
He buttoned up his shirt as he slipped into a pair of slides and headed out the door, locking it behind him.
The resort may be secluded and have top notch security, but he wasn’t taking any chances.
Not with the most recent threat. He and Rick had gone over the kitchen thoroughly.
Even though they’d ordered the food and drinks themselves, he’d tested some of it to make sure it was all safe.
Which it was. Rick also assured him he would put some measures in place which would indicate if the food and drinks had been tampered with.
Indigo was still standing on her front porch, and he was in front of her in a few seconds. “Ready?” He held out his hand, the action natural as if they’d done it before on many occasions.
“Yep.” She placed her hand in his, and their fingers entwined together.
They didn’t say anything as they followed the sandy path down to the stretch of beach. The water swished in and out softly. The stars were so bright and large, he believed he could reach out and touch them.
“It’s so peaceful here, isn’t it? It’s like there’s no one around but you and me.” Indigo spoke softly, as though if she talked too loud, it would shatter the quiet.
“It is. You feel like you can breathe. Like everything that pulls at you is nowhere near.”
“Yes, exactly that.”
They continued their walk before he asked the question he’d been wanting to for a while. He had a bare bones idea about it from the background check he’d run on her, but hearing from the source was always better. “How did you get into modeling? Was it something you always aspired to do?”
“It wasn’t something that I’d ever considered doing. It was Zara who wanted to be a model.”
“Zara, your agent?” He recalled the woman who’d been at the meeting where they first met. She was as tall and as lovely as Indigo, but she didn’t have the natural allure that Indigo had. Perhaps whoever had run the agency they’d gone to had seen that as well.
“Yeah, we were friends in school, and she told me about this agency that was doing an open call, but it was when we were supposed to be in class. I was in my rebellious stage, and so I said we should cut class and go.” Indigo laughed lightly.
“Zara didn’t need much convincing. I think she really wanted to do it, but just needed me to give her a push. ”
“Who would’ve thought you were a rebel?” Wilt loved hearing this story from her.
He was aware that she grew up with only her mum.
Her father had abandoned them and had died when Indigo would’ve been around six.
He didn’t know if she had a relationship with her father. Not that it was a big deal for him.
“I was. I was railing against everything in my life. The typical teenager angst.” She stopped walking and looked at the sky before facing him.
There was a trace of sadness in her eyes, as if she regretted the way her teenage self treated her mother.
“My mum would’ve been much better off living in the sixties, than the early two thousands.
She was so free-spirited. Didn’t conform to societies rules.
I got so much grief about my name. I have no idea why she named me after a color in the rainbow. ”
“Because you’re radiant like a rainbow,” he teased.
Indigo snorted. “That is so cheesy.”
“Maybe, but it’s true.” He didn’t care if he sounded like a fool, there was a radiance about Indigo that drew people in. It was why her modeling campaigns were so successful. “So, you cut class, what happened then?”
“Zara had a change of clothes, which reinforced my idea at the time that she knew I was going to agree to it easily. I was still in my school uniform, and they handed us forms to fill out. I never considered that one afternoon would lead to a career for me. I wasn’t even that amiable when I went in and talked to them.
In the end, they did take both of us, but it became clear when I was constantly booking jobs and Zara was only getting the odd one, that it wasn’t going to work out the way she thought and hoped it would.
When her contract expired a year later, the agency didn’t renew it. ”
They’d stopped halfway through her story, sitting on the beach, hands still entwined.
“And Zara was okay with that? She didn’t mind?”
Was Zara the person behind these latest threats? They had started after she left to deal with an urgent client matter.
Would she put Indigo through something she’d been through once before?
What would Zara accomplish with threatening her friend?
If anyone had access to her location, it would be her agent. Not to mention, she had a book full of other models who would’ve given their eye-teeth for the lucrative Jeffrey Courteux assignment.
“I know what you’re thinking.”
He glanced over at her. “What’s that?”
“You’re wondering if Zara is behind these threats. I mean, I get why you would think that, especially after everything I just told you. But I know she wouldn’t be. She’s much happier being an agent than she ever would’ve been as a model. Not to mention she’s made a good living from it.”
“You’re right, I was thinking that. And for all the reasons you listed.”
“I know you probably don’t believe me, but I know Zara. She wouldn’t do this.”
Wilt didn’t know that at all, but the last thing he wanted to do was get into an argument with Indigo. Not tonight.
It didn’t mean he wouldn’t do a little digging into Zara.
“You know your friend better than me.”
“Well, that’s a non-committal response if I ever heard one.” A hint of derision in Indigo’s voice.
They lapsed into a comfortable silence. Indigo rested her head on his shoulder, and he relinquished his hold on her hand and slung an arm around her.
“She wouldn’t do it,” Indigo asserted. “As you said, I know my friend.”
“I’m sure you’re right.”
“But you’re still going to look into her, aren’t you?”
Wilt shrugged. “Wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t. Better to cross her off the list than always be thinking and wondering.”
“I guess. It’s just… I don’t know what I’d do it if is her,” she finished on a whisper.
Wilt hated putting that thread of doubt in her mind, and he wished he could take back his words, but he couldn’t. “I’m sorry for doing that to you.”
She hadn’t pushed away or put any distance between them, so he took that as a positive that she wasn’t totally annoyed at him.
“What’s your favorite thing about modeling?” he asked, hoping to distract her from her sad thoughts and onto something brighter.
“That’s a bit of a loaded question. There’s a lot of good to it, and there’s also a lot of bad to it. But it’s been very good to me. It’s given me financial security that I may not have got had I pursued another type of career.”
“What would you have done if you hadn’t been a model?”
“No idea. School and I weren’t friends. I did enough to get by, and once I started getting regular modeling jobs that paid well, I didn’t finish my final year.
Mum was happy with that. She only sent me to school because that was what was required.
I’m sure if she’d had her way, she would’ve kept me home and given me the ‘School of Life’ education.
What about you? Do you like what you do?
How did a soldier become so adept with computers? ”
“I do. I couldn’t imagine doing anything different.
I joined the Army because it was one way for me to get a degree.
I fell into computers, it wasn’t something that I consciously sought out, but I didn’t last long sitting behind a desk all the time.
I wanted action. So I worked hard, and against what everyone thought, I made it to the SAS.
I became a sniper in my unit. Steve was our team leader.
He’s a great person to work with. When he told us he was leaving and starting Power Security, it came at the perfect time.
I was considering my options: do I commit to the SAS or do I join Steve?
It ended up being a no-brainer to join his organization. I haven’t regretted it since.”
“You’re also a sniper? Although that doesn’t surprise me. You seem the type of person who would excel at anything you set your mind to. I’ve seen you working on your computer. You seem to love that too.”
“I do. I worked on my computer skills when we weren’t deployed, and honed them when I got out.”
Indigo yawned, and her body relaxed more against his. He didn’t want to end this time with her, but she needed her rest, and he could do with some too.
“I should get you to bed, Diva.” He brushed his lips against her hair, not even sure she would feel it.
“Is that an invitation, Soldier?” Her voice was sleepy. Did she know what she was saying?
A shaft of desire landed low in his belly. It would be so simple to ease her back on the sand, lay his body over hers, and kiss her as if there was no tomorrow.
“Do you want it to be?” Damn, where had that come from?
Indigo pulled away from him, pushed him down on the sand, and straddled his hips. It took a second for him to register what was happening. His hands landed on her waist at the same time as her mouth crashed onto his.
All rational thought escaped his mind, and he let himself fall into what was happening.
Her hands cupped his head, no doubt pushing sand into the strands, but he didn’t care.
He had her in his arms, and if he was being honest with himself, this was where he’d wanted her to be from the first moment she’d walked into the conference room.
He cupped her ass, aligning her with his hard cock. She moaned against his mouth and ground her hips against him, giving him a good indication that she wanted more than a simple kiss.
It would be so easy to take advantage of her. To scoop her up in his arms and take her back to either his bungalow or hers. It didn’t matter.
Wilt pulled his mouth away. “Is this what you want?”