Chapter Six #3
I laughed.
Cassidy raised her eyebrows. “I wasn’t trying to be funny.”
“It wasn’t. I’ve spent the last hour preparing a very persuasive speech.”
“You were asleep twenty minutes ago.”
“I can prepare while unconscious.”
“I’ve heard you talk in your sleep. Preparation wasn’t happening.”
“What did I say?”
“You objected to a lighting cue.”
“That sounds important.”
She smiled, but her eyes remained serious.
“I meant what I said,” she told me. “I want you after the assignment.”
I drew her closer.
“What does that look like to you?”
Cassidy glanced toward the patio, then back at me.
“I don’t know yet.”
“That’s fair.”
“I know I don’t want to pretend distance won’t matter. I also don’t want to use it as a reason to walk away before we try.”
“You won’t have to.”
“The label has your time after this.”
“For a recording block. Not forever.”
“And SBS has mine.”
“I’m not asking you to leave.”
“You never asked me to.”
I brushed my thumb beneath the edge of her tank.
“When the recording block ends, I’m coming back here.”
Her gaze lifted. “You don’t need a threat to visit Sunbreak Harbor.”
“I’m hoping the next trip involves fewer weapons and more time in your bed.”
“That can be discussed.”
“I appreciate your openness.”
She gave me a dry look.
“And when you have a work break,” I continued, “you come to me. Not as my bodyguard. Not because you’re supposed to fit around my career. Because I want you there while I’m living it.”
“So do I.”
I reached for my phone on the counter. “Then let’s make the visits real.”
I opened my calendar to the first free weekend after the recording block and handed it to her. “I come back here.”
Cassidy added the visit, then opened her own schedule. “This is my first three-day break after that.”
“Then you come to me.”
She added the second visit and returned my phone.
I kissed her forehead.
“We start with those two visits,” I said. “Then we keep making the next one.”
“And we see where it takes us.”
“That’s the plan.”
“We’re not making impossible promises, are we?”
“I promise to be extremely attractive at every reunion.”
“That’s a dangerous standard.”
“I’ve maintained it so far.”
“What if this gets hard?” she asked.
“It will.”
“You answered quickly.”
“We both work too much. I travel. You get called away when people make terrible decisions near large bodies of water.”
“Not every assignment involves water.”
“I’m still learning.”
She slid her hands over my chest.
“I’m serious.”
“So am I.” I covered one of her hands. “Hard isn’t the same as temporary.”
Her eyes held mine.
“I don’t want to be a secret,” she said. “I’m not asking you to announce anything today, but I don’t want to spend months being the woman who disappears whenever a camera shows up.”
“You won’t.”
“And I don’t want you to feel like being with me means asking permission to live your life.”
“I don’t.”
She released a slow breath.
“That’s the last thing I needed to say.”
“I prepared six more arguments.”
“You don’t need them.”
“That’s disappointing. One included visual aids.”
Cassidy laughed.
I touched the freckles beside her mouth.
“I don’t want to manage you, Cassi.”
“You’ve never tried.”
“I don’t want you managing me either.”
“I won’t.”
“Be beside me when it makes sense, on the phone when it doesn’t, and angry with me in person whenever possible.”
“I can probably provide that.”
“Tell me what your days look like when I’m not the assignment. I’ll send you the recording before anyone else hears it. And someday we’re having breakfast without creating a public incident.”
“That last one may be ambitious.”
“I think we’re worth the work.”
She shook her head, smiling again.
Then she touched the gold chain at my throat and curled it around one finger.
“I’m still scared,” she said.
“So am I.”
“You don’t act scared.”
“I got very good at turning it into charm.”
“I noticed.”
“I’m afraid you’ll decide my life is too much work.”
“I’m afraid you’ll decide mine isn’t enough.”
I bent until our foreheads touched.
“I want to come back to you, Cassi. That’s the part I know.”
Cassidy’s fingers tightened around the chain.
“I need you in my life too,” she said.
“I love you,” I said.
She kept one finger curled around my chain.
“I’m not ready to say that yet.”
“I didn’t say it to get an answer.”
“I believe you.” She rose onto her toes and kissed me once. “And I’m falling for you.”
I grinned.
“That may be the hottest thing you’ve ever said.”
“I’ve said significantly hotter things.”
“Those were also excellent.”
She kissed me again, deeper this time.
I tightened my arms around her.
Cassidy drew back just enough to speak against my mouth.
“I’m choosing this.”
“What are you choosing?”
“You. Me. The distance. The visits. The inconvenient phone calls. All of it.”
I smiled. “You make us sound dangerous.”
“We probably are.”
“Good.”
I lifted her.
Cassidy’s legs wrapped around my waist, careful of her injured arm but not careful about anything else. Her laugh warmed my mouth as I carried her toward the bedroom.
“The detail ended five minutes ago,” she said.
“I noticed.”
“There’s an agent outside.”
“He appears focused on maritime conditions.”
“That line wasn’t funny the first time.”
“You kissed me after I used it.”
“The two events were unrelated.”
I reached the bed and lowered her onto the mattress.
Cassidy caught my chain before I could straighten and pulled me down over her.
“After the recording block,” she said.
“I come back here.”
“Then I come to you.”
“What happens after that?”
She kissed me, slow and certain.
“We make the next plan after you get back.”
I covered her body with mine and felt her smile against my mouth.
We had two visits on the calendar.
Cassidy wrapped both legs around my hips and kissed me until I forgot to check the clock again.