Total pages in book: 144
Estimated words: 135382 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 677(@200wpm)___ 542(@250wpm)___ 451(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 135382 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 677(@200wpm)___ 542(@250wpm)___ 451(@300wpm)
And then she’d tried to walk away when he wanted to save her. She’d been willing to offer herself up to that bugger CIA guy Ezra Fain, with his perfect looks and polished ways. He’d had a vision of Fain putting his hands on her and he’d made the single, biggest mistake of his life.
He’d given in and let himself go. He’d taken her in a wild frenzy of lust. He hadn’t been tender with her, hadn’t given her the long hours of lush lovemaking she’d deserved. He’d fucked her hard a couple of times and then snuck out like a bloody coward when she’d fallen asleep.
He didn’t deserve a sub. Nope. Not when he couldn’t get his head off the one he’d let slip away.
“Is he going to murder someone?” Sasha asked. “I have seen this look, right before someone tries to murder me. This is not old memory coming back. In the bad place, I was nearly murdered many times.”
“Yeah,” Tucker whispered back. “I remember that, too. Sometimes I wish the doc had done one last memory wipe and made me forget her. But it’s like I said, Carter needs a mission to work. He’s getting antsy. And since Walt is off his feet for a couple of weeks, I will volunteer to be your partner. I can watch your back and hey, if you want to rough up a few bad guys, well that doesn’t need to go in a report, does it?”
“The only thing I’ll be doing today is sitting in front of a computer finishing up the details on the Iraq job and making sure Walt remembers to take his antibiotics.” It was going to be a dull day, and for some reason he’d been antsy the last two days in a way he wasn’t sure had anything to do with Walt nearly getting himself killed because he was far too curious.
He’d been thinking about her for days. Maybe that was because he was surrounded with women planning a wedding. Hayley Dalton was marrying his friend Nick Markovic, and all the women of The Garden were aflutter with the details. There was an incredible amount of lovely feminine energy around him and he couldn’t help but think of Stephanie.
Kayla grabbed a bottle of water from the small fridge. “I don’t think we have anything exciting right now. I’m working on a couple of corporate cases. Super boring. I don’t get to shoot anyone or anything. I was so bored I almost asked for the Loa Mali assignment.”
Brody turned to her. “The royal wedding? I thought the Dallas office was handling that. Didn’t you sleep with the king once?”
Kayla’s ponytail bobbed as she nodded. “Many times. I was undercover. Hence the ‘me not getting to go to the beach wedding of the century’ thing. Exes. I’ve found it’s totally best to keep that door shut, locked, and the key thrown away.”
Ah, words of advice. Yes. That was what he needed to hear. “Because it’s best to look forward and not back.”
Kay shook her head. “Nope. Because almost all the time I was working the dude over for intel. I’ve spent most of my adult life making a living as a spy. Dudes get pissy when they find out you didn’t give them your real name or your real job and hey, sorry I downloaded your computer and gave all that stolen tech to my government. It’s a whole lot of drama. But if I could go back and see Scotty Barris, I would do it in a heartbeat.”
“Another spy? Did you have hot time while on the job?” Sasha asked with a wink.
“Nope. He was the president of the chess club and I was the only female member of the chess club,” Kayla explained. “One night while practicing he touched my boob and my world changed. Unfortunately, one of my dads walked in and then both my dads were giving me the lecture. And Scotty never touched my boob again. I would go back and ask him to touch the left one, too. I’m a little OCD. It still bugs me.”
She was also a little sarcastic. But her words were still true. He’d shut the door and it needed to stay locked.
It was precisely why he’d erased Stephanie’s messages without listening to them. He’d always had someone follow up a few days later to make sure she was all right, but he couldn’t listen to her voice and not break down. He had to be strong enough for both of them.
Because that woman deserved the best, and it wasn’t him. It wasn’t fucking him.
“He looks like he wants to murder someone again,” Tucker whispered far too loudly.
He was done. The gym wasn’t going to do it for him today. He needed coffee and then he would dive into writing a report about how Walt got shot in the foot because he stopped in the middle of a gun fight to solve a damn equation on a white board. “I’m going down to breakfast. If you see Damon, tell him he’ll have his report this afternoon.”