Total pages in book: 122
Estimated words: 115997 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 580(@200wpm)___ 464(@250wpm)___ 387(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 115997 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 580(@200wpm)___ 464(@250wpm)___ 387(@300wpm)
“Have you thought about getting out?” The question was barely a whisper and only words away from a request.
“And do what?” I lifted my head.
“Oh, I don’t know.” She shrugged, her smile anything but happy. “You said on the plane that you wanted to teach.”
That dream felt a lifetime away.
“We could move someplace where we could watch pine trees sway,” she continued. “Like a ski resort. Or one of those towers where you watch the wilderness for fires.”
“Because that’s a good use of your education,” I teased.
“Come on. Play along.” She tugged at my shirt and looked at me with pleading eyes. “Just pretend with me for a minute.”
I dropped my hands to her waist and tugged her against me, then ignored the pulsing of my dick, which hadn’t given up hope that I’d change my mind. I wouldn’t.
She meant more to me than a single night, and I was in this for the long haul. The far-distant long haul.
“We could open a restaurant.” I grinned.
“Can you cook?” she asked.
“No.” My shoulders shook with wry laughter.
“I can make a mean grilled cheese.”
I kissed her forehead. “Then there you go. We’ll open a grilled cheese restaurant.”
She laughed, shaking her head. “Come on. Let’s go to bed.”
Going to sleep meant we’d be hours closer to me leaving.
“I’m so sorry to ruin your birthday,” I whispered. “That was never my intention.”
She gestured at the clock on the wall. “It’s eleven thirty, which means it’s still salvageable if you agree to come to bed with me. Even if it’s just to sleep.”
“Just to sleep,” I repeated, knowing that lying next to her was only going to result in a sleepless night where I imagined acting out every fantasy I’d had over the last nine months. It sounded like the most exquisite form of torture, and I was down for it.
She backed away slowly.
I followed.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
NATHANIEL
Kabul, Afghanistan
August 2021
“You going to hide in here all morning?” Torres asked, leaning against the door with one ankle crossed over the other.
“It’s only seven a.m., and I’m not hiding.” I turned the page in my book and ignored him, leaning back against my headboard, my legs stretched out in front of me.
“Looks like hiding to me.”
I wasn’t hiding. I was already dressed, armed, and ready. I just wasn’t on shift. Graham was, and he was fully capable of handling a little shadowing while Izzy and Dickface ate breakfast.
“Don’t you have something better to do?” I asked Torres, picking up the highlighter from my nightstand and marking a line, pausing halfway through. Not that I was ever going to give the book to Izzy. There were at least a few dozen of these already, all marked up and boxed. Old habits die hard and whatnot.
“Hey, I’m only in here because apparently you can’t get your shit together.” He shrugged. “Otherwise, you’d already be out there, trying to talk her out of going to Kandahar.”
“My shit is just fine.” I read the same paragraph twice before I gave up and closed the book. “And I’m realizing that it’s not my job to talk her out of anything. She has someone for that.”
Dickface. She was marrying Dickface. After everything he’d put her through, she’d still said yes to him, still put his ring on her left hand.
I rubbed my chest, right above my sternum, and felt my little good luck charm shift on the chain against my skin. It was far past time that I left it at home, that I recognized it for the bad omen it really was, but every time I took it off, I put the thing right back on.
“Yeah. Looks like you’re squared away.” Torres rolled his eyes. “Swear to God, nothing fucks you up more than that woman.”
“She’s not fucking me up.” I turned the page with more force than necessary.
“Maybe that’s the problem, then.” He pushed away from the door and walked across the room. “When’s the last time you two were in the same space and didn’t wind up in bed?”
I put my book down on the nightstand, since reading was futile when Torres got into my head like this. “New York.”
“Yeah, that’s what I thought.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Do you need to bring Jenkins in to take over?”
“No.” As pissed as I was, as disappointed as I was that Izzy had settled, that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to see the mission through, or put her in a position where she could be hurt.
Someone pounded on my door.
I muttered a curse and swung my legs off the bed as I rose to answer it. When I pulled the door open, Graham stood on the other side.
Torres slid out, walking into the hallway. “Good, now he can deal with your moody ass.”
“There’s new intel,” Graham said, his face tight. “We’re briefing.”