They were in an unused hospital room, their arms around each other, kissing.
With them, it was usually kiss first, talk later. He couldn’t say he minded it much. She didn’t look like she minded it either.
When their lips broke apart, they stayed in each other’s arms.
He gently rubbed her back. “When do you leave?”
“I was going to ask you the same question. I haven’t gotten my next mission yet, but I’m going on set in a couple days. I need to head home and start prepping.”
It was time he told her, but he wasn’t sure how she’d take it. “I have something to tell you.”
She tilted her head slightly. “Sounds serious.”
“It is.”
When they’d been wrapped up together in her bed in Vollywood, he’d wanted to talk to her about the future he wanted with her, one where they were public and recognized as a couple. Now, he decided to focus on their work in the shadows first, before broaching the subject of stepping into the light. Spending time with her on this mission…he’d loved it and he wanted more. Maybe it was his imagination, but she’d looked at him differently throughout this mission, had given him more respect, and he liked believing that he’d started to prove himself to her, and he wanted to keep doing it.
“I love you.”
She smiled and settled against him some more. “I already knew that, but I do love hearing it.”
“I’ve done something, and I hope it won’t make you too angry. I just wanted to remind you that I love you before I said it.”
She seemed to go completely still, as if she were bracing herself.
“I’m not going back on ship.”
“You mean in a few days? You got your leave extended?”
“Not exactly. My family thinks I’m going back on ship, but the truth is I’ll be with the Elites on missions. Not just nearby in case they need a doctor, but actually on the ground with them. With you, actually, if you want the job.”
“What? When? How?” She shook her head. “I don’t understand what this means. I don’t go on missions with the Elites. Mine are usually one-offs because of my shooting schedule.”
“You’ll get a call soon with an offer to work with the Elites for the next six months.”
Her mouth fell open and, while her eyes were aimed at him, she wasn’t seeing him.
After a few moments, he gave her back another rub. “Anda?”
She blinked and finally seemed to bring him into focus again. “Why? And your family won’t know? Not even Marcello? How did you pull that off?”
“I’ve been working with the Elites more and more over the last few months, really since your injury. When I went into the field with them to rescue you, I impressed them. Even though I’ve been on shore helping my father and my sister, I’ve gone for training exercises. Marcello and my family thought I was attending to Navy business. Admiral Fraser’s been helping me. He doesn’t agree with Marcello or the head of our Navy on many issues, but he’s a damn good sailor and he agrees I’m being wasted on ship.”
He took a deep breath. “I’m not going to say it’s been easy hiding it from my family, especially not Marcello, but it feltright. Training with them, learning from them…it just feels like this was the next step in my life I never knew existed. Not to mention, I knew more training would lead me to you, to potentially spending more time with you, and to becoming the man you need me to be. I’m not giving up being a doctor, I love it too much. But I love you, too, and you’re not going to fight Envision alone.”
“Other than getting more training and mission experience, working with the Elites isn’t going to help me take down Envision. The Elites go on hardcore, brutal missions—extractions, infiltrating enemy territory, and more. Agents need mission experience with finesse not brutality to get results.”
He shook his head. “Not necessarily. More and more Elites are being used for clandestine missions as backup and support, according to the Admiral, who heard it from Marcello directly. You would still be doing the same missions as before, just with more help.”
She pushed away from him and walked the length of the room and back, her pace slow, one hand on her stomach and the other on her hip. When she reached him again, she stopped and shook her head. “I still can’t believe…I can’t believe…”
“What, Anda?”
“You did all that for me? You changed your whole life—”
He stepped towards her, but still didn’t touch her. “No, I changed my life forme. You might have led me to this path, but I’m the one who kept going on it. I love the rush when I’m with you, I love the quiet moments and the calm ones, too. I want to support you, be there for you, and I want you to know you’re not alone. I’m not going to leave. I can understand that this might be too intense for you, that maybe you don’t want to work missions with me, but—”
She put her hand on his cheek. “I do. Based on the way we worked together on this one, even though we weren’t technically working together, I see that we could be good partners, both as agents and as a couple. But it won’t be easy, Ethan. There are times I need to use my…feminine wiles, for lack of a better term…to get what I need. Are you going to be able to handle that? Even as an actress, there are times when I have to kiss other men—can you handle that, too?”
