I’d planned. I’d been ready. I wouldn’t have had to see the disappointment on anyone’s face ever again. Or the pity. “No.”
“And now?” She didn’t move closer, but the distance between us didn’t seem so vast anymore. “Do you want to go on now?”
Two weeks ago, I’d wanted to continue my job with Reynolds, protect the woman who’d saved my life, and do good things. But now, all I could think about was Brooke. “Yes.”
The silence stretched between us, filled only by the distant sounds of the team working downstairs.
“I was so angry with you,” she finally said. “For a really long time.”
“You had every right to be.”
“I still am.” She crossed to the bed and sagged down onto it. “But I’m tired of being angry.”
“Where does this leave us?”
“I don’t know.” Her honesty broke my heart even more. “But I can’t keep doing this—whatever this is—while we’re in the middle of a mission.”
I nodded, understanding the professional necessity, although every part of me wanted to press for more. “For what it’s worth, I never stopped thinking about you. Not for a day.”
Something flickered in her eyes—pain, desire, I couldn’t be sure. “I tried to stop thinking about you.”
“Did it work?” I asked, risking a step closer.
“Every once in a while.” A small, sad smile touched her lips. “But not really.”
I kept moving, slowly, watching for any hint she wanted me to leave. I’d made my confession, and it had freed a part of the darkness that had settled over my soul. The light inside me wanted the light inside her. “I missed you, Brooke.”
Her breath caught slightly. “Don’t say that unless you mean it.”
“I mean it.” I stopped only a foot away from her and reached for her hand, half-expecting her to pull away.
She didn’t.
Hesitantly, she moved her fingers against my palm until they laced with mine. “I missed you too. Even when I hated you for what you did.”
I moved closer, drawn by the gravity I’d always felt around her. I raised my free hand to her face, my thumb gently tracingthe curve of her cheek. She leaned into the touch, almost imperceptibly, her eyes never leaving mine.
“I’m not the same person I was,” I said softly.
“Neither am I.” Her voice was barely audible.
My heart rose into my throat as I leaned down, still expecting her to tell me to leave her alone again. But she stood, rising on her tiptoes to meet me. Our breath mingled in the small space between us. Years of regret, of longing, of what-ifs compressed into a single heartbeat.
And then there was no space at all.
Chapter 26
Brooke
Our lips met,the hunger consuming me. He cradled my face in his hands, his lips warm and firm against mine. I was suddenly back in Afghanistan, the junior scientist and her protector, crossing lines that were designed to keep us alive.
But his kiss was life. It was everything.
His tongue caressed mine slowly—so slowly the ache began building between my thighs already. When we finally broke apart, both breathing heavily, his eyes searched mine. His intensity made my stomach tighten with a craving I’d tried so hard to forget.
“Brooke,” he whispered, not taking his hands from my face, “I swear, this wasn’t what I came up here for.”
Part of me wanted to throw caution aside, to lose myself in him and forget everything that had happened between us. But could I? After years of rebuilding myself—literally and figuratively—could I risk that kind of devastation again?
