With a breathy sigh, she surrendered, opening for him. He hadn’t realized how much he craved this, a connection, a bond with someone who wasn’t his brothers. Simpleintimacy. Even if it came out of nowhere, and meant nothing to her, to him it meant something—everything. Because in that moment, she made him feel like he mattered to someone—to her.
She matched him kiss for kiss. Met every stroke of his tongue against hers with one of her own until their breaths were sporadic, uneven, and noisy. He was never going to survive this woman. He knew that now. God, he was the biggest fool on the planet. But he couldn’t help himself. He craved just one more touch, one more kiss, one more breathy sigh into his mouth. He wanted to soak her so deep under his skin until she was all he could feel, taste, smell, or need.
That realization was like a bucket of cold water down his neck, and he finally pulled away. Never had one kiss left him dazed. A kiss had most certainly never left him unbalanced, like he’d been slammed against the rocks by a rowdy wave and hadn’t yet regained his footing on the seafloor.
She stroked his chest, smoothing both hands down his sides as she blinked up into his eyes.
“You might be a caveman, Gunnar. But you also have a caring streak a mile wide. You just don’t let people see it very often, do you?”
He stared down at her. How the hell was he supposed to answer that? He could barely remember what day it was, never mind answer freaking questions which cut close to the core of who he was.
“You’ve been through wars and hell but didn’t just survive. You conquered. You’ve made sure your brothers did too.” Her smile was sad. “You take care of everyone, but, Gunnar, who takes care of you?”
He opened his mouth and snapped it shut again as his phone beeped, snapping the magic which had ensnared him to her like an over-stretched elastic band. He stepped back and reached for his phone, skimming the notificationmessage. “Remi wants to know where you are. We—uh—we should get going.”
“Oh.” As if his words were what broke the spell for her, Jorja shook herself and jumped off the counter, landing on her feet directly in front of him. “Yeah, work… our deal. Got it.”
Gunnar grabbed his weapon from the safe over the microwave. Last night when he’d stashed it there, he’d silently been grateful Remi had insisted on safes in multiple rooms. Right now all he could see was Jorja sitting on his counter with that sexy glazed look in her eyes. He’d never look at this countertop the same way again. He strapped on the holster and slid his sidearm into place, securing it with the Velcro strap.
“I didn’t know you were allowed to have private weapons like that in Italy?”
He looked up to see Jorja watching him. “Who said we are private anything?” He shrugged. She didn’t need to know that one of The Four X’s biggest clients was the Italian Government, but he figured it was okay for her to be aware of some things. “All of us here are armed. It’s normal for us.”
“Noted.”
He stuffed his feet into his boots and tied them. “Ready to work?”
“Yeah, the faster I get the information for Remi, the faster I can go home.”
Ouch!
Her words reinforced the reminder that what had happened between them was a fluke. It meant nothing to her, and he would not allow it to mean anything to him. He followed her down to the courtyard and across to the war-room.
The door was hooked open, and he stepped into the room after Jorja. “Hey, Rem, what’s happening?”
“Did Dory clear some shit with you for Nemesis?” As per normal, Remi didn’t look at him but kept his focus on the computer in front of him.
Crap, he’d totally forgotten to mention it. Hell, he hadn’t even been in his office to see the sticky note reminder. “Yeah, yesterday. Sorry, I got distracted and forgot to mention it.”
Remi held up the sticky note and waved it. “I found the note a while ago,” he grumbled. “I have a drone up for Nemesis’s man, but I’m gonna need a controller who can run it. I only have one pair of hands, and Jorja’s list is my focus.”
“First, it isn’t my list,” Jorja piped up. “But if you can give remote access without breaking any laws, there is a dude in Iceland who normally runs remote drones over volcanos or safaris. He might be able to do it.”
When his brother just shrugged, leaving the decision to him, Gunnar thought about it for a second. “Where is the drone?” Because there was zero chance of him allowing a civilian to access a drone in a potential warzone.
“Egypt.”
“Nature’s Eye has a drone controller near Cairo,” Jorja told him. “As much as I’d love to see the Pyramids in real life, I don’t have the time it would take to go there in person. I remote flew one of their drones there last year.”
“Okay, reach out to your contact. See if they have a controller available,” he ordered Jorja. “Ask if they need access to ours, of if they can give our guy on the ground access without being in our systems.”
“Sure.” Jorja nudged Remi on the shoulder. “I’m going to need outside access for Google,” she told him. “Or you’re going to have to search for Nature’s Eye and give me the number.”
It wasn’t lost on Gunnar that Remi hadn’t jumped out of his skin when Jorja had touched him. He wasn’t sure if he was impressed or jealous; his brother didn’t normally evenlike him touching him without warning. “I’m going to work out, then I’ll be in my office.” When neither of them replied, he grunted to himself in annoyance and left them to it.
He reminded himself that Jorja wasn’t like most women. Even so, he decided it was in his best interest to stay away from her. Period. She could work with Remi. Later tonight, he’d show her to one of the suites in the guest wing. Yes, he decided as he made his way to the gym, it was better for everyone if he stayed out of her way and kept her out of his orbit. He’d worked too damn hard to recover from the last woman he’d trusted. Only the fact most of the family’s money was locked up in trusts had prevented her from emptying the McKinley coffers during their divorce.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
