“My folks,” he said.
“You must miss them.” She stopped at the door to the ops center. “Especially after that stunt Udall pulled.”
“I do, but I feel better knowing he’s out of the country. I’ll be seeing them in a few months when I go back for my mom’s birthday.” He was definitely going to take Luna with him but would wait until the right time presented itself to invite her. “I try to see them at least a couple times a year.”
When he first joined Dark Ops, he’d told his parents about the people he worked with. Since then, he’d talked to his mom about his feelings for Luna, and she was looking forward to meeting the woman her son had fallen for.
“It’s nice that you do that. Not everyone does.” She typed her access code into the touchpad and leaned over the retinal scanner mounted on the wall. The red light flashed, and there was a loudthunkwhen the magnetic lock disengaged. The door slid open with an audible hiss, releasing a rush of cool air. Theystepped into the ops center, and the door whispered shut behind them.
Luna had grown up with emotionally absent parents. He hated to think what would’ve become of her had Dawn not filled the hole left by them.
She flipped the switch, and the overhead lights flickered on.
“Let me just plug my laptop into the system, then we can head out.” She hurried over to the master control panel, set her laptop down, and connected it. “If you’re not in a super big rush, I’d like to do a quick check of the satellite feeds for anything new.”
“Actually, I’d like to know that, too.” He moved closer.
Boone glanced around the room that was the nerve center for their entire operation. Powerful air conditioners ran twenty-four seven to help combat the heat put off by all of the high-tech electronic equipment. In the event of a power outage, generators would kick on to keep all of the critical systems functioning.
“It’ll only take a minute to pull it up.” She rolled out her chair, sat, and immediately began clicking keys. “I’ll put it on that screen, up there.” She pointed to the top, center screen on the wall, as it flashed on.
Boone stood next to her.
Luna moved her mouse around, clicked some more keys, then looked up at the monitor.
Nothing appeared, so she tapped a few more keys and checked the screen again.
“Nope, nothing new.” She sat back with a sigh and looked up at him. “I was really hoping we’d have something.”
“Yeah, me, too.” He took her hand, and she stood. “Come on, let’s go get some lunch.”
“Let me just set up an alert.” She tapped a few keys, lifted her hip to tug her phone from her back pocket, and swiped her finger across the screen. “Okay, good.” She gave a satisfied nod and tucked her phone back in her pocket. “I’ll get an alert on my phone when that satellite is over the target area.”
“You can do that with just a few keystrokes?” Boone was continually amazed by the cutting-edge technology OSI had available, literally, at their fingertips.
“It’s a proprietary program I created, but it’s still in the beta testing phase.” She lifted one narrow shoulder. “It’s no big deal.”
No big deal?
“Uh, agree to disagree.” No way should she be downplaying her genius. “You do understand how brilliant you are, right?”
“About some things, sure.” Luna gave a self-deprecating laugh. “Others, not so much.” She tapped a few keys on her keyboard to turn off the monitor and did a quick scan of the room. “Let’s eat.”
They headed toward the door, and she repeated the process with her badge and the retinal scanner. They exited the room and waited until the door closed behind them.
“What are you hungry for?” she asked.
Youwas his initial reaction to her innocent question, but he kept that to himself. “How about the Turnbuckle?”
“Works for me,” she said. “Oh, do you mind if we stop by the post office when we’re done eating? I need to check our PO box.”
“Sure.” The compound’s physical address was closely guarded, so all of their mail went to a post office box.
“Thanks.” She popped up to her tippy-toes and gave him a quick kiss.
That simple act of affection went straight to his dick. Damn, but he’d never craved a woman in the way he craved Luna. It actually kind of scared the piss out of him, how much he wanted her. But what they were building between them was special, and he wasn’t willing to risk it by rushing her.
Instead, he would put his carnal urges on hold until the right time. Boone just hoped the right time presented itself soon, or he was going to burst.
