He nodded. “And that. I have a feeling she’s been living on stress for a while.”
“Of course she has,” El muttered, anger dripping from each syllable. “She’s been on the run for years, and you’ve been no help. Especially now.”
He knew it was probably better to just ignore El, but Ian didn’t like the way he talked about Lila. She wasn’t his to protect. She was Ian’s.
Shit. Yeah, she was his, and Ian knew he would have to deal with that later, but right now, he needed to deal with the irritated operative staring daggers at him.
“You’re right about me not helping her. It bothers me that she put herself on the line to make sure that I was safe. But understand this, whatever is going on now isn’t any of your business.”
There was a deathly silence in the kitchen.
El opened his mouth, but his twin stopped him.
“Drop it, El,” Eden said.
His eyes narrowed, then he stood.
“He’s taking advantage of her, Ed. You know what he’s like.”
That had him stilling. He looked between the twins. They were sharing a look that scratched at the back of his neck, sending little sparks of irritation throughout his entire body.
“What do you mean?”
El rolled his eyes. “Dude, you never stay with a woman. You bounce from one night stand to one night stand.”
He wasn’t wrong, until recently. It had been…damn, months. Every time he met a woman, he compared her to Lila. Didn’t even matter if he had no interest in the woman, he found every one of them lacking compared to the woman who had kept saving his life. She always seemed to be there to save his ass—while mocking him—and every woman he’d met failed to live up to her. It had gotten so bad that every time he’d heard her voice, he’d get aroused, even in the most embarrassing situations. She had become his first thought when he woke up in the morning, and his last when he fell asleep at night. And that was even before he’d met her face to face. Just the thought of anything happening to her had his heart twisting so hard he lost his next breath.
Jesus, just the thought of walking away from her had him wanting to howl.
“Do you have anything to say for yourself? She’s fuckin’ vulnerable and you took advantage.”
He opened this mouth, but nothing came out. Not one word. His mind was still trying to put the puzzle pieces together. The woman had wormed her way into his heart, and the truth was that he wanted nothing else than to go back to bed and snuggle.
Ian Smith didn’t snuggle. He wasn’t a man a woman could depend on past a good time in bed. But he wanted that. He wanted to spend all his time with her. Like make breakfast together, shop for stupid shit for the house, like settle down and have a few kids.
He felt the blood drain from his head, his entire body going cold. Not for the understanding that this woman had blown into his life and made him fall for her. No, that was something that both of them would deal with later.
The realization that she was the one, the person who made him think those insane things, and she was at risk? An icy finger slid down his spine.
“I like to think that Ian and I took advantage of each other.”
He blinked and looked at the doorway. His heart turned over at the sight of her. She was wearing a black t-shirt and board shorts. Those legs of hers…damn. He wanted them wrapped around his waist. Or his head, that would be great too. His unruly dick shoved against the zipper of his pants.
Fuck.
“Do we have any more information?”
After a long, uncomfortable silence, Jenner spoke.
“No. We’re running down some leads.”
She rolled her eyes. “I think we need action.”
Miko stepped into the kitchen at that point. Great, another person. He wanted everyone to just go away. He needed time alone with Lila to come to terms with everything he’d just started to understand. Ian had to figure out just what the fuck to do about it, because…damn, he wasn’t sure why.
“Well, glad everyone is here, because I have some things to go over. I just got off the phone with Emily.”
“It’s the middle of the night,” Lila said.
