Page 53 of Keeping Eveline

Eveline noticed that he didn’t confirm which one he’d been a part of. “Can you not talk about it? Or tell me what you were?”

“I was Delta, but I can’t tell you what I did. Or where I went. Irish is also a former Delta, and Growler and Angel were SEALs. The guys who started Alliez are former teammates and SEALs, as well.”

Kyle was sharing information with her. Like really sharing.

It was as though a barrier had been lowered, and he was slowly letting her in.

What did that mean?

Eveline’s heart took off, and her belly warmed. She wanted to reach for him, touch him in some manner, but didn’t. Would Kyle reject her?

The fact he’d been the one to sit in a car all day watching over and not one of the other guys meant a lot. There were times when she got into the car after work, or when they parted at lunch that she’d suspected he wanted to kiss her.

She wanted him to kiss her, badly. They hadn’t shared one since the one in his office. Initially, Eveline was beginning to think he wasn’t interested in her, but then she caught the looks and knew he wanted her as much as she wanted him. Then he’d blink them away, and she was left hanging.

“Were you and Irish teammates?” she asked in an attempt to stop thinking about his lips on hers. His hands caressing her body. The way Kyle whispered her name the night they’d slept together.

“No. But I knew him, and he knew me.”

There was more to their relationship, but it probably fell under the “stuff that cannot be talked about” category so she didn’t press him for more information.

“What about Growler and Angel? You said they were both SEALs. Were they on the same team?”

“No. Angel has been out of the Navy longer than Growler. He joined us almost a year ago.”

Eveline nodded, enjoying the conversation and learning a bit more about Kyle and his team.

“And Cass? Was she in the military?”

From what Eveline had observed, Cass was a computer genius, so she had to have been trained by some high level government or military computer geeks who knew all the ways to get information without leaving a trace that they’d been there.

“No, she wasn’t. I lucked out with Cass. Was very lucky the day she knocked on the door of the shitty rent-by-a-week hovel I was living in at the time. She said she’d been sent by Grayson, and when I confirmed with him that she was speaking the truth, I hired her on the spot.”

Something about the way he spoke of Cass speaking the truth twigged something in her. “People not lying is important to you, isn’t it?”

The way his fingers were flexing around the steering wheel, her question had hit a nerve with him.

“It is.”

Two words. Inconsequential ones but one spoken with such vehemence Eveline reared back a little.

“Okay.”

A sigh rippled through the air, and he took one hand off the steering wheel and squeezed her forearm. “Sorry. I… yeah, I have issues with people who say one thing and do another.”

There was so much he’d left unsaid, and as much as Eveline wanted to push him to share his burden with her, she didn’t press. The situation was one Kyle probably couldn’t talk about and she may never know, but she took note of what he said.

“I understand. Deception is never a good thing.”

The car pulled to a stop. So involved in the conversation, Eveline hadn’t been paying attention to their surroundings. She hadn’t even picked up on the fact that they weren’t heading in the direction of Kyle’s apartment building.

They were parked on a side street in an area she wasn’t quite familiar with. LA was so big that there were places she’d never visited in her whole time living there. Which wasn’t unusual for most people in the world. People tended to stick to areas they knew, and she was definitely one of them.

“Where are we?”

“We’re a short walk away from the best Thai food you’ve ever tasted.” The anger that’d been in his voice only a few moments ago had disappeared.

“What if I don’t like Thai?” Eveline countered, although Thai was her favorite food.