Page 96 of Dangerous Mission
He’s totally naked now, and seems to be oblivious to the fact that I can seeallof him.
“What are you doing?”
“Making you some tea.”
“Tea?” I choke.
“Yeah, you need something warm.”
I blink at his back. His very naked, sculpted back. I fixate on a dark red puckered scar that looks like a stabwound that wraps around his side. To the left are a lot of smaller holes. Shallower, but painful looking.
Further down are his sculpted glutes. Muscular quads, bulky calves, and strong looking feet.
I’m not sure why, or how I’m lost in this observation when I should be freaking out.Maybe I’m in shock.
A lot has happened.
Including a lot of orgasms. Giving up something I didn’t know I could give, and confessing my deepest, scariest secret. It makes sense that I would be in shock.
He places a mug of hot water in front of me and eases a tea bag into it with two of his broad fingers. “Do you want honey?”
Fingers that were in my most delicate places earlier. I’ll never look at his hands the same way.
“Yes, please.”
He returns to the counter and picks up the small glass jar. When he comes back to the table, he takes a seat across from me.
I stare at the teabag in the bottom of my cup. “Who was at the door?” I ask as if we’re just two normal people.
He motions to a basket of food on the table that I hadn’t even noticed. “One of the Russian mercenaries brought a care package of food.”
“Those words do not make any sense.”
He laughs briefly. “I agree.”
We fall silent as I stir honey into the tea, wondering how the hell we got from point A to B to C to D in the last twenty-four hours.
“Look at me, Aria.”
Fighting my nerves, I slowly look up. The first thing I notice are the worry lines around his eyes. He rubsa hand through his dark blond hair and sighs, leaning back into the kitchen chair.
Scout looks like a big, primal animal stretched out before me. The lethal kind who doesn’t belong in a small kitchen like this, or with a woman like me.
He watches me look at him.
When I drop my attention back to the tea, he says, “You know I’m not going to be able to just drop this.”
Making ripples in the water with the string, I keep my face turned down. “I need for you to do exactly that.”
“Not gonna happen.”
More than once I’ve wished to be able to rewind the clock. Now, almost as much as I’d like to go back and change the way I handled things before the attack. But I wouldn’t be here right now if the attack didn’t happen.
I wouldn’t be working for Griff. I wouldn’t be sitting here with Scout. But I definitely do not want him or my brother committing murder. No matter how much I hate the man that hurt me.
My vocal cords string tight when I try to talk. “God, what was I thinking when I told you?”
“You trusted me. I can’t tell you how much that means to me. We both let down our barriers, I’ve never told anyone why I couldn’t have sex with women in a normal way.”