Brett mentally kicked himself for saying too much. He was trying to go slow, not with the investigation but with Mari. He didn’t want to rush her or get ahead of himself. He was trying to balance his feelings for her and his sudden desire to put down roots was a new feeling for him. When he’d said something about her leaving and forgetting all about him, he’d immediately wanted to bite the words back.
This was most likely nothing more than a vacation fling for her. He had to bide his time and convince her there was more between them than casual. The chemistry was one thing, the way they connected in bed and out was another, but the way he felt completely relaxed with her and shared things with her he hadn’t shared with anyone else was the real magic. Maybe it was the magic he’d been waiting for his whole life.
He stopped short. Who the hell was he? A Hallmark movie or some crap? He didn’t think like that or talk like that. Magic he’d been craving his whole life? If he’d said that out loud to anyone, they’d have laughed in his face. Hell, if someone had said that out loud to him, he’d have laughed.
And yet, there it was. In his head and not going anywhere anytime soon.
“Not hungry?” He gestured toward the omelet Mari had barely touched.
“Just too much on my mind, I guess.” She gave him a tense smile.
“Try to eat something. You need the fuel.”
She took another bite and forced it down. Brett got another idea. He grabbed both of their plates and sat them in the sink. Then he opened the freezer, grabbed a pint of ice cream and two spoons, and returned to the table.
“Ice cream?” She asked with a laugh.
“I suspect you’ll have a better time getting this down than you were the eggs. Plus, the best part of being an adult is that nobody tells you ‘no dessert until you clean your plate.’” He handed her a spoon and pried the top off the ice cream.
Mari watched him dig his spoon in before she sampled the dessert herself. When he’d scooped up a generous bite and clinked his spoon to hers, she decided to indulge in one of her favorite treats.
“This is delicious,” she said around a mouthful. “How did you happen to have my favorite flavor in your freezer?”
“Bunny Tracks is my favorite.” He told her.
“Well, what do you know. Small world I guess.” She smiled and the tension was gone from her face. The smile was sexy and flirtatious and made his heart rate double with just a look.
For a minute he seriously considered stalling the search through her archive of photographs to detour down the hall to his bedroom for the night. After all, the pictures would be there tomorrow, right?
“It certainly is.” He scooped up a second bite of ice cream, secretly hoping that chilled dessert would cool off more than the inside of his mouth.
Mari leaned forward and tilted her face up, practically begging for a kiss. He was not about to turn that down. It felt like an eternity since he’d tasted her mouth.
The contrast of the heat of their mouths and the chill of the ice cream they’d just been sampling was a new thrill. The cold quickly disappeared and left behind only the sweet and salty taste of the caramel, chocolate, and peanuts in the ice cream.
The distance between them was an inconvenience that he quickly overcame by pulling her from her chair to rest on his lap instead.
“The ice cream is melting,” she whispered against his lips.
“I’ll buy more.”
“I thought you wanted to search through the images?” she reminded him with a gentle hand on his chest. Enough of a reminder that there were other things to take care of before he could take her back to bed that he reined things back in.
“I do, but that doesn’t mean I don’t also want to kiss you.” He softened his words with a smile and one more quick kiss. “Okay let’s do this. In here or on the couch?”
Mari burst out laughing and Brett realized what he’d said and how it sounded. “I meant to look at the pictures. But I will admit that the couch worked just fine for me the other night.”
“Yes, it certainly did.” Her face turned pink and Brett had to fight the urge to kiss her all over again.
“Okay, let’s get comfortable on the couch with the laptop and see what we can find.”
“Let’s bring this, too.” Mari grabbed the ice cream while he carried the computer. Soon they were comfortably nestled in on the couch. Mari logged into her online storage account and navigated through a catalog of images until she found the time frame she was searching for.
“Wow,” Brett whispered as he realized how many pictures they were talking about. “That is a lot.”
“I warned you.”
“Yes, you did. Okay, let’s get started.”
Mari snuggled up against his shoulder holding the container of ice cream while he clicked through the pictures. One after another after another until he was pretty sure his eyes were beginning to cross.
They finished the ice cream container quickly. Mari made them a pot of coffee, which she never got to sample because she fell asleep next to him before it was finished brewing. He just kept scrolling, calling on some long forgotten skills of sitting watch when he was in the Army to stay awake and not let his mind wander too far off task.
It hadn’t taken long for him to recognize that Mari was amazingly talented. Every image captured beauty in a unique way. Mari had told him earlier that unique way is what photographers referred to as their eye. It was how she saw things. A supermodel wearing designer clothes, a bird sitting on a branch, an old woman waiting for the bus, a wilted flower in a pot, Mari saw beauty in all of it and managed to take a picture of it in a way that the person looking at the photo saw exactly what she had seen.
In the last two hours, he felt like he’d taken every single trip right along with her. He knew what things caught her eye on the streets of Paris and on the streets of Brooklyn. Her pictures told a story that simple words would never be able to do.
Strangely enough, he found himself more drawn to those random snapshots she took outside of an official assignment more than anything else. In those images, he felt more connected to her—getting to know her in a way that felt private and intimate and special. She’d told him she didn’t usually show those pictures to anyone, they were just for her, and he enjoyed getting to see another side of her that no one else saw.
He scrolled through a half dozen more pictures and was just about to give up and stretch his legs when something caught his eye. He scrolled back two frames and zoomed in.
The photograph on the screen was of a dove, but that wasn’t what he was interested in. Behind the dove was an average New York street scene with vendor carts and food trucks lining the street. He glanced at the signs on the buildings in the background and recognized the diamond district from the dozens of jewelry stores in the shot. Within that crowd was a familiar face and he wanted to see it closer.
He nudged Mari awake next to him.
“Hmmm?” She grumbled and opened one eye. “What?” Her hair was rumpled and she had smeared makeup under one eye. He didn’t care. She still looked good enough to eat.
“How do I get this image even bigger? All three, no wait, four of these images bigger?”
“Did you find something?” She was awake now and grabbed the computer from him, the backs of her knuckles accidentally grazing his crotch. No matter how focused he was on the job at hand any touch from her, accidental or otherwise, was enough to send all the blood rushing south out of his brain.
* * *
The beer on the bar in front of Jeremy was dripping enough sweat to have already dissolved most of the napkin it rested on. This was his first beer of the night, and he’d barely drank the neck and shoulders off it. Lately, he found that the first beer came earlier and earlier with each passing day. The old joke about it being five o’clock somewhere was less funny than it used to be, especially to his liver.
He wasn’t a drunk. He was, however, frequently drunk enough to not give a shit about the mess his life was at the moment or to think about how every damned bit of that was his own fault and no one else’s.
He’d made bad choices and as his grandmother who raised him was fond of saying, sometimes you’re a victim of your own bad choices. Now the question was how the hell could he turn it around and did he care enough to try? He thought about Brett who was so much more to him than an Army buddy. At one point Jeremy had considered Brett his brother in every way that mattered and a few that didn’t. He’d have died for him, fought for him, lied for him, and if the worst had happened, he would have cried for him. Now, he was supposed to be the enemy, at least he was to the guy who was signing Jeremy’s paychecks these days.
Well, they weren’t so much checks as they were wads of cash that had no doubt been earned doing things he was best not thinking about. Ever. Sokolov, his boss, was a bad guy. He’d never had any illusions about that. But he really hadn’t had any idea how bad he was until it was too late to do anything about it. Now he knew that there was no way out unless one of them was dead or in jail. He was pretty sure the guy he’d taken the briefcase from was dead now. He’d never forget the look on the man’s face as he unhooked the handcuff that he had the case secured to his wrist with. It was a look of pure defeat, acceptance that what was happening was inevitable. That’s what Jeremy had felt too.
He pushed the beer away, threw some cash on the bar, and headed for the door. He knew what he needed to do. Hell, he’d always known what he should do and once he knew that Brett was involved, there had never really been any choice in the matter. The complication wasn’t that. It was knowing he was not the only guy his boss had sent down here and not having any doubt that the other guy had no issues with his morals getting in the way.
He’d given Brett a heads up, it was the least he could do. Like literally the absolute least he could do because when it came right down to it, he could do a helluva lot more than just give him a heads up. Time to prove it—to both of them.
While driving across town, he formulated a plan, crossing his fingers and hoping he didn’t end up with a busted nose when he knocked on the door. If he did, he knew he had it coming, but still busted noses hurt like a bitch.
Parking his rental car, he looked up at Brett’s house, which was a far cry from a tent in the desert that smelled like dirty socks shared by four or five other guys, most of whom snored. The house looked out on the beach and was made up of dramatic angles and glass that reflected palm trees silhouetted in the moonlight. It looked clean and orderly and everything his life wasn’t at the moment.
Marching up the sidewalk, he didn’t give himself a chance to chicken out because he knew he couldn’t live with himself if he did. Busted nose or not. He knocked softly twice and for a moment indulged in the fantasy that Brett might not answer because it was probably after midnight. There were no lights on, but he could see shadows moving around after he knocked and heard soft voices talking.
Mari was here. Another punch to the gut.
He knew Brett well enough to know that bringing a woman home once was an anomaly, and if she was here again this late at night, she meant something to his friend and that made him that much more of a dick for not doing the right thing days ago.
Brett pulled open the door slowly and just far enough to fill the opening with his body as if he was shielding Mari from him, which made Jeremy feel about two inches tall. God when had he turned into such an asshole?
“Hey,” Jeremy said, taking one cautionary step back in case Brett decided to swing. He struggled to figure out the words he needed to say and finally settled on what felt comfortable. “I’m a jackass.”
Brett’s face twisted into a sarcastic half-smile and Jeremy knew he didn’t have to worry about his nose anymore. “Yeah, you are.”
“I wanna make this right.” There, that hadn’t been so hard had it? Hell yes, it had been, but he’d still done it and that alone felt good.
“How?” Brett leaned against the doorframe but still didn’t invite him in. His body language said relaxed, but Jeremy knew he could still pounce on him in the blink of an eye. And he knew that Brett knew he knew, so that’s where they were at the moment. Each of them silently acknowledging their relationship was tenuous at best, and knowing they could do each other a lot of bodily harm if they decided it was going to go that way. Call it mutual respect, or call it two guys who had trained together and scrapped enough to know each other’s strengths and weaknesses.
“I have a few ideas, but I’d like your input.” In other words, you’re going to have to let me in if you want my ideas.
From somewhere behind him a female voice answered. “Let him in, Brett.”
Brett hesitated a moment before turning sideways and letting Jeremy inside. Mari sat on the couch wearing a gray T-shirt with the word ARMY blazoned across the chest in large black letters. Jeremy had an identical shirt in his bag in the rental car. It was the equivalent to Brett scrawling mine across her chest and they both knew it.
“Hi, I’m Mari.” She offered her hand from her perch on the couch without standing up, looking like she’d just woken up. The laptop sitting at her knee was open and a quick glance revealed a photo of Jeremy taking a black leather briefcase from a man in a trench coat and a hat.
The cat was out of the bag. Good thing he’d come to confess.
“I see you found what you were searching for.” Jeremy pointed to the image on the computer.
“Did you steal diamonds from a Russian gangster?” Brett didn’t mince words.
* * *
Mari was surprised to realize that she really liked Jeremy. His personality was so similar to Brett’s and after the first few tense moments, the two of them had been quick to laugh or joke with each other. She didn’t miss the fact that Brett stayed close to her, usually touching her. Every touch, no matter how casual or protective it was intended to be, sent a thrill coursing through her body that was strong enough to curl her toes. She felt like she’d spent most of the last week with her toes curled in one way or another.
Brett and Jeremy had their heads together in the kitchen now formulating a plan to fix the mess that her life had become. She gathered that Jeremy had made some mistakes in the years since the two men had last seen each other, but whatever their relationship had been before, the bond was still strong enough now to overcome his involvement in making her life hell the last few months.
Jeremy had been forthright in his apology to her, his sincerity and genuine concern for the stress he’d caused her had her blinking back tears, which she blamed on exhaustion. He’d also confessed to being the one who broke into her apartment and strangely she felt some small comfort in knowing it wasn’t a stranger any longer. Now Jeremy had a face and a name and Brett seemed to trust him, although that was tenuous she suspected. She no longer had to wonder if the intruder had rifled through her personal things or done anything else that would make her shudder while she was alone in her private space.
A sharp bark of male laughter came from the kitchen and Mari wondered if Brett would mind if she borrowed his shower while the two men talked. She only had the clothing she’d worn here, but she was happy to appropriate more of his T-shirts and sweats. She loved the feel of the soft cotton that smelled vaguely of him against her skin.
She wandered into the kitchen and found them sitting at the table, both looking tired, but Brett’s eyes instantly went on alert the moment she appeared in the doorway. The windows behind them revealed the darkness outside was beginning to lighten which meant daybreak had come and gone. No wonder they were all tired. She’d dozed off and on while they talked, but the men had seemed either unable or unwilling to let their bodies rest.
“Hey,” Brett said as he reached for her, pulling her down into his lap where she happily sat and rested her head on his shoulder.
“Hey,” she answered, hearing the tiredness in her voice.
“Tired?”
“Not as tired as you I’m sure. I actually dozed off a few times on the couch.”
“I’m good,” he lied. A cup of coffee rested within arm’s reach, cold and abandoned, and Mari wondered how many cups he’d had to keep himself going this long.
Jeremy watched them from across the table, his expression was unreadable. His build was similar to Brett’s, but he was a bit larger in every way. Slightly taller, slightly wider, and definitely more intense. Where Brett’s hair was dark brown like the coffee in his cup, Jeremy’s was jet black. His beard hadn’t seen a razor in several days judging by the stubble there and his clothes looked like he’d pulled them directly out of a duffel bag and put them on sometime yesterday. She’d noticed when he first arrived he smelled slightly of beer. Brett had noticed too, she was sure, because the man never missed anything. She suspected that was the reason the first pot of coffee had been brewed.
“I’m going to get going,” Jeremy said as he slid his chair back. “I’ll give you a call later and let you know when things are arranged.”
The statement was vague and Mari knew she should be annoyed they were keeping details from her since it was her mess they were fixing, but she was simply too tired to put up a fight at the moment.
“Why don’t you crash here?” Brett offered.
Jeremy looked from her to Brett and back again. “Third wheels suck, dude.”
“You’re not a third wheel. You’re helping me and I truly appreciate it.” Mari protested. “If anyone should go, it’s me. I should head back to the resort and shower and put on my own clothes.” She didn’t want to be the reason Brett’s friend left when they were in the middle of mending fences.
“You’re not going anywhere,” Brett told her and pulled her closer. “I’m keeping an eye on you, remember?”
Just the words sent a thrill through her body that left her shivering in anticipation.
“That’s my cue,” Jeremy said, grabbing his coffee cup and depositing it in the sink as he headed toward the door in one smooth motion.
“You’ll call?” Brett stood up and sat Mari on her feet as he followed his friend to the door.
“I’ll call,” Jeremy said without turning around. Mari wasn’t sure, but she thought the tips of his ears and back of his neck looked a little bit red. Surely she was mistaken though.
“He left suddenly,” Mari said to Brett when the door closed.
“He’s a smart guy,” Brett answered as his hands came around her waist from behind her, pulling the length of her body against the firmness of his. “You’re tired.”
She remembered that she had been exhausted a few minutes ago, but now it seemed like every nerve ending was alive. “So are you,” she reminded him. “And we have a long day ahead of us.”
“I need a shower,” Brett said, his mouth nuzzling her neck, the rasp of his five o’clock shadow scraping her skin and sending fire rushing down her body to warm dark and secret places that had no business being awake right now.
“Me too,” she whispered, her head falling back against his shoulder giving his hands access to slip under the T-shirt she wore. “Also, I think it’s only fair to tell you that you’re never getting this shirt back.”
Brett laughed and she felt the rumble in his chest as much as she heard it in her ear. Suddenly a thought popped into her head that had her straightening and pulling away from him. “Wait.”
Brett dropped his hands, confusion obvious on his face. “What?”
She tried to figure out how to ask the question she needed answered without sounding like a jealous girlfriend. Because she wasn’t a girlfriend…yet. “This shirt, I am gathering it’s been around awhile?”
One eyebrow cocked up in confusion. “Yeah?”
“And been worn by many sleepover guests?” she asked and held her breath while he smiled in that way that made her feel like her entire insides had gone liquid.
“Jealous?” He teased as his hands grabbed the hem of the shirt and used it to pull her back to him.
“No. Yes. Maybe?” She answered as she felt her neck and face grow hot with embarrassment.
“You could have asked Jeremy,” he offered.
“I don’t want to ask him.”
“But he’d tell you how unusual it is for me to have anyone back to my place and how in all the years he’s known me he’s never known me to share anything. Not even clothes.” His mouth came down on hers and she was still processing what he’d said so it took her brain a minute to respond, but her body reacted on instinct and welcomed him inside like he was coming home. Somewhere her foggy brain registered him backing her up against the front door where she vaguely heard him click the lock and dead bolt into place, she moaned in protest of his hands being busy elsewhere instead of on her. He made quick work of the lock and whatever else he took care of and returned his hands to where they belonged.
Her own hands were busy reacquainting themselves with the width of his shoulders, the ripple of muscles down his back, and the curve of his amazing butt.
* * *
Longest damned night of his life, Brett thought as he secured the house. Some part of his brain reminded him this was not the ideal time to be taking Mari back to bed, but the rest of his body had other plans. They had a few hours until Jeremy had the plans set in motion and they needed to be sharp and ready for whatever shit was about to come down on them. He needed to call Michael and Dex to have them on standby if needed, but for now, all he wanted was this. His mouth on hers, his hands on her body, and hers on his. He wanted to forget that fear is what had originally driven her to him and convince himself there was something that would keep her here once he’d made sure she was safe.
Her fingers seemed to be counting the muscles in his back and giving each individual one unique attention until Brett was reasonably certain she’d rendered him completely unable to move. It was hypnotic and energizing at the same time. Seeing her in that T-shirt he’d worn a million times was also the sexiest thing he’d ever seen. When she’d told him she wasn’t giving it back, he wanted to tell her it was fine because he knew he’d never wear it again without picturing the way it kissed the top of her sweet ass and teased him mercilessly when she didn’t bother to put a bra on under it. If she gave it back, he’d have to burn it to get it out of the house. The idea of another woman wearing it was laughable. It might be a handful of sizes too big for Mari, but it fit her perfectly in his mind and the only thing he could think of that would be better was taking it off.
She was wearing a bra under it now—which was a damned good thing or he would have had to blacken both of Jeremy’s eyes for seeing her like that—and the feel of lace as his hands found their way under it was almost as erotic as seeing her without it. Almost. He pressed his body against hers so she could feel how hard she’d already made him, even though they were both still fully dressed.
He needed a shower, and to him, that sounded like heaven and hell combined into one hot fantasy he was determined to make a reality. He unclasped her bra and slid each strap over her shoulders through the oversized sleeves before tossing it behind him where it landed somewhere forgotten. Why men bought their woman sexy scraps of lace to wear and act out their fantasies was lost on him because the feel of her full, bare breasts under the thin cotton was enough to make him grit his teeth and dig for self-control. He cupped both breasts in his hands and rolled the nipples between his fingers and thumbs as he listened to her gasp and groan, her leg sliding up his thigh to pull him even closer to where he desperately wanted to be.
“Come on,” he growled, lifting his head and pulling her down the hall to the master bathroom. “If I don’t shower, we’ll both regret it,” he explained, because there was no way he was taking her to bed smelling like yesterday’s gym sock.
In the bathroom, he closed and locked the door, flipping the light switch on and turning the water on to get warm before he made short work of undressing her. When she stood in front of him naked, full hips and breasts narrowing to a waist that his hands could probably circle without much effort, he wanted to forget all about a shower and take her right there standing in the middle of the bathroom instead.
“Hurry,” she whispered, waking him up from his fantasy to remind him that he needed to get his clothes off too.
The room filled with steam as he helped her into the tiled shower and turned both shower heads on. He’d considered the dual showerheads and body jets a waste of time until this very moment. Now he vowed to never live without them again. Watching her step beneath the spray and tilt her head back to wet her dark blond hair, he forgot about everything else besides following the rivulets of water down her body with his mouth until she could do nothing but say his name over and over again.
How on earth had he ever thought one night with this woman would be enough to satisfy him? A lifetime wouldn’t be enough.
Whoa.
Slow down.
This wasn’t about lifetimes or forever.
But when she opened her eyes and looked at him—wet hair, no makeup and all fantasy—he knew that was a lie to deal with another day.
That was the last ounce of energy his brain had to devote to intelligent thought for the next hour. After that it was all he could do to remember to breathe and stay on his feet. Her hands on his body, the soap and water making them slick and wet, he hurried to get them both clean then lifted her legs around his waist and pressed her back against the tile.
With his mouth on hers and his hands under her butt, he was at her mercy, and she took full advantage, making him lock his knees to keep them both from falling to the shower floor, which wouldn’t have been all bad except for the bruises. It seemed like less than five minutes but could also have been an hour and he was regretting not grabbing a condom when she reached for him and pulled him closer to her entrance.
“Condom,” he groaned with regret.
“I’m on the pill. I’m healthy. I want you now,” she said frantically. “Please.”
Good God, how was he supposed to resist that?
“Are you sure?” He gritted his teeth and felt his dick twitch as if to say get on with it dude!
She took the decision out of his hands as she pressed her hips closer and took the tip of him inside her heat.
“Fuck,” he muttered, trying to remember how to breathe. Her heels dug into his back and he gave up. There was no way he could fight this and win. The feeling of her heat against his bare skin was too much. He hadn’t been with a woman without a condom since high school and he knew without a doubt that had not felt like this. He pressed deeper and lost it when Mari let her head fall back and her mouth slid open on a silent “Ohhhh.”
“Mari?” He said her name as a question, asking if he should stop, hoping he didn’t have to stop, but would die trying if she wanted him to.
“Brett!” His name was an exclamation and he let go of the last sliver of his control and drove fully into her, trying his best to cushion her hips with his hands against the tile, finding his own release when she orgasmed around him so perfectly.
* * *
Wrapped in a towel, she lay beside Brett and listened to him breathe. They’d both slept for a while. She wasn’t sure how long and she didn’t honestly care. Her hair was still damp where she’d been lying on it but the rest of it was dry and no doubt sticking up in the most inconvenient angles. Her hips felt a little bruised and her legs felt like jelly. She didn’t know how Brett had managed to hold them both up because she knew without a doubt her legs were unable to support even her still.
Bone-melting wasn’t a big enough word to describe what had happened in his shower earlier. Their time together had been magic before, but this was on an entirely different level—a level that quite frankly scared her senseless. More than a mysterious man putting a contract out on her, more than the idea of losing her career, more than anything she’d ever faced in her life. But not as much as the idea of never feeling this way again.
“You awake?” Brett’s chest vibrated, but his eyes were still closed.
“I think so.” She smiled and glanced up to see his lips curved to match hers.
“I’m not even sure if I’m still alive.”
“Yeah.” She wondered how he felt now, if it had felt like the earth shifted to him too.
“We should probably talk about this.” His eyes were open now, his dark blue gaze seeming to see past all of her defenses.
“Probably,” she admitted but had no idea where to start.
“Do you know how rare this is?” he asked, letting his finger trail down her cheek to her neck where her pulse was beating at a crazy pace.
Mari couldn’t answer so she just nodded.
“It’s never happened to me,” he admitted. Before she could answer his phone rang down the hall. The bedroom door was closed, Brett had made sure of that before they lay down earlier. Just like he’d made sure the bathroom door was closed and locked before they showered. But that ringing phone meant their bubble was about to burst.
With a quick kiss, Brett stood and left the room, leaving his towel behind and strolling naked through the house. He was one truly gorgeous man from any direction she got to look at him, but right now this view might be her favorite, she thought with a smile. She indulged in one more moment of pretending she didn’t have to get up before she went in search of her own clothes and grabbed the ARMY T-shirt from the bathroom for good measure. She hadn’t been kidding when she said he wasn’t getting it back. The only thing still to be decided was would she be wearing it here or at home alone in New York?
“Okay, I’ll be right there,” she heard Brett say into the phone as he walked back into the bedroom still beautifully naked. He frowned when he saw her fully dressed in her shorts and shirt, not his, or maybe it was because she wasn’t still naked too. “Thanks.” He hung up and crossed the room to kiss her deeply until she was holding onto him to keep herself upright.
“You got dressed. I can’t decide if I’m sorry or relieved since there is zero chance of me keeping my hands to myself when you’re not.” He grinned.
“I figured that was Jeremy saying it was time to go,” she said, finger combing her hair as best she could.
“About that,” Brett said as he disappeared into the bathroom and returned with a comb. “I’m not taking you with me.”
She paused with the comb halfway to her head. “What? Why not? Never mind, because that’s crazy. You cannot do this by yourself, and if I’m not there, then they’re just going to bolt and come looking for me again. I have to go!”
She’d overlooked them making a plan without consulting her. She’d let it go that they were obviously holding details back from her, but this was where she drew the line. Also, she wasn’t nearly as tired now as she was before. She felt energized and more capable than she had in a long time.
“I know you want to play the hero, but that isn’t fair,” she said without thinking and immediately regretted her choice of words. Brett’s expression went dark and he finished tugging on his jeans before crossing the room to take her face in his hands gently.
“I’m not trying to play anything, I’m trying to make sure you stay safe. That’s all.” He corrected her so firmly she knew there was only truth in his words.
“I know that. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to imply otherwise, but what you’re forgetting is that I also need you to stay safe and the only way that can happen is if I’m there. I’ll hand over the images and I’ll make sure they understand that I never intended to publish them anyway!” Brett was already shaking his head. He’d made up his mind and there was nothing she could do or say to change it. “Fine, do it your way.” She gave in and he raised an eyebrow at how quickly she caved but let it go.
“Thank you.” He kissed her again and she leaned in, trying to absorb all his courage and confidence into her own body. She was going to need it.