Through the living room windows, Ewan could see the trees changing leaves. If they didn’t leave soon, they’d be snowed in here. Not simply safe. Trapped. Surviving on the stores he’d laid away, never thinking he’d need to use them. Already he was growing tired of synthbeef and pasta, of the quiet, endless days with nothing to occupy him but the books on the shelves . . . and Nina. Everything was making him weary, but he didn’t think he’d ever get tired of her.
She was the first woman he’d ever brought to this cabin. The first, too, that he’d spent this much time with. Other relationships had turned sour quickly, often after spending as little as a single weekend together. Yet here they were, weeks and weeks into this, and he looked forward to every minute with her as much as ever. Maybe even more, he thought with a glance toward her.
Nina didn’t look up, but she did smile. “You and the staring thing.”
“I’m bored,” Ewan said abruptly.
At this, she put down her book and met his gaze. “Hmm?”
“I’m tired of not working,” he told her. “This isn’t like a vacation. This is forced time off, and I’m getting bored.”
“You agreed to it,” she said mildly.
Ewan frowned. “Obviously, I agreed to it. But scratch it, I want to at least be able to check in. See what’s being reported about me. Make sure everything’s under control. At least I want to find out if it’s possible for me to go back.”
“Ah.” Nina’s mouth pursed. “You want to go home.”
He did, but not so they had to put aside this delicious interlude they’d been sharing. They hadn’t talked about what would happen when inevitably they did return to Woodhaven. If the threats against his life had eased, he’d no longer need Nina as his bodyguard. What that meant for them as a couple, Ewan hadn’t figured out.
“We can’t stay here forever. At the very least we ought to figure out how to get some more supplies before winter comes,” he said.
“Yeah?” She grinned. “You don’t want to be forced to . . . eat me?”
He rolled his eyes at the innuendo, though the truth was that the thought of feasting on her twitched his cock. “I’m looking out for you, baby. You’re the one who needs the calories.”
“Truth. And baby,” she said in that silky, sultry voice he was helpless to resist, “as much as I do love taking everything you can give me, it’s definitely not enough to sustain me.”
Ewan groaned with a tug at the crotch of his pants to ease the growing pressure there. “You make everything sound so . . .”
“Dirty?”
“Sexy,” he said. “Sexy, dirty.”
Nina tucked a bookmark between the pages and set the book aside. She stood. “You said you could leave everything in the hands of someone you trust. So that you could go away, long enough to get your people working on who exactly has been coming after you. I’m not sure it’s been long enough. It’s only been a few weeks.”
“Yeah. Exactly. I mean, look at me.” He ran his hands through his hair until it stood on end. His hair was getting too long. His face, stubbly.
“It works for you. I like you scruffy.” She chucked him beneath the chin, then kept her grip on his jaw to tug him closer for a kiss. “But okay, I get it. You’re bored. After all, how much sex can two people possibly have without starting to rehash the same old material?”
Ewan grabbed her hips to pull her against his erection. “That sounds like a challenge.”
“Too bad you’re so boooorrrred.” Nina moved against him in slow circles. When he groaned again, louder this time, she laughed and pulled away. She looked into his eyes, suddenly serious. “Hmm. You’re serious, huh?”
As much as he wanted to keep kissing her and see where it led, Ewan nodded. “Yeah. I’m going stir crazy.”
“Unfortunately you didn’t think about that when you stocked this place,” she teased. “Could have included a couple of thousand-piece jigsaw puzzles or something.”
“We could pick one up in town.”
Nina shook her head. “Ewan.”
“I need to get in touch with Rodriquez. Find out if everything’s okay. That’s all. We’ll get a change of scenery. Grab some supplies.”
“You’re suggesting we go into town?” Nina frowned.
Ewan didn’t like that look. They might have spent that last three weeks behaving like lovers, but in this moment it was clear she’d returned to her role of protector. “I can use one of the public comm links to send a message to Rodriquez. . . .”
“Hold on. The whole point of us coming here was because it was someplace nobody knew about. You’re going to risk everything if you try to get in touch with Rodriquez now.” Nina shook her head. “I can’t allow it.”
“I don’t need your permission, Nina.” The words bit out of him.
Nina took a step back. “I see.”
“Baby, I didn’t mean it to sound like that.” Too late, her expression told him that she wasn’t going to let this slide.
“Don’t call me ‘baby’ again if you’re going to use it like an apology you don’t even mean.” She stood straighter, her hands on her hips. Chin tipped up. Lips firm.
“Got it.” The sensual interplay between them had gone ice cold.
“You wanted to come here because it was a safe house. I came with you to make sure you stayed safe. If you want to go into town and expose yourself to the possibility of being found and targeted, I can advise you against it, but I certainly can’t stop you. All I can do is accompany you and make sure that I keep doing my job.”
Nina’s neutral expression was void of any hint that their relationship had ever drifted into something beyond purely professional, and it was killing him. He wanted to kiss her. Tease her into a smile, a laugh. Something softer than the soldier standing in front of him. He wanted to see her be a woman again.
* * *
As Ewan finished speaking, Nina took a few steps away from him. She no longer wanted to kiss him, and the biting she felt like doing was not the kind he was likely to enjoy. She put her hands on her hips.
“Is that how you see me?” she asked, then waved a hand before he could answer. “Never mind. You don’t have to answer that. You see me as a soldier or a woman. Not both. I can’t be both to you?”
Ewan frowned. “I don’t mean your gender. I mean—”
“You mean that I can’t be strong and fierce and protect you, and also be your honey sugar cookie baby. Right? I can’t be both things. Even if you do get off on me being able to hurt you.” Nina took no pleasure in watching Ewan recoil. She’d stung him, that was clear.
“For all your talk about how you’re so capable of mingling work and pleasure, you’re the one who seems to have a hard time distinguishing. I don’t doubt you can do your job,” he put in before she could argue. “I’ve seen you work. I still trust you implicitly with my life. But you don’t own me, not as my protector and not as my—” He chopped off his sentence, his mouth going thin and grim.
Nina’s chin lifted. “Your what? Your baby? Your gal? Your woman? Your partner?”
“You’re not my partner when you try to completely overrule me,” Ewan said. “That’s not how it works.”
“Listen to you.” She sounded snide and knew it; hated it, but knew it. “All in there with the relationship advice. Remind me again how many relationships you’ve been able to make work?”
Ewan’s lip curled. “I could say the same to you, Nina.”
“Sounds like we both have no idea what we’re doing, then. You want to go into town? You think that’s a good idea? Fine.” She shrugged and gestured toward the cabin’s front door. “Let’s go.”
“There’s nothing to tie me to Deer Park any more than there is to this cabin. Even if there was an international bulletin circulating to be on the lookout for me, the chances of it making it to that tiny little speck of a town are miniscule. Besides, if they truly think I’m dead, they won’t even be looking for me. And I need to find out what’s going on,” Ewan said. “So, you can come with me or you can stay here, but either way, I’m going into town.”
Once they left this place, everything was going to change. Nina felt it in every synapse. Not a premonition—the tech in her brain had not made her psychic. Still, she knew it.
This place had never been meant for permanence, and neither had they.
It wasn’t over yet, though, and she didn’t want to spend the final moments with him arguing. She’d never been a woman to bite her tongue and cater to a man, but this wasn’t about that sort of pandering. It was about holding onto the last few minutes of sweetness before they had to let it go.
“I could stand to sink my teeth into a juicy burger,” she said finally. “Something that doesn’t come from cans or foil packets.”
Ewan smiled, and no matter how she wished it didn’t, the twist of his lips sent a rush of warmth all through her. “My treat.”
“Oh, it’s your treat all right. You haven’t yet taken me on a date. I expect to be shown a really good time.”
“Not sure how much of a good time Deer Park is going to be able to show us,” Ewan said with a bow, then offered her his arm. “But baby, I’ll do my best.”