Chapter Twelve
Kaitlyn
Pacing up and down the corridor outside of the negotiation room was getting her nowhere, but Kaitlyn didn’t know what else to do.
“Where the hell is he?”
She’d gotten ready and texted Aric that she was good to go when he was, but he’d never responded. After waiting another five minutes she’d gone and knocked at his door. There had been no answer, but to her surprise the quarters were unlocked and she was able to enter them.
Aric hadn’t been inside, dashing her initial hopes that maybe he’d just overslept. Unlike him, but easily fixable. A more thorough search revealed that his stuff was still packed in his bag. Even the bed looked like it hadn’t been slept in. The comforter on it still had the impression of his suitcase from where he must have initially put it.
Forced to conclude that he hadn’t stayed the night there, she’d made her way over to the negotiation room, where she was now frantically looking at her watch and waiting for him to make a heroic last-minute entrance and save the day. Unfortunately it didn’t look like that was going to happen, her watch ticking away the last thirty seconds until the appointed meeting start time.
Kaitlyn watched the number fall, her stomach dropping with each moment that passed. Finally she had to give it up. Holding up the security badge she’d been given to the door scanner, she waited for it to slide open. The solid steel portal slid aside.
“Where the fuck have you been?” she cried at the sight of Aric sitting at the table, his back to her. She couldn’t see his face, but she’d recognize that hair and those shoulders anywhere.
Two other heads lifted to look at her, and Kaitlyn almost ducked back out of the door. Both Kallore and Colonel Mara registered expressions of disdain at her outburst, though neither was rude enough to say anything to her. They didn’t have to though; Kaitlyn was more than capable of berating herself.
“Uh, sorry,” she said sheepishly, slipping into the room and trying to take a seat as meekly as possible, while not giving in to her temper the instant she was able to see his face.
“Good to see you,” Colonel Mara said with a tight smile. “Sorry we had to cut things short yesterday, but something came up.” She snorted. “Something is always ‘coming up’ these days. I long for the days where nothing happened.”
Nobody responded, and Kaitlyn absolutely was not going to be the first person to speak up. Not again. Twice now she’d made a fool of herself in front of everyone, and she was done doing that. So instead she sat back, paid attention, and contributed where she could. Thankfully today was less technical detail and more on numbers, things she could get a grasp on with far less preparation.
They talked training, number of suits, delivery schedules, and follow-up visits, and even began to dabble in pricing, though both Aric and Colonel Mara didn’t seem ready to dive into that front just yet, much to her disappointment.
Eventually the day ended and the other pair departed, leaving her alone with Aric once again. He seemed quiet, almost apprehensive. Probably waiting for me to lash out at him again. Although he deserved it, she didn’t feel like getting angry at him right then would get her the results she sought, so Kaitlyn asked him a question that had been on her mind and growing for some time now.
“You seem really invested in this deal,” she remarked. “On a personal level, I can see it in the way you talk. Getting these suits is really important for you, isn’t it?”
Aric glanced at her, his expression changing once more. “What do you mean?”
“It’s your eyes,” she said softly, settling back into the chair next to him. “They’re what betray you. Normally they’re cold. Distant. Calculating even. For the most part you keep them under control when talking to the colonel, but every now and then, usually when you’re talking about the Guard, they grow brighter. Fuller.” She looked away. “Almost emotional.”
The big man sat back into his chair, looking down at her even though they were both seated. “I train with them you know,” he replied, keeping his voice low as well. “Once or twice a month. Did you know that?”
She shook her head. “Honestly, I know next to nothing about you, Aric, besides what I’ve learned in the past couple of days really.”
He smiled, a short-lived thing that came and went like a strike of lightning. “I do my best to keep my business and personal life separate.”
“You do a way better job than anyone else I know who tries to do that. You’re a ghost outside of work as far as anyone is concerned. I’m curious why it means so much to you though.”
Aric looked at her. Really looked. A shiver ran down her spine as she felt, for lack of a better word, evaluated by his gaze. Not for her physical appeal, though she’d caught him doing that here or there as well, but for something else.
“My…family works very closely with the Guard,” he explained, getting up and pacing slowly from one side of the room to the other. “The military means a lot to us, and to many of our friends. Some of us have served, while almost all of us at a minimum have worked extremely closely in once capacity or another with the elite units.”
“That explains why you were sent to close this deal.” She frowned. “I still can’t figure out why the military isn’t buying the technology. Shouldn’t it go that way?”
“We’re not really buying the technology, though. We’re buying the suits themselves.”
Kaitlyn could hear his gentle urging to drop it, but she hadn’t gotten to where she was in the bank’s hierarchy by backing down. “And then what, loaning them to the Guard? I don’t understand how this works, unless…” she trailed off.
“Unless what?” Aric paused in his walking, looking down at her.
Unless the bank is actually owned by the government. She didn’t say it, deciding that this was time to keep counsel to herself.
“I’m not sure.” Another idea struck her. What if she wasn’t looking at it properly?
All along she’d assumed that the bank was independent, and then the government oversaw the military, the Guard. What if that wasn’t the case? What if she had it backward, and the Guard were independent, or even technically owned by the bank?
Kaitlyn wasn’t sure she wanted to explore that idea any further. A privately-owned entity that acted as the nation’s military? In a country that was the neutral territory in the world. Worldwide declarations had been named after the cities that had hosted them. Important ones that governed the rules of international warfare and prisoner treatment.
To think that all of that had been done under false pretenses was…astounding. Terrifying as well, because it meant she’d stumbled upon a secret that she wasn’t supposed to know.
Or even worse, a secret that Aric had decided to tell her about. No, she shoved that out of her mind. Aric was not an evil person trying to trap her with this and use it to blackmail her. She just couldn’t believe that was him. There had to be more to it, and she could only trust that he would tell her in time.
“Why did you run away yesterday?” she said, blatantly changing the subject and avoiding his pressing gaze.
Aric reared back in surprise, the instant and largeness of his movement startling her and producing a similar action from Kaitlyn. She too stood, tired of having to look so far up at him. Of course, standing didn’t decrease the distance that much, but it made her feel better about it.
“I wasn’t running away,” he countered.
She didn’t speak up, waiting for him to continue, but he didn’t say anything else. “That’s it? You’re just going to deny exactly what happened and not provide an explanation?”
“Pretty much.”
Kaitlyn’s lips flattened into a thin line. “You’re going to have to do better than that.”
Aric was looking at her, his face blank except for the wariness in his eyes as they shifted around to focus on various points of her face. Gauging her, trying to tell just how frustrated she was with him. The answer was: a lot. Ever since arriving at the base things had gone sideways. Their hotel rooms, the missing folio of information she desperately needed, them kissing, him disappearing until the next morning. She didn’t like any of it.
“I was feeling unwell.”
She examined his face in return, looking for any ticks or avoidance of her stare that would indicate he was lying, but nothing came up. If he was feeling unwell, why hadn’t he just said that in the first place? He could have texted her later on. That didn’t answer the question of where he’d stayed the night before however, or why he hadn’t contacted her.
“You seemed fine at lunch. Was it something you ate?”
“No.” He waved a hand at her. “I’d rather not talk about it though.”
She gave him a harder look. “You’d better not stand there and say it was kissing me. I did not get you sick. I’ll have you know I’ve had my cooties shot since grade three, and I kept up to date on it for four years. It wasn’t me.”
Aric laughed freely, the booming sound echoing in the small room. The genuine mirth on his face pleased her. He must be feeling somewhat better.
“Kissing you was a surprise, to be sure. But no, you’re not the problem.”
The odd phrasing caught her attention, but she had no time to think on it, because Aric was suddenly in front of her. She backed up swiftly, until her rear pushed up against the table they’d been using for negotiations.
“What are you doing?” she squeaked as he stepped closer, all but pinning her in place.
“Showing you that I can kiss you and stick around. That you don’t make me sick. I can see that you doubt me.”
“I never said that,” she protested, shaking her head. Or was it just trembling from the nerves? It was hard to tell.
“Not in so many words, but I want to put to rest any doubts that may exist.”
“Oh,” she said in a weak, fluttering voice.
She had no chance to think that over, because hands grabbed her hips and lifted her onto the table. Kaitlyn had never been manhandled like that before, treated like she were just an object to be moved and not some dainty flower made from porcelain. It was fun, and the surge of adrenaline bolstered her confidence as he kissed her for a second time in less than twenty-four hours.
His lips were just as soft as she’d remembered them, warm too. Fingers grasped her lower back and pulled her tighter to him. Kaitlyn moaned into his mouth instinctively, her mouth parting to receive his tongue at the same time. Warm and hungry she let him in, arching her back.
“Not here,” she gasped as his right hand draped itself across her inner thigh and slid up toward her crotch. “I’m not interested in getting caught.”
“Right. Okay.” Without asking he picked her up from the table and started carrying her toward the door.
“Whoa there,” she said, slipping from his delightfully strong and muscled arms, trailing her fingers over his biceps, momentarily distracted.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, bringing her back to the moment.
“Uh, yeah. I’ll walk. We’re not married. No carrying over thresholds. I’m a lady and I have to draw a limit somewhere.”
And that limit certainly isn’t fucking your boss. Twice.
So where was her limit?
Kaitlyn spent the entire walk back to her quarters—they certainly weren’t going to use his bed—thinking about that question, and one more.
Should she tell him before they hooked up again?