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Summer merely shrugged. Let him say what he wanted, she and her momma knew the truth, and that was all that mattered.
“If she baked this delight, we would marry her,” Falcon swore with almost gleeful pleasure. “Perhaps I can convince her momma to marry us. I think I could do so if I thought she’d bake for us often.”
Summer just dropped her head and stared at the floor, shaking her head. Just when she had managed to convince herself to forget the fact that it was one for all and all for one with those two, one of them just had to remind her.
At the sound of the coffeemaker completing its cycle she poured the coffee into the cups Falcon had placed next to her, aware of Raeg searching the cupboards until he found dessert plates and forks.
Carrying the three cups to the table, she placed one in front of Falcon as he guarded the cake pan—no doubt terrorists worldwide were after her cake—while Raeg set a plate and fork by each cup.
“You think he’s going to share that cake?” Raeg asked as they took their chairs and stared at Falcon expectantly.
Falcon cut the cake though, placed generous portions on each plate, then immediately dug into his with the most sensual sound of pleasure. That little hum of love went straight between her thighs and sent a pulse of aching need through her entire system.
Damn him. Far too charming by far.
“We’re going to have to make this a quick visit,” she told them. Evidently they had no intentions of telling her why they were there.
“And this would be why?” Falcon spared her no more than a quick glance as he forked another bite of cake into his mouth, obviously in no hurry to finish the sweet.
“Because I have to leave. I’d already be packing if I hadn’t spotted the Suburban parked in the carpool area where you thought you were hiding.” She gave them both a chiding look. “Really? Did you think I wouldn’t see you there?”
Evidently, that was exactly what they thought.
“How did you know who it was?” Raeg leaned back in his chair regarding her curiously rather than hatefully as he normally did.
Maybe he was ill this week.
Or maybe he was working an operation with Falcon, which meant her former partner had no intention whatsoever of paying attention when she said she was finished. Not that working with both Raeg and Falcon couldn’t be fun, because it could be.
She simply knew it was time for her to get out. To continue heading out knowing that would be the same as signing her own death warrant.
“Falcon keeps forgetting to have the Suburban painted, and the scuffs on the front are very distinctive. And they show up real good in sunlight,” she answered Raeg.
Falcon was too busy stuffing his face to do more than roll his eyes at the reminder. But since his hair had drifted over his brow, falling to partially obscure one eye, and he looked too damned sexy for words, she wouldn’t hold it against him.
“This cake…” Falcon sighed, tipping his fork toward the few bites left. “I am in love with your momma, Summer. She has stolen my heart. I’m telling you, Raeg and I will marry her. I’m certain we could slip her right past your father and steal her completely away.”
Once again, Raeg simply slid his brother a doubtful look.
Sipping her coffee to hide her smile, she ignored the look Raeg turned on her then. God only knew what he was thinking. It was equal parts suspicion and chiding amusement, and not a look she’d ever received from him. As though he knew far more than she wanted him to know, and had every intention of using it to his advantage. The look actually excited her more than it should have and left her just a tad breathless.
Remaining silent while they finished their cake, Summer sipped her coffee, merely picking at her own portion. She knew Falcon and Raeg had something on their minds, and she was terribly afraid that saying no to both of them would be impossible.
A hunter always knew when it was time to find their hole and learn how to hide, Summer thought painfully. They realized when they couldn’t handle the blood and the death, the lies and the danger any longer. She’d reached that point before the Russian operation, but she’d kept going because she hated walking away from Falcon and Raeg forever. And it would be forever, she’d known. Whatever haunted the two men, she’d never learned, just as she had no idea how to get past it.
“Falcon, you seem to be ignoring the fact that I told you I have to leave,” she finally told him gently when he’d nearly finished his cake.
She didn’t want to argue with him. In the time she’d worked with him, she’d glimpsed a gentleness, a warmth in him that both intrigued her and endeared him to her.
“Summer…” he began.
“Falcon.” She leaned forward, staring back at him imploringly. “I don’t want to have to run from you again, but I just can’t do it anymore. You didn’t want to listen before. You keep hunting me down, and all I want is to find some peace. If I go out again, feeling this way, I’ll die, and we both know it.”
She had to make him understand before he began making his play for her to join them in whatever job they had taken.
“I realized that when I saw the lengths you would go to in escaping me.” Pushing his fingers through his hair, he sat back and regarded her silently for a moment. “I wish I could continue to leave you to find your peace, sweetheart. Raeg and I both do. But that isn’t possible now.”
“You don’t want me going out on a job with you ever again,” she advised him painfully. “Don’t try to convince me otherwise. I’ll end up getting both of us killed.”
