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Lying in Jed’s arms that afternoon, Piper wondered what she was getting herself into this time, and just how it would affect not just her, but also her unattached sisters.
“Stop thinkin’,” Jed drawled, and for just a second there was a hint of the Texas upbringing he’d once told her he’d had.
“You’re starting to sound like a cowboy. ” Turning against his chest, she propped herself up and stared at him from where she lay against his shoulder.
Jed grunted lazily. “Yeah, it creeps out now and again. ”
“This is the first time I’ve actually heard it,” she pointed out. “I was starting to wonder if you’d lied to me about being born in Texas. ”
That Texas drawl was unmistakable. And she’d never heard it pass his lips.
So why now?
She was almost glowing at the possibility that perhaps sexual satisfaction and male contentment had managed to relax him enough that he’d lost a moment’s control over something it seemed he’d deliberately suppressed.
“I don’t lie to you. ” The simple statement had her stomach tightening in a feeling akin to, but not exactly, the panic attacks of the past.
This wasn’t panic. It was terrified anticipation, petrified hope. It was something it shouldn’t be; that was for damned sure.
“You’ve never lied to me?” Forcing the disbelief into her voice wasn’t easy.
It was almost impossible simply because she wanted so desperately to believe him. Wanted to believe him, and she was too scared to allow herself to do so.
“I’ve never lied to you, Piper. And I never will. ”
Was he lying to her? He had to be lying to her.
“I won’t lie to you,” he continued. “But that doesn’t mean there aren’t questions I can’t answer. If I can make the commitment not to deceive you, then I expect you to make one not to ask the questions you know would be off-limits. ”
Could she ask for more than that?
She didn’t know whether she could, or whether she should, but she knew she had to.
Sitting up, she tucked the sheet around her breasts and stared down at him silently for long moments. With one forearm lifted and tucked beneath his head, his dark navy blue eyes so intent and serious, with long strands of dark blond, gold, and tawny hair falling over his forehead, he resembled the men he employed on the construction job that she knew he used as a cover. Rugged and hard, lean and naturally muscled.
“How am I supposed to know what questions are off-limits?” Tilting her head to the side, she watched him curiously now, wondering whether this was how Eve and Brogan made their relationship work. Did they have an understanding that there were parts of his life and what he did that she couldn’t question?
Could she live with that? Really?
She loved Jed. She’d known that for a while now.
But did she love him enough to abide by such a rule?
“I think you’ll know which questions those are. ” His gaze dropped to her breasts as they rose over the edge of the sheet.
“I think that if those are the rules, Jed, then I have to know who and what you are. If that information is off-limits, then you may as well climb that cute ass right out of my bed before one of us gets pissed off. ”
* * *
God help him, but he loved her.
Jed stared up at Piper Mackay and knew she owned parts of his heart and soul that he hadn’t even known existed. There was no denying that they belonged to her, either, because as he watched her, he knew he’d trust her with every secret he had inside his soul.
He’d trust her with them, but he’d never tell her some secrets. The secrets that were far too dangerous to her safety should she know them.
Because he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that to save her, he’d betray each and every one of those secrets, and he knew she’d do the same for him.
“I’m an agent for the United States Federal Protective Service,” he told her. “We’re tasked with protecting and investigating any threats to the possessions of the United States government and, in some instances, government employees. You knew I was an agent. ” She nodded her head slowly. “What did Eve tell you happened last summer?”
