Page 50 of Too Guarded to Love

Nic reached up and clasped his shoulder. “You too. Keep up the good work.”

Something she hadn’t felt in a long time tingled in her chest. Tears threatened as the feeling expanded into a bittersweet mixture of pride and heartache. She hadn’t felt patriotism like this since the last time she’d seen her father in uniform at her hometown’s Memorial Day Parade. A boy around the age of ten had tugged on her father’s sleeve and said, “Thank you for your service, sir.”

Olivia’s heart had melted along with the ice cream in her hand. There were many times she hated her father’s career. Moments like that reminded her of why her family’s sacrifices mattered and why her mother, and now Scarlett and Beth, stood by their men knowing what they might have to forfeit in the name of love.

“Hold on.” Nic sped off down the tunnel.

She glanced at the console between them. “Does this thing come with sunglasses?” She squinted against the glare from the walls. “Isn’t it supposed to be dark and dank underground?”

Nic nodded to a woman in a white coat zipping past them from the other direction. “When the network of tunnels was built over a hundred years ago, they probably were.”

She held on to the dashboard. “I shouldn’t be surprised. Sleek and shiny seems to be VIPER’s vibe.”

“We’re a whole lot of high-tech awesomeness, but it’s women like Scarlett, Beth, and Patience, and now you who light the place up.”

“Ah, there’s the charmer I’ve heard about.” And hot damn if it didn’t light up parts of her like a Christmas tree. “How do you convert that pickup line when you’re in a bar?”

He shot her a look hot enough to melt the tiles off the wall. “I don’t need pickup lines. I didn’t need one with you if I recall correctly.” His gaze flicked to her mouth as he adjusted his big frame in the small seat. “Nope. It’s all coming back to me. Why did you deceive me, sirena?”

She stared at the carts speeding along in front of them as his hungry, gravelly voice burst the Christmas lights he’d ignited into a supernova. She’d already explained her reasons, but his tone suggested he hadn’t been satisfied with her answer. “I thought it could be our little secret. I know your reputation. You aren’t the commitment type. My life is too busy to start a relationship. Nobody needs to know what happened at the beach but us.”

He didn’t take his eyes off the long stream of concrete. “And?”

Dammit. How did he know there was more? She blew out a harsh breath to sever the connection that hadn’t died with the explosion. “I grew up in a hometown a lot like this place.”

He cocked an eyebrow. “I’ve seen photos of your family’s farm. There is nothing sleek or high-tech about it.”

No, there wasn’t, and she missed it. Earlier, she’d pictured Nic on a dragon. What would he look like on top of a stallion?

She shoved that fantasy aside. “We don’t have a network monitoring everyone’s movements, but we have a community grapevine. For my entire life, my well-meaning, and sometimes not-so-well-meaning neighbors, reported back to my family about every move I made. If I stood next to a friend who was smoking, it would get back to my parents that I was hanging out with the wrong crowd. If I so much as kissed a guy’s cheek in public, someone told my parents to start planning my wedding because I was surely pregnant.”

Nic smirked. “So you’re well prepared for life at VIPER headquarters, where everyone knows everyone else’s business.”

“Prepared, yes. Happy about it, no.” She craved a connection with a man, but not with him and the freaking Department of Defense. “After my parents died one right after the other, Kane went back to West Point, but I didn’t go back to college. I stayed at home with Gran. When Kane lost his leg and Gran moved to DC to help him, I moved where nobody cared about who I talked to or how much moonshine I had with dinner.”

“You drink moonshine with dinner?”

“When I’m not on call.”

“Sounds like the perfect meal.” He darted out his tongue to lick his lips. “And I get what it’s like living under a microscope, and not just at headquarters. I was in and out of foster care since I was two. My father was an alcoholic who died in jail when I was a baby, and my mother chose drugs over parenting. I became a full-fledged orphan when she overdosed when I was ten. Every move I’ve made my entire life has been documented in state records.”

She laid her hand on his arm as her heart broke for the little boy inside the tough soldier. “I’m sorry you had to grow up like that.”

“Thanks. It sucked, but I made it out alive.”

“I’m glad you did.” Squeezing his steel, she added survivor to the list of traits she admired about him. “The more bionic soldiers on my side, the better.”

He raised his fingers to his temple in a salute. “At your service, ma’am.”

She ignored the parts of her body weeping for his brand of service. “So, let’s assume I’m right about being watched back in Atlanta, and let’s assume whatever shady asshole has been watching followed me to the beach. What if getting shot wasn’t part of the attack on Gran and the others? What if whoever is watching me is behind running me off the road and the shooting? That means I didn’t escape the scrutiny and the lack of privacy I left in my town.”

“And it means people are still watching you.”

“Yeah. The reason I said, ‘screw it’ at the beach and did what I did when …” She glanced between his legs. Was that a bulge under his pants?

“When you what, Olivia? Did what I’d been fantasizing about since the moment I spotted you all wet and beautiful by the ocean?”

“Wet and beautiful?” Heat rose to her cheeks despite the chilly air. “I thought you were too good for pickup lines?”