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“Godspeed,” said Razor as Striker walked out of the office and up the stairs.
He made a decision as he slowly took each step. If he ran into Aine, he’d tell her, but he wouldn’t go looking for her.
He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw her sitting on the deck with her sister and Quinn. When he reached the top of the stairs and she looked straight at him, Striker motioned for her to come inside.
“What’s up?” she asked, eyeing his laptop bag. “Quitting early today?”
“Actually, I have to leave town.”
“Oh.” She put her hands in her pockets.
“I shouldn’t be gone more than a week.”
“If you’re leaving because of Stuart…”
“I promise I’m not.” Although he wasn’t complaining about having an excuse not to be here.
“Okay. Well, stay safe.”
Striker found himself leaning forward, as though Aine’s lips had a magnetic pull. If she hadn’t turned her head at the last possible moment, he would’ve kissed her mouth rather than her cheek.
“I’m sorry,” he mumbled. “Habit, I guess. I didn’t mean—”
“Goodbye, Striker,” she said, walking away, but not before he noticed her reddened cheeks.
“Aine, wait.”
She turned, but didn’t walk back over to him.
“I’m sorry,” he said a second time.
“Me too.”
Striker swore his way all the way back to Moonstone Beach, got out of his car, went into his room, and swore some more. What the hell had he just done? It was as though he’d temporarily lost his mind.
Jesus, he’d almost kissed Aine like it was the most natural thing in the world. What upset him more than his dickhead move, was the way it left him feeling. If he could, he’d drive back to that house and ravage not only her lips, but every inch of her body.
Sex with Aine was always spectacular, but right before and right after a mission, it was especially so. He’d wring every ounce a pleasure from her body as though it would fortify him no matter what danger he faced. When he came home, he’d do the same thing, to fill the emptiness he’d felt every minute he was away from her.
They’d only been together a couple of months, but the relationship he’d had with Aine was so different than any he’d had prior, that it felt like so much longer.
Being around her again after so many months of denying himself contact, brought everything they’d shared back to the surface. He could feel, smell, and even taste Aine, just by being near her. He was starved for her, and only her.
She’d asked if he was with someone else. No, he wasn’t, and it wasn’t likely he ever would be. Here he was, not quite forty, and facing celibacy for the rest of his life.
He’d apologized twice, but it still didn’t feel like it was enough. It wasn’t just the attempted kiss he needed to apologize for. He’d given her so many mixed signals, and that was unconscionably unfair.
The only solution he could come up with was to return to the East Coast and continue the mission from there. If he returned to Cambria, every time he saw Aine, he’d risk doing the same thing he’d done earlier.
12
Ava’s eyes were open wide when Aine came back out on the deck. “What was that?”
“Habit.”
“Huh?”
“That’s what he said. First, he apologized, and then he said it was habit.”
