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“Incorrect.” I took a big bite of my burger.
“I’m not going to do anything other than scope around and get footage on the button camera and possibly slip a tracker into someone’s pocket. You’ll be able to see it all on the computer right here. And these are my friends, Hux. I’ve played with most of them, I know how to talk to them. This is my strength.”
“Mmm,” I said again. I knew he had a good point, but it didn’t matter. I focused on eating my lunch and not being an ass.
“You’re being an ass,” Kev said with a laugh. He threw my french fry back at me.
I caught it in midair and bit into it with a feral snap of my teeth. “You might have underestimated what it’s like to date a professional bodyguard, sweetheart.”
His cheeks turned pink, and it spread down his neck to his collar. “Unfair to pull out the sweetheart at a time like this. It’s like bringing an Atomic Yam Launcher to an Orc Jousting competition,” he muttered.
After a few minutes of enjoying watching him try to decide whether or not he should continue arguing with me, I put him out of his misery. “Fine. I won’t tail you to the event. I’ll back you up from here. But you need to come up with an easily recognizable code word that alerts me to any problems without alerting anyone else.”
“Like… margarita or pigs in a blanket? It’s a casual cocktail party, Hux.”
“It’s a HOG cocktail party,” I reminded him.
His grin was adorable. “Jam thief? Kelp forest arsonist? Orc hoarder?”
“Rodrigo,” I said, trying to stay serious. “Act like you see someone you know across the room and call out his name.”
“Fine. But, just so you know, that’s not going to be our safe word for sex.”
I nearly choked on my food. The burger went down the wrong way and made me sputter and cough until I could catch my breath again. By the time clean oxygen reached my lungs, Kev had raised his arms in victory and could barely breathe from laughing.
I waited only long enough for him to finish his meal before dragging him into the bedroom and deflowering him again and again in the hotel bed. He was dead asleep when my phone buzzed on the nightstand with a message from Champ.
Champ: Missed our chance at the Horn tonight. Will leave partial crew to try again in AM. Riggs and I are inbound. Status?
Shit. Delays were not a good thing in an operation that required as much manpower as this one.
Hux: Preparing for Meet and Greet. Kev is going to try and identify each target and set trackers.
Champ: Good luck. Keep me updated and don’t do serious shit until I get there in a couple of hours.
I closed the text app and looked over at Kev. He looked sweet and innocent in sleep, so different from the sexy, teasing man who’d tormented me during lunch, the confident, assured operative who insisted on going to the meet and greet alone, or the focused, competent professional who’d helped me prep for the mission. It was like each time the light shifted, it revealed a brilliant new facet of the man. It fascinated me and made me crave him more.
“You’re being a creeper,” he said sleepily.
“Yes.” I leaned over and pressed soft kisses on his bare shoulder. “Promise me you’ll—”
Kev’s hand shot out and grasped my wrist. Within three seconds, I was on my face on the mattress with my hand twisted up behind my shoulder blades and Kev’s knee on my lower back. Once I realized what had happened, I could have easily gotten out of his hold, but there was no arguing he’d gotten the drop on me with that unexpected move.
“I’m not powerless,” Kev said, not sleepy any longer.
“Kevin,” I breathed into the coffee-and-vanilla-scented pillowcase.
My sweet, adorable boyfriend had just incapacitated me when I’d least expected it. I outweighed him by seventy pounds and should have outmaneuvered him after years of Marine PT and specialized training. Baby had untold depths.
“There are things I’m not trained on when it comes to this stuff,” he said. “Handling multiple things at once when the stakes are high. Compartmentalizing so I can stay focused. I have things I need to learn, and I know it. And I appreciate that you’re protective, Jasper. It really works for me most of the time. Like, really. But when I tell you I can do something, you need to believe the words I say.”
“Okay,” I agreed.
“Good. Don’t underestimate me again,” he warned. There was an edge to his calm voice this time. “And don’t treat me like a junior member of the team either. It’s starting to piss me off.”
He let go, and I shook out my arm while rolling over to face him. “Starting to?”
