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“Okay. Only because we’re going to further the plan,” she agreed. I knew what she was doing. She was trying to convince herself that she couldn’t worry about herself until the victims were taken care of. All of us had also been guilty of that at one point, some of us more than others.
“Whatever you say, as long as you eat, hydrate, and rest while you’re doing it.” I wasn’t going to argue with her that she deserved to be able to have some downtime. That wasn’t how she operated, and I didn’t want her to shut me down.
We got up from the dock and headed back inside our rental. Christine and Wells were there making themselves some coffee, and they brought creamer. Thank the coffee gods. I also eyed the bag of snacks and case of water.
“Take what you want,” Christine offered.
I reached into the bag and grabbed snacks for Abby and me. “Are you ready to go?”
“Yeah, one sec.” She shifted to speak to Christine and Wells. “They had a girl out there just now picking from the garden. She was escorted by an armed guard. So they’re definitely there, just good at lying low.”
“We’ll keep an eye out,” Wells said as he tossed me the keys to the rental car.
He opened the back door, and he and Christine went out back, lawn chairs in hand.
I made my way to the front door, and Abby reluctantly followed. Once we were in the car, our ride was relatively quiet. My mind was still on what we witnessed. Back at the resort, I forced Abby to take a shower. We’d both had a long couple of days, and she needed not only to get clean but decompress. She seemed to be in a daze. Part of her seemed to be living in her memories again, but every once in a while she’d mumble an observation she made about the compound. Like she was already working out the pieces to a jigsaw puzzle in her head, fitting together the pieces of a plan that we didn’t have yet.
I got into the shower with her and lathered her up and shampooed her hair. Jones once talked about how intimate it could feel to shower with your partner, even without doing anything sexual, and he was right. I took my time running my soapy hands over her tattooed arms, looking closely at the artwork. A kraken was wrapped around her bicep, its tentacles snaking out of the water and wrapping around an aircraft carrier. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out the symbolism behind it. The tattoo sleeve included a whole underwater scene with other sea creatures. Various other tattoos covered her body with beautiful art and the occasional sayings. As my fingers traced the ink, I wondered how many others had run their fingers over them. And how many of them had bad intentions?
After the longest shower on planet earth, I wrapped her in a fluffy towel and helped dry her off. She smelled clean and looked better, though looks could be deceiving.
“You okay?” I pulled the towel tightly around her shoulders. Her eyes met mine.
“Yeah, just calculating a million and one plans in my head.” She tried to give a small smile, but it came out all wrong. How much more of this job would she be able to do before it destroyed her completely? I was worried for her, maybe more so than the women trapped on that compound, and that scared me.
“What have you come up with?” I wrapped my arms around her to keep her warm as she began to shiver.
“I’ve got a few contenders, but I need more time to work out the flaws. They aren’t ready for the light of day yet.” She sucked her lip between her teeth and began to gnaw. Abby always appeared to be the pillar of strength, and slowly but surely, she let that facade go when it was just us. Abby was capable of protecting herself, but what about her heart? Would she let me protect that for her?
“You know, this is unusual for me.”
“What is?” she asked curiously. Her eyes looked up at me, and I nearly lost my breath. The vulnerability there moved something inside of me. I thought I finally understood what love really was. I thought that maybe in this moment she felt it too. The way she leaned into my warmth had me aching to tell her about how I felt right now, but I was scared she’d pull away.
“Letting someone else create the plans. Usually it’s us guys putting our heads together. Each time another woman joins our group, it seems like they start calling the shots,” I said with a smirk.
“What’s wrong with that?” she asked with the tiniest smirk of her own. I could tell she was trying to hide it, and yet with me, she couldn’t hide. She could only shine.
“Nothing, I’m just wondering how long it will be before the group is run entirely by women.” My smirk grew. I ran my hands up her arms, across her shoulders, and up her neck, to hold behind her head. My fingers tangled in her hair as I stared down at her face.
“I’d say not long.” She really struggled to hide her smile; it reached her eyes, giving it away like a neon sign.
“To run the group, you’ve got to stay with us.” My tone turned serious. I was unable to help it. I needed her with me, always. The thought of her going home after an assignment to struggle like this would haunt me every day we weren’t together.
“We’ve been through this, Adam,” she said with a sigh, her smile fading.
“I know, I’m just reminding you of what you’ll miss out on.”
She gave a sad smile. “Let’s get dressed and meet up with the others, yeah?” She changed the subject.
“I’ve got one thing in mind first,” I said with a suggestive smirk. My fingers gave a gentle tug in her hair. Her eyes heated, like turning on a gas fireplace. Now that she seemed to be back to the land of the living, mentally, I wanted to erase the sight of her on top of another man from my memory. I wanted her on top of me, and I wanted to hear those sexy little mewing sounds she made when she was overwhelmed with pleasure.
“Oh yeah, and what’s that?” Her attempt at playing coy failed miserably, because I could see an inferno of desire just behind her eyes. She bit her lip again, and my dick jerked in anticipation. I wanted her more than I’d wanted anything. More than I wanted to cover up my scarring, and more than I wanted to feel normal. She was everything I could have ever hoped for.
“This.” I pulled her to me and kissed her. The towels between us fell.
She wrapped her hands around my body, and her hands traced my pectoral muscles before they landed around my neck. She jumped and pulled herself up my body. She conveniently placed her center right at my cock, and I gave her a knowing smile. She was already wet, ready for me to give her something else to focus on.
So I did.
