by D. Laine
Maria’s mouth opened, but Thea interrupted whatever dig she was working up.
“Number one what?”
The hardness in my eyes softened when I shifted my attention to Thea. “Number one team.”
“I got that, but what makes you number one?”
I glanced at Jake with a shrug. He was still preoccupied with eating.
“The agency determined ranks from the abilities tests they put us through during training,” I explained. “They rated us based on how good we were then. Now, when other teams are killed in the field, they make adjustments.”
“But you all have the same strengths and abilities, right?” Thea pondered. “Because of your genetics?”
“Some of us are still better than others,” I pointed out with a sly glance at Maria.
She saluted me with the middle finger.
Thea absorbed my words with a slow nod before glancing around the room. “Haven’t you ever wondered how you got your abilities? Where exactly they came from?”
The other three seasoned assassins shook their heads along with me.
“None of you even know why you were chosen for this?” Thea pressed.
Again, we all shook our heads.
“You’ve never asked?”
“Our parents all told us the same thing they were told,” I supplied with a shrug. “That it was passed along in our blood.”
“But they don’t know where it came from? Where it started? Or how it started?”
I glanced around at the others, looking for assistance. Based on the confused faces staring at Thea, I assumed no one had an answer to her questions.
“I guess not,” I told Thea. “Why?”
“I was just wondering.”
Something passed between us as I stared across the table at her. Not a feeling of uncertainty brought on by her questions, but a feeling of urgency. I suddenly needed to get her alone. More than I had ever wanted anything in my life, I wanted to be alone with her. From the look on her face, I suspected she was just as eager as I was.
The air grew thick around us, encasing us in a bubble that separated us from the others. I wasn’t above kicking everyone out of the room, but fortunately they seemed to sense the shift before I was forced to resort to that.
“I think this is our cue to leave,” Marcus stated. He patted me on the back as he headed for the door, with Maria close behind. “Good job making it back alive.”
I offered a distracted wave as they left, my gaze still fixed on Thea.
Jake stood once the door shut. “You’re in my suite.”
“Hmm?” I glanced away from Thea long enough to notice Jake staring down at both of us.
“I can’t go anywhere. I don’t want to go anywhere other than to bed. So . . .” He swung a finger back and forth between Thea and me. “Make up your minds. I don’t care, just get out of my suite.”
“You always this grouchy when you don’t sleep for seventy-two hours?” I joked as I stood. At his scowl, I added, “Don’t bother. I already know the answer to that. We’ll leave, but I am taking this with me.” I reached down to swipe a sandwich from the table.
Jake grunted something unintelligible before turning toward his room. Thea’s eyes followed him and her face scrunched up in the cutest expression of confusion I had ever seen. Finally, after Jake closed his bedroom door behind him, she looked at me.
“He’s not nearly as grouchy as he’s acting.” She said it almost like a question, like she wasn’t sure of her words.
“I know.” I nodded. “I guess that bond is working now?”
“So it seems.” She shrugged.
We stared at each other. The table between us served as a buffer—one I wanted to eliminate.
Baby steps were probably best. I reminded myself she had only recently started talking to me again. Haste could backfire. The problem was, she didn’t seem to know what to do either.
Maybe she was waiting for me? Mr. Suave. Mr. Take Charge.
I opened my mouth to say something, but when I couldn’t think of something to say, a yawn forced its way out.
“You’re exhausted,” Thea observed.
“Nope.”
She scowled as she moved around the table to take my hand. “Yes, you are. Come on.”
I couldn’t argue. Not when she touched me. And definitely not when she led me into my suite.
A light had been left on in my bedroom and cast a soft glow across the sitting area—enough that neither of us bothered to turn on any more lights. My heart hammered in my chest when I crossed the threshold into the bedroom behind her. Everything about the way she led me reminded me of our first night together.
Except everything about this was different.
Instead of a repeat of the best night of sex I ever had, it appeared that she was preparing to tuck me in for a night of sleep. I watched curiously as she flitted around the room, picking up strewn clothes and smoothing down the sheets on the bed.
“I thought we were going to talk.”
“We will.” She looked up with a smile that sent my heart flying into my ribcage. “After you get some rest.”
“Just tell me one thing?” I waited for her to halt her obsessive cleaning and look at me. “Is this a talk that I’m going to want to wake up for, or . . .”
She dropped the clothes into an organized heap on the floor before rounding the bed to stand in front of me. A small smile graced her lips when she nodded. “I think so.”
“Yeah?” My head angled closer to hers. “Can I get a hint? Maybe a preview?”
Her eyes lowered to stare at the center of my chest in contemplation, and her smile grew. “Arms up,” she finally told me.
“Hmm?”
“Arms up,” she repeated.
I had no idea what she was planning, but I did as she instructed. Then her fingers curled around the bottom of my shirt, skimming my skin in the process, and I didn’t give a damn what she planned to do as long as it included her touching me. She lifted the shirt over my head and tossed it to the floor with the rest of my clothes.
At the perplexed look on my face, she explained, “I assume you don’t normally sleep with a shirt on. Right?”
“Oh.” Sleep. Of course. “I thought I was getting that preview, but since you’re undressing me for bed, I should inform you that I don’t typically sleep with pants on either.”
Her fingers had already moved to the clasp of my pants before I finished speaking. The prompt snap of the button being undone sent a jolt of excitement through me. My dick twitched under her hands as a wave of desire gripped me tight and didn’t let go. I squeezed my eyes shut and bit my tongue in an attempt to not physically respond to her touch.
It didn’t work. Thea pushed my pants off my hips and sucked in a sharp breath at the sight of what I couldn’t hide if I tried.
“You’re supposed to be sleeping,” she chided.
“Then quit undressing me.”
With my eyes closed, my other senses heightened and zoned in on her. I inhaled the subtle scent of her shampoo, and listened to the sound of her shallow breaths. I trembled when her hands traced a path from my stomach to my chest. Her warm breath danced across my skin before her lips pressed to the spot directly over my heart.
“You’re the one who wanted a preview,” she reminded me softly.
My head rolled toward hers with a groan. “That was when I thought we were talking.”
“We are talking.” Her hands slid to my shoulders. Her mouth moved higher, drawing closer to where mine waited. Instead of giving me the kiss I wanted, she turned to whisper into my ear. “I know when it changed.”
My eyes popped open at her words. I found her close, staring back at me with a small smile.
“The night you didn’t kiss me,” she continued. “That night in the parking lot of The Nest was it. I felt a change, but I didn’t know then what it was.”
I remembered. I had spent the days following that botched kiss obsessing over what I could have
done differently. I thought something terrible had happened to her when she went out of town to visit her parents. That entire weekend—starting with the night she referenced now—had been the turning point. That was when I realized Thea was no longer just another girl on another mission.
“I think you’re right,” I admitted.
“I forgive you for lying to me,” she added softly. “I know why you did it. But I don’t want any more lies. Only the truth from now on.”
I nodded.
“And I want you to talk to me, because I feel like I barely know anything about you. I want to know you. Not the role you play, not your job, but you.”
I swallowed hard. Honoring her request—as easy as it sounded—would be the most difficult thing I ever did. Not because I didn’t want her to know anything about me, but because I sometimes questioned who I had become. I was an assassin. I didn’t know who I was beyond that.
She must have seen the uncertainty on my face, because she added, “Whenever you’re ready.”
I nodded again.
She pressed her lips to the corner of mine. “Get some rest, Dylan. We can talk more tomorrow.”
She turned to leave and my chest ached like a piece of me had been ripped away. My voice was strangled when I called out to her. “Stay.”
She froze and shot me a wary glance.
I threw my hands up. “I won’t touch you. Not until you ask me to.”
Her eyes narrowed skeptically, but she didn’t leave. “You need sleep.”
“I need a lot of sleep,” I agreed. “I’ll be out in five minutes and I won’t even know you’re here, but I still want you here.”
She looked away to sweep a gaze over my room. Finally, she nodded. “Okay.”
I managed to resist jumping into the air, but fist-pumped the air when she turned to close the door. She may have caught the tail end of my celebration. I avoided her teasing eyes by switching off the light and slipping between the sheets. The moment my head hit the pillow, I knew I wouldn’t be capable of anything more physical than snoring for the next several hours.
Never thought I would hit the point I would be too exhausted for sex. But here I was, living it. A few seconds later, Thea slipped under the sheets beside me. Her bare leg brushed against mine briefly, and I wasn’t too tired not to notice.
“I have one question,” I announced quietly.
“What?”
“Well, two actually.” I paused. “What do you normally wear to bed, because we’ve never actually just slept together before so . . .”
“You want to know what I’m wearing?”
“I want to know how much temptation is lying beside me right now,” I rephrased.
She laughed softly. “Enough to not be tempted.”
“Try me.”
“I just took my pants off.”
I started to nod then remembered what she had been wearing a moment ago. “You can’t possibly be comfortable sleeping in that shirt you had on.”
“Well . . .”
I rolled my head toward her. “What?”
“I took that off,” she admitted. “I’m wearing one of your shirts instead.”
My mouth ran dry at the mental image in my head. I desperately wanted to flip on the light to see, but kept myself in check. Barely.
“It’s not the first time I’ve worn it,” she continued. “I hope you don’t mind.”
Water. I needed some water. “Not at all.”
The silence stretched between us and I settled into the pillow, trying not to think about Thea lying beside me, wearing one of my shirts.
“That was only one,” she spoke quietly beside me.
“Hmm?”
“You said you had two questions.”
“Oh yeah.” My brow furrowed when I remembered what else I had intended to ask her. “What happened to your eye?”
“My eye?” she repeated.
“At first I thought it was swollen from crying,” I pointed out. “But there’s a clear bruise there now.”
“Really? Shit.” I felt her shift beside me, likely putting her hands to her face.
“What happened?”
“I got it in training earlier today,” she answered.
“With Tanner?”
“Yeah. I got distracted and missed a block. He got through. It wasn’t on purpose or anything.”
Though I knew she couldn’t see me, I nodded. I wasn’t so sure I was capable of speaking right now without giving away just how furious I was.
Accident? Right. She may not know any better, but I sure as hell did.
“Relax,” Thea coached softly. Her hand found mine under the sheets. Her voice and touch soothed me until Tanner was nothing but an unpleasant afterthought.
I welcomed the clutches of sleep that gripped me now. I needed the rest.
Because tomorrow I was going to deal with Tanner Ergot.
15
THEA
Dylan was sleeping soundly when my internal alarm woke me. I placed a soft kiss to his cheek before grudgingly leaving the comfort of his bed. I didn’t see Jake when I cut through his suite. By the time I dressed and left, neither had stirred from their rooms.
Assuming they weren’t exaggerating the seventy-two hours they had stayed awake and the distance they had walked to get back to the base, I figured both of them would likely sleep most of the morning. In the meantime, I would endure another full day of physical torture at the hands of my trainer.
I found Tanner in one of his fouler moods. The sharp nod of his head and the bite of his words when he barked out commands made it easy to tell. But unlike most days, his mood didn’t improve with time. It only worsened.
Other assassins drifted in and out of the training room throughout the day. Each time I heard the door bang open, I snuck a glance, hoping and waiting for a chance to spot Dylan. Neither he nor Jake had been in the mess hall for lunch, but I expected them to make an appearance soon.
“Looking for someone?” Tanner demanded.
“No.”
He shook his head. “Distractions will get you killed. Or your partner.”
“I’m not distracted,” I lied.
“You’ll get one of them killed,” he concluded smugly.
He came at me with a forward thrust. I earned a sneer when I blocked it.
“You think you’re getting good?” he taunted me.
“Aren’t you supposed to be the judge of that?”
The heel of his foot shot toward my leading hip, but I managed to dodge a direct kick. I snatched his ankle and twisted. He avoided a nosedive into the mats with a quick jump and slipped out of my grasp. His head angled as he surveyed me from a distance.
“Want to take a turn on the offensive?” he offered.
I shrugged, refusing to lower my guard. My focus remained on his hands, which I knew were quick.
“Go ahead. Give me your best shot.”
We hadn’t gone over many offensive moves yet, having focused mostly on defensive tactics up until this point. But I had seen him in action. I had learned by observation.
Before I could talk myself out of it, I pushed forward with a rapid series of swings at his torso. He blocked the first two, then caught my arm and spun me around.
“That was terrible,” he growled into my ear before pushing me away.
I regrouped and turned to face him again. Somewhere behind me, the door banged open. I didn’t flinch at the disruption this time. I flew into Tanner again. He blocked half a dozen strikes before one got through.
The grunt that I forced out of him only encouraged me more. Perhaps I got a little sloppy after that? Or perhaps the excitement of finally getting my hands on him distracted me?
Whatever the cause, I ended up with my arm twisted behind my back again. Only he didn’t stop there. This time, he slammed me to the mat.
“Weak,” he barked. “Get up.”
I started to scramble to my feet when a hand appeared under my nose. I looked up to find Dylan loomi
ng over me. Though he held his hand out to me, his eyes were fixed behind me, on Tanner.
“What was that, Eggnog?” Dylan demanded.
“We’re training.”
“That didn’t look like training to me.”
I got to my feet and tugged on Dylan’s hand, but he didn’t acknowledge me. His eyes didn’t waver from Tanner’s. Across the room, a handful of assassins turned to watch the showdown and I feared this was about to get bad fast.
“Dylan,” I tried. “I haven’t had much practice on offense yet. It wasn’t as bad as it looked.”
“Really?” His eyes narrowed on Tanner, and his chin nudged in my direction. “Thea, step back.”
Tanner held his hands out. “Seriously, Romero. Take it up with—”
Dylan moved so fast he was nothing but a blur. Tanner didn’t stand a chance at dodging him. Dylan’s arms wrapped around Tanner’s head. With a twist, he slammed Tanner to the mat.
I scurried out of the way of Tanner’s thrashing legs. My eyes widened to stare at Dylan’s back as he towered over Tanner.
“You and me,” Dylan addressed Tanner. “I heard you got medical clearance a few days ago, so let’s go.”
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Tanner bellowed as he clambered to his feet.
“Seems to me you’re missing the fighting. Thought you’d like to get it out of your system against someone your own size.”
“We’re sparring?” Tanner questioned cautiously.
“That?” Dylan jabbed a finger at the mat, where he had leveled Tanner a moment ago. “That was for hitting Thea in the face yesterday. Now we’re sparring.”
I backed up to the edge of the mat as the two of them circled each other. My shoulders bumped into something solid and I glanced behind me to find Jake watching with the rest of the assassins who had wandered over from the other side of the room.
Jake glanced down at me with a smirk on his face.
“You’re okay with this?” I asked him in a hushed voice.
“No,” he grumbled. “I wanted to be the one to kick his ass, but Dylan won the coin toss.”
“What?”
“Dylan told me he hit you in the face,” Jake explained quickly.
Behind me, I heard a grunt. I refused to look to see who had taken a hit.
