Hidden Impact (Safeguard #1)(22)

“A loved one,” she whispered.

“Somebody’s loved one.” He’d give her that. “The last mission I was on, I went personally to the home of the person I’d failed to protect. I figured it was the least I could do. Give them the news face-to-face that I’d failed to get him out alive.”

Maylin waited, motionless. No judgment in her eyes even after he’d admitted failure.

He shook his head. “His wife was ready to hand him divorce papers when he got home. She’d been cheating on him while he was overseas and even while he was being held prisoner. When she found out he was dead, she was relieved. No messy divorce. And then the bitch tried to sue Centurion Corporation for emotional damages, playing the bereaved widow after she’d pulled herself together and put on the front the public expected to see.”

People were shit to each other. Scavengers.

“Cào bī.” Her face reddened and her hand flew to her mouth. “Okay, that one was pretty bad. But seriously, she’s an awful person.”

He’d been okay with her original statement, no translation needed. It sounded right. He’d bet she could curse a blue streak in English if she got over the idea of curses being unacceptable in polite company. He wasn’t polite. “I didn’t stick around for all of it. I had follow-up surgery on my back and was laid out in recovery by the time she tried her nonsense.”

“Follow-up?” There was real concern in her eyes.

His walls cracked more. And damn but he didn’t even mind somehow. “I got shot in the back during the mission. When I went down, the man my team had gone in to rescue was killed. My team got out and dragged my sorry ass with them.”

But they’d been betrayed by several of their own. And he really wasn’t ready to share those details.

“So you’re all in Washington State.” She reached out until her fingertips touched his chest. “I’m very glad you were here in this part of the world last night.”

His brain turned off. Yup, just like that. It’d been one thing to look, listen to her. She’d had to go and touch him. He took her fingertips and ran his thumb over the tops of her knuckles, enjoying the electric connection from the barest skin to skin contact. When he stepped into her space, she didn’t back away. He liked it about her, the steel in her spine and the spark in her eyes. Challenge.

She swallowed.

“Run out of words?” Maybe he should go to hell for how much fun he was having with her in this one moment.

Her delicately arched brows came together and the spark in her gaze flared to temper. “I didn’t realize I was supposed to have something to say.”

“You’re full of questions.” He brushed her hair off her shoulder because he liked to watch the light play when her hair moved. It was literally a black cascade. Gorgeous and silky. “I like listening to them.”

And she had about a hundred questions piling up behind those very kissable lips of hers. He wanted to push her into a flood of them.

“What are you...?”

He kissed her. Shouldn’t have. But her lips were every bit as soft as he imagined and her words tumbled into his mouth. Her hand tightened around his, her fingertips still caught in his grasp. And she didn’t pull away. Didn’t slap him.

So he wrapped his other hand around her waist and pulled her slender body close.

She melded against him, soft and pliant and he couldn’t keep his hands from wandering. Especially since her own were tracing their way across his shoulders and up the back of his neck. No resistance. So he lost himself in the sweet, tart taste of her mouth.

He’d discovered a lot of contrasts in her so far. Different from the women he’d been with in the past, sweeter and genuinely kind. Soft. But with an underlying strength and flexibility. Her ability to adjust each time something went insane was nothing short of amazing. And as he bent her backward a bit, enjoying her mouth and soft little moan, he wanted to see just how bendy she could be in other ways.

When she gasped for air, he let his grip on her loosen. She might not be ready for all that...yet. He straightened, bringing her with him. But when she looked up at him through her long eyelashes, there was a storm of want waiting for him. He could give her time and let those feelings smolder some.

Instead he stepped back a fraction, making sure she was steady on her feet. “Thank you.”

She blinked rapidly. God, she was cute. “What?”

He leaned in and stole another kiss. A little one. “For that.

*

Maylin shut her mouth before it remained open for too long. She had no idea how to respond. None. Not at all.

Gabriel Diaz had kissed her and she’d lit up like a living flame. And now he was stepping away and thanking her like they’d stepped off a dance floor.

Bet he was a good dancer too. Maybe.

And why was she thinking all these things?

Why had he kissed her?

Why...?

“I’m betting your head’s still full of questions.” His amusement was warm and friendly, a secret shared between them.

“Yes.” She tried to pull her face to some semblance of proper seriousness and glare at him. “But not any of the right ones.”

His eyebrows rose. “Last I checked, there weren’t any wrong questions in this world.”

Well, maybe so. Again with the maybes. She smoothed her hands on her pant legs, trying to dismiss the lingering heat from touching his skin. And that was just his hands, his neck. The idea of running her palms over the flat planes of his chest and abs...