Defending Everly (Mountain Mercenaries, #5)(56)

Everly looked up at him, but didn’t say a word.

“Leaving means I don’t get to see you. I don’t get to text you and see how your day has gone. I don’t get to hear your crazy stories about the men and women you’ve met on your shift. I don’t get to practice my signing with Elise. I don’t get to touch you, hold your hand, and have you fall asleep on me. And I can’t do this . . .”

Ball leaned forward and kissed Everly’s forehead. Then he brushed a kiss against her cheek, then the other one. And finally, he lightly kissed her lips. When he did, she stood on her tiptoes and put her hands behind his neck, pulling him down to her.

She kissed him so carnally, Ball immediately got hard. All the blood went from his head straight to his dick. He pulled her closer, until they were touching from chests to thighs. And still she kissed him as if for the last time, tilting her head one way, then the other. Their tongues dueled, and he’d never felt anything better in all his life.

Knowing they didn’t have time for anything but kissing, he tried to slow her down, to ease up the intensity of the kiss, but Everly was having none of that. She moaned into his mouth and clutched at him harder.

“Easy, Ev.” His lips brushed against hers as he spoke, and that seemed to break her out of whatever trance she’d been in. She moved her hands to his back and buried her face in his neck.

“I’m gonna miss you,” she said softly.

“Same,” Ball told her.

“And I’m gonna worry about you.”

“Just like I worry about you every time you’re on shift,” Ball said dryly.

She looked up at that. “You do?”

“Of course I do. But I know you’re a damn good cop, and you’d never do something stupid that would risk your life.”

She stared at him for a beat. “You’re trying to tell me that you’re good at what you do, aren’t you?” she asked.

He smiled. “Would I tell you how to think?”

She chuckled. “Uh . . . yeah, you would.”

“Then I’m good at what I do. And I’ve got five of the most competent and capable men at my back. You know about us, Ev. I’ve told you how they’re former Delta Force, SAS, and SEALs. It’s why the whole team is so good at what we do.”

“I know. But it’s different hearing about it, and having the reality of you leaving to go out and do something dangerous right in front of me.”

Not wanting to promise her something that he couldn’t positively deliver—like promising he’d come home safe and sound—Ball changed the subject. “You’ll explain to Elise why we can’t do the self-defense thing this weekend?”

“Of course. She’ll be disappointed, but she’ll understand.”

“I’ll let you know the second we land back in the States,” Ball told her.

“Okay.”

“If I can, I’ll text while I’m gone, but sometimes we don’t have reliable cell service.”

“I figured. I can text you, though, right? I mean, your phone’s not going to chime with an incoming text and blow your cover right before you break into the bad guy’s house, is it?”

Ball chuckled. “No. You can text. Elise too. When I land, I’d love to catch up with what happened while I was gone.”

“Okay. We’ll do that, then.”

“Everly, I’ve done my best to give us both time to be sure this is what we want. But it’s taken me leaving on this assignment to realize how much you mean to me. You and Elise. I want to be a permanent part of your lives. I want to wake up in the middle of the night and not feel guilty that we’ve fallen asleep on the couch again. I want to let Elise pick out furniture that she might like for a room in my house. I want to sleep cuddled up to your back like we did in California. I want it all.

“I know this is a lot, and I know it’s coming out of left field, but I don’t want a casual relationship anymore. I want to make you mine in every way a man can make a woman his . . . starting with being inside you so deeply, neither of us knows where one starts and the other begins.”

Ball took a breath and licked his lips. She hadn’t interrupted him, hadn’t torn herself out of his arms, so he was taking both as good signs. But then, she also hadn’t said anything at all.

“You done?” she asked.

“Yes. No, wait. No, I’m not. I swear that I’m over whatever issues I had when we met. I’ve done a lot of thinking, and as awful as my situation with Riley was, I shouldn’t use what she did to paint all women with the same brush. I’ve also figured out that Holly and I were never going to last.

She was all about herself. She liked the fact that I was in the military more than she liked me. I should’ve figured it out and shaken off her rejection, but instead I wallowed in my misery. I’ve changed, and I promise if you give me a chance, you’ll see how much I care about you.”

Ball swallowed and waited for her response, barely breathing in the process.

“Okay.”

Then he waited for her to continue . . . and when she didn’t, he asked, “Okay?”

“Yeah. I want all that too. So okay. When you get back, we’ll have wild monkey sex, probably

participate in way too many public displays of affection, and scar my sister for life. I’m not ready to move in permanently with you, but I wouldn’t mind sleepovers. All that’s fine—as long as you remember that Elise and I are a package deal. I’m not going to send her back to Los Angeles. She’s better off here with me. We’re better off together.”