Tell Me You Want Me (Search and Seduce, #2)(15)

“So she lasted ten hours?” Gage asked.

“Roughly,” Dex said, doing some quick mental math. “Probably closer to twelve.” Assuming she’d taken off around five a.m. Something that Dex was trying not to think about. Being left, that is. Granted, that’s what happened when you were only good for a woman for a single night. But he’d imagined things going differently when he’d awakened in the woods. He had expected to have her warm body against his, maybe go for a morning roll in the sleeping bag again.

Instead, he was tired and annoyed, and he’d been ditched. All in all, that left him just plain pissy. The woman clearly had a life, and she probably wanted to get back to it. Enough said. He wanted to get back to his life, too. Easy. One night. Over and done with.

“How do you know she’s okay?” Gage asked.

“Her car was gone. And I saw her tracks heading straight toward it.” Besides, the look on Gage’s face said that he knew she was fine, because he was being way too calm. Cheerful, even.

“You seem grouchy, Dexter.” Gage gave another big, annoying smile.

“I’m fine.”

“Rough night with the…what did you call her? Pageant queen?”

A fresh laugh surged in his belly, but he kept it quiet. He was supposed to be irritated as all hell about her. What would Gage think if he suddenly laughed just from talking about her?

“She was fine,” Dex said.

Gage raised his chin, and Dex realized his slip.

“It was fine. The training. Fine.”

That was apparently his new word of the day: Fine. And now he sounded like a moron. Gage was reading him like a book, and Dex didn’t like it. He wasn’t about to tell Gage about last night. As a friend, he wanted to. But at the moment, Gage was in boss mode. Dex couldn’t exactly come out and say that he’d nailed the sexy woman, but he wasn’t playing coy either.

“She’s friends with Chloe, you know?” Gage started.

Great. Now the rumor mill would get going. Not that Dex cared too much. He was used to it. He didn’t have a reputation that was worth protecting. Just a middle-of-the-road guy with some past wild excursions under his belt. But he wasn’t a lunatic with a “bad” reputation.

Gage, however, hadn’t stopped smiling.

“What’s up with you?” Dex asked.

“Just a good day.”

Dex wanted to punch his friend. Must be nice being so on top of the f*cking world. Clearly he’d need more caffeine if he wanted rainbows to shoot out of his ass like his buddy over there.

“Well, then I’ll let you get back to your day. Just need my recertification signed by you,” Dex said. Then he could get back to doing what he loved. Getting out in the woods. Being with his team. Searching, training, and all things that didn’t smell like lilacs or require purses.

“Sorry, buddy, can’t sign off on your recertification.”

“Why the hell not. I did your class bullshit.”

“Yeah, you did. For twelve hours. You need eighteen of training a ‘new recruit’ to count.”

“You’ve got to be shitting me. Dealing with that woman counts for time and a half, so that’s eighteen hours.”

“Sorry,” Gage said with a smile, not sorry at all. “You need six more hours. So I suggest you get on that before your papers are due in the next two weeks.”

Dex clenched his teeth because technically he’d already “gotten on that” when it came to Michelle. Now he had to go to her and spend another six hours training her? No. Not a good idea. Mostly because all he could think about was that damn list of hers. She was clearly on some kind of self-reliant explorative mission of sorts. And he was wondering how many fantasies she’d gotten to check off after last night. He also wanted to see what was left on this list… Maybe he could help her check off a few more…

No! Bad idea.

One night was bad enough. Two? She’d just walk away again. And he’d be left alone in his sleeping bag, nothing to hold on to but his own dick.

“I can train someone else,” Dex said.

“Great,” Gage agreed. “Since they’d be considered a new recruit, you have to start over. So eighteen hours it is.”

“What?” Dex snapped. “It’s either six with the woman or start from scratch?” Christ, he didn’t know which one would be more difficult, but he didn’t want to toss the hard-earned hours he’d already put in with Michelle. She’d be a challenge in a totally different way.

“What the hell am I supposed to teach her that I didn’t last night?” His words hit him, and he choked back a grin. He had taught Perfect-Ass Barbie a thing or two last night, and damn, those memories were still fresh. His skin was buzzing from where she’d touched him. And he knew he was a fibbing son of a bitch because he could damn well teach her a lot more.

That list will haunt me for the rest of my days…

“You’ll figure it out,” Gage said. “Surely you couldn’t have taught her everything you know in one night.”

Again, Dex held back a grin. Yeah…he had a few more things he’d like to show the uptight, classy woman about getting dirty. As if Gage could read his face, he finished with, “About wilderness survival.”

“Of course. Wilderness survival,” Dex repeated innocently.