Billionaire Untamed - Tate(20)

He shrugged.

“Are you still military? What kind of accident did you have?”

He stared at her with an innocent expression. “I broke my leg in a skiing accident.”

Lara rolled her eyes. “Sure you did. The accident is in your file, Colter. It happened while you were on active duty. You left the military because of it. It just doesn’t say what happened.”

“Nobody in my family knows that. I told them all that it happened while I was away skiing in Vail. As far as my family is concerned, it’s not job related. I left Colorado as soon as I had my last surgery just to get away. I found a place in Florida, hung out with a friend there so I didn’t have to keep lying to my family. I didn’t come back here until I was completely healed.”#p#分页标题#e#

“I won’t tell.”

“It was the result of a helicopter crash. I was the pilot. If I wasn’t flying it, I’d be dead. We all made it out. But I had to have corrective surgery, pins to put my leg back together,” he said slowly, cautiously.

“Nobody would ever know. You don’t limp.”

Tate shook his head. “I knew. It made me slower. Being slower means getting dead, and possibly causing other members of a team to get hurt or dead, too.”

Holy shit. If Tate Colter was slow now, he would have made her head spin before his accident. “So you gave up your position in Special Forces.”

“I had to. I knew I wasn’t in perfect physical condition.” His voice sounded pained to admit that he wasn’t flawless.

“Did that hurt? To admit you’re human?” she asked him quietly. Special Forces were cocky for a reason. If they didn’t have ultimate faith in their ability to do anything, accomplish any mission, they could very well die if they doubted their abilities. Obviously Tate was able to assess his situation and step down. She admired that ability, and she wasn’t mocking him.

“Damn right it hurt,” he grumbled. “But I don’t want anybody killed because I couldn’t admit that I wasn’t the same as I was before the…accident.”

Lara had a suspicion that the helicopter hadn’t just crashed. It had probably been shot down. But she didn’t bother to ask because he obviously wasn’t going to share the experience. If he’d been involved in some type of top-secret black ops team, he wasn’t going to talk to a virtual stranger about it, even if she was FBI.

We aren’t exactly strangers. We were intimate. Okay…maybe not intimate…maybe I was just a lay for him.

He’d treated her as if she was special, and try as she may, she couldn’t get last night out of her head. He’d dried her off like a treasured woman after they’d left the shower, brushed out her hair, and scooped her up and taken her to bed. She’d been out almost as soon as her head hit the pillow, falling asleep with Tate’s body sheltering her protectively.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you,” she murmured, seeing a quick flash of vulnerability in his eyes.

“I had no problem finding out. And I wasn’t angry. You’re an agent. That’s not something you go around telling everyone. I know what it’s like to need to hide certain parts of your life.” He paused for a moment and speared his fingers through her hair. He tilted her head up and searched her face before he added, “It’s lonely.”

She nodded slowly, not looking away from him. “It can be. I don’t have many real friends because I live for my job. I’m pretty much on the job twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. It doesn’t leave much time for socializing.”

“And the asshole who cheated on you?”

“It happened two years ago. He was an agent, too, in a different department, thank God. I don’t have to see him every day. It was convenient. We both worked long hours, got together when we could. But I thought we were monogamous. He didn’t. It hurt, but it didn’t break me.” She tried to look away, but he turned her head up again to keep eye contact.

“Who have you been with since then?” His voice was demanding.

“Nobody until you,” she admitted. “I know we didn’t use a condom last night. It was careless of both of us. But I’m clean, and I’m still on birth control—”

“I know you’re clean. I saw your last physical. I knew you were on birth control, too. It was in your medical records.”#p#分页标题#e#

“You looked at my damn medical records,” she said irritably. Really, what the hell else did he have access to?

“You saw mine,” he reminded her cheekily. “Fair is fair. And if you didn’t see a physical, I’m completely free of any diseases. I never fuck without a condom. And I haven’t been with anybody at all since my accident.”