Disavowed(82)

At least the company was good.

“Anything from Trinity?” he asked from behind her.

“No.”

“Who is she, anyway?”

Briar glanced over her shoulder to find Matt in the office doorway, a mug of coffee in one hand, shoulder braced against the doorjamb. The light gray T-shirt he wore hugged his muscled torso and he managed to make those cargo pants look sexy. “She’s an old friend. And a Valkyrie,” she admitted.

Matt straightened slightly, his eyebrows rising. “Do you keep in touch with a lot of them?”

“No, just her. She’d mentioned something about Georgia getting in contact with her, asking if she’d heard anything about us. She knows what happened in Lake Placid.”

“Where is she?”

“Don’t know. I could try to track her down but it would likely be a waste of my time. She’s so paranoid she makes me look trusting by comparison. Something she said makes me think she’s here in the States but I can’t say for sure.”

“You have very colorful friends.” He grinned and took a sip of coffee.

Yes, her very tiny inner circle was colorful, and now down to only two people: Trin and Matt. Briar wasn’t sure if he even realized how much she’d come to trust him or how much he meant to her. For all his intensity Matt was actually pretty easy going and easy to be around. She was thankful for that because she wasn’t used to living with anyone.

He seemed to pick up on her shifting moods as she struggled to adjust to this new reality and let her be when she needed space. She found she was less and less inclined to close herself up in a room away from him, something she absolutely would have done with anyone else. Instead she liked having him in sight, liked being able to bounce ideas off him or discuss things. Although they both had strong opinions and didn’t always agree on things like politics or how this investigation should be run, he always had valid points to offer and she valued his opinion.

He was also the most generous and attentive lover a woman could wish for. Just thinking of all the things he’d done to her over the past few days made her toes curl into the carpet beneath the desk. In her wildest dreams she’d never imagined herself as the sensual, erotic woman she became in Matt’s arms.

But the best thing of all was the way he treated her even outside of the bedroom. Not as a woman who was smaller and weaker and therefore not as smart or as important as him. He treated her like an equal, with respect.

Against all odds and even though it scared her in some ways, she was falling hard for him and couldn’t see herself walking away once this was over. All indications suggested Matt had meant it when he’d said he wanted her to give them a chance. He was the one bright spot in her life right now, and the hope of having more with him, the tantalizing dream of belonging with a man like him, had never seemed so close.

“I think I’d like to meet her one day,” Matt said.

Briar half-smiled. “She’s pretty curious about you too, so maybe she’ll let you.”

“Why, what’ve you told her about me?” he asked, coming toward her. He set his coffee cup on the desk and sat on the corner of it, reaching out to trail his fingers through the hair at her temple.

It was little things like that, unexpected touches or other gestures of affection that did her in because they made her feel important and cherished. She remembered what he’d said about wishing he’d been more affectionate with his wife and he was definitely making a concerted effort to change that now. Briar sensed that he craved it in return and she tried to be demonstrative but it still wasn’t second-nature for her, maybe because she’d held herself back from others for so long. So far he’d been patient in allowing her to take forward steps at her own pace.

“Only that you were in the Corps and that you’re with an agency now.”

His lips quirked in amusement. “Not even telling Trinity the details?”

“I probably will, eventually. I guess I feel…protective of you.”

His hand slid around to cup the back of her head, his green eyes heating. “That’s sweet, and also pretty damn hot, coming from you.”

She could feel herself blushing under that intense stare.

He leaned in until his mouth was poised next to her ear, dropped his voice to a seductive murmur. “I love that you can still blush around me. I wonder what else I could do to make you blush?”

She opened her mouth to say something sharp and witty even though her insides were melting, but stopped when a ringtone went off. Matt immediately straightened and pulled the phone out of his pocket to answer. She watched his face as he listened, wondering who it was.