Kennedy growled a warning he had no intention of heeding.
“Surely you realize I’m not going to just let this go.”
Snagging a cupcake off the plate, Asher shoved half of it into his mouth. An eyebrow cocked in challenge, he strode across the cabin for the tiny bathroom attached.
Kennedy trailed behind him. She dropped the lid down over the toilet, wrapping her legs up into a pretzel as she watched him from her perch.
Asher flipped on the water as hot as it would go, trying not to let himself be distracted by Kennedy and her beautiful, naked body.
“You have to be carrying around some psychological weight from the things you’ve done and seen.”
Shaking his head, he ducked into the shower, closing the clear glass door between them. It didn’t help.
Why was she digging? Why did she care, when she was just going to walk out of his life?
Tipping his head back beneath the hot stream, Asher closed his eyes...and eventually answered her. “Sure, it bothers me sometimes. I mean, I wouldn’t be human if it didn’t. I killed people, Kennedy. We all did. But it was either kill or be killed. And while I’d like to think everything I did, every order I followed, fell firmly in the white areas of clearly good, I know that we operated mostly in the gray. The SEALs aren’t called in for the piddly shit. We handle life and death, national security.”
He didn’t want to see her reaction, but he couldn’t stop himself from reaching out and running his palm across the glass, wiping away a clear patch through the steam and fog built up on the surface.
Part of him wished he hadn’t.
Kennedy watched him, her whiskey eyes somehow sad and fierce. He didn’t want to see that expression on her face, especially after the amazing encounter they’d just shared.
After several seconds, she unfolded her lithe body. He watched her step across the small space and reach for the handle on the shower door.
She slid inside with him, closing the glass behind her and cloaking them both in the rising bubble of steam.
She didn’t touch him, which was a damn feat, considering how small the shower was. She stared up at him and in a quiet voice said, “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“Everything. The sacrifices you made. Putting your life on the line. Bringing my brother home safe and whole. Giving me the most amazing orgasm in my life and making sure I’ll never look at a cupcake the same way again. For being the man you are.”
A lump formed in the back of his throat. Shit. She was going to make him care.
That band of pressure squeezed harder. Hope and fear, an uncomfortable combination, seemed to itch beneath his skin. Suddenly, he was restless and needy.
As if sensing he was floundering, Kennedy fell back on the defense mechanism he always used, the one that had apparently deserted him just when he’d needed it most.
Her mouth tipping up in a saucy smile, she said, “But I’m still not okay with you calling me cupcake.”
Asher laughed, the sound of it echoing off the walls and bouncing back at both of them.
Wrapping his arms around her body, he tugged her tight against him. Burying his nose in her soft hair, he said, “You realize that’s not going to stop me, right?”
Kennedy sighed, a single exasperated word gushing across his wet skin. “Yep.”
14
SOMETHING BETWEEN THEM had shifted. Kennedy had felt it, cocooned inside that small, quiet room, alone with Asher. Several days later, sitting beside him on another plane, the echo of it was still reverberating through her body.
Scaring her straight down to her bones.
For the better part of two years they’d sniped and barely tolerated each other. But now... There was something about seeing Asher at his most vulnerable, knowing that she was the only one able to help him through a difficult situation, that called to a place deep inside her.
But no matter what, she couldn’t let that spot grow. Because there wasn’t a future here. Not when she was leaving. Not when Asher had given her no indication that this meant more to him.
So her developing emotions were her own issue to deal with.
After almost two weeks on the Amphitrite, they were now returning to their real lives. They still had several more days of filming at the Trident main offices, but when this was over...they would be, too.
She’d be starting a new adventure far from home, something she’d wanted for a very long time. A month ago, if anyone had told her that landing her dream job would suddenly feel like a burden instead of a blessing, she would have laughed in their face. But today, she didn’t like the churning sensation in her belly whenever she thought about leaving for Seattle.
The plane touched down on the runway. Asher’s leg rubbed against hers as he shifted in his seat. How much different this ride had been from their flight out.
On the way to the Bahamas, tension had twisted her gut. This time, somewhere over the Caribbean Sea she’d fallen asleep with her head resting against Asher’s shoulder. At some point he’d shifted her body, tucking her into his side and giving her a solid place to snuggle into his warmth.
A sharp pain pinched her chest as he stood, gathering their bags from the overhead bin and shouldering them both without even asking her. Because that was the kind of guy he was.
She followed behind, shuffling into the aisle ahead of him when he dropped back to hold the line of people trying to push past.
They hadn’t checked any luggage, so it was a quick trip through customs and out into the muggy Florida heat.
Stopping at her car in the garage, Asher waited for her to fish her keys from her purse and unlock the trunk. He loaded her things and closed it again, pressing his hip against the side.
Arms crossed over his chest, he studied her for several seconds.
“Come home with me.”
They were the first words he’d spoken to her in about an hour. Kennedy tried not to let her heart gallop at them. A lump formed in the back of her throat, but she pushed it down and forced herself to say the words she knew she must.
Distance, she needed some if she had any hope of getting out of this thing with her heart intact.
“I have to go home and unpack. Check on things. Get Max from the vet. He’s been cooped up there long enough.”
“Bring Max with you.”
God, she was weak. Because she wanted to do just that. But how long would this last? A few more days? A week at the most.
Pushing away from the car, Asher snagged her, pulling her against his body. He was strong, solid. Tempting. His scent wrapped around her just as surely as his arms. And she wanted him, not only physically, although her body was definitely responding to him. But everything he was willing to give her for as long as she could get it.
Hands on her hips, Asher pushed her back against the car. His palms settled on either side of her head, trapping her. The thing was, she didn’t want to get free.
That moment, that place, was exactly where she wanted to be.
And what was so bad about that? At least for right now.
She could deal with the aftermath of her decision later, when she didn’t have any other choice.
Asher brought his mouth to hers, coaxing, slow and devastating. He teased her lips, brushing softly and licking, until she couldn’t help but open to him. With a few well-placed moves, he had her panting. In the middle of a public parking garage.
What was it about this man that made her completely lose her head?
“Come home with me, Kennedy. I want you there.”
Four little words she was powerless to ignore.
“Damn you,” she breathed out even as she nodded her head, giving in.
He chuckled, the sound of it as much of a caress as the little nip of his teeth against her bottom lip. When he pulled back, he was grinning down at her, a wicked heat filling his expressive eyes.
“Get Max. Do whatever you need to. I’ve got dinner covered. After the stress of the last few days, I think we both deserve an easy, carefree night.”
His words were so enticing.
Kennedy watched him walk across the garage to where his Jeep was parked. Throwing his bag into the passenger’s seat, he turned and waited until she pulled out before jumping in and following her.
She told herself not to rush. To take her time, check on her condo, throw some laundry into the washer, flip through the mail that had piled up while she was gone.
But none of that happened. Kennedy tossed her bag inside the front door, raced around throwing a few toiletries and a change of clothes into another bag, and was back out the door in about twenty minutes flat.
It took another thirty to retrieve Max, the blue heeler and lab mix she’d adopted from the pound a year ago. He was the most loyal dog she’d ever seen and had made moving from her childhood home to her own place after graduation a little less lonely.
Less than an hour and a half after leaving him at the airport, Kennedy pulled into Asher’s driveway.
And just sat there, staring at his front door, her heart thumping a mile a minute.
It was one thing to let him into her life and body when they were cocooned on the Amphitrite. But she was about to cross a line. And she knew it was a bad idea but couldn’t stop herself from doing it anyway. Beside her, Max whimpered, confused about what they were doing and where they were.
“Right there with you, buddy.”
Before she could change her mind, the dark blue front door opened, framing Asher’s large body. His wide shoulders practically filled the frame, not that he stayed there long.