by Jade Alters
“Just don’t feel pressured,” said Stone. “That’s all we ask.”
As it turned out, however, I didn’t think I could feel pressured if I tried. As the boys began working in shifts, we started to settle into a routine. Even with two sets of meals to prepare, I didn’t have much work to do. It felt like the greatest part of my day was spent relaxing, with very little to occupy my time except reading and messing around with the hand-weights that the Norths had brought to the cabin with them.
If the off-shift men were awake, we could spend a little time talking and hanging out. The more time I got with them, the more I grew to like their company. Before long, I knew I’d be hoping to spend even more time together. I just hoped that sometime soon, we’d get to a point where I didn’t feel butterflies in my stomach every time one of them made direct eye contact with me. ‘Cos this, right now, with all the blushing? This wasn’t me at all.
Stone
The first few weeks of the mission went by without any incident. It was easy to forget that we were here to hunt down an extremist sleeper cell that the government had identified as a national security threat. So far, we had seen neither head nor tail of their gun-toting selves — and every time we came in out of the cold, we either had a hot meal waiting for us, or just about to be served.
Even better than the meal was the company. Jess was already proving to be exactly the kind of company we needed. She had a great sense of humor, even if it veered a little too self-deprecating for my liking. She seemed to feel inadequate around us sometimes, as though we were some kind of superhero force and she was just our backup. I hoped she’d soon realize that we were just a bunch of goofballs who happened to have some pretty useful skills.
Well. A bunch of goofballs and Blake.
I loved the leader of our pride just like the others, but he had such a serious outlook that I couldn’t accurately call him a goofball. He seemed to carry the weight of the world on his shoulders, and I often wondered whether he got enough sleep at night. Even now, as he could hear Jess asking us a question, his eyes were so intense and serious that I figured something else must be on his mind — right up until the moment he answered her.
“It’s because Hale is my second in command,” Blake explained; she had asked, maybe just to make polite conversation, why we always went out in the same pairs. “We have to keep separate in case something should happen to one of us.”
“You’re in that much danger?” she asked.
I gave Blake a look, hoping that he wouldn’t alarm her. Luckily, he seemed to be thinking along the same lines. “It’s mostly a precaution,” he said, pouring himself another glass of water from the pitcher. “A military habit, I guess. They’re hard to kick.”
“Are you all military-trained?”
He nodded, but as he’d just taken a mouthful of water, I stepped up to answer.
“We are now. When the team was formed, Blake, Hale and Preston were all Marines. I wasn’t. I’d just been working on my medical studies, and I had to go through basic training before I could officially be considered a part of this. ‘Course, we already worked together as a team pretty well, since we’d grown up together, but… training made it official.”
“Wow,” she said. “All pretty hardcore, huh?”
“I’m going to assume you’re not teasing me,” I said. “For your own safety. That’s how hardcore I am.” I grinned at her laughter, turning to follow her progress around the table as she carried her own plate to eat with us. “Laughing to stave off the fear,” I said. “I see how it is.”
“I’ll make sure I don’t turn my back on you,” she said.
“That’s right.”
Blake glanced up from his maps, giving both of us a crooked smile. “The day Stone keeps his mouth shut for long enough to sneak up on anyone with their back turned, I’ll be shocked.”
“Hey,” I said, pretending to be wounded. “I’m not Hale.”
“You’re the next best thing, while he’s out,” Blake insisted. “Or next worst, I guess.”
“So, as I was saying,” I said, turning to Jess. “We work very well together.”
Our eyes met. She gave me a wicked smile, chin propped up on her hand. The blonde hair she hadn’t gathered into a loose bun was falling into her eyes — and so was I. Maybe I was imagining things, but it felt like she felt closer to me than any of the others. That kind of made sense. I was the youngest, and acted like it; of the four North men, I was probably least intimidating to an outsider. Besides, Blake teasing me about being a mini-Hale wasn’t far off the mark. I was pretty good with people too and liked to think I’d done a good job of making Jess feel at home here in the cabin.
Whether that would lead to more, I wasn’t sure — but I had gained a friend I liked very much either way. It just remained to be seen whether I’d be pining over her in secret.
Well, it probably wouldn’t be a secret for very long. Hale would pick up on it the second he sees us together. For as much as we messed with each other, he was my best friend, and the other two members of the pride weren’t far behind. They’d be able to see my attraction to Jess written all over my face. I could only hope that she wouldn’t be able to read me so easily — or that if she could, she liked what she saw.
“Alright,” said Blake, folding up his maps. “I’m going to hit the shower, and then hit the hay. It’s going to be a long day tomorrow.”
“Okay, boss. See you in the morning.”
“Night, Blake!” said Jess, waving him off.
And with that, it was just us. I felt even more drawn to her now that we were alone, but I knew it wasn’t right to push it. I didn’t even want to. We had plenty of time to get to know each other better at our own pace — even if she made my stomach flip when she looked at me.
“Well,” she said. “I better get started on these dishes.”
“I can handle those. You cooked.”
“Absolutely not,” said Jess, snatching my plate away before I could carry it up to the sink. “This is what you’re paying me for, and it’s about all I can do for you.”
I pressed my hands together, giving her a sheepish smile. “Doesn’t feel right to sit here and watch you, though. You’ve got to at least let me help.”
“You’re providing company,” she said. “That’s how you can help. If you just- ah!”
My ears pricked at the sharp intake of breath, and I stood from the table to go to her immediately. She lifted her hands out of the sink, her left hand gripping her right. There was a nasty cut in her palm.
“Whoa,” I said. “What happened?”
“Sharp knife in the water,” she said, through gritted teeth. “Must’ve landed upright when I dropped it in the bowl.”
I reached across to drain the sink. Sure enough, a small, sharp cutting knife stood upright, wedged between a bowl and a pan.
“Clearly, I’m an idiot,” she said.
“No, no. Could’ve happened to anyone. You keep hold of your hand, okay? I’ll be back in a beat.”
“I can manage,” she called after me. “Honestly, I don’t need any fuss.”
“Listen,” I said, returning with my basic first aid kit. “I’m the medic, and the last time this team saw bloodshed it was because Preston got a paper-cut. Let me be useful.”
I was half-teasing, but the wound in her hand did actually look pretty nasty. If untreated, it could easily get infected — and it was definitely going to hurt tomorrow, especially if I didn’t bandage it up correctly.
“Here,” I said, guiding her to the table. “Come sit down. I’ll clean and wrap it.”
“Do I have to?”
“And here I was thinking you’d be a model patient,” I said, taking a seat beside her. I opened the kit and dabbed a little cleaning solution onto a cotton pad. “Fair warning. This is going to sting a little.”
“I can take it.”
She winced as I applied the solution, dabbing it carefully around the wounded area. There was a lot of blood, b
ut thankfully the cut wasn’t as deep as it looked. The blade had gone into her hand at an angle, and thankfully missed anything that could have caused real damage — her tendons or her muscles, for example.
“Almost done,” I said, giving it one last wipe. “Alright. Sorry about that.”
“You’ll notice I didn’t complain,” she said. “I’m a big girl.”
“I did notice. You could’ve been forgiven for cursing like a sailor,” I said, laying some gauze over the cut. “I know what that stuff feels like.”
“Maybe you’re just a big baby.”
I grinned at her. “Probably, yeah.” Though she smiled back at me, I could see that a little color had faded out of her cheeks. Jess was strong, but clearly it hurt more than she was willing to show. I made sure to keep my touch gentle as I bandaged her up.
“There we go. My medic skills aren’t a waste after all.”
A few moments later, I realized that I hadn’t let go of her hand. Nor had she pulled it away. Not thinking, I traced my thumb gently over the top of the bandage. Had it been skin to skin, it’d have been a feather-light touch — probably ticklish.
She swallowed, and the color returned to her cheeks.
God, was she ever beautiful!
I let go of her hand, fighting off the urge to lean closer and kiss her. This was too much, too fast. I didn’t want to overwhelm her or make things awkward for the rest of her time here. I scratched the back of my neck, smiling down at the table.
“Anyway, you’re welcome. And now you’re going to have to let me take care of the dishes.”
“Oh, come on!”
I gave a big exaggerated shrug and stood up from the table, picking up the rest of the plates. “For all I know, this was your plan all along. I’m onto you, Dorsey.”
“Yeah, yeah,” she said. She was looking at her hand. I made my way to the sink. When I looked back at her, I could see that the back of her neck and the tips of her ears were all a bright, bashful pink.
Jessica
I could still feel Stone’s touch on my hand, both under and around the bandage. It was more pronounced than the pain — the dancing, electric tingles that reminded me exactly where our skin had come into contact. My heart was pounding, and I couldn’t help but feel self-conscious as I said my goodnight and headed to my own room.
Had he noticed, I wondered, what effect he had on me?
As I settled into bed for the night, setting my alarm ready to wake up and make breakfast, I could still feel my heart going at hummingbird pace in my chest. I couldn’t settle down. Was it normal to feel this way about somebody you’d only just met? I’d never been a head-over-heels kind of girl. Even worse, I had to be honest with myself.
It wasn’t just Stone that set my pulse racing.
Blake’s ‘oh-so-serious’ persona sometimes cracked into a soft smile, and I could feel myself melting every time I saw it. Preston still didn’t speak much, but there was something intriguing and appealing in his dark eyes. Hale was so charming that it intimidated me, and I could feel my tongue tying up around him.
It was frustrating. Here I was, a fully grown woman, and I was acting like a flustered teenager over these four men. I could barely settle down to rest without thinking about the way Stone had looked at me. It felt like he was about to kiss me.
Whether it was true or not, I couldn’t get the thought out of my head. I imagined him just on the other side of the wall beside my bed, and swallowed hard.
If I didn’t ignore the heat beginning to pool between my legs, things were quickly going to get out of hand.
In the morning, when I finally dragged myself out of bed, I didn’t feel a whole lot different. As I heard Stone getting his morning shower and head out to greet Blake, I realized in a jolt that they’d be leaving within the hour. Sure, Preston and Hale would be coming back — but for the better part of the day, there would always be at least two of them out there in danger, trying to complete their mysterious government task.
I couldn’t help but feel afraid for them. Of course, they were more than capable of looking after themselves, but I was attached to them now. I couldn’t imagine how I’d feel if anything should happen to any one of them.
“You know where you’re going out there, don’t you, Blake?”
“Hm?” He looked up from his maps, jolted out of a train of thought. “Sorry, Jessica. Jess.”
“I just don’t want you all to get lost, or stumble into some trouble, or… anything like that.”
Blake smiled, folding his hands together. There it was — that rare flash of softness. “We’ll be fine; this is not our first rodeo. You don’t need to worry about us.”
“If you say so.”
He nodded to my hand. “Stone was telling me about your hand. Maybe it’s us who should be worrying about you…?”
“I swear I’m not completely incompetent,” I insisted, hiding the wounded hand with the other one. “It was hidden in the water, and I feel really stupid about it, and-”
“I’m only teasing you,” said Blake. Now that he said that, I could see the lightness in his eyes. Maybe he wasn’t all seriousness after all. It would just take a little time for me to learn how to read his body language. “How does it feel this morning?”
“It’s not so bad,” I lied, flexing my fingers. “I’m just going to have to give up on the hand-weights for a few days, I think.”
“That’s probably for the best,” he agreed. At that, a damp-haired Stone walked into the room, a towel flung over his shoulder. I felt my ears burn red and rushed to the counter to bring his breakfast over.
“Hey, morning, Stone,” Blake continued. “I was just looking at the route. Considering the good visibility today, I was thinking of diverting us to make sure we’re not left too open across the valley…”
I felt grateful for the excuse to be silent, giving them the space to discuss more important plans. This wasn’t like me, but I didn’t trust myself to have an eloquent conversation with Stone right now. The dreams I’d had last night were one thing. Having to see him look like that in person was quite another — and it didn’t help that Blake was equally easy on the eyes.
My life had taken a strange turn over the past few weeks. I could never have seen myself taking this job just a month ago. I certainly couldn’t have guessed I’d be spending my time ducking away from making eye contact with really attractive men.
Not least because it was usually in my nature to catch that eye contact and wink.
I caught a few words of their conversation, even as I tried to block it out. They were words you couldn’t help but hear. Explosives. Radicalized. I shuddered, even with my hands under the warm water of the kitchen sink. We all heard those words way too often on news channels today, and now here we were in the midst of some operation or other that faced it down directly. I was more than likely safe in here, but the North boys would be staring it down every single day.
“Jess…?”
I jumped, looking back over my shoulder. “Hi. Sorry.”
“It’s okay,” said Stone, giving me a particularly stomach-melting lopsided grin. “Just… wasn’t sure you should be soaking your hands too much. Gotta keep that bandage on nice and tight until your hand’s had a chance to heal, right?”
“Right,” I said, shaking the water off my hands. “Yes.”
He paused, folding his arms. “So. You’re just going to go straight back to doing that as soon as we leave, aren’t you?”
“No,” I lied. Badly.
“I’ll take it with me,” he warned. “And when that excess weight leads to the failure of the entire mission, this one-” he pointed at Blake, “will be real mad at you.”
I managed a smile, leaning back against the counter. This was the really difficult thing about Stone. He was gorgeous, but he was also so easy to get along with. He didn’t make my stomach flip with intimidation like Blake did.
He just… made it flip another way.
“Fine,” I said. “I
’ll leave it. I promise. But I hasten to remind you that this is the whole reason I’m here.”
“Can’t hurt to leave it for 24 hours,” said Blake, standing up from the table. His smile was fainter, but just as sincere. “Alright. Thanks for breakfast.”
Stone was already wolfing down his food, so I took a few steps after Blake instead, feeling compelled by force to ask the question bubbling up inside me. I knew it was stupid. Still, I couldn’t help but say it.
“Blake…? You guys will be careful out there, right?”
His smile softened a fraction, glancing over my shoulder at Stone and then back to me again. “We’ll be fine,” he said. “Careful might not be the right word for this job, but we know when to take the risk and when to pull back. I can promise you that.”
I nodded, suddenly embarrassed. He didn’t seem to think I was an idiot as he nodded back and walked away, but I felt like one.
After all, what kind of domestic assistant cared so much about her employers after mere days that she needed to ask them to take care of themselves outside, as if they weren’t professionals? As if they hadn’t done this before a thousand times, without me there to warn them?
Preston
In truth, I started feeling under the weather after the first couple of days at the cabin. I kept it to myself at first. Most of the time, these kind of head colds just disappeared on their own, and I knew how important this operation was. To duck out because I felt a little stuffed up would be useless cowardice.
When I woke up on the eighth day, however, it was a different story entirely.
My entire head was spinning. I couldn’t stand up from the bed without losing my balance a little, and I knew for damn sure I couldn’t close one eye and stay upright — let alone look through a sight on a weapon. I’d be no use to Hale like this, or to anyone.