by Honor James
His words melted something inside of her that she didn’t know was frozen. She licked her lips and looked up at him. “I don’t know what to say to that.” She confessed honestly. “I happen to think that you are the perfect man and I rather enjoy being around you. I love watching you work through problems and the way that your mind works. You stun me, in a good way,” she said with a grin. “I think that when we are feeling better—when I am feeling better—we should see what else we have in common.”
“Deal,” he said quickly. Grinning at her when she looked to him, he hugged her tight. “All right, let’s shelf this discussion for later. Do you want a bath now or a nap first? It’s ladies’ choice. Though I will insist you have some water before we do anything. Those painkillers will give you cottonmouth if we don’t keep you hydrated.”
“Water will be very much appreciated, but I’m thinking a nap would be good. That way I get to curl up against you and we can shut the world out while we wait this storm out. Deal?” Poor Michael, she was growing to depend upon him and it had only been hours. She didn’t know how she would survive once he was gone.
“Can do,” he agreed. Leaning them forward a bit, he grabbed a bottle of water from the cart and passed it to her. When she had it in hand, he stood with her in his arms and took her to the bed. Laying her out, he covered her with the blankets before joining her under the bedding. He had them in a reclined position so she could drink the water he’d given her. “Do you need help opening that?”
“Yes, please.” She passed the bottle to him and snuggled back into the bed. She sighed and closed her eyes for a moment. “This is very nice,” she confessed. The hand that was on her thigh of his alerted her that he had opened the bottle and was passing it back. When she opened her eyes, she looked up at him and licked her lips. “I think that you are going to teach me a lot in this lifetime, aren’t you?”
“No more than you’ll teach me, I’m sure,” he said. Pressing a light kiss to her lips, he put the bottle in her hand. Then he wrapped his arms around her, holding her close as she drank. Michael shifted enough to rest his cheek on her belly with her in her reclined position, holding her close and yet leaving her arms free for her water. Which was likely a good thing since it was a bit challenging with the bandages and how stiff her hands were.
Gigi put the bottle at her side and let her fingers run through his short hair. “You are getting a bit long for a military cut. Are you going to have to have it cut again before going back?” she asked as her fingers moved through the soft hair on the top of his head. She could get used to this. Far too easily.
“Likely,” he said quietly. “They tend to be pretty strict about that sort of thing. That and it gets damn hot under a helmet if you have too much hair. I’ll likely shear it off before I head back. Though if you swear to do this often, I’ll definitely grow some of it back when I come home for good.”
She didn’t know what to say to that. He terrified her, but he drew her in as well. He made her ache for something that she didn’t understand. “I promise,” she heard herself saying finally. “If you want to see me after you come back, if you come find me, then you bet I will do this as much and often as you want me to.”
She felt his arms tighten around her a moment before he lifted his head to look at her. “I will definitely want to see you, Gigi. I will come find you, and then I plan on locking us in a space for at least a week. No phones, no visitors, just you and me for a week. I’ll warn you before I show up though, so you can make sure we have enough to survive that time. Because I will not be letting you out for even a second.”
“I look forward to it. I will even put Rigby at the borders during that time.” So she could experience every single moment in time that he would give to her. “You are quickly becoming very important to me,” she whispered to him and let her fingers trace his lips. “I don’t understand it, but I want to roll with it.” She wasn’t a stupid woman and therefore couldn’t turn away someone that was as spectacular as he was, but she also didn’t believe in that L-word, but if she were writing a book it would be just like this. There would be that intense and immediate attraction, that desperate need, the pull and driving urgency to have everything and anything possible with him. However this wasn’t a book. This was life and she was a woman that knew that sadly L-O-V-E was one of those things that was fleeting. Look at everyone around her and it was clear that it was a farce of an emotion.
He smiled against her finger and nodded slightly. “I’ll take that, especially since I know how hard it is for you to even admit that. Don’t worry, honey, I won’t be pressuring you into anything you’re not ready for. Now, scootch on down here and let’s get in a nap while the world goes to hell outside, shall we?”
No sooner than he said that, the world boomed once more and the lights stuttered off again. She sighed and shook her head. “Good thing that we have the heat of each other then, huh?” She moved down, with his help and curled into his body. With her eyes closed, she relaxed against him and whispered, “Good rest, Michael Burnett. Let’s hope that tomorrow is a better day.”
“Sweet dreams, Gigi Fletcher,” he teased back. He pressed a kiss to her jaw and nipped lightly. “Any day with you is fabulous, so tomorrow will definitely be wonderful. Sleep now, we have all the time in the world as long as we are in the moment, together.”
Chapter Eight
Thirteen months later
Gigi closed the laptop and rubbed at her neck. It had been a monstrously long day. Her father had called her, yet again, and assigned even more staff and guards to her. She hated it, too. She couldn’t blame him, but it sucked all the same.
She looked down at her hands and rose to her feet. Stretching, she winced at the pinch at her side. “Crap, that still hurts like hell,” she muttered.
“Well you were shot, Ms. Fletcher. I would think that tends to hurt,” Reece said from where he laid his cards down on the table. “Flush. I win, you grubby bastards.” Once more, he turned to Gigi. “You know that you should be resting. Let us do what your father hired us to do.” All four men then turned to look at her.
She shifted and shook her head. “I swear.” The four men seated in her dining room were all former Secret Service, men that her father had hastily assigned to her after yet another attempt on her life. “Has Daddy found out anything at all?”
“No, and it’s driving the General fucking crazy. Especially since his promotion.”
“Shit.” Her poor dad. He had been promoted from the military to Secretary of Defense when his predecessor suddenly withdrew from the public citing personal issues. No one really knew what was going on with him, and her father really didn’t want to take the position but had because he didn’t want his competition to get it even more. When she thought about Rashanda Keeves-Munich, she shivered. The man was nasty, just everything about him screamed that he was a bad man, but no one could find anything in his past or present to lend credence to her and her father’s feelings on the man.
“You poor guys. Here you thought that you were going to be guarding the president’s dog or something.” She got a chorus of laughter from the men and Reece spoke next.
“Ms. Fletcher, you are far prettier than that mutt.” He looked at her with a frown and shook his head. “I think your father ran out of Special Forces men to watch over you.” There was a snort of laughter from Frank, one of the guys to Reece’s right. “How did you manage it anyway?”
“What?” she asked with wide eyes. She had no idea what he was talking about. Moving into the kitchen, she continued to talk to them. “Do any of you want tea?”
Reece walked up behind her and reached over her head to get her mug. “No reaching. Don’t you remember what the doctor said?”
“Yes.” No. She hadn’t. Dammit. “What do you mean, how did I manage what?”
“To disrupt not only what happened to you on the island, but the five other tries to either take you or kill you?”
Gigi whirled so quickly she got
just a little dizzy and dropped her mug. “What?”
“Oh shit.”
Frank leaned back in his chair and looked to his boss and the daughter of one of the most important men in their country. “She didn’t know, I told you I didn’t think she knew.”
“Know what?” Gigi didn’t even move to start to clean up the mess she had made, and she had loved that damn mug.
“Your dad is going to kill me.” Reese grumbled and walked away to get the broom. “Okay, when you came back, you know how there was the gas man that was trying to read the meter?”
“Yeah, but I don’t have gas. He was just at the wrong house.”
“No he wasn’t. He was a hired hit man, Gigi. He was there to take you. You had shut your door so hard that the clay roof tiles over the porch fell? That’s when you had.” He turned to the guys and frowned. “What were their names? The ones that the General assigned to her when she came home from the island?”
“Henry and James,” Tully McBride said as he dealt the next hand of cards.
“Yeah, them. You went inside and didn’t see him hit and fall. From what those two said, you saved your own ass. He had duct tape, a massive duffle bag, and enough shit to knock you out for a good long month. Then there was the car defense.”
“Huh?” She was so screwed. She leaned heavily against the counter because she had a feeling this was going to be bad. The only thing she could think of with a car was when she accidently hit the homeless guy who was trying to wash her windows. It really wasn’t her fault. The brakes failed and she couldn’t stop.
“Yeah. So the homeless guy that you hit with the car? He had a Glock and zip ties. However, what he didn’t know was that your brake lines had been cut.”
She was going to puke. She knew it. “No more,” she whispered. She felt sick. “I can’t take anymore.” Shit, what did she have to do? “What about Daddy?” she asked then.
“He’s stumped,” Reece said as he made her tea just as she liked it and put it into her hands. “Now you have a phone call to take.” He looked up at the time. “Shouldn’t your guy be calling on Skype soon?”
“Yeah.” She did brighten, at least a little.
Reece looked to the men and nodded. “Clean it up, boys. Let’s let the little General have some time alone with pretty boy.” He smirked and kissed the top of Gigi’s head. “Go and make you phone call, kiddo. I’m going to walk the perimeter and they are going to go for groceries while Frank here goes to check in with your dad.”
“Okay. Tell Daddy I said hello and please ask him to stop by tonight for dinner.” She saw the men as they shared a look and frowned. “Stop looking at each other like that. Son of a biscuit, you guys are making me feel all kinds of worried.”
“Not trying to, kiddo.” He pointed her toward her laptop once more. “Go. Make your call to lover boy and tell him that your cheer squad is here and waiting for him to challenge us with online Battleship again. The little shit beat us all last time, not happening again.”
That had Gigi grinning. She couldn’t seem to help herself. Just thinking about Michael had her smiling. She hadn’t believed in a lot of things before Michael, and now all of her thinking had been adjusted, and she was good with that. “Go. Do what you need to do. I’m going to go and make goo-goo eyes at the too-sexy Marine.” She heard the men gagging and scooped her laptop up before heading toward her bedroom for privacy for her call with her man. Yep, her man.
Setting the laptop on the docking station, she opened up her Skype account and waited for the call to connect.
The connection went through with some static before it cleared up. Sitting there, looking tired, was Michael. As soon as he saw her, he smiled and looked a lot more alert. “Hiya, honey. God, you are a sight for sore eyes. How are you doing?”
“Michael.” She said his name more than a little breathlessly and the world around her dropped away. She reached out and touched her fingers to the screen and frowned. “You look so tired.” She hated that he was on the other side of the planet from her. “I told you that you should let me stay up late at night to call you during the daytime. I hate that you are giving up your sleep for me.”
He snorted at that and touched his fingers to his screen. “Not happening, babe. One of us needs sleep, and you are so much prettier than I could hope to be, so it’s you.” He gave her a soft look and sighed. “Damn I miss you, honey. I did come up with another name to throw in the pot with the others. Actually, the squad came up with this one, so if you hate it, you can kick them all in the nuts.” Like she’d threatened to do to him after the Ginger he’d offered up for consideration. Yeah he’d been laughing at the time, clearly teasing her, but still!
“Yeah well, I hope that it’s not another stripper name.” She did lean back, and while she tried to look stern and cross her arms over her chest, she couldn’t stop smiling. “All right, hit me with it, GI Joe,” she teased him. At his growl, she winked. “Hey, at least I’m not calling you an army brat, right?” She loved to tease him just as he loved to tease her. Too bad that his entire unit got in on the teasing sometimes. Especially when they learned who she was and that her father had no idea she was spending all of this time talking to Michael via Skype.
“GI Joe was Army if I recall, so that’s just as bad,” he pointed out. Sighing, he shook his head and rolled his eyes. “This isn’t a stripper name. This one actually came from Cutter. He suggested Gina. I actually kind of like it, but since it’s your name, you have final vote.” His attention was pulled away a minute later and she saw him frown as someone talked to him offscreen. “Shit, honey, I need to go. I’m sorry, babe. Be good and we’ll talk as soon as we can.” Leaning in, he pressed a big wet kiss to the camera before it went dead.
Gigi just sat back in her chair and looked at the blank screen, the Skype now dead. She took a deep breath and rubbed at the ache in her chest. “I think that I might like you more than a little,” she whispered to the now dead screen. “A lot more.” She could make that confession when there was no one around, and maybe one day she could make it when he was there, too?
She stood and peeled off her clothes. Tossing them into the hamper, she moved to the floor to ceiling mirror and looked at the pink and puckering scar. “That still hurts.” It had been nearly two months since she had been shot, but still. It hurt.
Shaking her head, she walked out of the bedroom and to the attached bathroom so she could get a shower and clean up. If she took her time, hopefully the guys would either order food in or have cooked for them again. If she took enough time, that was. “I miss you, Michael.” She whispered in the confines of the shower with the water pelting around her.
* * * *
She had been in the shower for about fifteen minutes when she heard the doorbell and then a pounding on the door. “What in the bloody hell?” she grumbled. Grabbing her towel, she wrapped her hair in one and then wrapped a second around her body and took her robe from the hook on the back of the door. “I’m coming, I’m coming. Jesus, hold your damn horses,” she muttered, and after tying her robe tightly, she jerked the door open, about to cuss one of her guards out, but her words died on her lips at who she saw there.
Michael smiled at her, dropped his bag on the floor, and held his arms open to her. “Hiya, babe,” he said softly. He looked even more exhausted in person. But the fact she couldn’t get over was the fact that he was there, in person.
“Michael!” She cried finally and threw herself into his arms. She knew that he would catch her, he would always catch her. She squeezed him as tightly as she could and pulled him as closely as she could get him. When she pulled back, she touched her hands to his face and then to his lips. “You are here. I thought you were in—hell, where were you last?” He had been very careful to not tell her where he was after the last time that she knew where he was. She had freaked out when he told her that he was in a hot zone, more than a little. It wasn’t a proud moment and she knew it. “Come in. God, don’t stay out there.” She w
hispered and tugged him in. “My guards are, well, somewhere,” she said and hugged him again.
Laughing, he kicked his duffel inside, moving with her, and shut the door behind them. He threw the locks and hugged her in closer to him. Scooping her up, he buried his face in her neck and just breathed.
“I’ve missed you so much.” She was holding onto him. She pulled back enough to look up at him. “Why? How?” She didn’t care for either answer, all that mattered was that he was there. He was with her. “No more hurt lip,” she said suddenly, grinning as she spoke. “So I think that you owe me at least one kiss?”
“I’ve missed you, too,” he said softly. Letting her down to her feet, he cupped her face and stared into her eyes. “I’m on my last two months, so your dad had me reassigned Stateside. Special assignment, all hush-hush,” he said with a grin. “I see that you are all healed up, I’m glad. Though you and I will be discussing the gunshot later,” he warned with a growl. Then he kissed her, finally. His lips pushed hers apart. His tongue brushed over hers as he wrapped her up in his arms and seemed to feast on her.
Gigi greedily kissed him back. She moved slightly, her leg wrapping around his waist, and then sighed when he took the hint and picked her up from the floor. She wrapped her legs around his middle and finally pulled back, her forehead to his. “My bedroom. Second door on the left. I will let you ask me anything you want later.” She was terrified that whatever her father assigned him to would take him from her again. “And please tell me that you are here for longer than just an hour or two?” Her fingers stroked his cheeks. She was stunned that he was there with her and couldn’t be happier either.