Page 60 of Good Enough

“There are even more of them, aren’t there?” Her voice was small from where her mouth rested against the back of his shoulder. Her fingers gently ran the length of the scar, top to bottom.

Nodding, he confessed, “Yes, but most are not from Afghanistan. Five years ago, when I was recovering from the kidney, I was brought into Tribe. God hired me from my hospital bed. I had a bit of a reputation for my analyst skills already, as well as a reputation for authority issues, and he had apparently been watching me for a while.” He brought his lips down to her forearm again as if drawing strength from her arms to say the words he needed to say. “Three years later, I was on a recovery job in Egypt. It would be too simplistic to say that it went badly. In the past, I had a very bad habit of rushing in where angels fear to tread, so to speak. I was quiet, but if there was trouble, I’d be first in line to meet it and the last one to leave it. I never thought before I acted. Just reacted. On that last project, I was captured. My rash decision forced my team to come in and get me.”

“You were tortured.”

In more ways than one.

“Yes.”

She crawled around to the front of him. Remaining on her knees, she took his face in her hands and lightly kissed him. “Your knee? It didn’t heal properly. That’s why you limp sometimes.”

“I honestly didn’t think the limp was that noticeable anymore.”

Blushing, she gave him a sad smile. “I may watch you quite a bit.”

He grinned. “Quite a bit, huh?”

“Saucy,” she warned, throwing back at him his favorite word for her.

He pulled her close and fell backward on the bed, gathering her close, her head under his chin, his arms wrapped tight around her. “Don’t feel bad for me. It’s nothing compared to what it could be, and probably far less than I deserved for being an idiot. I’m alive. At least I could walk, and I was able to come back to work. Everything else healed, but the marks will always be there to remind me of my mistakes.”

She raised her face to his, placing a kiss on the side of his mouth. “At least they left this beautiful face alone.”

“Mmmm. This beautiful face doesn’t want to talk about it anymore. I have much better things to say to you while we’re in this bed. Now shut up unless you’re moaning my name.”

Two hours later, Waters left Kubrick sleeping in the bed. They’d spent most of that time making out like teenagers. Eventually, they’d both ended up naked under the sheet, swapping positions, exploring each other, and Waters finding out exactly where her sweet spots were. He grinned to himself, recalling a certain area on the inside of her knees that was particularly stimulating to her.

For the first time in his life, Waters felt like sex was fun again, and he wanted to savor the time with a woman. He didn’t need to experience it all in one night. In fact, if it had taken weeks to get to sex, he would have been more than fine with that. He also didn’t want her to think that all he wanted was sex.

Wow. You just told her that’s all you can give her, but you don’t want her to think that’s all you want? Way to send mixed messages, asshole.

The irony was not wasted on him that now that he’d found someone he would love to explore more than a short-term arrangement with, he couldn’t.

Closing the door of her suite behind him, Waters sat in the high-backed leather chair behind the desk. He powered up his tablet and dialed the office for a video conference after punching in his security codes to scramble the service. As Midas answered, the screen split in two, showing the cyber guru on the left and a black box with a voice sound wave depicted on the right for God.

Time to get roasted for real.

“Well, hel-lo there, stud muffin. Nice hickey.”

Waters flipped his middle finger. There was no hickey.

Well… not on my neck. Can’t say that for other areas. My right ass cheek still smarts.

Midas made a show of checking his watch. “Only two hours and forty minutes? I’m disappointed in you. I figured we wouldn’t see you until tomorrow.” He grunted. “I would have thought that would be goddamn embarrassing for a former SEAL. Where’s your pride? And fuck, that also means I lost the pool.” Midas consulted the bets on the whiteboard behind him. “Steel won. He picked two hours and thirty-eight minutes. He know something about you we don’t?”

Waters shook his head at the shit-talking. “Everyone’s gotta come up for air sometime. Can you go that long without breathing?”

“Niiiiiiiiice,” Midas drawled. “Almost makes me wish I was a chick.”

In the background, he could hear Steel mumbling to himself in Spanish. Waters refused to translate out of fear of what he would hear. Instead, he redirected. “Updates?”

“Can I put the camera back up?” Midas asked.

Waters turned his head toward the suite door. “Leave it a bit longer. She doesn’t know, and I don’t want her to be embarrassed unnecessarily.” He turned his gaze back to the screen. He prompted again, “So. Updates?”

“Other than Nemo getting his ass bit by a snake, Demon and TB report nothing amiss. Enigma prowls a lot at night but primarily to Vixen’s room. He’s not exactly spending a lot of time in his own bed.”

“No surprise. Any luck with Ka-Bar?”

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