Page 49 of Good Enough

As he walked over to her, Kubrick spoke up from behind the bench. “We’re stuck for the time being. If the rain stops, we can start back up, but the radar shows it getting worse.”

She was tapping on her smartwatch, looking at the forecast, totally unaware he was studying her. Her skin was flushed from the exercise and pebbled from the cold, but her breathing had finally normalized. Most of the mud had come off her skin in the rain, but her clothes were caked with it. Strands of her hair escaped from under her mud-stained hat.

She looked fucking amazing.

He unzipped his windbreaker, removed it, put it over her shoulders, encouraged her arms into it, then zipped her up tight. He smoothed it down her form, noticing that it fell long past her ass, just like one of her signature blouses.

Thank Christ, because I knew her ass would be wicked in those leggings, and it sure as hell is.

Her face was scrunched up in confusion at his actions.

“Your jacket is soaked, and you’re freezing,” he explained.

“What about you? Won’t you be cold?”

He just looked at her with his eyebrow arched.

“Right,” she whispered.

After a minute or so, he cleared his throat. “You all did well. Great, truth be told. Some strong teamwork. They’re starting to develop what you wanted.”

She beamed. “Yeah, they are. Thank you for that. It’s all your doing. They respect you.”

He shrugged. “They do it for you because they like you. Me? I’m mean to them. If I’m soft on them, they won’t push themselves. I doubt it’s respect.”

“Yes, you’re tough on them. When they’re in a group, you’re downright scary when you push them. But when you work with them one-on-one, you’re different. More encouraging. They respond to that. And while Vixen’s still a bit afraid of you, the attraction is starting to overrun that. Enigma’s not going to like the competition. Pretty soon you can probably expect her to be looking for even more excuses to get close to you,” she teased.

Well, she was trying to tease him. He could tell her comments were tasting a bit sour in her mouth. Could that someone Lazarus mentioned be him? He knew he was attracted to her, and he knew she wasn’t disinterested in him based on prior conversations. There’d been this weird feeling between them since the tattoo discussion, and he wasn’t quite sure what to do with it.

Oh, you know exactly what to do with it, dipshit.

He could have just ignored her words, but something inside couldn’t let it slide. “She’s a nice girl but… not really my type,” he admitted. He stepped into her personal space, pulling the collar of his windbreaker out from where it was stuck inside of itself, then unnecessarily smoothed it over her shoulders. “She’s certainly attractive, and she’s not as spoiled as I thought she would be, but she’s much too docile, as well.” He gently took Kubrick’s chin in hand and used his thumb to swipe a trace of mud off. He heard his voice drop to almost a whisper. “I’m much more attracted to fearless women who want to be equals with their partner.”

Now you’ve done it. You know what happens when you touch her.

“I see.” He could tell she didn’t, though.

The rain pinged off the metal roof of the lean-to. She was staring at him with no expression, but he couldn’t help feeling that something had just changed forever. Again, they stood quietly watching each other. Finally, Kubrick said, “I’m gonna tell everyone to take the rest of the day off.”

Think of something quick, idiot. You’re going to lose this… whatever it is… with her.

He told himself he needed to find a way to keep her with him the rest of the day. The operator in him was justifying that he could use the time to work the conversation into her trip to Egypt. He had a sneaking suspicion Ka-Bar’s favor might have to do with that time period. The country was officially coming up way too often in their digging.

However, the man in him figured maybe he could dig a little and sound her out about Lazarus. Was she interested in the man? This second-guessing wasn’t his way. Normally, he’d bulldoze his way through for the information. But the two seemed to be nice and easy together, and he did feel like he couldn’t compete with a Hollywood icon. After all, if it wasn’t Lazarus, could she really be into him? Or was it one of the others?

The thought caused his gut to roll. It sucked. He liked Lazarus and the guys. He wanted them to be shallow pricks so he could hate them. Unfortunately, no such luck. It sucked wanting to put the hurt on someone you liked only because he kept touching the woman you wanted to claim but couldn’t. Or shouldn’t. Or didn’t.

“I’m going to go dry off and then work in the War Room. You, um, wanna get a head start on the rest of the week with me?” she asked.

Bad idea. Don’t do it. Too much time that close to her is a terrible idea. The War Room is too sequestered. Too cozy. It won’t end well.

He swallowed hard. “Sure.”

The operator in him puffed up with satisfaction. Problem solved. She made it easy for him to question her without even knowing it. Now, he could distract himself from the magnetic pull he felt to her by doing his job.

Yeah… lying to himself was becoming a terrible habit.

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