Page 65 of August

All the playfulness left her as desire curled deep inside her belly. Only with you. Well, that was funny because her physical reaction to August was also unique. But she couldn’t—wouldn’t—go there now. Wouldn’t allow herself to wonder if he was trying to tell her something. If he too was perplexed by their chemistry, stunned by the response their bodies had to each other.

She yanked on the shower handle and water pelted from the showerhead. Then she stripped out of her robe and stepped under the hot spray. Fifteen minutes later, she was showered and dressed in jeans and a long-sleeved cornflower-blue T-shirt. The V-neck showed a bit of cleavage, and the rest of the material flattered her waist. After brushing her hair and applying makeup, she exited the bathroom. August was in the living room, his hair slightly damp and slicked back. A black T-shirt hugged his broad chest and biceps, and his jeans accentuated his thick, muscular thighs.

“Whaddya got there?” she asked, as she sank into the love seat.

Items filled the coffee table, and a black duffel bag sat on the floor. There were three guns. She knew that two were handguns and one was a heavier weapon, but that was as far as her knowledge went. There were also gadgets that she wouldn’t be able to identify if her life depended on it on the table. If she hadn’t known what was happening, she’d assume he was heading to war.

And it was a little hot.

August picked up a handgun and checked the chamber then loaded a full magazine. “Just some gear I might need. I called the guys and they’re going to pick me up in an hour.”

Gigi bristled. “Pick you up in an hour?”

He flicked his gaze to her then picked up the larger weapon and checked the magazine. “Yeah,” he answered, stone-cold.

Anger fizzled beneath her skin like vinegar mixed with baking soda. “And what about me?”

“Rami, Toth, and Ghost are coming with me. Taschen’s staying here.”

“The hell he is,” she snapped, standing.

“Babe.” He caught her elbow. The muzzle of the gun was pointed at the floor, cradled beneath his elbow. Damn him, why did he have to look so good holding that thing while royally pissing her off?

“Babe nothing. I can’t believe you’d just leave me here.” She gestured to the space she’d been holed up in for almost two days. “As if I can’t help.” Okay, she didn’t exactly have the brawn the guys did, but she had brains and knew Todd pretty damn well. At least well enough to know when he was full of shit and what to ask him to get information.

August’s thumb circled the bone of her elbow. “It’s not that you wouldn’t be helpful. It’s that you’ll be safer here. I don’t know what we’re going to walk into, and I’m not taking you into that situation—I’d be fucking crazy to take the risk.”

“And you don’t think there’s risk to leaving me here with only one other person? What if the cartel’s been waiting for this moment? What if the Radcliffes tip them off and they bomb the whole freaking building? Then what?”

August’s jaw flexed. His eyes, green pools of unwavering determination, never left her face. “Then Taschen will get you out.”

“You trust him with my life?” she asked incredulously.

“No,” he spat. “I trust him with mine.”

She shook her head. “I don’t understand.”

“There’s no one else I give a shit about. And I won’t endanger one pretty hair on your head if I can help it.”

His words made her stagger on the spot. She opened her mouth. And floundered. “I—”

“So believe me when I tell you that if I trust Taschen to keep you safe, I know, without a fucking doubt, he’ll do it.”

She pressed her tongue to the roof of her mouth. She wanted to be angry, to lash out. Dammit, she might even slug him if she wouldn’t break her fist against the wall of his chest. But his earnest, caring eyes made the anger evaporate from her veins like water from a rock in the desert.

“I don’t want to leave you,” he said. The statement came out rough and on a tremor of honesty.

She wasn’t just upset he wasn’t taking her. She couldn’t stand the thought of not being near him. Of him being hours away on a mission that could be dangerous.

Her nerve endings frayed. She wouldn’t be able to handle something happening to August. Didn’t want to be alone. If he didn’t return to her, never held her again, or...

God, she couldn’t. Moving into his space, she dropped her forehead to his sternum.

The clank of metal hitting the coffee table told her he’d set the weapon down. One hand cupped the back of her head, and the other rested on the small of her back. “I wouldn’t leave you if this weren’t this safest option.”

“You’ll be hours away,” she said, her voice breaking.

“It’ll go by fast.”

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