Page 41 of Fire for Effect

I wrapped my arm around her waist, pulling her to me until my chest pressed against her back. I took a nip at her earlobe, gratified by a small shiver before I spoke again.

“If your phone doesn’t move for twelve hours, I get notified,” I confessed, knowing that she would know why, and she wouldn’t need to ask questions. “If you’re off the radar for twenty-four hours, they topple the first domino to get me home so I can find you.”

Maybe I wasn’t as good at respecting her privacy as I had originally thought. Now that I said it out loud to someone who wasn’t a spook, it seemed downright invasive.

I leaned down, to kiss the side of her throat as she gasped.

“I get one request - just one. And that’s on October 13th. One phone call that’s non-negotiable. Do you know why?” I knew that she knew, but she’d play dumb. That was just her way. When she shook her head, just a little, I chuckled. “To call you, and tell you happy birthday.”

“Why would you do that?” Her voice was barely a breath.

“Do you really have to ask?”

She didn’t move. I didn’t either. It was like we were both standing on the edge of a cliff, wondering if we were going to topple over.

“No. I’m not your type.” She may as well have slapped me in the face with those words.

Was this the moment for bold moves? I wasn’t sure. But I was losing her. She was slipping from my grasp. If there was a time to go balls to the wall, it was right now.

I leaned my hips forward, and she gasped as she felt my hardened cock against her lower abdomen. “Does that feel like you’re not my type?”

“You’ve been drinking.”

“I’m sober enough to drive. Try again.”

She started to shiver. I was about to hold her in my embrace when she pushed off the sink, crashing into me, throwing me back before walking away. The eyes she turned on me were vicious, and angry. She was ready for a fight, and I didn’t know why.

“Fuck off, Griff.” Her voice was shaky, her bravado faltering. “Just go the fuck right off because I know this is bullshit. You were shit faced the one and only time you… you…”

“Say it, Taz. Fucking say it.” I stepped up to her, closing the distance she made between us as I snarled. “Say it, Firefly. We fucked. You and me.”

She recoiled, like those words burned her. And it wasn’t because of the memories. I knew that because she had enjoyed it every bit as I had. I had played every second over and over again in my head, and I knew she liked it.

“And we never talked about it again,” She scoffed, turning away from me, but I wouldn’t let her.

I took her chin in my hand and made her face me.

“That was your choice. I didn’t sneak out in the morning. You did.”

“I didn’t sneak out! It was my house!”

“Whatever, Baby. I woke up in bed alone, and you wouldn’t look at me for days.”

She pursed her lips and looked away. A sure sign she was trying to think of something to get the upper hand. “I didn’t sneak out. I let you stay in my house until your divorce was final.”

“You spent almost six fucking months taking every assignment you could to get away, and crashing in the team room because I was staying at your place - hell, you insisted I do that so that I didn’t have to go live with Kristin or move into the barracks. I waited for you to come home every day, and you didn’t. I was just there, among your things, waiting to see you and you never showed.” Did I consider trashing her place? A little bit. Too many drunken nights sitting on her couch, smelling her things, waiting for her to come home.

But like clockwork, she waited for me to leave before she ever came and grabbed her things. It was like she had me under surveillance.

“It was like I was standing in my prom dress, and you stood me up! I remember that clear as fucking day. Do you?” I pounded my chest, still remembering the fucking heart ache of my one and only true friend suddenly turning her back on me.

The one teammate I could count on would barely acknowledge me. I didn’t even care if she said that fucking her was a mistake. I needed my friend, and she left.

“You wouldn’t talk to me. Hell, the only way I got you to even acknowledge I existed was by giving you shit. So I gave you hell, because it was better than your fucking silence.”

“You were still married!”

That was her gotcha? Really? Weak sauce.

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