Page 57 of Guarded from Corruption

“Although, if it’s just Rhi out there,” he adds thoughtfully, “she’s pretty patient?—”

Another series of knocks, then Dante calls through the door, “I’ve got a steaming-hot dish of ziti in my hands. Feel like opening the door?”

With a small shake of his head, Niall smiles ruefully. “I guess we’ll have to continue this later.” His brows go up. “If you want?”

I put my hands on his shoulders and stretch up to give him a quick kiss. “I do. Definitely.”

As we both walk to the door, another voice joins the mix. It’s Xavier this time, and he’s laughing as he asks, “Are you two making out in there? If you want us to come back, that’s okay. But I can’t guarantee the ziti will make it. It looks really good.”

At the door, Niall wraps his arm around me, tugging me into his side. Then he opens the door, chuckling. “Man, you guys are impatient.”

Xavier glances between Niall and I for a second, then grins triumphantly at Dante. “See. I told you. They were?—”

“Stop.” Rhiannon swats at Xavier. “You’re embarrassing Jade.”

Niall gives Xavier a warning look. “Xav?—”

Dante rolls his eyes at them before giving me a friendly smile. “Don’t mind them. They’re like bickering siblings.”

It’s funny, in the past, I might have felt embarrassed. I’m most definitely rumpled and I know my lips and cheeks are all flushed from kissing Niall. But with Niall’s arm around me, and these people who are quickly becoming friends, I don’t mind.

“It’s fine.” I kiss Niall’s cheek before turning back to Xavier and telling him with a grin, “We were. Now, are you going to come in and teach me how to win at poker, or not?”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

NIALL

Game night was a huge success.

I’ll admit, I was a little worried it might be too much for Jade. By her own admission, she’s not comfortable in larger groups, and with the added stress of having people over, wanting everything to be perfect, not having a place to escape to if things got overwhelming…

I would have asked everyone to leave—subtly, of course—if I thought Jade was struggling. They would have understood. No one would have judged her for needing time alone.

But all my worries were for nothing. As far as I could tell, Jade had a great time.

Everyone had a great time, really. Devouring all the snacks Jade worked on all day—pigs in a blanket, nachos, three different dips, vegetable platters, and flatbread pizzas—Dante’s incredible ziti, Rhi’s buffalo chicken dip, and the home-baked cookies Erik unexpectedly showed up with.

First we started out with games that required concentration, like Jenga and Pictionary and poker. And it was awesome to see how well Jade got along with everyone—quizzing Xavier on poker strategy, teaming up with Rhiannon to win the Jenga tournament, and asking Dante all about his family after learning the ziti was his mother’s recipe.

And later, once we’d all had a few beers, we moved on to Cards Against Humanity. I think that was the best part of the night—Jade slightly tipsy and completely at ease, coming up with the raunchiest answers and kissing me each time we won a round.

By the end of the night, Jade was fast asleep on the couch while Dante and Matt finished a cutthroat round of extreme Jenga, which included a five second time limit and two sets of blocks. Once they left, I carried Jade to bed and she snuggled against me and it was the best feeling I can remember in a long time.

Maybe ever.

I’m so damn happy. And I don’t know how I got this lucky. I have an amazing job. An incredible team. A new place to live that’s rapidly feeling like home.

And Jade. She’s the best part of everything.

I told her I was falling in love with her, but I think it’s more than that. But I’m not going to rush things. Despite how strong she is, she’s still dealing with some really heavy shit, and the last thing I want is to push her into something she’s not ready for.

That doesn’t mean I can’t show her how I feel, though.

While I was at the team meeting this morning, I got to thinking about it. Even though I can’t take Jade out on a date yet—we want to give the FBI some more time to get everyone involved with the trafficking organization in custody—it doesn’t mean I can’t arrange something special for her here.

So, once Dante wrapped up the meeting, I pulled Rhiannon to the side. Before I even brought it up, she knew what I wanted and was more than happy to help.

“I’m so happy for you,” she told me. “I don’t know if you even realized it, but you would bring up Jade all the time. How smart she was. All her accomplishments. Not just that, but little things, like something she said the last time you visited Shea. A funny joke she made.”

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