Page 49 of Fate's Unseen Shadow

“Loving?” Damon wrapped his hand around her wrist and lifted her hand away from his cheek. “Very few people on this planet would use that term with me.” He pulled her hand over his shoulder, drawing her to his body. He grasped the side of her ribcage. “I don’t want you to confuse your feelings for me helping you with reality.”

“I’ll admit these aren’t normal circumstances.”

“No, they’re not. Which means you need to take double the time to figure this out.”

“What if I don’t have double the time?” she whispered. “I don’t know what will happen. I don’t know if you can find the stalker before the police find me.” She swallowed before taking a steadying breath. “Or he finds me.”

He bent down, brushing his lips across hers but not engaging in a kiss. “Stop, Ella. That’s not going to happen.”

“Please, let me stay with you.” She lifted to her toes, wanting the kiss he still withheld.

“I’m holding back so you don’t regret this.”

Fed up with his sidestepping, she cradled his face in her hands and forced him to look at her. “And I don’t want you to continually question my intelligence when I make a decision. Either you’re interested in me or you’re not. That’s the only side of this conversation you need to concern yourself with.”

With a quick grin, he said, “There she is.” He kissed her forehead. “Yes, ma’am. If you say this is what you want…” He bent down, hauling her over his shoulder and rising.

She squealed. “Don’t! You’ll reopen that cut.”

“How about you not telling me what to do, and I won’t imply that I know your feelings?”

“What about you not telling me what to do?” She bit her lip, trying to contain the excitement of someone carrying her like this.

“Nope.” He dipped down, letting her fall onto the bed. “That I still get to do.”

“Does your wound hurt?” she asked as she crawled beneath the covers, barely containing her giggle at the excitement of staying the night with him. Like a sleepover. She never had those growing up, either.

He twisted, trying to look at his lower back. His eyebrows drew together. “Damn. It does when I try to do that.” He clicked off the bedside lamp before lying down. The bed shifted under his weight. She rolled in his direction as he rolled hers.

This was perfect. Being right here with this man. Safe. Protected. She kicked away the thought of losing him once they caught the real killer. But there was zero chance this wouldn’t last longer. She couldn’t imagine walking away from Damon and returning to her old life as the same Elizabeth as before. Maybe a mix of the two, but she didn’t want to give up either. For now, she’d pretend they had forever.

“I know you probably don’t want to discuss it, but were you in a specific war?” she asked.

Damon huffed. “There are situations constantly happening around the world, Ella. Not only the wars you see reported on TV.”

“I know that, but I didn’t know how to phrase it. What did you do?”

“Specialized reconnaissance, mostly. We went ahead of the unit and sent back information.”

“That seems dangerous.”

“All the jobs are dangerous. Skill makes it less dangerous. Xavier and I were good.”

“Did you and him leave the Marines about the same time? You seem close.”

“We met in basic training and went through the rest of training together. After we lost the other two team members, yes, we left. Not because of the danger. You go into it accepting the risk involved. But we had lost trust in our commanders. We’d warned them before they issued orders for us to go into a certain situation. But they sent us anyway. It wasn’t worth the lives lost. And when we realized we couldn’t take orders, we had to get out. That attitude would jeopardize our entire team, and we knew it was time.”

He reached out and drew her tight to his chest, her head resting on his bicep.

Ella closed her eyes and kissed the warm skin underneath her cheek. “I’m glad you’re here.”

Damon tightened his arm around her shoulders. “I’m glad you’re pushy.”

“Do you believe in fate?”

“No.”

She lifted her head, barely making out the features of his face in the dark. “Never?”

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