Page 64 of S.O.S. Billboard

He continued. “What if we like what we find between the sheets, then you discover I’m not the…upstanding man you believe I am. That I’m…domineering, proprietorial, and that…I’m afraid. There are things I’ve done in the past, O’Shea. Things that are far darker than you can imagine.”

She could hear in his voice, the need for reassurance. Peggy leaving him had probably done more of a number on Billboard’s ego than he’d let on.

“First of all,” she assured him, stroking his tense jaw, “what we do between the sheets will be epic.” Of that she had no doubt. Just the scent of Billboard made her crazy with desire.

“Second, don’t sell yourself short. I know who you are. You’re a man who loves his mother. A man who gives everything to his team, and a man who’d risk his life to protect women and children.”

“But I haven’t always been—”

O’Shea placed a finger against Billboard’s lips, stopping whatever he was going to say. It was time for an ultimatum.

“Okay. I get it. You don’t believe that. But I’m all in, Billboard, and I won’t be changing my mind. However, I’m leaving the next step up to you. Talk, or action?”

“What if—”

O’Shea cut him off again. “I’mnotgoing to ditch you, Billboard. That’s a promise. If we split, it will be up to you.”

“You can’t know that.”

“I know it,” she said as firmly as possible. “I don’t care that you’re controlling. Hell, I am, too. And whatever it is that has you scared and all twisted up inside, we’ll talk about it when the time is right. But if you perseverate for too long, you’ll find out I’m as stubborn as I purport to be, because I’ll get you to spill.”

Billboard still wasn’t moving his big, gorgeous body toward the bedroom. “Peggy says I don’t talk.”

“And that’s bullshit,” O’Shea responded. “You’ve already shared so much. I know about your childhood, your school years, and everything about your SOS journey. The only thing we haven’t discussed is your military career.”

Yup.His body tightened the minute she mentioned it, but she wasn’t going to let him get stuck in his head right now.

“And I know alotabout the military,” she informed him. “I didn’t tell you this before, but my brother was in the Army. Initially for four years, then he did one additional two-year tour of duty where he saw even more action.”

She wouldn’t go into how much she’d missed Cedric when he’d enlisted at the age of twenty, but like the good brother and protector he’d been, he’d made sure she was secure and taken care of; able to live in his apartment while he was gone. When he returned, they’d lived together for two years, and she—along with a good therapist—had helped him work through nightmares and PTSD. It hadn’t been easy, but as she’d told Billboard, she was a rottweiler when presented with a bone.

Also, as previously mentioned to Billboard, she and her brother had held their best conversations over the kitchen sink, where she’d seen and heard firsthand what the military could do to a good man’s mind and confidence.

“He…he’s okay now?” Billboard asked.

“Did I mention he and his wife have twins on the way?” she grinned. She knew she had. “He’s better than fine,” she assured Billboard. “He’s thriving.”

Billboard grunted, but he looked a little less conflicted than before, so she kept going. Hopefully convincing him he wasn’t beyond hope.

“Then there were all the cops I worked with who came back from Iraq and Afghanistan.”

Yup.Billboard tightened again.

“They had stories to tell and shit to get over, and I always lent them an ear. Of course, they’d all worked on their issues previous to telling me, since they had to pass psyche evaluations before they could join the force.”

Billboard grunted. “SOS didn’t have any such requirements when they took me on.”

O’Shea scoffed. “But I’ll bet you let them know you have issues, anyway. Am I right?”

“You are,” he agreed reluctantly. “To a point.”

“And it didn’t stop Del, a brilliant man by the way, from hiring you, did it?”

“No.” He flexed his arms underneath her body, and shifted uncomfortably.

O’Shea was tired of seeing the clock tick away their time, and got to the point. “Then can we just say that since your boss—who trusts you with all kinds of sensitive jobs—doesn’t think you’re a lost cause, that I won’t, either?”

When he didn’t respond with anything more than some more foot-shuffling, she figured she’d poked enough.

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