Page 3 of Reignite

“Always.” He nuzzled my neck, still breathing hard.

I loved the weight of him on top of me, the fullness of having him inside of me, the pleasure of knowing he was in love with me.

We didn’t move except for the beating of our hearts and our synced breathing. I never wanted this moment with him to end.

A few moments later, he raised his head and kissed me, finally pulling out and rolling us both over and tucking me into his side. I cradled my head on his chest, feeling more sated than ever in my life.

I felt Gray’s chest rise beneath my head. He took a breath, but not a normal one. He was perfectly silent until the words poured out.

“Foster and I came up through boot camp together. We were always number one and two in everything, swapping back and forth for that top position.”

I didn’t move, didn’t say a word. I didn’t want to break the spell. Could hardly believe he was going to tell me. I waited not so patiently to hear more.

“I should have seen then that our competitiveness was dangerous, but I thought it was what made us both great. We pushed each other to be better, to be the best we could.”

I placed one hand over his heart, willing him to understand I was here to listen to whatever he had to tell. He wrapped his hand over mine and continued.

“We were both recruited to Ranger school, and later Delta. We served mission after mission together, kicking ass and saving lives.” He didn’t sound proud or even reminiscent. There was a cold, detached tone to his voice.

“What went wrong?” Damn, I didn’t mean to interrupt him, but I couldn’t take the suspense. I wanted to crawl inside his head and find out all the secrets he’d kept from me. I hadn’t even known he was in Delta Force, only that he had a military background and could fly, drive, or sail anything under the sun or moon.

His military experience was part of why my father had picked him to be my bodyguard in the first place. Man, didn’t that feel like too many lifetimes ago.

“We were on a mission. Some dumb Spooks had fucked up an arms exchange. They were supposed to get a US Ambassador’s daughter who’d been kidnapped by extremists. My team went in to recover.”

“Oh my god,” I whispered.

Had I been telling this story my hands and arms would be flying to emphasize points, lots of details, scenery, and way more inflection and whispers. Gray had none of that. His words were lifeless.

“I didn’t find out until we were deep into the shit that Foster had been screwing the woman, the hostage.” His words slowed and came out more carefully. “I never would have brought him on the team if I’d known.”

I was starting to get where Gray’s control and guilt issues were coming from. “That wasn’t your fault.”

“No. It wasn’t.” He said that very matter of fact. “But it pissed me off and I let that get in the way of the mission.”

Gray’s breathing was shallower. I didn’t want to push him and let him stay silent as long as he needed. I snuggled into him, wanting to be as close and comforting as I could, because this story was about to go from bad to seriously fucked up. I just knew it.

After a few minutes Gray’s breath slowed again and he cleared his throat.

“We found the Spooks pinned down in the middle of a firefight with the insurgents. We had radio comms and found out Serena was injured. Foster went ballistic. He wanted to charge in there, guns blazing to get her, breaking all our protocols. He would have gotten us all killed and fubared the mission.” He squeezed my hand tighter.

I glanced up at his face. His eyes were squeezed shut. His heart was racing, I could feel every heartbeat through his chest. I didn’t know what else to do to comfort him. I couldn’t even imagine what Gray felt inside.

I, on the other hand, had to keep it under control even though I was completely collapsing inside.

“I told Foster he had to stay in our lookout position while two other guys and I went in after Serena and the spooks. He flipped his shit.”

Gray swallowed and took several breaths.

“He tried to attack me and had to be restrained. The firefight was picking up in intensity and it was now or never to save those people. So, I left one other team member behind with Foster and went in.” Gray closed his eyes and swallowed.

Something really bad was coming.

“We were sneaking our way back behind the building with Serena and two of the Spooks while the others stayed and gave us cover, when we were ambushed.”

Oh no. Madre de Dios.

“Three insurgents dropped down from a pile of fucking rubble and opened fire. We shot two before they could do any harm, but the third shot one of my men in the face and grabbed Serena.”

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