Page 31 of Over the Edge

“I beg your pardon?”

Oho. The British snob had emerged, looking down his nose at her in disdain. Didn’t like being called a liar, did he? Well tough. Hewaslying. “You heard me,” she muttered.

“I’m a lot of things,” he growled low, “but a liar is not one of them.”

“Then why won’t you admit you like kissing me? I like kissing you.”

She paused to let him respond, but he refused to step into the obvious conversational opening. Eyes narrowed, she unsheathed her claws and went for blood.

“In fact, I like kissing you a lot,” she announced cheerfully. “I’ve been thinking about it for most of the past year. It’s a blessed, giant relief to finally do it for real.”

Still no verbal response from him. He just stared at her, all emotion scrubbed from his stony expression.

Blithely, she pressed onward. “I have to say, the real thing is even better than I imagined.” Still no words from him, so she added, “And I have a pretty decent imagination when it comes to you. Want me to tell you about some of the things I’ve imagined us doing together?”

“I— You—“ He stopped, sputtering, and merely shook his head.

“I’m going to keep poking at you until you say something,” she announced. “You might as well give in and tell me what you’re thinking.”

“I’m thinking we’re headed for a conservative country where such conversations will be completely inappropriate.”

“All the more reason to talk now.”

He sighed. “There’s nothing to talk about. We can’t be a couple.”

“Why not?”

“Did you see what Griffin and Sherri went through before they could be together? It was a nightmare for them,” Trevor responded.

“They’re happy now. If you asked them, I bet they’d both say it was worth it.”

“They have a long-term future together. You and I—“ He paused and then barged ahead. “—don’t.”

She frowned. “Why not?”

“This mission has potential to be the kind I don’t come back from,” he replied shortly.

“You mean that ‘we’ don’t come back from.”

He shrugged.

She turned in her seat to stare at him. “So you admit this mission is suicidal. Why do you still insist on going through with it, then?”

“We’ve already been over this. Kenny deserves a rescue.”

“Kenny deserves asuccessfulrescue. Why won’t you consider letting the Reapers figure out some other way to get our guy back?”

“Because there is no other way. Cal’s hands are tied by your military’s policies.”

“You went outside the military to get this mission.”

“I’m a guest officer from another country. I’m not a SEAL team. The United States can’t fling around SEAL teams on illegal missions around the world, all willy nilly.”

“Willy nilly?” she echoed, smirking.

“Randomly. Without logic,” he snapped.

“I know what it means. I’ve just never heard an adult in this century use the phrase.”

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