Page 64 of Protected from Malice
It felt like I had my old big brother back.
Not that I wantedthisto be the reason, but I’m glad.
So the situation isn’t all bad. I have Indy back. Rafe’s here. And I met Ace, Tyler, and Webb, who are quickly becoming friends.
If only Rafe would just kiss me…
“Hey, Brain. How’s it going?”
Almost as if I summoned him, Rafe appears beside me. He’s so good at moving silently, his sudden appearance startles me, and I let out a little yip of surprise.
“Shit.” His smile drops. Worry carves lines across his forehead and between his eyes. “Sorry, Eden. I didn’t mean to scare you.”
“It’s fine.” Resisting the urge to clap my hand across my thundering heart—why do people do that, since it doesn’t help anything?—I flash him a reassuring smile. “I was just… lost in my thoughts. No need to apologize.”
“Still.” He touches my shoulder, resting his hand there. “I don’t like scaring you.”
I place my hand over his. His skin is warm. Soft, but with a hint of rough. A frisson of something leaps between his hand and mine. “You didn’t. Being startled isn’t the same as being scared. And I should know by now that you and Indy both move like shadows.”
“It’s the training,” Rafe replies. “But I’ll try to make more noise when I’m walking around.”
“What, like stomping?” I turn away from my computer to face him. “That might be weird; you clomping around like an elephant.”
The corner of his mouth twitches. “I could whistle. Or scuff my feet.”
“That would be weird. Maybe you could announce yourself whenever you move.”
Rafe stares at me for a second. “You want me to announce myself? How?” He pauses. “Should I give myself a code name? Like the Secret Service does? And I could say, Eagle on the move. Repeat, Eagle on the move.”
Laughing, I reply, “That could be interesting. But wasn’t your nickname Wayne? Like the comic book hero?”
He chuckles. “It was.” A pause, and then thoughtfully, “You remembered.”
“Of course I did.”
I remember everything about Rafe. All the little snippets of his history he let drop whenever I saw him, like how his dad took off when he was five and he was raised by his mom until he enlisted in the Army at eighteen, and that she loved trivia, just like him.
I remember all the things he said about serving in the Army—his nickname and his broken nose and how being accepted to join the Special Forces was the proudest moment of his life.
Rafe’s thumb rubs across my shoulder. “So. How’s your work going? Do you have time for a break?”
“It’s okay. Just emailing my research team and filling out paperwork, mostly.” Glancing at the time on the screen, I realize it’s well past lunchtime. “But I could take a break. Did you want to make something to eat?”
“Not exactly.” He glances across the room, catching Webb’s attention from over on the couch. It’s just the three of us here right now—Tyler’s in the other suite, monitoring security, and Ace and Indy are canvassing my neighborhood, looking for any potential witnesses from the night of the break-in.
Webb gives Rafe a quick chin lift and stands.
“What were you thinking?” I ask as I close my laptop. “Another round of Trivial Pursuit? Although—” I look over at Webb. “I’m not sure if Webb wants to play again.”
“Against you two?” Webb asks with a laugh. “I think we discovered how unbalanced a gamethatwas.”
“You did really well,” I offer. “Especially with the geography questions.”
Webb snorts. “That’s only because I had to learn that shit. All the other categories? Not so much.”
Rafe takes his hand from my shoulder and holds it out to me. “Not Trivial Pursuit this time. I have a different idea. A field trip of sorts.”
I get up from my chair and slip my hand in his. “A field trip? I thought I was supposed to stay at the hotel.”
