Page 110 of Fighting Conviction
Dev laughed and shrugged while he shook his head. “Yeah of course I do. Why do you think I don’t?”
“I-I thought you told the Crew I wouldn’t be able to handle knowing about the party… isn’t that why you didn’t tell me about yesterday?”
Dev frowned again. “You keep saying that… I don’t know where the hell you got that idea, baby. But what it sounds like to me, is you didn’t hear the whole conversationandyou were somewhere you weren’t supposed to be…” He raised his eyebrow in accusation and Ellie felt her cheeks redden.
“That’s beside the point.”
He nodded. “Fair. But, if you’d listened to the whole conversation, you would’ve heard me say I thought if we told you anything, you wouldn’t be able to handle knowing without insisting on coming to the women’s rescue at the hotel. Which isexactlywhere I didn’t want you to be.”
“Why not, Dev? I could’ve been there for the survivors to help them know they were finally safe and you’ve taught me how to fight.”
Again, Dev adopted a look of confusion before agreeing with her. “Of course you do.”
Ellie stopped again. “Okay… then what’s the problem? Why didn’t you want me to come help? I’m more than capable of holding my own.”
“Aside from the fact that defending others is an entirely different animal than defending yourself and that you’re well-trained by a professional, but not a well-trained professional, and that you have emotional ties to this situation,andthat I was going to call you immediately after we saved those women to let you know that we needed you at Sasha Saves… I can’t lose you, Ellie.” He shook his head. “It wasn’t thatyou’renot capable. But I knewIwouldn’t be able to stand it if something happened to you. That kind of fear has no place in a mission.”
“Oh.” She didn’t know what else to say. Last night when he’d spoken to her soul and told her how he felt, she’d half convinced herself that was his adrenaline talking, or an amazing dream after a really god-awful nightmare. “I-I’m sorry. I never even thought of it that way.”
Dev stroked her cheek with his fingertips. “I meant what I said last night, baby. If things went south on a mission I was on, one where I’d felt like I was in charge of your safety? Shit, Ellie, if I lost you, that’d fucking end me. I love you, Ellie.”
Ellie’s heart literally skipped and she squeezed his hand. “I love you, too, Dev.” Dev gave her one of his small smiles and leaned in for a kiss and swept his tongue against hers. He wrapped his hand around the back of her thigh, pulling her to straddle him. Her sensitive skin tingled in anticipation, needing a repeat of last night. He threaded his fingers through her hair and pulled her in just as his bedside table vibrated.
“Shit… That’ll be the meeting.”
“Meeting?”
“Yeah.” He leaned over and grabbed his phone and typed in his password. “Yep. Meeting in the war room.”
“Oh.” Ellie tried not to show how disappointed she was that he was leaving already. “Will I see you after?”
He whipped his head up from the phone. “What, you’re not coming? Do you have class or something?” He looked at his watch. “Wait, no it’s Saturday.”
Ellie laughed and shrugged. “What am I supposed to do? Go with you to an official BlackStone meeting?”
He raised an eyebrow as he nodded, like she was supposed to know the answer already. “Yeah, baby. Don’t act like you haven’t listened in on one before.” At his wink and teasing smirk, she rolled her eyes. She could already tell he was never gonna let her eavesdropping stunt go. “It’s our after-action report. You were part of the action.”
His words meant literally nothing to her. “Uh… you’re looking at me like I’m supposed to know what that is.”
He huffed and started talking as he climbed out of the bed, butt naked—how had it not registered that he was naked this whole time?—before pulling on gray sweatpants. She could see the outline of his cock as he turned around and Ellie felt her cheeks redden.
“…make sense? Baby, you listening?” He laughed. “Like the sweatpants?”
She looked up and knew her cheeks were officially red when she saw the smirk on his face. “I-I’m sorry, what were you saying?”
Dev’s eyes narrowed as she bit her lip and she couldn’t help but notice the length in his pants began to tent.
He adjusted himself. “Fuck, yeah maybe sweatpants aren’t a good idea.”
“Um, disagree. Sweatpants arealwaysa good idea.”
He laughed at her assessment and she joined in until both of them ended with short coughs. “Unfortunately, we’ll probably be able to behave if we keep hacking up lungs.” Dev reasoned with a grimace. “What I was saying is, an after-action report is a meeting where everyone on the team recaps the mission, or the action, so to speak.”
Ellie tilted her head and frowned. “But I wasn’t on the mission.”
“Might as well have been,” he joked. “Go, get changed. I’m sure they’ll want to hear how everything went down. Once you start telling your story I won’t have to worry about my sweatpants.”
“Why’s that?” Ellie asked as she got up, smoothing Dev’s T-shirt down over her bare butt.
