God it felt good to talk to Kinsley again, to joke around with her. He missed the easy way they had with each other when they were kids. They’d had to keep their relationship on the down-low from teachers and her parents—something he’d never agreed with. It had taught him that he would never hide from anyone again.
Kinsley wasn’t embarrassed to be in a relationship with him. Her parents, especially her mother, kept a tight rein on Kinsley and they didn’t approve of her dating anyone because a boy could distract her from trying to get into the best college.
As much as Gabriel had understood the reasoning, he’d never felt good about sneaking around. And then her father had found out over Christmas break senior year. Her college applications were in and Gabriel had given forced her hand.
Her parents had been stiffer than corpses when he’d stopped by. He’d insisted on being there when she told them. He’d wanted to see their reactions for himself and he didn’t want her to shoulder being yelled at by herself if that was the route Mr. McGregor decided to take.
A burning sensation shocked him out of his revelry. “Damn. That stings.”
“Sorry.” She positioned herself in between his thighs to get a closer look.
Gabriel forced his gaze away from her pink lips. Besides, it was her hands that he needed to keep an eye on anyway.
“I’m sorry, Gabriel.” She looked up at him and he could see the hesitation in her eyes.
“It’s doesn’t hurt that much,” he reassured.
“I’m not talking about your wound, which is a lot worse than you let on by the way.” She wagged her finger like she was scolding a school kid. It shouldn’t be sexy but, hey, this was Kinsley and she would always have a special place in his heart.
“Then I’m confused.”
“The past. I believed what everyone said—”
“I didn’t give you evidence to the contrary,” he quickly added.
She shrugged as she looked up at him. “I don’t know. Maybe I should’ve known you better than that. Trusted you more.”
“The same could be said for me.” There was a lot of truth to those statements. He’d licked his wounds like a lovesick pup rather than trust that anyone could love him, especially someone like Kinsley. Damn. Was that true? He couldn’t argue the facts. Spelling them out like that made them all that much more real.
“Either way, I’m sorry.”
He reached out and pushed a tendril of her wheat-colored hair out of her eye. “Don’t be. We were kids. We both made mistakes. I never should’ve put us in that position in the first place.” He trailed his finger along the scar on her jawline. “I did this to you. I deserved so much worse than living without you for the past fourteen years.”
Kinsley inched closer to him.
It would be a mistake to keep touching her, to kiss her.
And yet stopping he didn’t have the willpower to stop.
“Is this such a good idea?” he whispered, his lips against hers.
“No, which is exactly why we should do it,” Kinsley said.
Chapter 10
Gabriel’s cell buzzed in his pocket. He wanted to forget about it, to forget it ever existed. Ignoring it could be bad for their health, so he didn’t.
He fished his cell from his pocket and checked the screen. The message came from Jaden and there was a whole helluvu lot of relief at having his buddies to back Gabriel. No one cared about him more than Jaden and Daniel.
Stay low and report in if you can. All is quiet for now. Got info on Justified. Growing threat. Taking over Europe.
Gabriel exhaled as he revealed the message to Kinsley.
“There’s so much I don’t know about you anymore,” she said.
“I’m the same person—”
She blew out a sharp breath.
“Okay, maybe not the exact same. I’ve grown up,” he said.
“I can see that, Gabriel.” Her gaze darted over his chest.
A slow smile spread across his face when her cheeks flushed. He couldn’t help himself. He tucked it away as quickly as he could.
“Kinsley, you’ve changed, too. You were beautiful before but now—”
“Stop it. You’ll embarrass me.” She went back to work, focusing on cleaning up the blood on the skin covering his third rib underneath his left arm. “And you’re still bleeding a little. Maybe we should get you to an ER.”
“We can field dress it.” He double-checked to make sure he wasn’t overestimating his healing abilities. “It’s really not that bad.”
She ran her finger along the scars on his torso and then his shoulder. “Do I want to know how you managed to get all these?”
“Couldn’t tell you if you asked,” he admitted.
“Couldn’t or wouldn’t?”
“There a difference?” he asked.
“There is to me.” She was right. He wanted to give her something about him, about the life he’d lead. He couldn’t offer specifics but he could tell her something.
Looking into her eyes he could see that she needed to feel like she knew him again. Her life had turned upside down in a matter of hours and she was on the run with a virtual stranger, except that she did know him.
“This one,” he pointed to the round scar two inches above his left nipple. “Came from shrapnel. I was flying in a Blackhawk, being dropped into territory that we knew was hot but there was an important target that we had to get to safety. It was supposed to be a stealth mission, but they were ready for us. It seemed they wanted to take down an elite force as a badge of honor and to show their people that the big American machine could be defeated. One of my brothers in arms was shot getting off the chopper, so I jumped to get him before he hit the ground.”
He lifted his jeans leg to reveal his ankle.
“When I did, I broke two bones in this ankle. But I managed to grab him and strap him into a basket that was being lowered, not
