“What happened to him?” She ran her finger across the bumps. Anywhere Kinsley touched him left a fiery trail.
“Got an early out after spending some time in a hospital,” he said.
“You saved him,” she said and there was admiration in her voice that made his chest swell with pride.
“He’d have done the same for me.” He dismissed the comment. He didn’t think of himself that way. “I did my job. We take care of our own.”
She eyed him carefully, and he could tell that she was assessing him.
“Go ahead and ask what you want. I’m an open book tonight.” He quirked a smile.
She dabbed his injury and then put pressure on the leaky side.
“Okay.” Kinsley didn’t look up at him. “Have you been married?”
“No time for a wife,” he answered honestly.
“What about kids?” she asked.
“What about them?” He was confused.
“Do you have any?” She looked at him this time.
“No.”
She must’ve been satisfied with his answer because she went back to work on his wound. “Have you taken a life?”
Before he could answer she waved her free hand.
“Don’t answer that,” she said. “Obviously, you’ve been in a war. That’s not a fair question.”
“Would you think less of me if I did?” For some reason he needed to know. Her life made sense to her. It was all about studying and books and living like there wasn’t a war going on halfway across the country.
“No.” That one word offered more comfort than he should let it.
“You said you worked for a Blackwater-type organization. Why?” she continued.
“Because that was the only job I was qualified for.” It was an honest answer. Granted, he’d worked a farm and knew how to do that but he’d had no interest in following the footsteps of the fosters who’d taken him in.
She frowned.
“What else could I do? I was good at being in the military,” he said honestly.
“I can see that,” she said. Why was that a gut punch?
“Are you saying you don’t approve of my career choice, Kinsley?” He figured he might as well go ahead and ask. He cared about her answer but he was trying to play it off like it didn’t matter.
She studied him. “It fits you and you’re good at it. I guess I just wish there was something less dangerous for you to do. It’s the selfish side of me.”
“It’s not selfish to want someone else out of the line of fire.” There was a softness in her words that touched him. It had been a long time since a woman had cared about him this much, a long time since he’d let anyone. He never stuck around in one place long enough to develop a real relationship. He’d been with plenty of women over the years and they’d enjoyed a night—or sometimes several nights strung together—of amazing sex. Somehow, he imagined being intimate would be different with Kinsley.
He normally stayed far away from a woman who could penetrate his armor, from a woman like her. But then, there were so few that it hadn’t been much of an issue.
Spending the next few hours, days or weeks with her would put him to the test. Because he could get lost in those cobalt eyes of hers and it would be a mistake to let his guard down with anyone.
Gabriel didn’t do long-term and Kinsley had always been the marrying kind.
“So, why haven’t you settled down yet?” He turned the tables.
“How do you know I’m not already married?” Kinsley didn’t remember talking about her personal life. Oh, right, he knew she was about to be attacked by a terror cell. Maybe he knew everything about her.
She must’ve given away her thoughts by the way she looked at him because he was already shaking his head.
“There’s no secret file on you, if that’s what you’re thinking,” he said. “What kind of jerk would I be for making love to another man’s wife?”
“But how’d you know?” she asked again.
“I checked your wedding finger out. There’s no gold band, and you would wear it if there was, and there’s no tan line, either.” He smirked like he’d just won the big prize at the county fair.
“Okay, smarty-pants, why couldn’t I be married?” she asked.
“Considering there’s a PhD in front of your name,” he motioned toward her book, which was sticking half out of his backpack, “I figured you’ve devoted the better part of a decade on that achievement.”
“My mom didn’t exactly make having a family look appealing for an intelligent person,” she admitted.
“You’ve always been one to make up your own mind,” he cornered her.
She put her hands up in surrender. “Fine. No one has come along that I stay interested in for more than a few weeks. I keep dating the same uninteresting guys. We keep having the same disagreement. It got old.”
“Which is?” he asked.
“It starts by him asking why I work so much and then goes downhill from there.” She’d had that conversation more times than she wanted to admit. There’d been Jaime sophomore year. She’d dated him to ‘get back on the horse’ after spending freshman year certain that Gabriel would randomly show up on campus. Yeah, she’d been naïve back then but she’d learned her lesson. Gabriel didn’t show. His social media page went radio silent. And he didn’t try to contact her one time.
As far bad years went, freshman had been the worst. She’d been so lonely in the New England school she’d gone to. Most of her friends went to University of Texas at Austin or Baylor in Waco. She didn’t know a soul at her school. The fresh—and large—scar on her face had made her self-conscious when meeting new people. Her dorm roommate had a boyfriend who liked to stay in their nicer room and Kinsley had become very acquainted with the library.
Being alone in a study room, keeping her head down and making good grades had been her oxygen that
