Page 110 of Tactically Acquired

“Of course I did,” he scoffed behind me. “Seriously, this is my thing. How dare you suggest I can’t take care of a burn.”

“Does she need to go to the hospital?” I asked, trying to keep my worry at bay.

“She could, but they won’t do anything different than what I did,” he said pointedly, letting me know it wasn’t worth the risk.

I raised her palm to my lips and kissed it over the wrap. Fuck, I really hated that she was in pain.

“I also took the liberty of giving her some decent painkillers. You might want to get some food into the little lady.”

That yanked me out of my depressing thoughts and into action. “Right. One omelet, coming up.”

IRIS cleared his throat dramatically. “Dust my ears deceive me? One?”

Spencer frowned at him. “Did you just say dust?”

“Uh…yeah. Because that’s what it is.”

“Only if you’re cleaning your ears,” Spencer muttered. “It’s horrible how you’re butchering Shakespeare.”

“What the hell does this have to do with Shakespeare?” IRIS snapped. “I was quoting Aladdin.”

“If you were quoting Aladdin, you would have said ‘Dost mine ears.’ Dost. D-O-S-T.”

“Whatever,” IRIS griped. “Geez, does everything around here have to turn into an English lesson?”

“It does when you misquote The Bard,” Spencer scolded. “And to think, our society once claimed to be so smart.”

I rolled my eyes and slung my arm around Audrey’s waist, walking her over to the island. With both hands on her waist, I picked her up and set her on a stool. “As much as it pains me to make you wait here and listen to this nonsense, you are to stay here while I make you breakfast. You don’t get up for any reason, and you don’t go anywhere near that stove. Understood?”

Her lips twitched as she nodded. “Aye, aye, Captain.” She saluted me with her good hand, which only made my dick hard. Fuck, what I wouldn’t give to see her in a sexy Navy costume as she got down on her knees to suck my dick. Fuck, that was not what I needed to think about right now.

“What’s that look in your eyes for?” she asked, her cheeks flushing as if she could already sense what I was thinking about.

“I’ll tell you later.”

I crushed my mouth against hers and tangled my fingers in her hair. Damn, it was going to be hard to let her go when the time came. I had to remind myself that we lived two completely separate lives, and no matter how much I craved her, what we had was not love. It was just lust and a good time.

I pried myself away from her body, and then I got to work on her breakfast. But my eyes drifted back to her and the way her smile lit up the room despite the fact that she’d just burned herself a half hour ago.

“Get yourself under control, asshole. It’s never gonna work.”

29

AUDREY

The door slammed against the wall as three hulking guys shoved their way through.

“I’m just saying, none of this would have happened if you hadn’t decided to put on the damn parachute! It’s bad luck!”

“Bad luck? Max was flying. I think in light of recent events, we can all agree that wearing a parachute in the plane with him is perfectly acceptable.”

“It’s a jinx. It’s like asking for the plane to go down.”

“It didn’t go down. You’re overreacting.”

“It was just a little engine trouble, and it’s all fixed now.”

“Sure, you say that, but what happens when we board the plane again? Do you really feel safe? How do we know this isn’t our last night on earth?”

---