Page 69 of Strangers in Love

“Tall. Red hair. Green eyes.” I could picture him clear as day, and not the way he’d been at the airport when we’d said goodbye. No, I saw him the way he’d looked above me, the heat in his eyes as he slid inside me.

“The one with the scar?”

I almost snapped at her for that being the feature she remembered when that was only a small part of his physical appearance, but then I reminded myself that it didn’t matter. It wasn’t as if I’d be bringing him home to meet the parents.

“Yes. Him.”

Her eyebrows went up. “He took advantage of you?”

I shook my head and sighed. I just wanted to go home and not think about what’d happened. None of it. Not even the far-too-short time I’d had in Eoin’s arms. In fact, I didn’t want to think about anything at all. Just blissful nothing.

“He’d been a perfect gentleman, but I had a nightmare, and when he woke me from it, I threw myself at him. He wasn’t going to do anything, but I told him I needed to forget. Needed a distraction.” She looked like she was going to say more, but I cut her off, desperate for the conversation to be over. “Look, it wasn’t a big deal, especially after everything else that happened. We had sex, and now it’s in the past. I just want to go home. See Mom and Dad.”

“You need to get checked out.” Freedom’s expression turned mulish. “Even if it was consensual.”

“I’ll make you a deal,” I said. “I’ll call Dr. Rhimes first thing tomorrow and schedule an appointment to see her. I’d rather talk about this with my own doctor, one I know better than Dr. Stein.”

Freedom looked like she wanted to keep arguing, but something I’d said must’ve gotten through because she nodded. “All right. I’ll go see if Dr. Stein is ready to send you to get those x-rays. Mom and Dad are probably getting antsy.”

When she left, I let out a breath of relief. The last thing I wanted to do was discuss my first time with my sister when I was confused about it myself. She’d think it was because Eoin had pressured me, but that wasn’t the case at all.

There’d just been…something between the two of us, and I didn’t know what it meant. If it meant anything. I just wanted the chance to work it through in my head before I had to share intimate details with another person.

Forty-Seven

Eoin

Hopingit’d help with the jet lag, I’d agreed with the guys that I’d rather debrief today than come in tomorrow. Jet lag always sucked, but I hadn’t realized how much my sleep issues would make things worse. I hadn’t had any nightmares while we were gone, but I still wasn’t sleeping for shit.

Everyone, even Cain, had gotten at least some sleep on the flight back. I’d dozed, drifted in and out in that place where I was almost asleep but aware of where I was and what was going on around me. It was enough to keep me from going crazy but definitely not what I needed. The only real rest I’d had the entire time we’d been over there had been sleeping next to Aline.

And then I’d woken up, and all hell had broken loose. At least the plane had been quiet, and no one had been trying to kill me.

“What’d you think about your first mission?” Bode Monroe went by the nickname Bruce because he came from a family like mine, one with plenty of money, and he loved his toys. Unlike Batman, some of those toys included some badass guns. I got the impression he’d also been like me in that enlisting had come more from a last resort after getting into trouble one time too many.

“Are they all this much fun?” I asked sarcastically as I sat down in the chair next to him. “I’m not sure there are good enough medical benefits to make a job like this worth it.”

“Do all you army guys bitch so much about a little scratch and a couple bumps?” He grinned at me, looking more like some surfer frat boy than the hotshot Navy EOD – Explosives and Ordnance Disposal – tech than he had been.

“I got shot,” I reminded him. “Twice.”

“Yeah, yeah, you did all the heavy lifting, and all we did was get the bad guys off your ass long enough to save the damsel in distress.” Desmond “Dez” Ambler was a former marine, and I’d had yet to hear why he wasn’t one anymore.

I supposed if this job thing worked out, I’d find out sooner or later.

“I heard about all your difficult night gambling, drinking, and flirting,” I tossed back. “Or are you just pissed that you broke even while Bruce came out ahead?”

“I did better than Fever.” Dez jerked his thumb over his shoulder at the second biggest guy on the team.

Second to me.

“We agreed ahead of time that we needed to make ourselves blend in,” Fever said as he pulled out a chair across from me. “I knew none of you would be man enough to lose, so I did it.”

“Right,” Bruce said. “It’s not just that you suck at poker.”

“Bicker on your own time, boys.” Cain moved to the far end of the table. “Let’s debrief so we can get out of here. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m tired of looking at your ugly asses.” He nodded at Bruce. “You’re up first.”

Bruce immediately lost the grin and went into professional mode as he began his run-down of his perspective of how things had gone. I’d seen him switch off that easy-going side while we were in Iran. I wondered how many people he’d caught off-guard when he did that.

---