Page 83 of Special Ops Seduction

“Good thing,” Caradine said then, an evil little glint in her eyes. “Because if you did, you’d be bright red by now. And sooner or later, if you were in the presence of your other friends, who are far less restrained than Kate and me, it would be like an interrogation.”

“I prefer only to interrogate suspects,” Kate said. “As a rule.”

“Great chat,” Bethan replied brightly. Desperately. “Girl power, intimate friend time, whatever. Glad we could do this. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go chase bad guys.”

Her friends laughed at her as she turned to go. And it took every bit of training Bethan had ever had to keep from breaking into a run to get away from that knowing sound.

Or worse, to stay right where she was. And unburden herself, when she knew better.

Because talking about what had happened between her and Jonas would only make everything worse.

It might even make it real.

Twenty

Jonas couldn’t sleep.

It was one more indication of what a goner he was, not that he needed further evidence. He was 100 percent screwed, top to bottom, and he knew it.

Because soldiers of his caliber didn’t have insomnia. They couldn’t afford it. He slept when there was time to sleep, because there was no telling when that kind of time would come again. Chances were always high that it wouldn’t.

But here he was, wide awake as the jet hung somewhere over Canada, en route to New York. Staring out at the moon.

Questioning what the hell he was doing.

His bad decisions kept intensifying, and there was a part of him that resented the fact that while his world seemed to be inside out and getting worse by the second, Bethan was currently sleeping like a baby. Six feet in front of him, in one of the reclining sleeper chairs in the main part of the jet. He resented that he knew for a fact that when the jet was packed like it was tonight and sleep space was at apremium, she never went and took a place in one of the staterooms. Because that meant no one would go in and get a little shut-eye next to her the way they would if she were just another guy claiming one of the wide beds. Not that she’d ever drawn that boundary, but everyone tended to give her that respect whenever possible.

Bethan, of course, didn’t want it.

And Jonas would have said that he’d spent his life learning how to keep himself from wanting anything.

Because it was better that way. Safer.

Now he couldn’t stop.

Templeton was sacked out across from him, but Jonas noticed the moment the other man’s breathing changed. He wasn’t surprised to find his brother-in-arms suddenly completely alert, as if he’d downed a pot of coffee in the time it took most people to open their eyes and remember they were alive.

“You’re thinking too loud,” Templeton said, and not in that trademark booming voice of his that would have woken up the entire plane. “It’s giving me nightmares.”

Jonas didn’t bother to respond to that. Or crack an expression of any kind, for that matter. Not that it bothered Templeton.

“The funny thing about you keeping me awake,” Templeton continued, shifting in his comfortable seat that could easily sleep most men but was a little snug for his huge frame, “is that it’s not how you normally roll, is it? You could be freaking out and no one would ever know it, because you’re too busy making like a ghost.”

“I think maybe you’re talking in your sleep,” Jonas replied.

Templeton grinned. “Nice one. But no. I’ve seen you sleep through regime changes. Why are you awake tonight?”

“A better question is why you think that’s your business.”

“Wide-awake on a routine overnight flight, unnaturallychatty, and on top of that, snippy?” Templeton shook his head. “I don’t know, buddy. That adds up to a whole lot of brooding discontent, which I didn’t think was your thing.”

“I’ve never trusted army math,” Jonas replied coolly. “Not thinking I’m going to start now.”

Templeton grinned his appreciation of that one. And for a moment, he was quiet.

But Jonas didn’t relax, because he knew better. Templeton liked to act like he was everybody’s best friend, but the reality was, he was a remarkably tenacious individual. And scary good at getting information out of people who didn’t want to give it.

“To the casual observer,” Templeton said after a while, “it seems like maybe playing Bethan’s boyfriend for a week isn’t sitting too well.”

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