Page 73 of Baby One Last Time
He pulled me into a bear hug. I wrapped my arms around his waist and hugged him back.
When we stepped apart, he cleared his throat. “By the time you get back to the waiting room, there’ll probably be champagne. Unless Jensen sneaked in something else.”
“Please God, no. Haven’t we been through enough already today?”
Laughter erupted from the waiting room. The celebration was already underway. I turned toward the surgery suite and walked toward Derek, away from the group of weirdos who would always own a piece of my recently softened heart. I made a beeline for the only teammate I really needed, the one who’d laid claim to the rest of my heart a year ago. The man who—whether he knew it yet or not—would have to take care of it for the rest of our lives.
Derek layin a bed near the door of the large, pre-surgery suite. His closest neighbors were several beds away, giving us the illusion of privacy. At least, that’s what I assumed he was thinking when he leered at me.
“Come closer, sexy,” he said as I stepped toward him. “Do you know how hot you look wearing all black?” He took my right hand, moved it closer to his face, then farther away again. “And blood. My blood.” He winked and lowered his voice. “Next time you want me to cover you in my bodily fluids, I have other ideas.”
“Uh-hm.” A nurse in scrubs stepped up to the other side of bed and skimmed over a chart. She glanced at me. “He’s had a lot of medication. He’s a bit uninhibited at the moment.”
He didn’t need meds to go full-on lecherous around me. I would have been insulted if he did. But she had a point about his lack of self-control in front of an audience.
“I’ll give you a minute of privacy,” she said. She pulled a cloth curtain all the way around us and hurried on to her next patient.
“I thought she’d never leave.” Derek winked at me. “Come over here and sit on my lap.”
“You do know we’re not alone in a hotel room, right, Mr. Tall, Dark, and Dirty?”
He laughed. “I’m sadly aware. And yanking your chain a little. But my usual post-mission high is a little amped up from the very nice drugs that have dulled some of the pain in my leg.” He patted the side of the bed. “Here, sit down for a minute. I have something to tell you.”
The joking mask fell away and there he was, my Derek, stripped down to his soul, just for me. I would have made some smartass comment to lighten the suddenly somber moment if my heart hadn’t been wedged in my throat. I was glad for the impediment, though. I didn’t want to cheapen what I knew was coming. It was time for true confessions, and I was there for it.
When he hesitated, I squeezed his hand. “I know what you’re going to say.”
“You do?” He grimaced. “Did X tell you? She promised she would let me do the honors.”
I worried they’d given him a smidge too much happy juice. “Why would X tell me you love me?”
He widened his eyes. “Oh.”
Well, shit. Or more like fuck me. Wrong time and place for that conversation.
“I do love you,” he said. “Full-on, no-holds-barred, Christ-help-me love.”
I breathed out hard. “Thank God. I’m not prepared to go down this batshit crazy road alone.”
He laughed again. “I think we win the prize for the most unromantic first declaration of love.”
“Sorry about that.”
“I’m not.” He sobered again. “There is something else, though. Something about HEAT and your future there.”
I shook my head. “Unless X rewrote the rules while we were stranded in that room, there is no future for us and HEAT.”
“That’s why I didn’t sayus.” He kissed the back of my hand. “I said you. This was all for you. Well, for you and the Alpha Team.”
“Alpha Team? That’s a myth.”
“It was.” His eyes sparkled. “Until now. The best crews, all together on one premier team.”
I shook my head. “There is no best crew without you.”
“True.” He wasn’t arrogant about it, just honest. “But I’m no longer an agent of HEAT. I resigned back in August.”
“You what?” I leapt off the bed and towered over him with my arms crossed over my chest. “Tell me this is another joke. Tell me you didn’t stay away from me for four months when there was no reason on earth to be apart, or I’m going to make these very nice medical people very sad when they heal you just in time for me to kill you.”
