Page 20 of Light on Love

They hold one another’s stare. Her hands now curling around his forearms, his hands lifting to rest on her thighs. Then Brett’s gaze drops to her lips. “You are far from an assignment,” he says, recalling their talk after the barbecue a month prior.

Laurel opens her mouth to ask what she is to him then. Almost as if he senses that she wants to press further, he leans back and scoops her up in a quick movement. His hands slide up to her waist and he lifts her, placing her on the ground in front of him. He brushes her hair behind her ear and places a kiss on her temple. “Let’s get you home and find out what’s in that file,” he says softly.

Laurel nods once. Her brain, and her heart, stuck on the wordhome.

—

Back at the farmhouse, Laurel is left alone to work. She places the folder on the coffee table in front of the fire Brett lit before his departure and settles back on the couch. Staring at the closed cream file, she twists her hand in her hair.

What am I about to find, she wonders nervously. Laurel pulls the knit blanket up tighter around her shoulders and opens the file to find full pages of information this time.

A sensation pulses through her that something is off. By the time she’s done reading it two times, she has pages of notes transcribed. Laurel stands up and begins to pace, the report isn’t even related to the terror organization threatening her. The only similarity is that they are operating in the same region. Why would it be redacted then?

Did I just stumble across something unrelated? Something hidden for a different reason? Someone thought this operation related though, she debates with herself.

Laurel picks her notes up, glancing over them. Throughout the report she had flagged language that didn’t seem to fit. Almost as if each of the men’s voices had been altered. There was something here, but she needed to talk it out. Normally, shewould do this with Ray. Lately though, her brain only wanted to talk with one person, and he was striding up from the barns this very moment.

Rushing to meet Brett at the door, Laurel pulls it open as he’s reaching the porch steps. “Miss me already?” he asks, shooting her a cheeky grin. The look on her face causes him to pause though. “What is it?” He guides her back inside.

“I’m not sure, can I walk through it with you?”

“Of course, you can.” He brings Laurel back over to the couch and sits down beside her, motioning to the file. “Start from the beginning.”

The words begin to pour out of her in a rush. “Okay, the operation was to move an asset that may have been compromised. And there’s an unrelated firefight ahead on the route they plan to take. So, the team separates to not be such a target with the asset. And then when they all came back together, the asset had been killed in the crossfire of an unrelated attack.”

Brett remains silent, listening intently, so she continues, “now I know each SEAL writes their own reports that are all put together in the final folder. But not a single one mentions having the asset with them when he’s killed. And they sound like they are all written by the same guy. That’s not right. Right?”

Meeting her eyes, he nods in agreement. “Right.”

“And it’s not a coincidence that fighters with alliances to my terror organization were involved in the gun play in question. It can’t be. So, we have an asset in their operating area taken out by one of their allies and something in these reports being altered and hidden.” Laurel finishes and sits back in a daze. She’s on edge and hasn’t even realized her fingers were so woven into her hair, that she’s gotten them stuck.

Brett reaches over slowly and gently untangles her, keeping a hold of her hand and bringing it to his lips. He brushes a kissacross her knuckles. “Easy honey, breathe,” he murmurs, his voice deep and steady.

She sucks in a breath and exhales deeply with his instruction. By the third breath, she feels her jumpiness start to subside. He turns her hand over and presses a kiss into her palm. “What do you make of it all?”

She pauses, feeling her thoughts slow at the touch of his lips to her skin. “I think there is someone working with joint special operations who is also working with rebel forces. The asset wasn’t killed in unrelated crossfire. There’s a traitor among us.”

Brett nods, and when she looks into his eyes, Laurel sees no hint of doubt. “Okay, we’ll work the problem,” he determines, wrapping an arm around her and pulling her in tight. “But not tonight.”

She sighs and rests her head on his shoulder, flooded with relief at his faith in her. Laurel thinks of how she’s grown so accustomed to trying to prove herself, but not when she’s with Brett. Things feel easy between them, she can just be. His hand runs lazily up and down her arm as his eyes roam over her, darkening and filled with hunger. She feels her own hunger for him bubbling up, despite her best efforts to keep it at bay.

“I know you wanted to still train tomorrow. But I’ve got something else in mind that might be nice for us to do, if you agree.”

“Do I get to know what it is?”

“No, I think I’ll be keeping it a surprise.” He shoots her a taunting smile, “are you in?”

Laurel expects her typical reaction of saying no to things she hadn’t planned, but it doesn’t come. Instead, she feels excited that this might be something unrelated to the threat against her and need for protection. Something just about her and Brett. She bites her bottom lip, holding it with her teeth and gives him a soft smile.

“I’m in.”

If Brett’s eyes were conveying want before, now they can only be described as burning with it. He reaches out with his free hand and runs his thumb along her bottom lip, gently tugging it out from her bite. Laurel leans greedily into his touch.

As always, she finds herself helplessly reacting to him, wanting more. And then just as before, he withdraws quickly. Laurel groans, overcome with frustration. “Tease,” she complains, surprising herself that the word slipped out.

Brett’s face flashes with surprise as well. Though he quickly covers up the emotion. “And what else would you have wanted me to do just now?” The question comes out honeyed, almost like a cat playing with its mouse, luring her.

She doesn’t answer because the thoughts in her mind would cross a line she couldn’t come back from. Thoughts about him between her legs, feeling his lips and skin against hers. She squirms under his stare, not sure if she’ll survive this protection detail, but for a wholly different reason.

---