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“Wow,” I mumbled, wiping my mouth, then setting my napkin back on my lap. “Thank you, Zeppelin.”
He raised a brow. “Should I assume you don’t feel the same way?”
“No. Not at all. I mean, yes. What I’m trying to say, but failing miserably, is I’d be honored to work with you too.” When I bit my bottom lip, he smiled. “It makes things…complicated, though.”
He pushed his plate back and rested his forearms on the table. “Others have made it work. Look, I’m not saying we’re soulmates who are falling in love and will end this op getting married like some of those we work with have?—”
“Thank goodness for that.” I stood and took my nearly untouched plate to the kitchen.
“Verity?”
I kept my back to him. “If I’ve given you the impression that’s what I want, I apologize.” I blinked when I felt tears threatening. I hated how easily I cried at times. Again, so unprofessional.
“Hey,” he murmured from behind me. “I didn’t say you had. If anything, I’ve been the one initiating what’s between us.” He moved my hair from my neck and pressed his lips against my skin. “I can’t help it. You drive me mad.”
“Yes. I suppose I do. Not always in a good way.”
He turned me in his arms. “Mostly in a great way.”
“Zeppelin—”
He shook his head. “Right now, I’m Henry and you’re Alena.”
“Henry.”
He rested his forehead against mine. “Yes, Alena?”
I turned out of his arms and walked several paces away. “There isn’t much that frightens me. Good thing, since someday, I may actually be on a Unit 23 mission. Anyway, my point is, this scares me. Literally, terrifies me.”
“Which part?”
“Getting too close to you.”
He nodded. “And?”
I crossed my arms. There was no way I’d say it out loud. It was too humiliating.
He took one step in my direction, but stopped when I shook my head. “I’ll tell you what terrifies me, then.”
I waited.
“That you’ll decide this isn’t worth pursuing. That I’m not worth it.”
“But…you…I mean, you’re…” I stuttered.
This time, when he stepped closer, I dropped my arms.
“You see? Our fears aren’t so different. Whatever it was you were trying to say about me, I feel for you. You’re magnificent, Alena.”
Zeppelin held his hand out, and I took it, and when he walked over to the bed, we lay beside each other. He held me in his arms, and we looked up at the skylights, watching the snow fall.
“Nemesis plans to go above Marchand’s head,” he murmured as he stroked my hair.
“She has no choice.”
“I agree. After we rang off, Magnet called.”
“And?”