Page 28 of Kane (Ghost Ops #4)

She came hurrying downstairs in a pair of denim shorts and a white button up shirt tied at her waist just as the first drop of rain hit the roof.

“Well, hell,” she said as the sky opened up a moment later and the downpour began. “I thought I was fast enough.”

“You were fast. The storm was faster.”

She dropped her purse onto a chair and blew out a breath. Her hair was still piled on top of her head, her shirt was open in a deep vee to her lacy bra, and her shorts showed a mile of creamy leg that ended in a gold sandal with a tiny heel.

“You going on a date?” he asked.

Her gaze fell over her body, back up to him. “No, why?”

She was going to make him say it. “You look pretty.”

Her teeth gleamed white. “Thank you. But why do you sound so angry saying it?”

He shoved his hands in his pockets and glowered. He knew he was doing it, but he couldn’t suppress it. “Because I don’t want to find you attractive. Because it’s inconvenient and dangerous.”

She tilted her head. “Dangerous to whom?”

“You. Me. Hell, I don’t know. But if I do what I want to do, it has the potential to change everything. I don’t want things to be awkward at work.”

She laughed softly. “I think it’s already awkward, Kane.

You just told a man we were engaged today.

Then you told your friends, and now they won’t stop teasing you about it—though maybe they will since I told them to.

The point is, you want to fuck me but you don’t want things to change.

You don’t want a commitment or a relationship and you’re afraid that I’ll take things too seriously and get hurt when you have to tell me, again, that you don’t do happily ever afters. ”

Fucking hell, how did she nail it so succinctly? And make him sound like a petulant toddler at the same time?

“My wife was shot and killed by a man she’d been having an affair with.”

God, that hurt. He hated fucking saying it, and yet he had to say something. Had to try and explain in his own fucked up way. Everybody knew his wife had been killed. Nobody in his life knew about the affair but him. And now Daphne.

“Kane,” she said, her voice soft and sympathetic. “I’m sorry.”

“I loved her. And I don’t blame her for the affair, not anymore.

I was gone a lot. Deployed.” And working in a job where he might not come back.

He couldn’t imagine how frightening that’d been for her.

Back then, he hadn’t thought much about it.

He did now that he knew what it was like to get that call.

“She was lonely, and this fucker was there. He was somebody she worked with. They only got together a few times before he got weirdly obsessive. She got scared and confessed everything to me. Yeah, I was fucking flattened by it. We’d been talking about having kids, about me leaving the military, and she hit me with something I hadn’t seen coming.

” He huffed a breath that hurt all the way down to his core.

“But we were working on it. I was trying to forgive her, to move on. Then I deployed again, and this fucker?—”

“Kane, you don’t have to say it.”

“Yeah, I do. He’d been watching her, following her. He broke into our house, tied her up, and raped her repeatedly before he shot her. Then he turned the gun on himself.”

Daphne was at his side, wrapping her arms around him. “Oh, Kane. I’m so sorry. There are no words, but I’m so, so sorry.”

He slipped his arms around her body and held her against him. It was the first time he’d ever let himself hold her, and it felt so fucking good. She slid against him like she fit there. Like she belonged. Instinct told him to tip her head back and kiss her. Logic convinced him not to.

“Love is hard and messy and complicated. I don’t think I’m cut out for it,” he said, his throat tight as a drum.

“That’s why I say the shit I say about meaningless sex.

I mean, yeah, maybe it’s arrogant and presumptive and doesn’t fully give a woman her agency, but it’s also honest. I’m not trying to be an asshole. I’m just stating my truth up front.”

Daphne tilted her head back to look up at him. Her pretty eyes glistened with tears. “Okay, Kane. I understand. I’m sorry for giving you a hard time about that. It wasn’t fair.”

His gaze focused on her mouth. Pretty, pink, kissable. His dick was stirring, swelling, aching for release.

“No, you were right about some of it. Why should I assume every woman I meet wants a relationship instead of the same thing I want? It’s a sexist view. That’s what you were trying to tell me.”

“Yes, but I shouldn’t have assumed.”

He sighed, slid a thumb across her lower lip because he could.

“People are complicated. You think you know somebody, but can we ever really know anyone? I thought Hannah was mine no matter what, that we were pledged to each other and that meant nobody could come between us. I was all in, and I thought she was too. But I was wrong.”

He wasn’t sure, but he thought a shadow slid across her eyes. “No, we never know anyone as well as we think we do.”

He was conscious of the fact he didn’t know much of anything about her, and he wanted to. But Daphne held her secrets close. She didn’t trust him enough to tell him yet. He hoped she would one day.

Lightning lit up the growing darkness and thunder cracked almost immediately after. They both jumped at the power and noise as it shook the house. Daphne’s eyes grew big. Kane took her hand and pulled her toward the kitchen. He opened the basement door, flicked on the lights.

“Hold the rail going down. We’ll wait it out in the shelter.”

“I…”

“You have to go first,” he said gently. “I have to pull the door shut behind us. It sticks.”

“But there aren’t any sirens,” she protested.

The wind howled and the house creaked ominously. Kane looked overhead. “I know, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t get in the shelter. Could be an EF-1.”

Tornadoes were rated on an EF scale, with 1 being a very small one with some minor damage to 5 being major, the big kahuna of them all.

That one destroyed whole towns, turned buildings into rubble, and changed lives forever.

Usually, big tornadoes showed up on the radar beforehand.

But sometimes small ones could spin up during thunderstorms. They happened fast and quick, and were often identified later, after the damage was assessed.

But it could still take down trees or damage the house, and Kane wasn’t taking that chance.

Daphne gave him another look, then picked her way down into the basement on her little heels.

Kane pulled the door shut, tugging hard where it scraped the floor.

Then he went to the bottom and found the battery-operated lantern.

Just in time too because the lights flickered in the basement and then blinked out.

“Hang on,” he said at Daphne’s gasp. A moment later, the basement flooded with light and Daphne let out a shaky breath.

“Not a fan of utter darkness,” she said. “I’m not afraid of the dark, but make it pitch black where I can’t see my hand in front of my face and I’m freaking.”

“No need, Sunshine. I’ve got you covered. Seat?”

He pointed at the folding chairs he and Ethan had brought down.

They also had thin floor mattresses in case they had to shelter overnight—they’d both done enough sleeping on hard surfaces as special operators that they weren’t doing it if they didn’t have to—and a stash of water.

There was a mouse-proof tote with snacks inside, too.

Basically, they were prepared for severe weather alerts, which tended to happen often in the spring and fall.

Not so much in summer, but there were exceptions.

Daphne took in her surroundings and folded herself into one of the chairs.

The basement was clean, with a concrete floor and cinder block walls.

It hadn’t been that way originally, but someone had worked to update the basement and make it a viable living space at one point.

They hadn’t finished it out, though. He thought about it sometimes but there wasn’t much point since the property wasn’t really theirs.

In the end, after the Athena Project successfully launched and their mission was done, there would be no need to stay.

Except he liked his life here. His friends were settling down, finding happiness, and though he didn’t see that for himself, he liked the town and the pace.

Above them, the house creaked and moaned. Daphne looked up at the ceiling. He looked at her.

“Well, this is fun,” she said. “And to think we could be eating prime rib. I should have gone straight to the Dawg instead of changing first.”

“The storm is headed their way.”

“But the Dawg is solid brick. Old-style brick, not the brick facing they put on houses these days. The people inside probably won’t know anything’s going on.”

“True.” He grinned to try and lighten the mood. “But look on the bright side—you get to spend quality time with me.”

“Yay,” she deadpanned.

He laughed. “That’s my girl. Puncturing egos with sarcasm as usual.”

She looked suddenly sad. “That’s the thing though, isn’t it? I’m not your girl. And you’ve got really solid reasons for not going there, I get it. But what if we both miss out on something really great, huh? Even if it’s just a hot, sexy, summer fling?”

“You would want that?”

She nodded, and his dick throbbed.

“Why not? I’m not getting any satisfaction at the moment, and it might be fun to get some of that panty-melting lovin’ my book club besties are having, you know?”

Jesus did he know.

“And it’s not about me being too young for you. You can just can that line of bullshit right now. I’m fairly certain you’ve never asked to see a driver’s license before you got naked with anyone. I mean it’s not like you’re hanging out at the high school, right?”

“Fuck no. Don’t even say that.”

She snorted. “Make you uncomfortable, Gramps?”

He reached for her chair, tugged it closer until he could lean into her space. He didn’t know why he did it.

“Yeah, it makes me uncomfortable. But you like throwing me off balance, don’t you?”

She grinned. “Oh, I really do. You’re so cute when you look perplexed or exasperated by something I’ve said. It makes me happy. It might even make me a little bit hot, if I’m honest.”

He did not need to know that. Especially when she was close enough to smell her lavender shampoo, plus whatever other scent she had going that made her smell sweet and clean. He suddenly wanted to throw caution to the wind, put his mouth on hers and see if she tasted half as lovely as she looked.

Then again, if he did that, would she think he was trying to soothe his old hurts? That it wasn’t about her so much as it was just getting laid?

Fuck. Too many options and not enough information.

“Kane,” she said with that soft, throaty voice. “You’re overthinking this. I can see the wheels turning in your brain.”

She stood, unfolding her long beautiful legs before straddling him. Then she sat on his lap, facing him, her face only inches from his, her beautiful eyes gazing at him with desire and determination.

He was too stunned to stop her. Hell, he didn’t want to. That was the God’s honest truth right there.

He. Did. Not. Want. To.

“What are you doing, Sunshine?” he murmured, his gaze fixed on her mouth.

“Taking charge, Candy Kane.”

Then she kissed him.