Page 86 of Lucky Charm

Her heart swelled, and she gentled her mouth, giving him the caring touch he deserved. When he pulled away, she swiped a finger over his lips to erase the moisture. “We’ll figure it out.”

“The operative word there being we. Right?”

“Yes.”

“It is your decision, honey, I don’t think it’s a good time to make it.”

“I hear you. I’ll think on it some more.” All she had time for lately was to think and operate, rinse and repeat. She’d gone over those moments in the mountains dozens of times.

Hunt rose and found his clothes in the muted light, and she let herself watch him move, enjoying the intimacy of those actions. “How did you know we needed to leave?”

“Leave?”

“The mountains. You came and got me, said we had to leave. How did you know? You never told me.”

“Why?”

“Going over it in my head, like over and over, and that’s a piece that’s missing.”

“Dust in the distance. Then Tommy got a scope on it and saw the vehicles.”

“They weren’t already there in the area around the village?”

“No. In case you didn’t notice, the road infrastructure sucks there.”

“I noticed, but it did make me wonder why they were chasing us into an area that had little to no roads. Are you sure they weren’t trying to distract us away from the real prize? Like they didn’t care whether they caught us.”

He sat to put on his socks and fasten his shoes. He turned to stare at her instead. “Oh, they wanted to catch us. It was a matter of pride. I don’t know that it wasn’t a way to divert us, but I’m not in charge of the search for them.”

“Trying to put it all together so maybe I’ll stop dreaming about it.”

Hunt stood and bent to kiss her forehead then her mouth. “Next time, you’re telling me about those dreams.”

Cait nodded. “I’ll see you when I see you.”

“I’m afraid that’s the best I can do, honey.” He grabbed his jacket from the floor, put it on, and grabbed his gloves.

“It’s enough.” She suppressed a smile as Hunt’s eyes traced her naked body.

“You know how to get to a guy, Doc.”

She rose and picked up her heavy sweater, wrapping it around her body. “Maybe I like the way you look at me.”

“Maybe I like the way you look at me, too.”

The silence between them filled with the ebb and flow of intensity, and she stepped to him and kissed his lips. “Be smart out there, frogman. I’mgoing to check every inch of you next time for injuries. You belong to me now.”

He grinned. “As long as I can look over every inch of you, we’ll call it even.”

He kissed her hard and fast, as if more than that would delay him. “Lock the door.”

He went out with stealth and speed. She locked the door like he asked.

Love hurt.

∞∞∞∞∞

Entering the Operations building, Hunt shook off the cold, unzipped his jacket, and pulled off his gloves. Middle of the night everyone had been ordered to rack time. He arrowed to the team’s workspace to dump his jacket and gloves. The room was empty. Cait’s pencils were still on the table from earlier.