When I look up, I see Hale’s eyes carrying a stinging pain in them. I shouldn’t feel guilty for kissing my fiancé, but I do. I feel like a fool when I withdraw a little from the overly affectionate contact without a real reason for doing so.
Fortunately Brazen is now engaged in idle conversation with Clay, and he doesn’t notice my ridiculous behavior. But Hale does. His eyes soften and stare into my hybrid blues very longingly despite the hand still holding mine. He knows what I just did.
Fuck. What did I just do?
“We’ll be there shortly, and we can discuss it in more detail then,” Brazen says, and I snap out of my eye-fucking trance with Hale.
What am I doing right now?
“I love you,” Brazen whispers into my ear, and I smile endearingly at him while mouthing the same affection back.
I’m ashamed that I let my hair fall to block Hale’s vision of the silent response. Brazen seems oblivious and gives me a wink to show me how much better he’s feeling.
He pulls off the scattered fragments of the shirt still on his body and tosses it to the floor to join the remnants of the vest. The quickly approaching compound is just ahead, and Brazen’s pants tell a devastating story with all of their rips and tears as well.
I touch his leg through one of the larger holes, and I feel the healed skin where the grenade had once left tortured pieces shredded.
“It’s all better, baby,” he coos, forcing my girly grin to emerge.
“You look better too,” Hale says while his eyes burn against me from the rearview mirror.
“I heal with very little blood,” I murmur as Brazen inspects all the places that had sustained injuries.
“I remember,” he mutters with underlying meaning, and a snarky grin spreads over his face before he looks away.
Brazen seems intensely focused on my examination, and my mind is filled with all the memories I have of healing myself on the incredibly erotic blood filling Hale’s veins. His grin continues when he sees my forced arousal, and I actually shake my head to try to free myself from the intense memories.
I almost break the door on the armored vehicle when I bail out at the compound, and Hale lets a wry grin turn up in its cocked position. Smug son of a bitch.
“So we’ll head back out on the road tomorrow then?” Clay asks Brazen.
“I’m fine with that. They’ve been weakened now, and the cleanup crew will have time to assess which of our species it was. It’ll be easier to track them down once that knowledge is required, and then we’ll let Araya interrogate the hell out of them,” he huffs out, and his lips show mine affection briefly before turning back to a wincing Hale and an agreeing Clay.
“You’ll have to keep the training charade up for a while longer. We may need you to stay close,” Clay says to me.
“I’m going this time,” I growl.
“Not a chance. You saw what happened today,” he rebukes.
“It wouldn’t have happened if I had been there.”
“You don’t know that, Araya,” Brazen scolds.
Thanks for taking my side, babe.
“We came into the situation knowing what was ahead. In an ambush, you could have peaked too early, and you would have been weakened by the oncoming assaults. It’s happened before,” Hale adds, and I see I’ve gravely wounded Clay with my snide remark.
“I’m sorry, Clay. I’m just a little worked up about how wrong this all could have gone,” I grumble, and Brazen’s hand intertwines with mine.
“It’s fine. You’re probably right, but I can’t risk it. Not with you. You’re too important to the United to be put at risk unnecessarily ever again.”
I see the mounds of guilt, pain, and fatigue in his eyes. I shouldn’t have said that. I had no right to.
“Were there any witnesses left?” Hale asks a man passing by.
“None, Sir. She took them all out.”
“Doubting me?” I playfully scoff.
