Assassin's Promise, The Red Team Series, Book 5 (27 page)

Wynn walked through the apartment and seemed pleased when she came back to them. “This is included with the position?”

“It is,” Mandy answered. “If you like, we can furnish it for you.”

“Yes. That would be very helpful. With this, I can keep my apartment in Cheyenne for when I visit my grandmother.”

Rocco came into the apartment, Zavi on one side, Casey on the other. Mandy made the introductions, watching Rocco’s reaction to Wynn.

“Nice to meet you,” Rocco said.

Wynn nodded. “It’s nice to meet you as well.”

“This is my son, Zavi, and Ivy’s daughter, Casey.”

Wynn smiled at both kids. Zavi stood between Rocco’s feet, his left hand tangled with his dad’s shirt.
 

“Hello, Zavi,” Wynn said as she knelt down, bringing herself to his height.

Rocco nudged his shoulder. He straightened and held out his hand. “How do you do?”

Wynn’s smile widened as she shook his hand. “Quite well, thank you.”

“Is she going to be my teacher?” Zavi asked as he looked up at Rocco.

“Possibly.”

“Will I have to do what she tells me? Will she be the boss of me like Casey?”

“Yes. And she’ll be Casey’s boss, too,” Rocco answered.

“Will she belong to you?” Zavi asked.

Mandy felt herself blush as Wynn’s wide eyes went first to Rocco, then to her.
 

“She’ll be my employee,” Rocco clarified. “There’s a difference between an employee and a wife.”

“Oh.”

“Zavi has lived in Afghanistan until recently,” Mandy explained to Wynn. “He’s more familiar with a family relationship that exists in a tribal structure. He likes to put the pieces together in a way that he understands.”

“Makes perfect sense.” She stood up. “I think we all do that.”

Zavi reached for her hand. “Uncle Ty is going to build my classroom in the basement. Mandy says school will be in one of the other rooms until then. Do you want to see my bedroom?”

Wynn looked over at Mandy, who nodded. “Sure,” Wynn said as he led her out of the apartment. “Are you excited for school to begin?”

Rocco nodded toward Selena, sending her after them. Zavi’s voice faded behind them. “Do you like her?” Rocco asked Mandy and Ivy.

“I do. She has a kind face. She seems patient,” Mandy said.

“Her grandmother is ill, which is why she’s been subbing,” Ivy added.

“If you guys approve, then I approve.” He took Mandy’s hand and kissed her forehead. “Thank you for taking the initiative and doing the interviews. I trust your judgment. Will she need help moving in?”

“I’ll ask her. I’m excited for this next step.”

“Me too. I’m going to head back to work. Need anything else before I go?”
 

“Not immediately, but I would like to move the furniture out of the third bedroom by us and into her apartment. Then we can set that room up as a classroom until the construction’s finished in the basement.”

“And you’ll need some things for the classroom. Let’s talk it over tonight.”

Mandy nodded. “Okay.” She smiled at Ivy. “I think we found our teacher.”

* * *

A knock sounded quietly on Greer’s door. Had he not been lying awake, he would have missed it. He turned on a light, then slipped into a pair of jeans but didn’t fully fasten them. He went barefoot to the door. Remi stood there, wrapped tight in a white terrycloth robe.
 

Greer pushed the door open wider. “Hi.”

She came inside, then stood, white-knuckling her robe as if she were torn between ripping it off and running out of the room.
 

He really hoped she picked the former.

“Can I sleep with you?”
 

Greer felt his nostrils widen, even as his body tightened. He didn’t immediately answer. He waited until the breath she held came out in broken puffs, as if she expected his rejection. He shut the door.

Looking into her eyes, he eased the sides of her robe apart. She wore an old T-shirt and a pair of plaid boxers. He fought a smile, wondering if she’d chosen the least seductive attire she owned, thinking it would save her.
 

As if she wouldn’t light up his world even in rags.

He pushed the robe from her shoulders, letting it fall to the floor as he reached for her waist. She flattened her hands against his chest and lifted a brow as she looked up at him. “I think we could both use a night of sleep.”

He leaned forward, bracing his fists on the wall behind her. His heat circled her like a coil. “Sleep…afterward.”

“Sleep, Greer. Just sleep.” Her gaze lowered to his mouth and lingered there, undoing her words.
 

“So a try-out of sorts? See if I snore?”

“You’re angry.”

“Yeah. I am.” He tore his eyes from her and stared at the wall behind her, trying to cool his senses. “But not at you.” He met her eyes. “I’m angry that I’m so far ahead of you. The least I could have done was go slower so you could catch up.”

“I’m catching up now.”
 

He waited for her next move.

“I’ve been trying to see us from a rational, non-hormonal frame of mind,” she said.

“Why do we need so much thinking about us?” He took her hand and flattened it against his heart. “Logic has nothing to do with the way I feel. I don’t have to think why my heart beats. I just have to know that it does and because it does, I live.”
 

She held her hand where he put it. “Because we’re amazing together in bed, but that can’t be the only thing our relationship is made of. Passion fades.”

“Mine won’t.”

“We’re happening so fast—how do you know?”

“Because truth is truth, Remi.”

“Can you give me tonight, one night, no sex, to help me feel my way through this?”

“One night or a thousand. Nothing is going to change what is.” Unless, of course, she realized she’d let a monster inside her body. God help if that ever happened. If it did, while nothing would have changed for him, for her, everything would have. And lucky him, he would get to hold her while she took the night to withdraw completely from him.

Even so, he had no choice but to give her the space she needed. “Sleep it is.” He pulled a long draw of her scent into his nose, then straightened and led her by the hand into his room. “Shall I grab more pillows?”

She looked up at him for a prolonged moment, then shook her head.
 

“You care which side?” he asked. Again she shook her head.
 

“I’ll take the side closest to the door.” He lifted the blankets. She crawled across his mattress to settle on the far half. He went to the dresser and took out a pair of gray boxer briefs. With his back to Remi, he dropped his jeans down his hips and kicked them off, then pulled on the briefs and arranged his raging boner to the side. It pushed against the elastic waistband. Whatever. At least packaged like this, she wouldn’t think he had other ideas about their night together.

He walked over to his side of the bed. Remi’s gaze moved down his chest and stuck to his crotch.

“Greer…”

He lifted the covers. “I finally have my woman in my room, in my bed, and you think my body’s not going to react to that windfall?”

“We’re just sleeping.” Her grip tightened on the fold of the sheet she held tightly to her chest. “And I’m not your woman.”

Greer got in bed, then turned off the light. “You are. You just don’t know it yet.” Like an enemy who, shot through the heart with a 9mm, still fought for a few dangerous seconds after his death. She was his—she just hadn’t fallen.
 

She pulled a long and audible breath, but didn’t follow it with words. He held himself still and waited for her to settle in for the night. But she didn’t and he didn’t, and neither of them slept. It was like living in the space between breaths.
 

“What did you pay them?” Remi asked, breaking the dreadful stasis.

“Pay whom for what?”

“The women who slept with you.”

“I didn’t pay them. I paid their employers. Two to three hundred, depending on how long I needed them.”

“Did they just sleep?”

“They sure didn’t talk.”

“What if they had lice?”

Greer grinned. Was she jealous? “They didn’t.”

“Did you touch each other?”

“Yes.” He looked over at her. Her head was tilted toward him in a shaft of blue light from the window. “That’s kinda the point of hiring a sleep buddy. So you know you’re not alone.”

“Did you hold them?”

“Sometimes.”

“Did you kiss them?”

“Never. It was just sleeping, Remi.”

“What if I want you to hold me?”

“Do you?” he asked, looking at her. She nodded. He lifted his arm so that she could scoot in to him. She came up close, her body lying against his, her arms folded between her chest and his.
 

She drew a breath to ask another question, but he beat her to it. “Did you know that the part of your brain that handles speaking opposes the part of your brain in charge of sleeping?” he asked.

She sighed. As close as she was, her breath skittered across his chest hair. “I’m sorry. I chatter when I’m nervous.”

“Sleeping with me makes you nervous?”

She nodded.

“Why?”

“Because it means I’m letting you inside my walls.” She stroked his chest for a while. He hoped she couldn’t feel his cock pulsing with each innocent touch. “So how do you sleep when you’re having trouble?”

“I hire companions.” He grinned at her.

She frowned. “You should get a dog.”

“I’ll talk to Eddie about that.”

Her hand made a fist, which she banged gently against his chest. He chuckled. She unfolded a bit, nestling more comfortably in his hold.
 

“Good night, Greer.”

“Night, Remi.”

“Greer?”

“Hmmm?”

“What happens if I want to talk all night?”

His arm tightened around her. His hand rubbed her shoulder. “Then we’ll talk all night.” He moved her up over his body, leaving her legs to drape over his hips. “I’m not in a hurry for what’s coming. Well, I am, but I don’t want to be. You’re far too fragile—and too precious—to bulldoze. Soon enough, you’ll accept what we are to each other.”

Her arms folded over his chest. He drew her body forward with his hands round her ribs, then kissed her gently, lips to lips, taking only what she offered. When she opened her mouth to him, he did the same. Their tongues met halfway, sliding, pushing, dancing. His head lifted off the bed as his leaned to the side to deepen the kiss.

He fisted her hair as he pulled away slightly, then kissed her lips twice more. “In case you hadn’t noticed, I’m breaking down your walls.”

She shook her head slightly. “It’s like they weren’t ever there with you.”

“You don’t need them with me, Remi. I won’t fail you.” He gritted his teeth, trying to pause long enough to get some control over his emotions. “But I goddamned sure would like to kick the ass of the bastard who made you put them up in the first place.”

She pushed back from him, studying him with solemn eyes in the dark room. “I did that on my own. For my own protection. Until you, I never let anyone inside.”

He took a couple of breaths and pushed a bit of hair behind her ear. “Walls are hard to build and harder to maintain. No one puts them up on a whim. They’re only ever needed for defense. What caused you to need them?”

With her splayed over his body, he felt the shift that came over her. Her body cooled, stiffened. She pushed up and sat on the bed. “I don’t want to talk about this.”

He sat up too. “Okay.”

She stared at him, a silent silhouette against the ambient light from his window. Without a word, she scrambled off his bed and crossed his room. He caught up with her as she slipped into her bathrobe. Wrapping an arm around her from behind, his hand crossed her body and caught her hip. “Don’t go. Please. Give us a night of sleep. Let me hold you. Just that. Nothing more. We’ll both quit talking.”

She caught his hand and brought it up, pinning it against her heart, which beat against her ribs like a caged refugee. “I can’t talk about those things, the things you want to know.”

Greer pressed his face against the side of her head. “I’ll stop asking.”

“You slip under my skin and into my secrets so effortlessly.”

“I was trained to do that. I don’t even do it consciously anymore.”

“I’m not your mission.” She tilted her head up and looked back at him, frowning. “Or am I?”

“You aren’t.” He locked his jaw, to keep the truth from rolling out, but it just came out anyway. “And you are.”

“Which is it?”

He turned her in his arms, moving so that faint light from his window across the room hit his face. He wanted her to read the truth of his words. “There are things you know that I need to know…for your own safety. I’m not using you. I can’t use you. I won’t use you.”

She held his intense gaze for a minute, then pulled free. “Good night, Greer.”

He didn’t move, didn’t try to stop her this time as she left his room, quietly shutting the door behind her. His breath escaped his lungs in a long hiss. When he’d mentioned the difficulty maintaining walls, he’d spoken from experience. He’d let her inside his walls, and all he had to show for it was a blistering pain in his heart.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Greer was at breakfast before Remi. As the others came in, they filled in around the table, leaving the seat next to him open. Remi usually sat next to him, but he knew she wouldn’t this morning. Not after last night. This morning—if she even came in—she’d pick a seat at the end of the table, leaving a big empty spot in his heart and a question in the minds of the guys. They hadn’t exactly hidden the fact that they were hooking up.

When Remi did finally come in, the room was noisy with chatter. Their eyes met, so briefly, then she headed over to the buffet table to fill a mug with coffee.

She looked at him as she faced the table. He held her gaze, his expression blank, his eyes hard. She walked right over to the empty seat beside him. He stood and pulled out her chair. She set her coffee down, then faced him, still on her feet.