Chapter Ninety-Seven

Colton wasn’t sure what had happened while he was out getting their dinner, but Angel seemed out of sorts when he returned. He’d asked, and she’d told him she was fine, but he wasn’t buying it.

Something had spooked her.

Checking the window himself, he watched as she set out dinner on the small hotel table. Normally he was the one who did that while she was online. She was always in another dimension when she was on her computer. He’d always wondered if she even noticed she hadn’t eaten in hours when he disrupted her attention with food.

He forced a smile and sat across from her. Then jumped up and went to the door where he’d set one other bag.

“I almost forgot. I got us a bottle of wine.” He opened it and carried the bottle and two little plastic cups to the table. Most of the soldiers and law enforcement agents he knew had a standard routine as they prepared for a job. For him, it was all about the meal the night before.

He’d never thought of it as a last supper, but more that it was the last time he had control over what and where he ate. Once he went undercover, he assumed a role and his decisions were based on the part he was playing. Even when it came to his meals.

Angel stared at him while he filled her little cup.

“Sorry about the cups. We’ll just have to pretend they clink when we make a toast,” he joked, earning only a slight smile from her lips.

What was wrong? He wanted so much to ask again, but he’d already asked twice.

“I was just thinking about this. Eating together. A glass of wine. But at a restaurant.”

He nodded and held up his cup in a toast. “To being able to eat in a restaurant again.”

Her smile was genuine when she tapped her cup to his. “Soon,” she said, and took a sip.

They would be in Dallas by the next afternoon. Redgamer3 was meeting Noah at nine tomorrow night, which would give them plenty of time to get ready, but not enough time to relax and enjoy a meal together.

So tonight they ate and talked as they finished off the wine. Laughter came easier by the time they tossed the takeout cartons into the trash. He reached for her at the same time she stepped closer to him.

She stood on tiptoes to kiss him, as if she couldn’t wait the fraction of a second it would take him to bend down to meet her lips.

He’d been thinking about her offer. If they worked together, they could have this all the time. Dinner and loving each other at night. Granted, there would be times when they were sent off on separate jobs and they wouldn’t see each other for months. But he would know she would always come back to him. There would be no need to worry she would leave in the middle of the night.

No, that worry would be replaced by a new worry—whether she would ever come home again.

Shaking the thought away, he focused on the moment they had together right now.

He undressed her slowly while he touched and tasted the skin he exposed. His normal process before a job had been to enjoy an excellent meal. He mentally updated that to include enjoying an amazing woman. Not just any woman, but his woman.

“I love you, Colton,” she whispered as he slid inside her. Their fingers linked above her head as he moved on top of her. Their eyes locked on one another.

“I love you, too.”

So much it nearly broke him.