“You’re impossible,” I mumbled. “What else did you do behind my back while I thought you didn’t even know I existed?”
“A couple things,” he said, then sniffed my cheek deeply, and groaned.
“What things?” I pressed, pushing his shoulder down so I could look at him.
He sighed. “I took you off a couple of missions Randall wanted you on.”
My eyes almost bulged out of my skull. “What?!”
“They were traps, and you would have been partnered with the wrong agents—agents who would have taken the credit for the work you would have done. I’ve worked with those people before. It takes fear to make them respect someone, and you’re not about to stop being nice to anyone anytime soon. So.”
He shrugged.
“You bastard!” I said and slapped his chest. All that managed to do was make him grin.
It disarmed me completely, that grin.
“I can handle myself, damn it!”
“I know that. But nobody’s going to take advantage of you, Teddybear. Not while I can do something about it.” He pressed my cheek against his chest and sniffed my hair next.
“Not fair, Dominic. How am I supposed to learn anything if you’ve been blocking me from doing my job?!”
“I know it was wrong,” he whispered, scratching my head. “And I do regret it.” He totally didn’t.
“But?” I sensed a but there somewhere.
“But I’d do it all over again. You’re far more important than some mission.”
My turn to groan. “You have to promise me right now that you’ll never do it again.” I pushed myself up again because I needed to look into his eyes. “Never, Dominic. Promise me.”
“Teddybear, I know—”
“You don’t know anything. Promise me right now or I’m leaving.” Empty threat. I wasn’t going anywhere if they tried to force me, but he didn’t have to know that.
Another sigh. “Okay. I promise.”
I squinted my eyes at him. “Cross your heart?”
Chuckling that warm sound again, he brought his finger to his chest. “Cross my heart.”
“Good,” I said and kissed him before I lay down on his chest again. I did try to hold onto the anger for a little bit longer, but I couldn’t. Words Sandra said came back to me, about werewolves and overprotectiveness. I didn’t understand it, but I didn’t mind it as much as I thought I would, especially knowing that he was never going to do it again. I didn’t doubt his word—I trusted him that much because he’d been the one to tell me the truth himself.
“There was that other guy—George, I think. He used to work in Finance,” Dominic said.
“Oh, yeah. I remember George.” He was a nice guy who wore bright-colored blazers and had thick curly hair to die for, black as the night.
“Well, he was planning to ask you out once.”
“Oh?” I’d had no idea George had even liked me. He had quit his job about a year ago, but even when he still worked at Headquarters, we’d never really talked much other than a hi in the kitchen here and there.
“Yeah. About two years after he beat his wife and ended up in jail and with a restraining order.”
“Oh, my God.” George? Sweet George with warm brown eyes and an easy smile had beat his wife?
Wait, George had been married?
“Yeah. I didn’t warn him, though. I flat out told him that I’d kill him and burn his remains if he so much as spoke to you again.”