“I think this calls for some alcohol.” Gabriel rose. “If you’ll excuse me, I’ll find something for all of us.”
When he walked out of the room, she started to get to her feet, but Brad caught her arm. “Give him a minute, babe. He’s wrestling with being all right with what I just proposed, and what you just said you might be interested in.”
“I did not…” She trailed off at his raised eyebrows.
“It turned you on, and I’d dare say he noticed it every bit as much as I did.” When he slid his hand along her arm, goosebumps rippled over her skin. “You still want me, and that’s enough right now. If he’s not okay with it…we figure something out.”
“Why the hell are you being so reasonable?” The struggle inside her was not reasonable. She wanted him, and admitting it cost her. She wanted both of them. She would not walk away from Gabriel, not for Brad, and she didn’t know if she could walk away from Brad for Gabriel.
He tugged her back to her position on the floor, then leaned close. “Because killing him isn’t an option.” When she opened her mouth, he pressed his finger to her lips. “Honesty. Rule number one. He has what’s mine. You are mine, Sachi. Never mistake my reasonable attitude for anything else. I want you back. But you’re his too. You gave yourself to him. I can hate the situation that brought us to this point, but I don’t hate you, and I don’t hate him. So, if the only way I get back what is mine is to share you, then you can be ours.”
Her lips tingled under the brush of his finger, and the tightness in her belly unfurled until she ached. Lust didn’t give a damn about her heart. Her body simply knew what she was being offered, and the rest of her wanted to grasp onto it. “What if he can’t?”What if I can’t?
“Patience, babe.” Brad smiled. “We have time. I’ve waited three years. I can wait three more if that’s what it takes.”
How the hell was that fair to him? God, how the hell was this fair to any of them? Brad slid his hand to her cheek, and she closed her eyes, savoring the contact. It had been so damn long.
“Sachi, believe me when I tell you, if we want this to happen. We’re going to damn well make it happen.”
“It has to be all three of us,” she said, firming her resolve. “I won’t hurt him, Brad. He doesn’t deserve that.”
“I know, babe.” But the smile in his voice told her he already had a plan. How could she have forgotten? What Brad wanted, Brad got.
Chapter 5
Possessing patience and exercising patience were two incredibly different skills. One promised payoff, but the other frustrated the hell out of Brad. Rather than approach the subject opening their relationship further, Gabriel opted to discuss past missions, the Ghosts’ directives—not something Brad wanted to discuss with Gabriel specifically, but he was done lying to Sachi.
They drank. They talked. They shared anecdotes, and the gulf between the three widened. Sachi withdrew from Brad’s touch the moment Gabriel re-entered the room, and the flash of guilt in her eyes pained him so much, Brad kept his hands to himself. Whereas on the plane, she’d been in Gabriel’s lap or holding his hand, she kept her distance from both of them.
He wasn’t the only one who noticed. By the time they’d killed the first bottle, they were farther apart than they’d been when they’d begun the discussion. When Sachi fell asleep curled up in a chair, Gabriel draped a blanket over her, then stroked her hair off her face. The sensation of witnessing an intensely intimate moment didn’t sit well with him.
Resentment found a foothold and flooded his bloodstream. Rather than ripping Gabriel away from her, Brad grabbed the second bottle of scotch and strode out of the room. Pausing long enough to dig out the tin of cigars and a lighter he’d stowed in his go bag, he headed outdoors. The house had warmed steadily through the evening, so at least he knew Sachi would be warm.
Outside, he welcomed the frigid chill. It had been a fucking pipe dream to think he could coax her into bed in one evening, much less talk Gabriel into participating. But, fuck it all, he’d been waiting forever for the right to simply touch her, and he’d gotten to.
One all too brief touch when she’d let him comfort her after Gabriel walked out of the room. He lit the cigar and puffed on it, then took a long pull of scotch. The door opened behind him, and Gabriel stepped out.
“Hard when things don’t go the way you planned them, isn’t it?”Quiet, unassuming, and dead on target.
Brad glanced at the other man, eyes narrowed. “Nothing has gone according to plan in three years, why should tonight be any different?”
“Because you—like Sachi—play a part very well.” With slow, deliberate steps, Gabriel crossed to the porch railing and leaned against it. “I did my homework on you, Peck. You skated through your childhood and teenage years on your father’s money and your charm. You went college and pretty much fucked off for the first two years, barely scraping the GPA together to stay in the school, even with your father’s money. Something changed in your junior year. You got serious. Your grades came up, and you even managed to graduate a full semester ahead of schedule before you became a Marine.”
Hearing his life distilled down to basic facts was never a pleasant experience. Saying nothing, Brad took another long drink.
“You did well. Surprisingly well for a boy with a silver spoon in his mouth. You qualified for Elite Recon by the time you were in your mid-twenties, then you fell off the map. Your career redacted down to a couple of lines here or there. But you know what’s fascinating about redacted mission files?”
“No, but I’m almost certain you’re about to tell me.” He had no idea what game the other man had in mind, but he paid attention.
“The psychological evaluations of the teams aren’t redacted. They are classified, and you need to clearance to see them, but they’re still there in the right folders to be accessed by someone who knows what to look for.” Despite the bland expression, Gabriel stared at him steadily.
“Your point?”
“You are a man used to using your charms to disarm others and get what you want, and you’re really good at it. Frighteningly good.”
“I’ll take compliments all day, Gabe.” The skill had saved his hide and his team on multiple occasions. Downing another mouthful of scotch, he controlled the need to lash out. He needed Gabriel as an ally, and if that meant enduring his analytical mind, so be it.
“You tried to play her, and you have been playing her since the day Titanium dropped the grenade in the hangar.” The accusation landed like a steel gauntlet on the ground between them. “You didn’t want your existence to be revealed to her—not that way. You wanted to control when she learned you’d survived. I believe you that you wanted to tell her right away. I even believe you were prevented, but as time went on—it grew more difficult to pull back the veil on the deception. So, you let opportunity after opportunity slide until the decision was taken out of your hands.”