“How’ve you been?” I try my luck at striking up a conversation.
“Oh, you know.” She shrugs and turns her computer screen to face me. “Just being hunted down by an internationally most wanted criminal.”
She assesses my response with sharp, intelligent eyes. Their texture looks like silvery silk as they shine with excited anticipation.
I’m mesmerized for a fraction of a second before her words register, and I turn to look at what’s on the screen, pulling out my phone though all I do is glare at it as if it were a traitor, disclosing state secrets to the enemy forces.
“What the hell is this?” Is the only response I manage since she completely blindsided me.
“This is why you’re here, isn’t it, Commander Abernathy?” Maddie replies in a soft yet determined voice. “You’ve been wearing a scowl since you walked through the door, glaring at me like I’m some pampered princess you’re forced to tolerate. I was wondering why, and now I know.”
“You hacked my phone?” I don’t know why I’m asking. I’m fully aware of her capabilities, just equally confounded by her audacity.
“Were you going to tell me that my uncle sent you to babysit me?”
“You’re answering my question with a question,” I say slowly, weaving my fingers in my lap, a trick I learned during my days in service. It makes you seem more level and in control than you really are, and I am nowhere near calm right now. “After you hacked my phone.”
“I only looked at the relevant information.” She closes the lid of her laptop and slides it into its protective sleeve. “I’m not interested in your private life.”
Her remark is simple, straightforward, and a knockout blow. It hurts enough to compel me to drudge up our sordid past and rub it in her face because she goddamn hacked my phone and then told me straight to my face she doesn’t give half a fuck about me. “That’s not how I remember it.”
“A lot can change in a year.” She leans forward, scanning me up and down with a stare that seems almost hostile. “A lot doesn’t, though.”
“Like you, still being a pampered princess,” I counter, feeling the weight of her harsh gaze crushing me. “It’s very out of the mold for a tech geek.”
“True, I do like primping up, don’t move an inch without a curling iron, my favorite color is pastel anything, and I can rock five-inch-heels as if they were your grannie’s orthopedic slippers.” She seems almost flustered at her defensive monologue, her breath uneven and her face flushed, the light dusting of freckles over the bridge of her nose popping out, reminding me of when that pinkish hue spread over her cheeks for entirely different reasons. “But don’t let that fool you, Huckleberry. I am one of the best cybersecurity specialists on this planet, so always assume I’m ten steps ahead of you,kapish?”
I fight to keep a poker face, trying not to break into a wide grin at her outburst and the ridiculous nickname she pinned on me. It’s original, I’ll give her that.
She’s quite the little firecracker, my techy asset, but then again, I already knew that.
I lean back in my chair, exuding as much nonchalance as I can. “So, you’ve got it all figured out?”
“Hardly.” Maddie laughs, but unlike a year ago, her laughter is bitterly non-melodic, almost mechanical. Questions of what happened to her that her vibrant laughter turned into this monochromatic, almost desperate sound start plaguing me. “If I had it all figured out, a very bad man would already be in jail, and I wouldn’t be sitting here talking to you.”
“Is that so?” I rest my forearms on the table, leaning closer to her and catching her gaze. “Tell me, Madeline, whyareyou still here?”
“Maddie,” she hurries to correct me. “Don’t call me Madeline.”
“Why not?” My finger stretches out to draw circles on the table a few inches from where her arm is resting, Maddie’s gaze drawn to the lazy movement she once felt against her skin.
We never had sex, but we ventured pretty far into second base territory, which is when I discovered how her soft skin bursts into delectable goosebumps when I trace a finger around her naval while whispering her full name against her ear. It drove her wild, and her wild drove me crazy.
Maddie’s hand rests firmly over mine, putting a stop to the teasing motion of my finger. The contact rips through me with a sensation I thought I’d never experience again, one that I’ve only ever experienced with her. A mix of warmth and heat, desire and yearning, wanting to fuck raw then cuddle all night.
“You’re practically see-through, Sawyer.” She looks up at me, seemingly unaffected by the contact. “Your intentions were easy to read a year ago, and they still are now.”
“My only intention is to keep you safe.” I force it to come out cold and calculated, removing my hand from under hers. “Anything else you see is just wishful thinking, Maddie.”
It’s a blatant lie, but I’ve already made the mistake of believing I could have all these things Maddie makes me feel. For the sake of self-preservation, I promised I’d never let myself believe that kind of bullshit again, so anything other than what’s needed to see the mission through is unacceptable.
“If you say so.” She shrugs, her pink nails strumming against the table to signal she’s out of patience, though the fact that she’s still here tells me otherwise. Maddie has no problem leaving when she gets fed up with someone.
“I was ordered to be your friend; it’ll be easier to see this protection detail through if you let me follow my orders.” It’s a jab, and the way her face momentarily scrunches up in pain tells me I hit the mark. It twists my insides, knowing that I hurt her, but I need that reminder of what I’m here to do just as much as she does.
“You’re not my friend, Sawyer.” She leans back in her chair, muscles rigid and her face blank, though her eyes betray her, the dark clouds of them raging as she glares at me. “You’re a soldier on a mission, and I’m not sure you’re the man for the job.”
“Why’s that?”