Yours Completely (Reign 2)

“When I told her I wanted to go into training for the fire squad, she countered with that. It never stuck.”

“I can’t see you fitting into one of those little cars anyway.”

“Yeah, that was the deal breaker.”

“She obviously cares, though.”

“I know. But she also knows that I need a certain level of…”

“Adrenaline?” I finished for him.

He looked at me. “Something like that.” His eyes were back on the road. There was more to Cal, more to this conversation and his needs than I was aware of. But, clearly, I wasn’t going to get more details. Because now wasn’t the time, and that kind of connection was something that I was trying to avoid…right?

My mind seemed to have other ideas, and wanted to know more, though.

“I’m sorry to hear about your mom—”

“Did you always want to go into finance?” he asked, cutting me off. I paused, but went with his new direction. A different kind of tension was radiating from him. Riding in his truck, talking about his deceased mother probably wasn’t high on the list of things he wanted to do. Especially since I didn’t think I was high on his list of people he was overly happy with at the moment.

“Kind of. I like having a plan, organization, numbers and strategy, and—”

“Control?”

“Yeah, I suppose so.”

He nodded. “Well, you’re very good at what you do.”

“How could you possibly know?” I didn’t mean for that to sound bitchy. I was legitimately curious because I didn’t even know if I was good at it.

He didn’t miss a beat, though. That blue gaze landed on me. “Because of the way you think.”

“What way is that?”

He was back to looking out the window, but smiled. “With logic and passion.”

I swallowed hard. His words clicking into place and hitting what I was as a person, down to my soul. Logic and passion—always at odds. Never a balance. Always one overtaking the other. For a long time, it was logic. Trying to deal with Brock, what he’d done to me and the past. I’d find excuses and logic in my life to explain away details. I needed that to function.

Then, Jack and Cal came along and, suddenly, passion won out. Kissing Jack, then Cal the next week? Both instances were lapses in judgment and operated purely on emotion.

Which was why I was in the mess I was in now.

“I don’t know if that does me any favors,” I admitted.

“I think it does. It means that you can be cautious, yet still take a risk when needed. Which is good, since you want to deal with people’s money.”

Right. That. That was what we were talking about. Though the look in his eyes made me think there was way more in the undertone of this conversation than just my critical thinking skills in the workplace.

“Ca

utious and risky can be exhausting,” I said lowly.

“I’m sure it is, Kitten.” My ears perked a little when he called me that. Usually, it came out at least once in our conversations, and it hadn’t today until just now. “Which is why I choose just risky.”

“No kidding.” He was the poster boy for testosterone and adrenaline-chasing alpha awesomeness. “Did you always want to be a firefighter?”

“No, I wanted to be a super hero until I was eighteen.”

I laughed, so did he. It was nice chatting like this. At least we were getting out of the lull that started the day. We pulled up to my house, and he faced me.