Reckless (Benson Security 1)

“Maybe I should go get some experience?” A few years wasn’t so long to wait to become a proper part of the team. She could do a few years. “I could join the army, or the police.”

“You’d hate the uniforms. Polyester.” Claire made a shuddering sound. “Not to mention the early mornings. And the taking orders. You’re rubbish at taking orders…”

“Okay. I get it. You can stop now.”

“Look, just prove to be indispensable and everything will be fine. You can do it. I believe in you.” And she did. Megan heard it in every single word that came out of her sister’s mouth.

“I miss you, sis.” She blinked back tears.

“Me too!” Claire’s hormones got the better of her and she started to sob.

There was a shuffling noise, then Grunt came on the line. “Don’t make her cry,” was the order, before the phone was handed back to Claire.

“He’s very protective,” Claire explained unnecessarily.

“Yep, in a totally insane, I-own-you sort of way.”

As usual, Claire thought the criticism was funny.

“As for the important part of your confession.” Claire lowered her voice. “So you kissed Dimitri. What was it like?”

“Claire!” came the roar from her husband.

“Oh baby,” Claire said away from the phone. “You don’t need to get jealous. You know the only man I see is you.”

“I think I’m going to puke,” Megan said.

“I’m back. He’s gone to make me some hot chocolate. Now, spill. How was it?” The sound of Claire settling in for some gossip, and her delight in sharing it, made Megan ache for home. This was the longest she’d ever been away from her twin and it still didn’t feel natural.

“It was hot,” Megan confessed. “We were arguing. He was doing that arrogant ‘I know everything’ thing he does. And I got so mad with him that all I wanted to do was show him he wasn’t in control of everything.”

“So you kissed him?”

“It seemed like a really good idea at the time.” To be honest, it still seemed like a really good idea. “The man can kiss. He does this thing with his tongue…”

“No!” Grunt roared. “Claire doesn’t need to know about other men’s tongues. Why can’t the two of you talk about something normal? Like football?”

“Claire! Speaker again?!”

“Sorry. Knitting.” There was a click and she was back off speaker phone. “We’re private again.”

“Are you going to go off and knit again?” Seriously, if she was in Invertary she’d smack her twin upside her head. Pregnant or not.

“I’ll resist the lure of the wool,” Claire promised, sounding like one of the retired women from the town’s knitting club.

Megan shook her head. Her twin was a mystery sometimes. “I can’t kiss him again,” she said, more to herself than to her sister. “It complicated things. He’s hurting over his sister and he needs to focus on the mission. We both need to focus on the mission. It was a dumb thing to do.” Because now she’d had a taste of him, she wasn’t sure she could resist another one.

“Or,” her evil half said, “you could just burn up the sheets and get it out of your system.”

“You are not a good influence on me.” Megan smiled at the joke. Neither one of them had ever been known for their good behaviour.

“That’s why you love me,” Claire sang and Megan laughed away some of the tension that had been building throughout the day.

“If you kiss a woman and she tells you it’s nice,” Dimitri said to Joe as they sat in Callum’s office. “It’s a bad thing, right?”

“Who’d you kiss?” Joe had his ankles crossed and his feet propped on the edge of Callum’s desk.

“Who do you think?” With a question like that, Dimitri was seriously rethinking asking Joe for advice.