“Pretty much, but damned if I’ll settle for casual.”
“You sound like a man who knows what he wants.” She sounded like a woman who wanted what he did.
“I am.”
“And love?” she asked.
“It comes with the package.”
“You’re not going to say it?”
Damn. He opened his mouth, but closed it again. He hadn’t said those words to anyone in his adult life. Last time he’d said it to his mom, he’d been about ten years old. They weren’t a kissy-huggy-tell-you-I-love-you-all-the-damn-time family.
Danusia smiled, but shook her head. “We’ll go to your place for now. We’ll work out the details later.”
That was better than he expected after all the times he’d claimed he didn’t want a relationship. She didn’t ask for explanations. She didn’t demand those three words he found so hard to say.
She was perfect for him.
They flew back to Boston in the helicopter. Danusia left her car for the female agent baiting the trap. They settled into a routine. She worked on her thesis during the day and he went into the Atrati headquarters to his job when Stateside.
The hit team took the bait three days after the female agent moved into Danusia’s apartment. The threat was over, but nothing was said by either of them about her returning to her apartment. One drawer in his dresser held her clothes, as well as some hangers in the closet.
His spare bedroom had become an office with an oversized desk and overflowing bookshelves.
The spooks wanted Danusia’s help building their case against Luminescent. She gave it, though he knew it put her behind on her thesis.
When Roman’s team went off the grid in Africa, Max didn’t hide the truth from Danusia, trusting her to keep silent about it. Just like she’d managed to not give even a hint of her own involvement in an illegal-weapons case at the federal level, or the fact she’d been the target for a hit team, despite several phone calls with family.
Her mother wanted a visit. He was thinking on that. On what to do about visiting his own family and getting to know Danusia’s . . . besides Roman anyway.
Then a team with his name on it got assigned a job in South America and Max had to make a choice.
Danusia was just sending some more support documentation off to the U.S. Attorney General’s office for the case against Luminescent Pharmaceuticals when she heard Max arrive. He wasn’t due home for three more houran>
With a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach, she went looking for him. She’d been waiting for this day since returning to Boston with Max. She was sure she knew what was coming. They found each other in the hall outside the room he’d given her to make into an office.
The serious expression in his eyes made her stomach clench. “What’s going on, Max?”
“I got an assignment. South America. Fly out oh-four-hundred.”
She nodded, her throat tight, her mouth suddenly so dry, she didn’t know how she was going to force words out, but she had to. This was where their relationship moved forward or broke forever. “I’ll get the rest of my stuff moved in here while you’re gone.”
Something moved in his dark brown eyes, something like hope and joy. “You didn’t ask how long I’d be gone.”
“It doesn’t matter. I’ll be waiting here for you when you come home.”
“This is home for you?”
“Wherever you’re going to be when you’re not working, that’s home for me.”
“Oh, God.” And it was a prayer not a curse the way he said it. He pulled her ti
ght against him, in a way that had become familiar. “I love you, Danusia.”
“I love you too, Max, so much.” Hot tears ran down her cheeks.
He’d finally said the words and hers had been the right ones. He didn’t want to get rid of her. He wanted her to stay. He really wanted her.