“That was pretty intense,” he confessed.
“You came for me.” That was the plain truth. “You held on to me then and didn’t let go. I’m hoping you’ll do it again.”
It was his turn, she thought, as his dark eyes slowly traced a path down her body. “You don’t look like you need rescuing now.”
“Well,” she said and licked her lips, “we could make something up. Explore. And I’m fairly certain that if I hang out with you long enough, there’s going to be some hair-raising, adrenaline-spiking adventures that I’ll absolutely need rescuing from. Or you can always rescue me from myself, if I hang on too long or refuse to jump in feetfirst. And I’ll return the favor. When you need rescuing, I’ll pull you out.”
He gave her the widest smile she’d ever seen; the depth of emotion on his face rocked her to her core. He was hurting here, too. “I’m no hero, Dani. I told you that. My last mission, my partner didn’t come up.”
“That was an accident.” She wanted to pull him into her arms, hold him tight, but instead she stood there on the beach next to him and struggled for the right words. She had to convince him that he was the man she’d come to know, reliable, trustworthy, honorable...hot. She smiled back at him. “That was terrible, what happened to your teammate, but it was beyond your control. If there was anything you could have done, you would have done it. You hang on, Daeg. You always hang on when anyone else would let go. That’s just one of the reasons I love you.”
“You love me?” He reached out and tipped her chin up with his finger, and she watched his lips form the question.
“Uh-huh.” Not her most articulate as far as answers went, but she was going for heartfelt, so he’d have to cut her some slack. “You make me feel alive, make me want to take impossible chances. There’s a hundred and one reasons why this—why us—shouldn’t work, but there’s a chance it does and I want to take that chance.”
“You have a list of reasons?” That note of amusement was back in his voice and she felt her cheeks blush. “I hope it’s a long one,” he continued. “Long enough to survive the next fifty years or so.”
* * *
HE PULLED HER onto the Harley, facing him. The seat wasn’t built for two and if they’d actually been moving, her position probably would have racked up a thousand and one safety violations. Daeg’s pulse pounded as Dani wriggled closer, enjoying the tight fit.
Putting his arms around her, he held on tight. With a small squeak, she lost her balance and fell into his embrace, her feet on his, her legs gripping his thighs. He could have sat like this for hours.
Or forever.
“I love you,” he told her, since now that he’d said the words once, he wanted to repeat them again and again. Say them every morning when he woke up next to her and every night when he went to sleep beside her.
She wanted him.
He’d let go and she’d still come back.
Just because he could, because she was here in his arms and there was less than an inch of empty space separating them, he leaned in and kissed her. Kissed her long and deep, letting all the love and affection he felt show on his face because he knew she’d have her eyes open, like always.
“Bet you didn’t expect this rescue job would turn out quite like this,” she said once they finally broke apart, both breathless for air.
“Well,” he began, “I usually plan for a happy ending.”
“Mmm,” she said, pulling him back in for another kiss.
“But,” he added a long time later, “with you, I had an ace up my sleeve.”
“Oh, no,” she exclaimed when he liberated the crumpled sheaf of yellow notepad paper from his back pocket. “You didn’t.”
“I’m perfectly happy to cheat.” He waved the paper over her head, teasing her when she made a mad grab for it. “And besides, this was more like inside intel. No good soldier would ignore that kind of opportunity.”
“You read my list.”
“More than once.” He grinned at her, his chest almost bursting with pride and happiness that Dani loved him. “I see this as my own personal to-do list. And because I know how you feel about keeping things equal, I made a companion chart for you.”
He separated the stack of pages into two and passed her a section.
“That,” he growled, leaning in to nip lightly at her ear, “is a chart listing the probable moves in your seduction of me and how I’d likely react. Some pointers, if you will, and a few fantasies.”