Jaz cleared his throat and said, “Sarah, how about you show me where I’m crashing.”
Sarah smiled. “Sure. Corporal O’Neill knows his way around. He can show Alina where she’s staying.” They walked away and we were left alone.
I was a little confused as to what was happening and even more so when the tires crunched behind us as the vehicles moved out. “Umm, they’re leaving. Don’t you have to go?”
“No. Going to stay a bit.”
“You are?” My heart sped and my breathing increased. “But how can you? I mean aren’t you on duty or something?”
“Nope. On leave as of yesterday, but I was coming here to bring supplies before I went home.” And that was why he’d volunteered to bring me and Jaz because he was coming here anyway. “Now, I’m staying longer.”
“You’re staying?” He was staying here with me? Well, not with me, but it kind of felt like it all the same.
“Need to be home for training in a month. I’m free until then.”
“You’re free until then,” I repeated quietly, wondering why he’d choose to stay here when he could go home, but the answer was in the photos I took. O’Neill cared about these kids.
He reached toward me to tuck a strand of hair behind my ear and my body quivered. It was intimate and sweet, and yet he was scowling. “Not leaving you here alone. Don’t care what Jaz says about you being able to handle it.”
My eyes widened. What? “When did you decide that, O’Neill?”
“Connor.” Oh, I liked his name—a lot. “Since question nineteen.”
I frowned. Nineteen? “You mean the twenty questions game?”
Then he grinned. “Nineteen. Never asked you number twenty.” Because he’d left the table. “Wrote them in my journal so I wouldn’t forget.”
“You did? Why?”
“Nineteen pieces of you. Be nice to remember those pieces years from now.”
“Silly pieces,” I said, laughing.
He smirked. “Yeah. I can’t believe you’d prefer being a werewolf over a vampire.” He shook his head. “Disappointing.”
Laughing, I smacked his arm. “I don’t want to bite people.”
“No. You just want to tear their heads off.” He moved to the Humvee, opened the back door and disappeared inside. He came out with two bags and threw them over his shoulder. “I want more pieces, Alina.” Before I could reply, he said, “Come on. I’ll show you where you’ll stay.”
“Do you do this with all your cookies-and-cream girls. The questions?”
He laughed. “Don’t let it go to your head. But there’s never been a cookies-and-cream girl.”
He’d said it was his favorite flavor, so I did let it go to my head a little because he was staying. With me. Because he didn’t want to leave me here, and he wanted more pieces.
This was so not a good idea liking this guy. We both knew where it was going. But the issue was how it would end.
Because there was an end.
Thirty days was the end.
“Not asking anything of you, Alina.” He approached me, cupped the back of my neck and half smiled. “It’s what I do, protect people I like. And I kind of like you, so I plan to keep you safe until I put your ass back on a plane out of here.”
Wow. As if seeing him with the kids wasn’t enough to solidify that I liked him. “Okay,” I said, smiling. “Thank you, Connor. And I kind of like you, too.”
He snorted. “Kind of? Shit, I thought I was doing better than that,” he teased.
He was. Way better. And that was what scared me.I LOWERED THE lens, letting the weight of the camera dangle from my neck as I watched him. We’d pretty much spent five straight days together and it was natural and easy being around him. There wasn’t one day that he didn’t laugh or make me laugh. He was also dedicated to making the kids laugh and have fun.
He tossed the blanket in the air and it parachuted then settled on the floor. He walked around and pulled the corners out so it lay flat then grabbed the black duffel bag and threw it on the blanket before dropping to his butt and unpacking lunch.
I never expected Connor. Never expected to fall for him so fast. He was protective, teasing and sweet, and yeah, there was the arrogance and bossiness, but I liked how he was self-assured because he made me feel safe. I’d never really felt safe before.
He glanced up at me and grinned. He was stretched out on his side. Perched up on his elbow with his ankles crossed. I smiled back, my belly whooshing and my heart racing.
“Shutterbug, let’s eat.”
He started calling me that on day two when he saw I was never without my camera. “You know this is really silly. We’re having a picnic in your sleeping quarters.” I walked over, pulled my camera strap over my head, and set it on the blanket as I sat.