Jameson (In the Company of Snipers #22) - Irish Winters Page 0,74

up the word Alzheimer’s in the conversation between Eric and his wife. None of her business. She set the warming trays on the bar, then placed the platters of scrambled eggs, bacon, and cinnamon rolls on the trays. She’d already set out plates and utensils. The men could serve themselves.

Harley’s cell chimed next, and there was Maddie, in the same room as two very capable covert agents and, as always, still alone and not quite belonging. Slicing three mega-rolls out of the twelve, she stashed them in the microwave for Jameson, where hopefully, no one else would find them.

She quelled the urge to sneak back into his room and snuggle back under the covers with him. But what if what happened in his bedroom was just one of those crazy things like Eric said happened after intense combat or life and death situations? She’d die of embarrassment if Jameson didn’t want anything to do with her today. Office romances were the ultimate mistakes only losers made, and she’d made everything worse by sleeping with a man she’d just met. What was she thinking?

Determined not to fall head over heels for the man she was pretty sure she’d already fallen for, she took a petite serving of scrambled eggs and one tiny slice of bacon. Worried what everyone might think now, she left the sweet, spicy smelling cinnamon rolls for the men. Her father had always berated her for her love of chocolates and sweet rolls, so she’d avoided them with a stoicism born from too many snarky putdowns.

But then she thought of what Jameson had said. I wish I were brave like you. Your dad wasn’t right, he was dead damned wrong.

“Am I brave?” she asked herself quietly, as she moved those fluffy eggs around her plate. “I was yesterday, kind of. And last night. Why shouldn’t I eat a cinnamon roll, too? I made them.”

“So take one,” a husky male voice breathed into the crook of her neck, sending shivers up her back and over her shoulders.

“Jameson!” she nearly squealed as her arm reached up and circled his head, holding him in that warm, ticklish spot. He wasn’t avoiding her after all.

“Take two if you want them, babe,” he whispered huskily. “Life is short. Fill it with gooey cinnamon rolls and sweet lemonade and every damned delicious thing you want. Eat up, Maddie. Live now.”

She couldn’t restrain her whole body from reacting on impulse. Spinning around on her stool, she pulled him into a hug that ended in a kiss she didn’t care if the whole world saw. Jameson Tenney loved her, and she loved him, and damn it, she was eating a cinnamon roll. The whole thing. Then she was dragging Jameson back to her room and eating the best dessert. Him.

“I saved some for you,” she told him between panting breaths.

“Already got what I want,” he murmured into her mouth, his arms around her shoulders. Which told her he wasn’t afraid if the whole world knew that he loved her, either.

“Umm, guys,” Agent-in-Charge Eric Reynolds growled from the other room. “When the hell did this happen?”

For once, Maddie wanted to laugh and sing and dance, maybe scream. Okay, so he’d caught her kissing a TEAM agent. So what? She was so happy she could cry. “Yesterday. Last night.” She didn’t dare tell him she’d been with Jameson since early this morning.

By then, Jameson had turned their bodies to face Eric. “It was a really, really loooong day,” he added without a hint of remorse.

“Don’t you believe in love at first sight, Eric?” Maddie added.

“Well, yeah,” he answered slowly. “Just…” He ran a hand over his head, ruffling his dark brown hair. “You two just met. One day. Don’t you want to—?”

“Slow down? Take it easy? No, Eric, I don’t,” Jameson replied evenly. “Been looking for this woman for too many years already. She’s mine. I won her fair and square. You can’t have her.”

Maddie giggled. He made it sound as if she were a prize. The honest, open affection in every breath and touch of his filled her like warm water filling a bubble bath. More than anything, she wanted to slide under the bubbles and get lost in this man.

“I’m married, smart ass,” Eric shot back. “That’s not what I meant.”

A silly tear sparkled at the corner of her eye, but she dashed it away before Eric saw that, too. Maybe this was too soon. She’d be a fool not to admit that. But Jameson did