that she could lose everything she had ever dreamed of having. It was breaking her heart, possibly even more than he had broken it that last night at the Elite Ops base. And watching it enraged him.
Son of a bitch, he couldn’t ask her to walk away from this. He couldn’t allow her to walk away, which she may try once she realized the truth of the situation. He’d been determined to force her to relocate, to accept a new identity, a new life. But it would never be the same for her. Tehya would never be able to trust in her ability to belong again, deeply enough to lay down even the most fragile roots, if she lost this dream to a past that refused to die. A past that had taken every other dream she had ever dared to allow herself.
He had to find a way to save it for her. A way to neutralize those demons once and for all.
“When are John and Bailey arriving?” she finally sighed as he watched her closely.
“Half an hour.” He checked his watch absently.
When his head lifted again her expression had cleared, chilled, and her eyes were all but emotionless. Calm, serene. But he knew she was a volcano seething with anger and pain on the inside.
“Why are you doing this, Jordan? Why are you here? Why do you care new when you didn’t care before?”
“Do you really fucking believe I didn’t care?” he snapped furiously, not bothering to hide his anger. “Dammit Tehya, that team is a fucking family and you know it. All of us. We’d do the same for anyone of them and you know it.”
That shocked her. She shook her head. “You don’t allow yourself to get close to anyone, Jordan, except Noah.”
“I’ve spent up to twelve years with some of these men and six with you, do you really think I managed to remain that distant? Was I distant when I was fucking us both to orgasm?”
He hid so much, she’d always been aware of that. It was another facet she had learned about the man she couldn’t help but love. But she was learning these things too late. He should have given her this chance years ago. At the latest, nine months ago.
Perhaps he would be as protective with the others, she thought, but it didn’t change the fact that she hated seeing her friends, the men and women she had protected from base for six years, now risking themselves for her.
“I need to change.” She indicated the revealing clothes with a slight wave of her hand along the front of her body as she tried to adjust to too many changes in her life, too fast. “Order pizza or something. I don’t have the supplies on hand to cook for more than one, and honestly, I’m really not in the mood for it.”
She turned away and strode to her bedroom as Jordan stared at her back in surprise. Hell, he had no idea Tehya knew how to cook. She’d sure as hell never offered to cook for him.
Taking the satellite phone from the clip at his side, he pulled up the local pizza places that delivered before calling and giving the order.
He hadn’t told her exactly why Travis and Lilly were arriving. He had hoped Lilly would talk Tehya into leaving, but he knew that the moment the other woman comprehended the depth of pain Tehya would feel at leaving, she would pull back. Just as Jordan was now pulling back as well.
That was the problem with having women on the team, he reflected with a sigh. They thought of more than simple safety. Security had a far different meaning to them than it did to the men whose only thought was protecting them.
At least Tehya had been trained to understand, and to help in the areas required to protect her. And having her involved had the benefit of her knowledge of Sorrel’s organization.
He’d envisioned a far different outcome to this meeting with her. He’d assumed that after nine months she would have had a lover at the very least. That possibly she had begun a new life that included dating in her agenda.
He hadn’t expected her to have bought a home and a business. To have begun putting down roots, since she had never taken that risk when she was younger or while she had been in Texas.
It made the operation more complicated, but perhaps it was for the best. Hiding her didn’t