careful, Mys.”
My arms wrapped around his waist. “Always.”
Chapter 32
Gage~
“Man, you sure are one foregone motherfucker.”
Lorcan and I were sitting at the bar of one of his many hotels located a couple of blocks from CI Headquarters, and I wasn’t trying to disguise my surly attitude at all. “Fuck you,” came my witty reply.
“I gotta admit,” he said, leaning further on the bar, “I never thought I’d meet the woman who fucked you up good. But now that I have, I can see how you lost your mind over her. She’s stunning.”
Mystic had always been a little on the curvier side, but her body now was a fucking work of art. I loved the cushion and she needed it if she was going to be expected to survive the abuse I planned on inflicting on her nightly. Her face, though…her face was pure perfection.
“That she is,” I agreed.
“She’s also smart as fuck, Gage,” he went on. “The projects she completed for Reagan were top-notch. She knows her shit.”
I glanced over at him and did nothing to hide my crazy. This man knew me better than anyone, and he still stuck around. I trusted him. “David Booker was assigned to work with her on the Darwin Project,” I told him. “And I don’t fucking like it.”
Lorcan let out a genuine laugh. “Man, oh, man,” he chuckled. “You got it bad, friend.”
“Of course, I do,” I snapped. “You’d know that better than anyone. You know what that woman means to me.”
“Why didn’t you just assign someone?” he asked. “That way you could have made sure her contact was another woman and not some guy.”
“Because I was trying to be professional, goddamn it.” I drained my whiskey and signaled the bartender for another one.
“Christ, Gage,” he muttered. “Just put a fucking ring on her finger already and call it a day.”
“You think I’m not going to?” I threw back.
His brows rose as he looked at me. “Before you lose your goddamn mind, preferably?”
The bartender set a fresh glass in front of me as Lorcan savored his bourbon. “Just make sure Booker doesn’t get cozy with her,” I said, ignoring his comment about my sanity.
“How the fuck am I supposed to do that?”
“Assign another associate to the project,” I answered, getting irritated at the idea of Mystic working long hours with another man.
“Jesus Christ, Gage,” Lorcan swore. “The world’s population is half male. She’s going to come across some of them from time to time. Get your crazy under control, man.”
I knew he was right. I knew I was being unreasonable. However, it was the uncertainty that had me on edge. I was positive once I did get that ring on her finger, I’d calm down.
Maybe.
“I refuse to lose her again, Lor,” I replied, dead fucking serious.
He let out a sympathetic sigh and that’s when I knew I was raging into full-blown pussy mode. Lorcan didn’t sympathize. “Look, dude,” he said. “She explained why she left.” When I had called him for drinks earlier, I had told him the Cliff Notes version of Mystic’s explanation on her departure all those years ago. “She did it because she loved you,” he pointed out. “I don’t think you need to worry about her running again. Plus, with everything you’ve told me over the years about your relationship with the woman, there’s no one else out there for either of you. I’m pretty sure you’re safe.”
He made sense, but the anxiousness was still there. To see Mystic again, after all these years, was like being slammed, headfirst, back to that day in the park. The need, the desire, the desperation felt exactly like it had when I had followed her into the restroom. The need to be with her was stronger than anything else I have ever known.
Over the years I had wondered what I would do if I ever saw her again, but none of the scenarios I had played in my head matched what I had felt when I finally did see her. Nothing else had mattered except my rage and want. Mystic was my strongest weakness. She always had been. And all the tough talk over the years hadn’t done shit to prepare me for when I saw her again.
Time hadn’t lessened shit.
“There’s still the issue of her family,” I pointed out. “I can’t imagine their reaction to me being back in their daughter’s life will be any more favorable than it was the last time.”
Lorcan signaled the bartender for another bourbon. “She’s not the