Technical Threat (Westin Force #4) - Julie Trettel Page 0,79

week to complete the mission of finding you, that was a long one. Most are only a few days tops.”

“What am I supposed to do when you’re gone?” she whispered.

I realized then that she had been worried about me and it was highly probable she’d even missed me as much as I had missed her.

“I missed you too, you know?”

She smacked me. “That’s not the point.”

I chuckled. “Sapphire thinks you should go back to school and finish your degree. Is that something you’d want to do?”

She shrugged. “Maybe.”

“What do you want to do, Susan?”

She frowned. “I want to work in cyber security. I might not be good enough yet, but I can learn.”

I didn’t say anything as thoughts started swirling around in my head. She huffed, rolled away from me and pretended to go to sleep. I tried to reach out to her, but she pulled away from my touch. It hurt all the way to my bones. I didn’t know what I had done or said. I thought I had been supportive.

In my head I was piecing everything together and formulating a plan to see if Archie would take her on as an intern while she finished her last college classes online. Why would that make her so upset?

“Please don’t go to sleep angry,” I whispered, but it was too late, she was already snoring softly.

Susan

Chapter 24

I’d had some weird dreams and didn’t know what to make of them. I awoke with a sense of doom lingering in the air.

I rolled over in bed and hit a brick wall.

“Tarron?” I asked. “You’re back?”

He was already awake and staring at me with a look of utter confusion on his face.

“Uh, yeah. You don’t remember?”

He looked truly horrified. I had to pee badly though, so I climbed over him then froze halfway. He had a heated look in his eyes, and it brought back vivid memories from my dream.

His hands found my hips and I gasped. My hand flew to my mouth. “Did I seduce you in my sleep?” I blurted out.

My cheeks were on fire with embarrassment as I recalled just how aggressive and turned on I’d been. It had felt like a dream. And then we’d talked, and I had gotten upset and rolled over and went to bed angry.

I groaned and covered my face with my hands.

“You weren’t asleep,” he assured.

I sighed. “I guess not. It just seemed like a dream.”

I got up and walked to the bathroom. Tarron was pacing the floor when I came back out. He stopped and looked at me, ran a hand through his hair, and started pacing again.

Was life with him always going to feel like a rollercoaster?

I went to the kitchen and started pulling out bacon and eggs. I was starving. Soon the room was filled with the delicious aromas of breakfast. It made the place feel a little more like home.

In the meantime, Tarron took a shower. I heard his phone go off but tried not to listen in. I understood the gist of it though. He was leaving—again.

That melancholy feeling I awoke with only worsened.

He had a guilty look on his face when he walked out of the bathroom.

“Breakfast?” I asked.

“Thanks.”

He sat down. There was a slightly awkward but still comfortable feeling in the air. All the emotions swirling around me were confusing. The girls had explained things would get easier when we sealed our bond, but they hadn’t. I’d shocked them all when I confessed we’d already bonded.

I feared the problem was me. I had always kept walls up to keep people away. I’d been hurt enough that it had hardened me.

I couldn’t ask for a better mate. He was kind and seemed to at least try to be understanding. I was great at disguising my moods and thoughts from everyone else, but not when it came to him. Just being with him was forcing me to face things head on, heavy stuff that I had buried deep down, those insecurities and fears that no matter what I did it wouldn’t be good enough because I wasn’t worthy of love.

Knowing the root of the problem didn’t solve anything though because I was struggling to face that truth and I couldn’t seem to mask my emotions whenever Tarron was around.

As the events of our mid-night escapades solidified to actuality instead of a dream, I remembered the conversation we’d had. He said I could go back to college. I wanted that. So why had I got so mad at him