He threw his head back and laughed, and I whispered out of the corner of my mouth to Easton.
“Take a photo for me,” I pleaded.
Easton rolled his eyes but did as I asked.
Then he handed the phone back to me.
“I don’t find my brother anywhere near as attractive as you do, so if you want anymore, you’ll have to take them yourself,” Easton grumbled.
When I looked back to Trouper, it was to see his eyes twinkling with mirth.
I shrugged.
Trouper winked at me.
“Ready?” Easton asked.
Trouper’s eyes went to his brother.
“I’ll be back out here in a bit. Then we can go to the house, okay?” he offered.
He had sweat dripping down his neck, and it took everything that I had not to lean forward and run my tongue along the path that the sweat had taken.
I swallowed hard, my eyes once again flicking up to see Trouper’s eyes on me.
And I knew he knew what he did to me.
“Come on, wife,” Easton said as he hooked his arm around my neck. “We can wait over here for my brother until he’s done. Right, wife?”
I wanted to drop an elbow into Easton’s testicles.
I gritted my teeth, and Trouper could see the anger in my eyes.
That had to be why he smiled at me instead of shooting an annoyed glance Easton’s way.
He winked at me and backed away.
It was only as he got close to the door that he did an about face and walked inside, not looking back.
“You know,” Easton said casually as he allowed his arm to drop. “You are really doing a piss-poor job of selling the ‘I’m your husband’ thing when you’re around him.”
I sighed and turned, crossing my arms over my chest.
“It’s hard because I want to just throw myself into his arms and stay there forever,” I told Easton honestly. “I’ve wanted nothing more than to see him all this time, and now that I’m here, I can’t touch him.”
He snorted.
“We have a big place, with quite a large path leading into the woods in our back yard. I’m fairly sure that I wouldn’t ever notice a man coming in and out of them to spend time with my wife,” Easton drawled.
I rolled my eyes, then sobered.
Taking a seat on the large concrete wall behind me that separated the parking lot from the building, I looked at Easton.
“After this job is done… I’m done,” I told him.
His brows rose. “Really?”
I scrubbed my face lightly.
“I’ve had my resignation letter in my email ready to send for about a year now. But it wasn’t until I saw Trouper that I realized that I needed to just grow a pair and send it. I’ve been a bit lost. I have to admit, it’s been like that for a really long time. And it wasn’t until I saw him that I realized why I was lost.”
“You were lost without him,” Easton guessed. “You didn’t realize that you need him to survive. To flourish.”
I turned so that my back was resting against the chain-link fence.
“He asked me to marry him last night, and I accepted.”
Easton rolled his eyes. “Honestly, I expected this to happen before he even left town. It finally happening now doesn’t surprise me. Just make sure if you get married it’s a couple of towns over. We don’t want your marriage interrupting our op.”
I winked. “Will do.”
“We know a guy two counties over or so,” Kansas said, startling me.
I jumped, turning to realize that they’d never left.
They’d heard all of that.
“Umm,” I said, looking at the two warily.
Toot’s eyes were filled with mirth.
“He’s a judge. He’s very discreet,” Kansas said. “And he knows how to marry people.”
“What makes you think that I don’t want a big wedding?” I challenged.
“Don’t know if you do or don’t,” he said. “What I do know is that the way State acts around you? He won’t allow you to wait very long.”
With that, Toot tapped the chain-link fence twice and slapped Kansas on the shoulder.
“Y’all have a good one.” Kansas waved as the two headed inside.
I turned back to Easton to see him staring at me thoughtfully.
“What?” I asked.
“If you’re in love with him, I don’t think a courthouse wedding is bad,” he said. “You’ve been keeping your entire life secret from your family. What’s a wedding and a marriage at this point?”
I looked away.
He was right.
I was keeping quite a bit from my family.
And, honestly, my dad didn’t even like Trouper.
It was quite possible that Trouper, even a successful fighter pilot in the Air Force, wouldn’t make my father happy. There was always something about Trouper that had set my father off.
Maybe Easton was right…
As I let my mind whirl, I counted the minutes since Troup had gone in the door.
It was taking a really long time.
“Where is he?” I grumbled as I picked at the imaginary lint on my shirt.
“You didn’t see him enough last night?” Easton teased.
I felt my face flush.
“We haven’t seen each other in a really long time, okay?” I defended myself. “It was… necessary. We wouldn’t have functioned well if we’d have had to sit on that.”
Meaning, if we didn’t get it out of the way, scratch that itch, it would be all either one of us could think about until we could actually do it.
Even now, I wanted to devour him. And not only had I had him before he’d slipped from his bed this morning, but I’d had him multiple times last night.
When it came to each other, we were both insatiable.
Just as I’d said that, the doors on this side of the chain-link fence opened, and Trouper emerged.
He was freshly showered, he had on a pair of aviator glasses, and he was staring right at me.
I didn’t need to see his eyes to know that.
“Y’all ready?” he asked.
I nodded.
“Let’s go,” he urged. “In your little POS.”
I looked at Easton, who was already rolling his eyes. “It’s not like I have a choice on what I get to drive. They make me drive their shit because it’s less conspicuous.”
Troup laughed and walked toward the car. “Shotgun.”
But before he could get into the car, his name was called and he jogged toward a man that spoke with him quickly.
“What’s that look for?” Easton asked as he slammed his door and started the car.
I licked my lips, then pulled my phone out and snapped a picture of the man now facing toward us.
Trouper’s grin was fast and swift when he caught me.
I blew him a kiss and got into the car with Easton.
“I’m in love. Leave me alone.”
Fourteen minutes later, we were standing in front of a house on base, and I was no longer in such a playful mood.
“This was where Eunice lived,” Troup said as he gestured to the small house that was in a smaller neighborhood on base. “She just moved in here a couple of weeks ago.”
“Do you know her?” I asked curiously, suddenly jealous that another woman might know my man.