“Damn.”
“Yeah. I need to take care of the condom.”
“Okay,” she said, rolling over.
He headed for the bathroom and was back in seconds. He straightened the blankets and covered Elodie before getting under them with her. He took her into his arms and they both sighed in contentment.
After a moment, she asked, “Are you sure this isn’t weird?”
“This isn’t weird,” Mustang told her immediately. “It’s so right, it’s not even funny.”
“I just…I didn’t come to Hawaii for this. I mean, I wanted to find you, but I didn’t come for sex.”
Mustang laughed. He couldn’t help it.
Elodie raised her head. “What’s so funny?”
“I know you didn’t come to Hawaii for sex. You’re so amazing, I have no doubt you could get sex any day of the week and twice on Sunday. I’m glad you came here. I prayed I’d see you again. I wasn’t lying, I regretted having to leave you before figuring out how I could help you. And I still want to help…but I also want more.”
“More?”
“Yeah. I want you, Elodie. I want to take more walks with you, I want to cook with you, and have you show me up every way a chef can show up a shitty cook like me. I want you to get to know my team and hang out with us. I want to wake up with you by my side, and I want you to be waiting when I get home from a mission. I want it all…and if admitting all that makes this weird, so be it.”
Mustang held his breath as he waited for her response. Had he gone too far? Yeah, the sex between them was great, but maybe that’s all she wanted. Sex. To make the reason why she had to use a fake name go away.
But he still wouldn’t doubt the feeling deep down that said she was the one for him.
Elodie went boneless against him. He hadn’t realized how tense she was until that moment. “I want that too,” she said quietly.
“Good. Then no more talk about this being weird. Yeah, we had sex right after we connected again. Big deal. All it did was knock through all the bullshit dating stuff. We’re together now, we’ll get to know each other even better as time goes on, and we’ll have this,” he squeezed her shoulder, “each night. Okay?”
“Yeah. More than okay. We’re exclusive though, right?”
“Fuck yeah, we are.” The thought of her dating anyone else made him a little crazy. It was just one more way Mustang knew he was a goner.
“Scott?”
“Yeah, babe?”
“I’m scared.”
Everything in him wanted to leap out of bed and slay dragons for her, but Mustang forced himself to stay calm. “About what?”
“That my issues will get you hurt. Or one of your friends. Of screwing this up. Of you figuring out that I’m not worth the trouble, or getting sick of me. I’m scared of just about everything these days, if I’m being honest.”
“Your issues will not get me or my friends hurt. You aren’t going to screw this up. It’s obvious you have no clue as to your appeal, and I should probably work on trying to change that, but I have no desire for you to figure out that I’m nothing but a Navy bum and have you look elsewhere for better.”
She sighed and snuggled into him more. “Navy bum, my ass,” she snorted.
Mustang smiled. “Sleep. We’ll talk tomorrow. Do you have to work?”
“No, it’s Sunday, I have the day off.”
“Good. I do too. We’ll spend the day together, talk, and figure out what happens next,” Mustang told her.
“Okay.”
“Just like that? Okay?” he asked skeptically.
“Yeah. I’m tired of running. So damn tired of looking over my shoulder. I want to believe that I’m good, that I can stop running scared. Nothing’s happened in months. I have no reason to think I’m in danger…but what if I’m wrong? I’m okay with you helping me because I want this. You. And I can’t have you if I have to relocate every few months.”
Mustang’s heart hurt for her, but her words also made him feel really good. She wanted him, and she had him. Lock, stock, and barrel. He was hers, just as she was his. She might not believe it yet, but he’d do whatever it took to make sure she could be Elodie Winters again.
Just so he could ask her to marry him and become Elodie Webber.
He couldn’t help but grin.
“Thanks for leaving the light on for me,” she said into his shoulder.
“I’ll always leave the light on for you,” he told her, then turned and kissed her forehead.
“Sleep, babe.”
“Night.”
“Good night.”
Mustang drifted off with a huge smile on his face and slept harder than he had in a very long while, all because of the woman at his side.
“What did you find out?” Paul Columbus asked Andrew as he entered his office. It had been too damn long since they’d seen the news clip of the employees of the Asaka Express getting off the cargo ship in Sudan. He wanted to know where Elodie was. Now.
“It took a while, but I’ve got the name of the guy with his arm around her shoulders. Valentino Russo. He’s Italian.”
“Where is he?” Paul asked.
“I’ve got good and bad news about that,” Andrew began.
“Just spit it out,” Paul barked.
“Right. The bad news is that he’s currently at sea. He was transferred to the Asaka Freedom.”
“Fuck. How long?”
“His contract is for six months. But I’ve got their port schedule, and there’s a good chance he’ll take shore leave when they get to their next port. From what I’ve been able to find out about our guy, he considers himself a ladies’ man and has a habit of visiting bars and whorehouses when he lands.”
“I want intel,” Paul said.
“And you’ll get it.”
“You go,” Paul said. “I need you on this, Andrew. You’re the only person who knows about this bitch. If my son finds out what happened, and that I let her get away, he’ll push to take over the family—and I’m not ready for that to happen. I need her dead.”
Even Paul realized he was becoming slightly irrational, maybe even obsessed with killing Elodie Winters…but he couldn’t stop now. It was a matter of pride. It didn’t seem as if Elodie had gone to the cops yet, at least no one had confronted him about anything, but if there was a chance she could, he needed to make sure it didn’t happen.
She couldn’t win. And right now, it felt as if she was winning. She was continually a few steps ahead of him, and Paul fucking hated it.
“I need you to take care of this personally. Go get this asshole. Find out what he knows about Elodie.”
“I can do that.”
“I don’t care what it takes. Any information is better than what we have now, which is nothing. Use another identity so no one can trace you back to the family. This is all under the radar, got it?”
“I’ll take care of it. And him,” Andrew said with a hungry gleam in his eye.
Paul knew his friend was bloodthirsty and enjoyed seeing others suffer; it was what had made him such a good soldier, and now capo. He controlled his soldiers with an iron fist and no one dared cross him. He’d find this Italian Don Juan and get any information he had about Elodie Winters out of him. If the man tried to keep quiet to protect the bitch, he’d be singing like a canary when Andrew got done with him.