Page 16 of Securing Jane

“Thanks. I might be old, but I’m still safety conscious,” she told him.

“You aren’t old, and I have no problem with you wanting to be safe. Is there anyone you want to tell where you are tonight? Just in case?”

Jane appreciated him bringing it up. “I’ve already told my daughter that I’d be on a date tonight. She knows your name, rank, and where you work. I’ll text her in a bit and give her your address. She might not care, but at least I’ve told someone, so if I end up chopped into tiny pieces and sprinkled around the city in various trash cans, someone will know who I was last with.” She smiled, letting him know she was teasing…sort of.

Instead of being offended, Storm smiled even bigger. “Good. Come on, I’ve got some meal prep to do. I didn’t want to start before I picked you up in case you wanted to go out somewhere instead.”

Jane didn’t give him a chance to come to her side of the car and open her door, but he was waiting for her when she got out, and he took her hand in his once more. It was crazy how quickly she was getting used to that. To him holding her hand as they walked. He kept half a step ahead of her, as if protecting her against anything that might come at them.

He led her to a unit on the end of the row and didn’t drop her hand as he unlocked his door. He pushed it open and tugged her inside. He dropped his keys into a bowl sitting on a small table in the foyer and turned to her. “When you get tired, let me know, and I’ll take you home.”

“Thanks.”

He looked at her for a moment, then said with a rueful smile, “The more time I spend with you, the more comfortable I am. It’s kind of crazy.”

“I feel the same,” she reassured him.

He brought his hand up to her face and ran his thumb under her eye. “They’re still a little red. Can you see all right? Nothing’s blurry?”

Jane’s heart melted at his concern. “I’m okay. The doc said the redness should go away in a day or so.”

“I hate that it happened to you,” Storm said softly. “I can’t stand bullies. And the asshole who didn’t have the balls to take his grievances to Dag directly is nothing but a bully.”

For just a second, Jane saw the badass SEAL that Storm must’ve been. His eyes got hard, and if she’d been the target of his ire, she would’ve pissed her pants, but almost as soon as the fury and danger showed in his eyes, it disappeared. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to bring it up.”

“It’s fine. And if I’m ever the target of something like that again, I’d want you on my side, that’s for sure. You’re kinda badass, Storm.”

He smiled and shook his head. “Hopefully, you’ll never see that part of me. I’ve done things I’m not exactly proud of in my lifetime. Killed a lot of people. I’ve done my best to put it behind me.”

“I’m not sure it’s healthy to forget what you’ve done. You have to learn to live with it and move on. For what it’s worth, you’re extremely respected…at least in my little corner of the world. You’re never a dick to my employees and you never talk down to them even though they’re just mail clerks. That means a lot. I mean, it has nothing to do with you killing people, people who I’m sure deserved to die because they were asshole terrorists, but the kind of person you are, a good one, shines through no matter what you’ve done in the past.”

“Thank you,” he told her. “And you and your employees aren’t ‘just’ anything. You work hard and do your part to keep the base running smoothly.”

“See? You’re a nice guy.”

“Except when someone I like and respect is threatened.”

“Obviously,” she told him with a smile. “Then I’d expect you to be a hardass and to kick some bad-guy butt.”

Storm laughed, and Jane was glad to see some of the tension dissipate from his eyes.

“You said you couldn’t cook, but how are you at chopping?”

“You mean other than that time I almost cut off the tip of my finger?” Jane asked. She couldn’t help but laugh at the look of horror that entered his eyes. “Kidding! I’m kidding!” she reassured him. “I’m a pro at chopping.”

“Maybe I’ll let you tear the lettuce for the salad instead,” Storm told her as he wrapped his arm around her waist and gave her a small hug before tugging her toward his kitchen.

As she chuckled, Jane realized that she hadn’t laughed as much in the last year as she had in the last day and a half. Even with being sprayed with tear gas, she’d been happier than she’d been in a very long time.

Simply being around Storm made her smile.

Please don’t be playing me, she pleaded silently as Storm got her situated on a barstool and headed for the refrigerator to get her a head of lettuce to prepare their salad.

* * * *

Storm looked down at the woman sleeping against his side, and smiled.

He’d had more fun tonight than he’d had in a very long time. She’d prepared the salad while he’d prepped the steaks he’d bought on his way home before picking her up. While they were cooking, they’d talked about everything from where they’d grown up to their loathing of the traffic in the Southern California area.