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“Open.”
He obeyed, and I brushed his teeth and made sure I didn’t get close to the cut in the corner of his mouth. He watched me; I watched him. My God, I loved him. And all that he was. Right now, he was actually both the soldier and the boy. He had his cute pajama bottoms I’d given him, the carefree smile, happiness in his eyes, and all the marks from today’s sparring. The beginning of a black eye.
“Don’t renew the lease on your apartment,” I murmured.
It didn’t make any sense for him to have it. He’d visited once to pack a few bags, so all it was doing was draining his savings account.
He backed away to spit and rinse, and he turned the water colder. “Why?” he asked quietly.
“Because I don’t want you to go back there,” I answered. “Nothing about us is temporary, Danny. Not to me anyway. I…” Fuck. This was harder than I thought it would be. I’d never put my heart on the line before. I swallowed my nerves and handed him the toothbrush. “I don’t even wanna see you take on solo assignments.”
He turned off the water and reached for a towel to wipe his mouth. It’d been a while since he’d eyed me with such wariness. “Can you spell it out for me, please?”
Whatever you want.
“I want a future with you,” I admitted. “I could—you know…I could talk to the higher-ups and say I’m not doing any more solos either. You and I can be a unit, just like the twins will be one day.”
He straightened up and tested a small smile. “You want us to work together?”
“And live together.”
He swallowed. The wariness faded, and I received another glimpse of hope in his eyes.
It gave me the strength to continue, and I gestured vaguely at the apartment. “I know this isn’t a farm with a bunch of rescue animals, but it could be eventually.”
Oh, thank fuck. Danny lit up, and I felt a fuck-ton of tension roll off my shoulders.
He snuck his arms around my middle and peered up at me. “That’s all I want. Because I’m so fucking in love with you, Em.”
Goddamn.
I drew a steadying breath as a storm of emotions and relief raged within me, raising goose bumps in its wake, plastering a ridiculous smile on my lips, and I cupped his face in my hands and rested our foreheads together.
“You beat me to it, brat.” I brushed my thumbs over his cheeks and kissed him gently. “I love you so much. Hell—you’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”
“Fuck yes,” he whispered and kissed me hard.
I chuckled and dialed things down, because I was the only one who gave a fuck about his injuries.
“Careful, baby.”
“I don’t wanna be careful, Daddy,” he whined. “My ass is unharmed, for the record. You could tear that up.”
Oh, I would.
Three years later
I adjusted my earpiece and snuck another glance around the corner. The street—or dirt road—was quiet at three in the morning, but that would change as soon as the air raid sirens sounded in approximately six minutes. Local rebels would run for their antiaircraft stations on the outskirts of town, and US forces would add more holes to the low buildings.
“Roof’s clear,” Danny stated in my ear.
I looked up toward the roof where he was positioned.
After making sure my gun was covered at the base of my spine, I made my way across the street. “Start heading down.”
“Wilco,” he confirmed. “I’ve received the coordinates for our pickup. They’re eleven minutes out.”
Good. I couldn’t fucking wait to get out of here.
