Page 14 of Wicked Shadows
“Wrong.” Brianna shook her head vehemently and stopped his confession with her firm tone.
“What?” Shadow recoiled, jerking his head back as he openly gaped at her. “What do you mean ‘wrong’?”
"Chaise is Noah's little sister, and she's happily married to one of his best friends. Do you think Noah would want anything less for her? Bull is his brother by choice, but now, also by marriage. Noah wouldn't change that for anything, no matter how much he enjoys giving Bull a hard time about it."
“Hmm,” Shadow reflected. “You may have a point there.”
“Of course I do. Please continue.”
"I'm kind of afraid to now. Strike two, we've already covered. Elle's so much younger than I am. Believe me when I say I see the beautiful woman she's grown into. But I can't help but think, sometimes, that it's just wrong because of that little girl I remember."
His suspicion of Brianna’s reaction was unmasked as he waited for the tongue-lashing he knew would come. His argument was weak, even he knew that. But his self-induced illusion had adequately sustained him for the past eight years. Somehow, he knew, deep down, Brianna would obliterate his delusion and smack him in the face with a dose of reality.
She tried to hide her mirth but failed magnificently. Her beautiful smile didn't last long, though, before it turned into a full belly laugh. Tears pooled in her eyes as she pointed at him, attempted to speak, but couldn't form the words over her outbursts of laughter. He crossed his arms over his chest, leaned back in the chair, forcefully blew out his breath, and refused to look at her.
“Okay.” She finally managed to speak and wiped the tears from her eyes. “Let me catch my breath.”
The thin line that formed his lips disappeared completely, and he attempted to project boredom with the entire conversation. It took all of Brianna's restraint not to start laughing again.
"Shadow, this ismeyou're talking to here. You know better than to say something stupid like that to me. She's not that little girl anymore, and you're not that young teenager anymore. Eight years' difference in age is nothing after you're both legal adults. The only reason you even mentioned knowing her as a child is because you're still hung up on her being the ‘little’ sister of your friend. She's hisyoungersister, but she’s notlittleanymore. And you, my friend, are reaching, but you’re only fooling yourself.
“Now, let’s hear strike three.”
"Strike three is a little harder to get around. Even you won't be able to argue with it," Shadow replied with confidence.
“Try me.”
"She started modeling when she was twelve and moved to California with her parents after Jeff and I had already left home for college. When I first saw her in commercials, ads, and magazines, I was so proud of her. Kind of like a big brother would be. The older she got, the prettier she became. Then almost overnight, she was fucking drop-dead gorgeous. Even then, I only admired her from afar.
"While I was with the CIA, I was on assignment here in Miami, and she was sent here by the modeling agency. She called me when she landed, and our first three-week escapade began. When she first called me, I thought it was nothing more than a rekindled friendship. Getting to know each other again after so many years apart, mostly catching up on her life since I couldn't very well share the majority of mine.
"But the attraction was there from the beginning, and it was intense. Somehow, in those three weeks, I fell hard for her. The last night she was here, I knew I should just walk away and let it be her summer fling, but I couldn’t. We’d spent every night together up until then, and I wanted that last night with her. I drove her to the airport early the next morning for her flight, and she shocked the hell out of me. She asked me to move to LA with her."
“What did you say?”
He removed his sunglasses and rubbed his eyes, stalling for as long as possible. He lifted his gaze, and Brianna was surprised at the sadness she recognized in them. "I asked her to stay here with me. Of course, she couldn't. But what shocked me even more than when she asked me to go with her was I honestly meant it when I asked her to stay here with me."
"But she couldn't. Her work was in LA, and she had to go back to it."
“Right, she had to go back to the bright lights and camera flashes that lit up everything around her. My job, my whole world, is in the darkness. In the shadows. Covert operations and instantly recognizable supermodels aren’t exactly good bedfellows.”
“Did you ever tell her you were with the CIA?”
“No. I couldn’t tell her because I was still classified as an active covert agent.”
Shadow turned to fully face Brianna before he continued. His expression became smug when he knew he had her dead to rights. She couldn't argue with his logic about their jobs. The odds of being a model who was also a household name were minuscule. The ability to conduct undercover governmental operations with invisibility was vital to national security and his very life. No way could she call him out on that.
“Strike three is our chosen professions. Neither of us can give up what we’ve worked so hard to attain, what we’ve invested so many years in perfecting.”
“Bullshit.”
“Huh?”
“I. Call. Bullshit.” She emphasized each word and leaned toward him as she spoke. “That may have been true at first, but you’ve been out of the CIA for a while now. You’ve been with Steele Security for the last few years, not in some hostile, third-world country on a clandestine operation. If you hadn’t been so stubborn this whole time, you could’ve rekindled this relationship long ago.”
“Rekindled? Who says we’ve burned out?”
"Fine. You've had years to legitimize it, then. You've had plenty of opportunities to come out of the darkness and the shadows and walk with Elle in the light. But you haven't. Because you're scared."
