Page 33 of False Flag

He finished rinsing and turned off the spray. She’d used his towel earlier. Last he’d seen it, it was on the bedroom floor. He stepped out, finding the towel where he expected, but the room was empty. He didn’t bother drying off; instead, he draped it around his hips, then crossed the room and opened the bedroom door.

A glance showed the living room was empty. He turned at the sound of the front door softly clicking closed.

He bolted the short distance to the entryway and yanked the door open. Anastacia, clothed once again, was on the path, walking briskly away from him.

“What the fuck?”

She kept walking.

He followed. He didn’t care that he was dripping wet and barefoot. “I suggest you talk to me now, unless you want to have this conversation in front of everyone while I’m wearing nothing but a towel.”

She stopped, but didn’t turn to face him.

“What’s going on, Anastacia?”

“Call me Staci.”

“No. You aren’t putting distance between us after what just happened in the cabin.”

She turned. The light from the cabin porch just reached her, and he saw her gaze flick over his chest and down to the white towel that hung low on his hips.

“It was sex. I enjoyed it. But now I need to sleep.”

“All that is fine, but you don’t get to leave without a word. And the bed in the cabin is big enough for two. As you know.”

“I sleep better alone.”

“In a dormitory? With twenty-five other people?”

“It’s easier this way, Jake.”

“Easier to keep me as your dirty little secret, you mean.”

“It’s not that.”

“Then what is it? Explain it to me like I’m a dumbass, because I sure as fuck feel clueless right now.”

“I can’t get involved with you, Jake.”

“I don’t remember asking you for a commitment in the last hour.”

“You know what I mean.”

“No. I really don’t. Sure, I’d like to see where this goes, but I could deal if you said you weren’t interested.” He wouldn’t believe her—not after how she’d responded to him in bed—but he’d have respected her boundary.

“I just thought we could skip the part where you ask for my number again and I say no.”

“You do realize that leaving like you did is worse, right? I didn’t ask for anything from you. I just gave you what you came for. And still you run off without a word.” His anger spiked, the gut punch of her blatant rejection finally hitting him. “You know what? Go sleep in the barracks. I’m not interested in cowards.”

She sucked in a shocked breath, but he was already turning for his cabin. Of course the towel fell then. He scooped it up and tossed it over his shoulder. Let her stare at his bare ass as he walked away from her.

Chapter Eleven

Not wanting to face Jake again, the following morning, Staci caught an early ride back with Morgan and Pax, who’d driven their own car because they needed to relieve their babysitter before breakfast. Staci knew Morgan was itching to ask what had happened with Jake. Her desperation for a ride before dawn was a huge tell, and they’d spent a good number of hours recounting relationship woes in the years before Morgan married Pax.

Thankfully, Morgan would never ask in front of her husband. Staci was safe from having to confess how awful she’d been to Jake.

A knot had formed in her belly during the hours she lay not sleeping in her bunk. She hadn’t planned it. Not one single thing. Not showing up at his cabin for sex, nor bolting afterward. Both had been crimes of opportunity.