Page 99 of A Shot at Love
Comfort and ease. Two words she would never had thought to use to describe a relationship.
Gemma blinked. Hard.
A relationship? Is that what she and Ky had?
No, it wasn’t. They were two people who’d been forced together by circumstances neither could have prevented or predicted, who’d found each other sexually attractive and acted on it. That was all.
Or, was it?
Just as she started to delve deeper into the question, the disposable burner phone Rick had given them beeped.
Gemma’s gaze skated to Ky, and his to her. He reached for the phone and hit the answer icon.
“Yeah?”
Gemma’s attention zeroed in on him. A second later he ended the call.
“It’s a go,” he told her, rising and crossing to where she sat at the kitchen table.
He pulled her up and into his arms.
“When?” She rubbed her hands down his back to rest on his waist.
“Tomorrow.”
She nodded and leaned into him.
“Then this nightmare will all be over by tomorrow night?”
Ky pulled back and traced a thumb across her jaw. “Hopefully, yes.”
“Are you okay with all this? It won’t be easy.”
His caustic laugh sent a shiver down her spine.
“I’m fine.”
“Ky—”
He squeezed her arms. “I’m fine, Gemma. Really. This has to be done.”
And he was the man to do it, she knew. The only man.
“Everything will be fine. We just need to stick to the plan.”
She nodded and laid her head down on his shoulder.
In twenty-four hours this nightmare would be over. She could go back to her life, her work, her family.
And Ky would go back to his world.
Would she ever see him again? Would he even want to? They hadn’t discussed what came after tomorrow. He’d told her she could trust him; that he wouldn’t leave her. It was the truth. Ky was a man of his word. She trusted him to stand by her side and protect her. Stay with her. Ride out the problem to its end.
But when this was all done and behind them, what then?
“I have to make the call.”
She nodded and slipped out of his arms.
Using one of the cell phones Theo had provided, Ky punched in a number from memory.
With his gaze glued to hers, he said into the phone, “Jon? Yeah, it’s me. We need to meet.”
*
“You’re clear about what you need to do tomorrow?” Ky asked.
Gemma snuggled under his arm and kissed his neck, the bed still warm from their recent lovemaking.
“No worries,” she said on a yawn.
No worries. If only it were that simple.
Tomorrow could go either way. The best made plans had a way of unraveling, but he was confident what he and Bannerman had devised would work. His FBI training had preached that people’s underlying behavior didn’t change, even when they were placed in dangerous situations. He was counting on that to be true. Tomorrow Tiege would hopefully be in custody, and if the planets all aligned, he’d have a solid bead on Ritandi. The FBI would suffer through a few raised eyebrows, an internal investigation-maybe even an external one-from the corruption he’d discovered, but it would survive in the end.
Gemma would be safe once again and they could both go back to their lives.
The problem with that scenario was Ky didn’t want go back to his life. He wanted to start a new one. With Gemma by side.
He hadn’t even known there was something missing in his life until he’d met her. Life at the bureau—a life he’d forged for himself—had, until recently, been enough. He enjoyed the work, celebrated in the successes, felt fulfilled when he brought someone to justice. He gave it his all, and as Jon Winters had jokingly told Gemma: “everyone thought he was married to it.”
And right there was the problem. Much like Gemma, he had nothing else in his life but his family and work. No one to come home to at night, to share with, to talk over a bad day, or relive a good one. No one to make new memories with.
No one to love or be loved by. He wanted that. Badly. The realization hit home the first time he touched Gemma Laine. The first time he felt her body melt against his, match him desire for desire. Maybe even before that.
Ky closed his eyes and remembered that morning in the basement gym when she’d impressed and awed him with her weaponry and martial arts skills. She was a complete surprise, a happy one, in so many ways.
