Page 69 of Her Unflinching Warrior (Omega Sky)
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Jada staredat the man who wasn’t just one of her country’s heroes like her father, but a man who had been tested in the hottest of fires while he was still just a child. How could she have ever believed that he would be so cavalier in his treatment of her? How could she have not realized that there was something deeper going on?
Looking at his beautiful face, and into his warm brown eyes, she slowly smiled.
“So that’s it, huh? Those are your words of wisdom, Chief Petty Officer Smith? “‘Life isn’t always fair’?”
Gideon gave her a funny look, then shrugged.
“Yep, that’s all I’ve got.”
“What happens if I want more?”
Gideon pulled her into his arms so that she was almost sitting in his lap. “Do you mean it, Jada? Are you willing to listen to me?”
She giggled. “I’m pretty sure I’ve been listening to you for the last half hour, Honey.”
His eyes rolled upwards and he gave her a little shake. “Be serious, woman. I want to talk to you about what an utter ass I was in Kentucky, and why.”
Jada swallowed. Deep. “Uh, you were—”
“More than an ass. I was an asshole. Just let me explain.”
“I’m not sure you need to,” she said quietly.
Gideon shut down. It was like the light went out of his eyes. “No,” she rushed to assure him, “that’s not what I meant. I meant that I don’t think you need to explain why you were acting the way you were. I kind of get it now, the baggage you’ve been hauling around all these years. I wondered how a man like you hasn’t ever been married or lived with some woman in the past. It seemed really weird to me, you know?”
He slowly shook his head.
“Men,” she rolled her eyes. “We women have questionnaires a mile long for men. You don’t know it, but we do everything we can to make sure we’re not going to end up with a horse’s ass, we want somebody nice and stable.”
“I thought it was all about the car and the size of his cock,” Gideon teased.
“That’s when you’re a freshman in college. It changes after you graduate,” Jada said primly. “One of the things on our questionnaire is whether the man has been able to sustain any kind of long and healthy relationships in the past. You got an A-plus when it came to guy friends, but you failed miserably when it came to romantic relationships. But I totally let it go, because…well because you’re you.”
Gideon frowned at her. “I thought the deal that I wasn’t coming into the relationship with an ex-wife and a bunch of kids was a good thing.”
“Honey, a man like you? I’d love to love on your kiddos.”
His grip tightened. “You kill me, Angel. You know that? Every single minute that I think I can’t love you any more than I already do, you go and prove me wrong.”
Everything went quiet. Jada couldn’t even breathe, let alone feel her heart beat. “You love me?”
“With all that I have, with all that I am.” Gideon’s voice was low, deep, and sure.
He wasn’t kidding. She could see the emotion shining in his eyes.
“When? How?”
“Angel, I was scared as hell that I was falling for you when we danced at Sebastian and Gianna’s wedding.”
“My God,” she breathed.
“But then I was even more scared that you were falling for me, and it was the worst thing in the world for you. I had to get you to understand that I was poison. Not only was I too damn old, I was just a bad bet. The only thing I was good for in this life, was being a SEAL.”
“That’s not true,” she whispered.
“It is. Or at least I thought it was.”
