Page 56 of Finding Elodie
“Good. Then no more talk about this being weird. Yeah, we had sex right after we connected again. Big deal. All it did was knock through all the bullshit dating stuff. We’re together now, we’ll get to know each other even better as time goes on, and we’ll have this,” he squeezed her shoulder, “each night. Okay?”
“Yeah. More than okay. We’re exclusive though, right?”
“Fuck yeah, we are.” The thought of her dating anyone else made him a little crazy. It was just one more way Mustang knew he was a goner.
“Scott?”
“Yeah, babe?”
“I’m scared.”
Everything in him wanted to leap out of bed and slay dragons for her, but Mustang forced himself to stay calm. “About what?”
“That my issues will get you hurt. Or one of your friends. Of screwing this up. Of you figuring out that I’m not worth the trouble, or getting sick of me. I’m scared of just about everything these days, if I’m being honest.”
“Your issues will not get me or my friends hurt. You aren’t going to screw this up. It’s obvious you have no clue as to your appeal, and I should probably work on trying to change that, but I have no desire for you to figure out that I’m nothing but a Navy bum and have you look elsewhere for better.”
She sighed and snuggled into him more. “Navy bum, my ass,” she snorted.
Mustang smiled. “Sleep. We’ll talk tomorrow. Do you have to work?”
“No, it’s Sunday, I have the day off.”
“Good. I do too. We’ll spend the day together, talk, and figure out what happens next,” Mustang told her.
“Okay.”
“Just like that? Okay?” he asked skeptically.
“Yeah. I’m tired of running. So damn tired of looking over my shoulder. I want to believe that I’m good, that I can stop running scared. Nothing’s happened in months. I have no reason to think I’m in danger…but what if I’m wrong? I’m okay with you helping me because I want this. You. And I can’t have you if I have to relocate every few months.”
Mustang’s heart hurt for her, but her words also made him feel really good. She wanted him, and she had him. Lock, stock, and barrel. He was hers, just as she was his. She might not believe it yet, but he’d do whatever it took to make sure she could be Elodie Winters again.
Just so he could ask her to marry him and become Elodie Webber.
He couldn’t help but grin.
“Thanks for leaving the light on for me,” she said into his shoulder.
“I’ll always leave the light on for you,” he told her, then turned and kissed her forehead.
“Sleep, babe.”
“Night.”
“Good night.”
Mustang drifted off with a huge smile on his face and slept harder than he had in a very long while, all because of the woman at his side.
* * *
“What did you find out?” Paul Columbus asked Andrew as he entered his office. It had been too damn long since they’d seen the news clip of the employees of the Asaka Express getting off the cargo ship in Sudan. He wanted to know where Elodie was. Now.
“It took a while, but I’ve got the name of the guy with his arm around her shoulders. Valentino Russo. He’s Italian.”
“Where is he?” Paul asked.
“I’ve got good and bad news about that,” Andrew began.
