“God, I’m a big guy, but getting hit by him?—”
“Like a fist tied to the front of a train?”
Carter snorted. “Pretty close, actually.”
“Look,” I said, giving his forearm a squeeze. “Everything I’ve said so far? I meant it.”
“And let me guess? Don’t be sorry, be better?”
“Mmm, something like that. But with the promise that you can sit down and talk to me about this sort of shit any time. I can be cold enough to make hard decisions, but I don’t want to stay that way in my everyday life. So when you’re done being pissed at me, we’ll have a beer or two. Maybe I’ll tell you about my mother and you can tell me about your sister, or you can tell me about the one who got away and I can tell you about the ex who tried to explain a Grindr notification sound as a bug in his phone’s operating system.”
Carter blinked. “Seriously? That’s a lame-ass lie.”
“Kinda what I told him, but with a lot more swearing and threats to beat his ass if he didn’t leave my apartment,” I said with a laugh.
“Huh, so you can actually fight?”
“Carter, we’re all trained to fight. But when you hang out with a bunch of testosterone-fueled Marines in their late teens and early twenties, you either avoid them when they want to spar or you join them. Plus, it was a good way to blow off steam when I couldn’t in other ways. So yeah, I can fight. And I kept up with it after getting out.”
“So…you probably could have taken me?”
“No offense, but uh, pretty sure I could do more than ‘probably’ take you.”
He wrinkled his nose. “Huh.”
“And now you’re wondering why I didn’t fight back,” I said in amusement.
“A little, but I should probably get back out there. Big Boss doesn’t fuck around when he says you’re doing something as punishment,” he said as he got to his feet. “By the way, thanks for not telling him. He definitely knew something happened, but?—”
“Last night wasn’t about him; he didn’t need to worry about it,” I told him with a shrug. “By the way, I need you and Mav to figure out a day to come see me in the clinic.”
Carter blinked. “What? Why?”
“You’re behind on your tetanus shot and rabies,” I told him. “And Mav…he’ll know why.”
“This some sort of privacy thing?”
“Legal privacy,” I said.
“Rabies,” he muttered, snatching up his travel mug. “Like I’m a house cat.”
“They get them every year, we only need them every few years, and your last one was five years ago,” I told him dryly. “Out in these woods? Better to have and not need than to need and not have.”
“Ugh,” he said, his last comment before turning and leaving. Only for me to hear him go, “Oh, uh?—”
“Go,” I heard a familiar voice rumble, making me wary and sending a familiar tingle of anticipation through me.
“Can do,” Carter said hastily. Then I heard and felt the faint whoosh of air pressure shifting through the building as he opened the doors to go outside. It was only then that Xander came into the room, his shoulders rolled into a slight hunch as he got a cup of coffee before turning to see me.
“Afternoon,” I said lightly as I looked him over. He’d ditched the formal wear, which was a shame; he’d filled those pants and his shirt out nicely. They were replaced with a pair of jeans that still hugged his thighs, not a surprise considering the damn things were as thick as my waist, I’d swear. And a shirt that hung a little loose on him, but even if I was robbed of that show, I could still appreciate the vein that ran down the inside of his right bicep and into his forearm.
“Doing fuck all, I see,” he said dryly.
I clicked my tongue. “Seems someone forgot to put me on a duty roster, and since I don’t have any pressing need to be in the clinic, and everyone else is busy with their own shit and not immediately needing my help, I decided to have a cup of coffee. I was up later than I expected last night.”
His eyes narrowed, and he spoke loudly. “Cait!”
“What?” she shot back in an equally annoyed tone. God, I loved the way the two of them interacted. There was about as much romantic and sexual chemistry between them as there was between two desert rocks, but the rest of their chemistry? Flawless. Like two siblings who couldn’t decide if they hated or loved each other.