I pulled out the cheese, grabbed a tomato from the basket on the counter, took a knife and cutting board, and started preparing. Once the sandwiches were in the pan frying, I turned around. Talon was sitting at the table, watching me.

“I thought you were going to make the tea.”

“Sorry, I was just enjoying the view.”

My skin heated. The view of him was mighty fine as well. He stood and came toward me, like a wolf stalking his prey. I knew he was going to kiss me before he was even close to me. And when his lips crushed onto mine, I nearly shattered then and there. I swirled my tongue out to meet his. Electricity sparked through my body. The kiss was unyielding, drugging, a kiss of souls meeting and joining.

We ate at each other’s mouth for a couple of minutes until I broke away quickly.

“Sorry, the sandwiches…” I walked quickly to the stove to turn them. “Oh, good. They’re brown but not burnt.”

Talon grabbed me from behind and pulled me back to him. “Fuck the sandwiches.”

“Talon,” I said against his lips.

But he plunged his tongue inside my mouth.

We kissed with intensity and passion, mindless and demanding kisses that left me breathless and yearning, anticipating, tightening the invisible coils that bound us.

Until I broke away again. “Sorry, but I really don’t want the smoke alarms to go off.”

Damn. That kiss alone could have set the things off.

I went to the stove, took the sandwiches off the pan, and set them on plates. I grabbed a napkin for each. “So where’s the tea?”

Talon didn’t answer.

I went to the fridge and pulled a couple bottles of water. “No worries. This will work just fine.” I set the waters and the sandwiches at the table. “Come on, sit. Eat your lunch.”

He grabbed the sandwich and was about to take a bite when I stopped him.

“Remember what happened last time? Let it cool a bit first.” I removed the bread from mine and let the smoke emerge from the hot cheese. Once it had cooled off, I took a bite. “Nothing like it. I may not be able to cook like your sister, but I make a mean grilled cheese.”

He tried his. “Yep, pretty good.”

Why did I feel like we never had anything to talk about?

Maybe if we weren’t in bed, ripping each other’s clothes off, we could actually have a conversation. I’d try a tactic, maybe find some answers.

“I found an interesting news article last week.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. It was about you.”

Talon’s eyebrows jerked upward almost to his hairline. He didn’t say anything.

“About when you got back from Iraq. Why didn’t you tell me you got the Award of Honor?”

“Where the hell did you find that?”

“In the local paper archives.”

“Why were you looking in there?”

I swallowed a bite of sandwich. I couldn’t very well tell him that Larry had told me to investigate him. “I was actually looking for something else on an investigation, and your story happened to pop up.”

He put his sandwich down, reached for his water, but didn’t take it. “They shouldn’t have printed that story.”

“Are you kidding me? They totally should’ve printed it. It should’ve been national news, Talon, not just a people piece in the local news of a small Western town.”

“I didn’t want anyone making a big fuss about me.”

“A fuss about you? You were a goddamned hero.”

“I wasn’t a hero, blue eyes. Trust me. I was never a hero.”

“You saved those people. At great personal risk to yourself. You could’ve been killed.”

He slammed his fist on the table. “Did you ever think about why I did it? Maybe I didn’t do it to be a hero.”

I eased backward into my chair, my tension rising. I was used to Talon’s outbursts by now, but still they affected me. “I’m sure you didn’t. I’m sure all you were thinking about were your fallen troops. Your adrenaline was probably in full force. You were thinking about getting your friends out.”

He let out a wry chuckle, his lips twisted into a shape I couldn’t read. “Trust me, I wasn’t.”

“Then what were you thinking about?”

“I was thinking about getting my ass killed, Jade.”

Chapter Seventeen

Talon

Her beautiful mouth dropped into that oblong shape I had seen so often. She would never understand. I was no hero.

They gave me the damned award—tried to give me the medal, but I didn’t want it—for saving six people that day. I was glad I had saved them. Their lives were worth a hell of a lot more than mine. But every time I dragged another one out, still free of bodily injury myself, I carelessly dumped him on the ground and ran back in, hoping to get my fucking head blown off instead of bringing another one to safety.

The time finally came when Waters and a few others literally held me down and wouldn’t let me go back in for yet another man. Little did they know, I wanted to go in and never come out.

Jade sat next to me—her steely blue eyes that haunted me, the beautiful golden-brown hair that cascaded over her milky shoulders, those ruby-red lips I had kissed so many times—and for the first time in a long time, maybe ever, I was actually glad—fucking glad—I hadn’t gotten my head blown off that day.

How I loved her. My mouth wanted to form the words right at the moment and say them.

What would she think if she knew I loved her? She would probably ask how I knew, given the conflicting messages I’d sent her over the last couple months.

“Are you going to say anything, blue eyes?”

She drew her lips into a semi-smile. A forced smile. “I’m not really sure what to say to you, Talon.”

“Say the first thing that came into your mind.”

She arched her eyebrows and shook her head. “What can I say? I’m glad you didn’t die, Talon. Fucking ecstatic, actually. You mean something to me. You may not understand that, but you do. And you mean something to your brothers and Marj. Did you think about what you coming home in a body bag would have done to them? Do you ever think about anyone but Talon Steel? Why would you want to die? I don’t understand.”