Agent with a History by Guy Stanton III

on taking you
with me, when I leave the country in a few days.”
    “Is keeping me safe the only reason why
you’re taking me with you?”
    He shook his head no, “No it’s not the only
reason.”
    I looked down at the clothes, “By now I know
you must know that I play a significant role in finding what I
think you and a lot of others are after. Is that the other reason
why you want me with you?”
    He met my renewed stare with an equally
matched intensity of his own. “I’m fully aware of how important you
are to what I’m looking for and knowing that is why I think you’re
safer with me, but it’s not the reason for why I’m taking you with
me other that is then also keeping you safe!”
    “To trust what you’re saying involves putting
quite a lot of trust in you. I’ve been betrayed before.”
    “Not by me!” he said firmly his eyes never so
much as batting away from mine.
    “Okay, I’ll go with you willingly, but I’m
keeping a gun at all times.”
    “Absolutely, have three or four of them if
you want. Now I imagine that after all of today’s events that
you’ve worked up a bit of an appetite.”
    Now that he mentioned it, I was starving.
    He must have read the answer in my
expression, “Get dressed and I’ll take you out to dinner.”
    He had started to turn away, but then
stopped, “I almost forgot. There was some blood on your
clothes?”
    “Just burns, nothing serious.”
    He pulled a little first aid kit out of a
bag. “Still you should take precaution and get it cleaned right and
bandaged.”
    Something wild went through me and I brushed
by him and sat down on the bed in front of him. Reaching up I
pulled the robe off my shoulder. He just looked at the bare
shoulder and said, “I meant you.”
    “Well, you’re here, so why not?” He opened
the kit and soon had the burn cleaned and bandaged. I let the robe
slide back and then I pulled it up to reveal the outside of my
thigh.
    Hesitantly, he kneeled down in front of me
and soon had it treated too. He glanced up at me and, as if more to
himself than to me, he said, “I should probably go now.”
    He got up and went to the door and I followed
him. A little desperately I asked, “Flint?”
    He turned back and I leaned up and kissed
him. He deepened the kiss and my hands were on their way up to wrap
around his neck, when he caught them and leaned back breaking the
kiss.
    We stared at each other breathing heavy for a
few moments. Why had he stopped?
    “Today has been a very emotional day for you.
Trust me, I’m not against kissing you and a lot more, but I’m not
going to take advantage of how you’re feeling right now. I think by
now you’ve guessed how very much I want you, but I’m man enough to
win you on my own merits and not take advantage of a weak moment on
your part. Take your time getting dressed and, when you’re ready,
I’ll take you out to dinner.”
    He let go of my hands and stepped back and
closed the door softly. I rubbed my hands into my eye sockets
savagely. What had I been doing? What must he think of me?
    This wasn’t like me at all! As embarrassed as
I was right now, I wished I was still kissing him. One thing was
for sure, he was showing me that I could trust him, even as I
increasingly discovered that I couldn’t trust myself, especially
around him.
    I looked through the clothes. He had done a
very good job! Not everything was stuff that I would have bought,
but it wasn’t going to look bad on me either. It was just
different, more colorful than my more reserved color choices often
were. Now all I had to do was to get dressed and go face him after
the fool I had made of myself. That wasn’t going to be easy.
     

Chapter Eleven
Tenderness
    I stepped down the stairs quietly not wanting
to be heard, but he was at the bottom waiting for me within
moments.
    “Absolutely beautiful.” He said, and I
couldn’t meet his eyes and instead felt my face flushing.
    His fingers lifted my chin up and before I
knew