Blind Ambition by Gwen Hernandez Page B

Alexa’s money. Still was, if he were honest, but it didn’t matter this time. She was a client, not a lover. Even if he did find himself way too distracted by her slim curves, her lips, her…everything.
    “Or maybe you didn’t think we were good together. At least not with our clothes on,” he said. “In which case you don’t need all of these excuses. It’s okay to say I wasn’t right for you. Knowing what I know now, I’m sure it’s true.”
    “It wasn’t you,” she whispered. “Our careers would have kept us apart most of the year, and I—”
    “And you weren’t willing to work for it. Which means it was me.” He glanced behind him to see if he’d made any progress with his bindings. “I don’t know why you’re trying so hard to make me feel better. Have I made you think I won’t do my best to protect you because of our history?”
    “No. It’s just that we’re stuck in here, and I don’t know the rebels’ plans for us, and if anything happened… I just want you to know that it wasn’t you.”
    “The old ‘it’s not you, it’s me’ speech. Makes it easier for everyone, right?” He got it now. She was scared and she thought he was going to die. And caring woman that she was, she’d rather have him die thinking she’d loved him once. Either that or she wanted to ease her own guilt.
    “Dan? Shut. Up.”
    His head snapped up.
    “Stop talking and just listen .” She leaned forward, at the end of her chain. “God, I used to have to pry the words out of you, but today you won’t even let me finish a freaking sentence.”
    He kept his mouth shut, chagrined to realize that she was right. Maybe he didn’t want to hear her reasons.
    Settling back on her heels, she took a deep breath and cast her gaze down. “The days I had with you were some of the best of my life.” She looked up, maybe to gauge his reaction. If she expected skepticism, she was right on the money.
    He bit his tongue and let her continue.
    “I never planned to get involved with anyone while on the job, but I couldn’t say no to you. I didn’t want to. And I figured a guy like you, always on the go, wasn’t looking for anything serious. Just a good time. I could live with that because that’s all I had to offer too.”
    He’d thought the same way in the beginning, but after a few days he would have done anything for more time with her.
    “I was hoping we could let things end naturally when you left, but then you started talking about getting together after St. Isidore. I never wanted to have that conversation. I didn’t want to hurt you.”
    And she never needed to know how much she had. He shrugged as much as possible while chained to a wall. “I thought we were good together and it would be fun to see you again. I wasn’t asking you to marry me, Lys.”
    But he would have eventually. She was the first woman—the only woman—who’d made him want more from life than his mission and his team.
    “No,” she said quickly. “I know that. But we got along so well that it seemed dangerous to continue.”
    He shook his head. “Maybe I’m slow, but if everything was so great between us, why would you want to call it quits?”
    She pinned him with a look that made it hard to breathe. “Because if I was with you, I’d eventually want to stay, and I can’t do that. My work is my life.”
    Which still meant that it was him. He knew, because he’d been in her shoes before. He also knew that the right man would change her mind, just as she’d begun to change his back then. He hadn’t been ready to up and quit the Air Force, but he’d been rethinking what he’d do at the end of his service commitment.
    Turned out he quit anyway, but not for the reasons he would have liked.
    “What about Flore? You can’t adopt her and then jet all over the world once you have a child at home.”
    She nodded. “I know. Giving her a good life, keeping her healthy. That would be my new priority. I’d have to continue my work