Special Forces: Operation Alpha: Protecting Maddie (Kindle Worlds Novella) (An Omega Team Crossover Book 4) by Desiree Holt Page A

than I already have.”
    “You only hurt me if you walk away from me, Hawkeye.” She blinked to hold back the tears. One minute, she’d been ready to celebrate; now she felt only pain. “I know it’s only been three days, but sometimes it can happen in three hours. Don’t lie to me and tell me you didn’t feel that connection right away. I want us to see where it goes.”
    “I told you, that can’t matter. I have a job to do for my country, and that comes first.”
    “How can you keep saying that?” she cried. “I told you other people do it.”
    “I’m not other people. I’m—” He stopped. “Maddie, please don’t make this any harder for us than it has to be.”
    “If it’s hard to do this,” she pointed out, “then maybe you should think twice about it.”
    He stared hard into her eyes. “I’ll be thinking about it a lot. That’s the damn problem.”
    He took her mouth in a kiss so scorching it seared her to the soles of her feet. His tongue was a flame licking everywhere. Maddie put everything she felt into the kiss, silently begging him to change his mind.
    When he lifted his head and broke the contact, she wanted to grab him and pull him hard against her. But he took a step back.
    “Good-bye, Maddie. I’m glad I could keep you safe.” He let his gaze take her in from head to toe and back again, as if memorizing her. “Have a good life. You deserve it.”
    He walked out the door and closed it softly behind him.
    Maddie sank to the floor, buried her face in her hands, and wept.

Chapter Seven
     
    “Honey, you only knew him for three days.” Gretchen scooped more ice cream into Maddie’s bowl. “That’s hardly time enough to establish a relationship.”
    “We had a connection,” Maddie insisted. “He knew it, too. I swear he did. Some things you can’t fake.” She swallowed a large spoonful of the confection. “He had a couple of days left before he had to report for his physical. Why couldn’t we spend them together and see where things went? I mean, Ghost has someone, right?”
    Gretchen sighed. “Yes, but—”
    “Do you think he’d talk to me?”
    Gretchen wrinkled her forehead. “Hawkeye? From what my cousin said, when he’s not on downtime, he shuts out the outside world. And you said he made it clear there was nothing to go forward with.”
    “No, not Hawkeye. Ghost.” As soon as the words left her mouth, Maddie wished them back. What kind of immature woman was she to go running to Ghost, who didn’t even know her except secondhand, and blubbering about why Hawkeye walked away from her?
    Gretchen’s eyebrow lifted almost to her hairline. “You want me to call my Delta Force cousin and ask him for romantic advice? Damn, Maddie. You really are in bad shape.”
    Maddie shoved another spoonful of ice cream in her mouth and hoped it would cool the hot flush of embarrassment surging through her body.
    “Yeah, forget I said that, okay?” She sighed and licked the spoon. “I just wish I could get him out of my mind.”
    Gretchen reached across the table and squeezed her hand. “I wish I could say it will get better and maybe with time it will. At least we have ice cream to get you through it.”
    Maddie gave a short, hysterical laugh. “Yeah, by which time I’ll weigh three hundred pounds.” She sat back in her chair and swallowed against the sudden lump in her throat.
    “Let’s talk about something else, like what happened to the Chicago hood who wanted to kill your folks.”
    “Can you believe it?” Maddie sat up straighter. “My parents have been in WitSec all this time. Who’d a thunk it?”
    “That is so wild, though. So where does everything stand now? I know Grey Holden called you to fill you in.”
    Maddie stared at her. “And you know this how?”
    Gretchen’s face turned red, and she bent her face over her bowl of ice cream. “Well, um, he might have also called Hawkeye who might have told Ghost.”
    Maddie slammed her spoon down. “And you