let alone push them through the little loops wrapped tightly around them. The edge of the glass or crystal was sharp, scraping his fingertips. He glanced at the scissors she’d set on the vanity table.
“I should cut it off,” he said.
“You should,” she eagerly agreed.
But he liked Nikki’s plan to change places with the bride. Hell, maybe he just liked it because Megan would no longer be the bride. He shouldn’t care that she was going to marry another man. While he’d once considered asking her to marry him, he never would again. She’d said she hadn’t loved the man he’d been. She certainly wouldn’t love the one he had become. “We can’t.”
He’d been at it for long moments and had only undone one button. They were spaced so closely together that even with the couple that Nikki had undone, only a little more than an inch of Megan’s skin was visible through the slight opening.
Megan was never comfortable showing much skin. She always dressed in layers. Skirts with tights beneath and tall boots. Blouses buttoned to her throat with sweaters over them. She dressed like the librarian she was. For some reason Gage had found that super sexy. Just like he’d always taken his time unwrapping presents, to draw out the anticipation and excitement, he’d taken his time getting Megan out of her clothes.
He’d toyed with the zippers on her boots before lowering them and pulling them off her curvy calves. He’d taken his time with the buttons on her cardigan sweaters and on her blouses beneath them. Even with the layers, she’d never had as many buttons as this, though.
And at least then his efforts had been rewarded. He’d been able to stroke and taste all that honey-colored skin he’d exposed. He’d been able to elicit soft moans and cries from her as she’d pressed her hot, naked body against his.
Remembering the sensations—the heat, the tension, the pleasure—had a groan slipping from his throat.
“Use the scissors,” she told him.
But his frustration wasn’t with the buttons. It was with the fact that even if he managed to undo all those buttons, he wouldn’t be able to kiss and touch the skin he exposed. She wasn’t his anymore.
She’d never really been his, because she’d never trusted him. She’d never trusted what they’d had. Or she wouldn’t have accused of him using her.
“I can’t...” he said.
She tilted her head and peered over her shoulder at him. “Can’t cut it off?”
He couldn’t keep thinking about what they’d had, what they’d done to each other. How he hadn’t ever been able to get enough of her.
Heat rushed through him, making his blood warm, his skin tingle. He’d bared less than an inch of her silky skin, but he wanted her as obsessively as he’d always wanted her.
Maybe it was her shyness that had appealed to him the first time they’d met. When her father had introduced them, she hadn’t met his gaze, and she’d ignored his outstretched hand, hers shoved deep into the pockets of her skirt. Used to women seeking his attention, flirting with him, he’d been intrigued by the novelty of Megan Lynch. She’d challenged him.
And Gage had never been able to walk away from a challenge...until the end. Until he’d realized there was no way he would ever win her trust or her heart.
He just shook his head.
And her face paled. “You’re giving up again?”
“Again?” he asked. “When did I give up before?”
Unless she was talking about them. But she’d given him no choice then.
Now color flushed her face. “You quit the Bureau.”
After they’d broken up, he hadn’t been able to work for her father. Not only would it have been awkward but it would have killed his pride. He’d learned what everyone thought of him—that he was doing the boss’s daughter in order to get ahead. Megan had believed those vicious rumors. So maybe that was another reason he’d quit, to prove her wrong.
“I had my reasons,” he reminded her.
She jerked her chin up and down in a nervous nod. “I thought it was my fault. The reason you quit, the reason you reenlisted, the reason you...” Her voice cracked, cutting off whatever she’d been about to add.
“The reason I what?”
“Got killed,” she said. “I thought you were dead.”
And she’d blamed herself. He shouldn’t have been surprised, though. He’d blamed her, too. Getting mad at her had eased some of his pain.
“I didn’t die there,” he said. He wasn’t so certain that he wouldn’t here, though. He glanced to the door, wondering if those armed people were out there yet, waiting to force their way inside.
“Do you think it’s that dangerous?” she asked.
He didn’t have Penny Payne and Nick Rus’s notorious instincts or he wouldn’t have fallen for Megan in the first place. Nor would he have spent six months in captivity in Afghanistan. But maybe those six months had helped him develop some kind of sixth sense as well.
Because he knew Megan Lynch’s wedding day wasn’t going to end well—for anyone.
She expelled a shaky breath. “You do...”
“Nikki has a good plan to switch places,” he said. But Nikki had been gone a long time. Had one of those gunmen taken her out?
He pulled his cell from his pocket and glanced at his blank screen. She hadn’t gotten the jammer turned off yet. They still had no backup. No way of knowing if Ellen had even been able to reach Nick.
Gage flashed back to those six months that he’d spent wondering if anyone was going to come to his rescue, if they knew where he was or even that he was alive.
They hadn’t. There had been no help coming. So he’d had to rely on himself. Then. And now.
“We need to get you out of here,” he said. Maybe it was time to cut off the wedding dress. He reached for the scissors.
But she caught his hand, her fingers sliding over his. “No.”
“It was your idea,” he reminded her.
Her face flushed. “I know. But now I don’t think it’s a good idea...”
He thought he understood, even though it knotted his stomach, this time with dread. It was still her wedding gown. She must have been having second thoughts about destroying it.
“You want to wear it again,” he said. “For Richard.”
“Richard.” His name slipped through her lips on a gasp. “Richard—what if he’s in danger?”
Gage didn’t give a damn. But then guilt flashed through him. Richard Boersman had never done anything to him. It had been the other way around. Gage was the one who’d stolen Megan from Richard. But he hadn’t been able to keep her.
“You really think anyone has a beef with Richard?” he asked with disbelief. “I’m sure he’s perfectly safe.” There was no doubt why she’d agreed to marry him. Richard was safe and boring and dull, and she didn’t have to worry about him breaking her heart like she’d constantly worried Gage would.
The irony was that she’d broken his instead.
She squeezed Gage’s hand around the scissors. “Please make sure he’s okay.”
“I’m not leaving you,” he said. If he walked away and left her alone and unprotected, he might never see her again. And he couldn’t risk that.
Couldn’t risk never seeing her beautiful face again, never touching her soft skin...
His free hand moved up to cup her cheek. He skimmed his thumb along