Free On Thin Ice (Special Ops) by Capri Montgomery Page A

thought if they were married that would change and he would spend more time with her at home. “Either your job or me, Jet. Which one of us would you rather be married to?”
     
    “Why do I have to choose one over the other? I love my job and you know that. Why can’t we just stay the way we are? You were the one who said you didn’t want a wedding, a husband or a live-in boyfriend.” Apparently that answer hadn’t been the one she was looking for and she ended things right there. She knew he was going off on a mission and instead of at least waiting until he got back to drop the move in with me, marry me, make babies with me, bomb on him she had done it barely an hour before he had to leave.
     
    He didn’t want to move in with her. He didn’t want to marry her. He didn’t want to make babies with her and he didn’t know why. She was beautiful. She was fun, but she wasn’t the one. He wasn’t even sure he was looking for the one woman that he would want forever with. He had gone through life unmarried all this time; he didn’t see a need to change that, not even with Charlie.
     
    Maybe what had him more baffled was that when Henri mentioned marrying Akira he hadn’t had that gut churning reaction that he usually got when anybody mentioned the word marriage in the same sentence as his name.
     
    “I should get moving.” He checked over the equipment she gave him. Henri was the only contact he had who didn’t expect him to pay her for the use of her weapons. Saving her brother’s life once probably endeared him to her good graces. Amazingly he was friendlier with her than her brother. He didn’t know why, but he and Henri just clicked, while he and Paul hadn’t really taken to friendship with each other. Maybe it was because Henri was laid back and easy going, but she was also kick-butt like an Amazonian warrior. They meshed, and the friendship was one that neither party would ever betray.
     
    “Seriously, Jet; marry her.”
     
    “Henri,” he warned in a low tone.
     
    “It’s clear you love her. Maybe you’re not dating. Maybe you’re not even close, but I know you, Jet. The anger I see in your eyes right now you might be able to pass off as some noble “man who hates man who hits woman” type of thing, but the fear,” she pointed to his face. “The fear is for her and it’s real. It’s from your heart and that, my good man, is a sure sign that you love her. I don’t know the whole story, but I think you should marry her.”
     
    “Why don’t you worry about getting yourself married, Henri?”
     
    She laughed. “No thank you. Not now. Not ever.” She shook her head and held up her hands in surrender. “I’ll let it drop, Jet, but you know I’m right. That’s all I’m going to say on the matter.”
     
    She just had to get the last word in—as always. It was going to take a strong man to live with her…maybe a man as obsessed with guns as she was. Now that would make an interesting pairing.
     
    “Be careful, Jet. I’d hate to lose my friend and then have to go to war with the Russians.”
     
    “Careful is my middle name, Henri.”
     
    “No it’s not,” she shook her head and gave him a devious grin. “Jethro Jamison Jackson.”
     
    “Why do you have to be so gosh darn good at finding information?” He mumbled and she laughed. He had dropped his middle name from use before he hit junior high school. He didn’t like it. He didn’t use it, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t still the name on his birth certificate. Legally he was Jethro Jamison Jackson. He preferred to just go by Jet; Jet Jackson if they wanted to be more formal. He didn’t really like for people to call him Jethro and he definitely didn’t like for them to call him by his full name. When anybody called him by his full name it reminded him of all the times his mother had used it when he had done something stupid that landed him in her not so good graces.
     
    He climbed into the truck, gave one