What She Thought She Knew (Rachel Moore Mystery Book 1), стр. 45
I huffed in annoyance. "You're such a kill-joy." I pretended to be upset.
It was John's turn to grin. "Yeah, but you love that about me!"
You have no idea how much I love you, I thought.
I sighed, and grudgingly got out of the warm bed. "We better get dressed." I suggested.
I grabbed my pieces of clothing from their various locations.
My face flushed as I found my underwear hanging on the ceiling fan.
I put them on, along with the rest of my clothes.
I caught John staring at me.
I raised an eyebrow in question, but he merely smirked. "What? I'm just enjoying the show."
I flipped him the bird which caused him to laugh.
I muttered to myself about men being perverts, and waited for John to get dressed as well.
Once he did so, John embraced me. "Be careful, Rachel. I won't be around to protect you," he said.
I rested my head on his shoulder, and inhaled deeply his masculine scent. "I'll be fine. You'll be the one under the most danger."
John grunted, and placed his lips over mine.
I wrapped my arms around his neck, and deepened the kiss.
John ran his hands all over my back, and eventually pulled back.
He let out a breath. "I guess this is it."
I nodded, though I struggled to not get too emotional. You knew this was coming, Rachel. Be happy that you had at least one night with him.
I hid my face underneath John's chin, while his hold on me tightened.
We stayed in that position for as long as we could, granting our bodies the memories of our joining.
Tears prickled my vision. You will see him again, I thought reassuringly.
Against my wishes, John pulled away completely, and looked at me regretfully. "I should get ready…" He said.
I nodded, unable to say anything else.
John kissed me softly on my forehead.
I gave him a small smile, before I left.
Once I was in the privacy of my room, I pressed myself roughly against the door, and slid down as I covered my face with my arms.
For the first time in seven years, I cried.
________________________________________
After my brief crying session, I took my time to compose myself.
I decided to put on some light pink lipstick to add more color to my unusually pale skin.
When I deemed myself presentable, I took a deep breath, and walked out of my room.
I made my way to the garage where Elvira and Olsen were placing various boxes in the van.
They turned towards me.
I nodded at them in greeting. "Morning." I said.
"Good morning." They replied simultaneously.
I walked over to the steadily lessening pile of boxes, and proceeded to help them finish packing.
Not long afterwards, Predator and Gizmo came in with their personal belongings.
They added their belongings to the van.
A sleek black car pulled up, and a man with shades got out.
He took out a phone, before eventually putting it back in his pocket.
He caught me staring at him, and nodded in acknowledgment.
I realized that he was there for John and Fear.
I was pulled from my thoughts by the sound of the trunk closing.
We all got in and made our way to the airport.
Our flight was at 8am.
I absentmindedly looked at my watch and saw that it was 7:05am.
I coughed. "So, you guys ready to kick some Phantom ass?"
Predator replied for the whole group. "Hell yeah. No way will any Phantom bastard get us." He grinned at the last remark.
I leaned back into my chair, somewhat relieved at the fact that Predator seemed back to normal. Or as normal as a crazy Demolitions Expert could be.
________________________________________
The drive to the airport was quiet, and within thirty minutes we arrived at the runway.
We carefully loaded our expensive equipment onto the plane.
To distract myself, I helped out with the loading by purposely taking the heavier articles.
Together, we managed to load the plane in just under fifteen minutes.
As I looked at my watch, I noticed that we were ahead of schedule.
The ground crew was extremely helpful and cleared the area of any unwanted materials. They also moved the van out of the way.
The remainder of my team and I boarded the plane, and sat down in various parts of the sitting area.
As usual, Gizmo was busily typing away at his laptop, and allowed Olsen to glance curiously at the screen.
Predator sat down awkwardly, as if unsure whether he should have been here or not.
"You all right?" I asked
Said person glanced at me in surprise, but relaxed into his seat. "I'm fine boss," he replied. "It's just weird because I haven't been home in three years."
I nodded, and he turned his attention to staring out the window.
"Fasten your seat belts as we will commence take off." The pilot announced.
I did what was instructed, and leaned back in my chair.
I inhaled deeply in an attempt to calm myself.
Within minutes, the plane sped down the runaway, and was up in the air, the city of Rome steadily disappeared below us the higher we went.
I exhaled hard through my nose as I did my best to not think about my painful goodbye with John.
He continued to plague my mind.
I opted for taking a nap in hopes of allowing my mind to go blank.
I adjusted my position in my seat, and not too long afterwards I began to doze off.
________________________________________
The sound of low murmur woke me up from my nap.
I saw the figures of Elvira, Predator and Gizmo huddled together.
I checked my watch, and saw that I'd been asleep for around three hours.
I rubbed my stiff