“Sweetheart, this is an op. Doesn’t matter. And you’re beautiful and perfect just as you are.”

“Is this what all ops are like?”

He snorted. “Hardly.”

“I have to say, I don’t care for it much. Well, except for being with you now. The rest is really scary and feels a bit…lethal.”

“I’d say you get used to it, but the truth is, if you do get used to it, then it’s a problem.”

“I think that’s what happened to George. His year in Vietnam. He got used to it, and it changed forever who he was.”

“That’s true for a lot of Vietnam vets. It’s why they changed how they rotate in soldiers. In Vietnam, a guy was sent in on his own with a three-hundred-sixty-five-day clock. Now a deployment is an entire ship or garrison. And special forces teams serve together, with new members rotating in as others leave.”

Or die.

He shook his head. “Why are we talking about this? I thought we were here to forget for a few minutes.”

“I guess this is part of who we are now too. Like George and Vietnam, this experience is going to change who we are.” She placed a hand on her belly. “You’ve already changed my life completely.”

He smiled at that, the look of serenity on her face as she touched her abdomen. He’d done one thing right in the twenty months since his injury. It had been an accident, but it was right. “I’ve only known about Fig for less than twenty-four hours, and already I can’t wait to hold our baby. Can’t wait to see you holding them.” He rose to his knees. “There’s probably going to be a period of time in which your breasts are going to be off-limits to me, so, if you don’t object, I’d like to lavish them with attention while I can.”

He leaned down and licked a pert nipple and she let out a soft sigh. “No objection, Your Honor.”

He started slow, but weeks of fantasy and two days of adrenaline combined with having her beautiful body in his arms again couldn’t compete with his limited control. It didn’t take long for him to find himself with his face between her spread thighs.

He took a deep breath, the smell of her arousal erasing everything bad from his mind.

He’d dreamed of pleasuring her like this again. Of hearing her shout his name, and now he was improbably here. In spite of everything, she wanted him. And he—he didn’t just want her. He was desperate for her.

He gave in to that desperation and stroked her clit with his tongue. She bucked at the sensation and slid her fingers in his hair, her nails grazing his scalp and sending pleasure up his spine.