Code Name: Tiara by Sawyer Bennett
CHAPTER 25
Jackson
Christ, I’m tired. I thought I’d crash on the flight and be somewhat refreshed, but I couldn’t sleep. All I could think about was leaving Camille back at the Bretaria airport, crying her eyes out.
Both of us finally saying what we’d been feeling.
That we love each other.
Then we parted, and that was that.
There’s nothing at peace within me, and I could not find enough calm to close my eyes and sleep. Everything feels wrong, and I’m wound tight as a clock.
Living at the Jameson headquarters in one of the five apartments Kynan built on the fourth floor is quite the convenience when it comes to my commute. I get home at almost 7:00 a.m. Kynan texted me earlier to relax and rest today, that we would talk and debrief tomorrow.
But I don’t want to wait for tomorrow. I unpack, start some laundry, and make myself an omelet. I shower, throw on some clothes, and now with a tumbler of coffee in hand, I make my way down to the second floor where Kynan’s office is located.
I pass several teammates and coworkers along the way. Ladd is at his desk in the pit and calls out, “Welcome back, asshole.”
“Bite me, dickwad,” I reply affectionately. There’s some good in being back.
“Lunch?” he asks, and I give him a thumbs-up. I’ve been craving Primanti’s.
As I approach Kynan’s office, which has glass walls just like all the perimeter offices, I note that he is alone. I’m glad—I want to get this over with, and waiting isn’t my strong suit.
He glances up and sees me approaching, so I don’t need to knock. He waves me in and stands from his desk, reaching out his hand. “Welcome back,” he says jovially.
We clasp hands. “Thanks. Good to be back.”
Lie.
Kynan motions to a chair and I sit. “What are you doing here?” he asks, sitting again. “Our debrief isn’t until tomorrow. Thought you’d be catching up on some sleep.”
“Yeah, well, I thought if it’s okay with you, we’d just knock it out.”
“Of course,” Kynan replies and settles back in his chair. “I got your written report up through the day before the birthday party.”
And he knows what happened at the party as we had a lengthy conversation not long after I took out the assassin with a well-placed and very painful shot to the back of her knee. She’ll have a limp the rest of her life, but it’s not like she’ll need to walk very far in prison. She’ll be just fine.
“I have to say,” Kynan drawls, leaning back and clasping his hands behind his head, “this has turned out to be one of the more exciting missions. Although Saint might give you a run for your money with his heist shenanigans.”
I’ve heard all about that, as well as Cruce protecting the president’s niece and Bebe taking out a Russian mobster who’d set her up to go to prison.
I nod, smile, and then look Kynan in the eye. “I had an inappropriate relationship with Camille Winterbourne while on mission.”
Kynan’s mouth sags open for a moment, but he recovers, not even moving from his relaxed perch leaning back in his chair. “Care to explain?”
I shrug. “We had sex, more sex, and even more sex. Feelings got involved. I fell in love with her, she with me, but she’s a princess and I’m not royalty, so she’s there and I’m here. Just thought I should disclose my inappropriate behavior in case you want to fire me.”
“Why would I fire you?” Kynan asks dryly, now straightening in his chair. He leans forward, clasps his hands on his desk, and says, “I was having sex with Joslyn while I was protecting her.”
I blink at him in surprise, and he says, “True story. But I need to know, did it compromise your duties in any way?”
I shake my head. “I was probably more focused on protecting her.”
“And ultimately, you got the job done, taking out the assassin, saving the king’s life, and keeping his daughter safe. I’m surprised he didn’t offer her in marriage or even on a platter for such a job well done.”
I snort, imagining Camille on a platter surrounded by fruit, an apple in her mouth.
Kynan’s expression softens. “Sucks leaving someone you love.”
“Beyond sucks,” I mutter, picking at a string on my jeans.
“So go back and get her,” Kynan suggests, and my eyes snap to his. He looks at me as if what he said has merit. “If you love each other, I’m not sure what you’re doing here.”
“I work here,” I point out.
“Don’t be a dumbass,” he retorts and it makes me sit up straighter. “If you love each other, you make it work.”
“It would be kind of hard to do my job from Bretaria.” The sarcasm in my voice is thick.
It’s with heavy disappointment that Kynan regards me. I can see in his expression he thinks I’m about ten kinds of dumb. “You can do your job from anywhere, you know. Live in Bretaria, meet up with a team in the Congo for a mission. It would be just like deploying.”
My eyebrows draw inward with skepticism. “You’d let me do that?”
Kynan doesn’t respond, just lets me conclude that his is a sincere offer.
And while I appreciate it, it really doesn’t solve my problem. “We’re still not suitably matched.”
“What the fuck does that even mean?” he asks.
“She’s royalty, for fuck’s sake,” I growl. “It’s tradition. You have to be of royal blood or a multi-gazillionaire to even look at her.”
“Oh, bullshit,” Kynan says with a dismissive wave. “Thomas married Juliana, whose only claim to fame was she played volleyball for Brazil in the Olympics. She’s neither royal nor rich and not even in the top tier of volleyball players at the time either, as they didn’t medal.”
I reel back as if he just punched me square in the chest. As I breathe in, I wheeze a bit.
“Never crossed your mind, did it?” he asks.
“No, it never did,” I murmur, then a horrible feeling flushes through me. “But surely Camille thought of that at some point. She was the one always pointing out the requirements she had to meet for a marriage.”
Kynan wags his finger. “No. You don’t get to do that.”
“Do what?” I ask with a frown.
“Second-guess her. Especially when she’s not here to defend herself.”
I hear what he’s saying, but fuck if that kernel of doubt doesn’t explode into something bigger. Kynan’s eyes move past me to look at something outside his office. His mouth curves in a smirk, and he motions with his hand at someone to come in.
I sigh, because I want to continue to talk this out with Kynan. He’s the clear optimist, and I’ve decided we’re unworkable. I need him to knock some sense and rationality into me.
There’s a slight knock on the metal doorjamb. “I don’t want to intrude.”
My body goes numb and the hair rises on the back of my neck. I know that sweet voice, but no… there’s no way.
Kynan stands, looking at the person behind me. I don’t have the guts to turn around and see if my ears are playing tricks on me.
Then Kynan rounds his desk, walking past me with his hand out. “Princess Camille… it’s so very nice to meet you. I’m Kynan McGrath.”
My ears start ringing, and I don’t even hear what Camille says in return. Knowing her, she probably told him to call her Camille because she’s easygoing that way.
I shoot out of my chair and whip around, and yes… there she is. Looking a bit rumpled with dark circles under her eyes, but the same beautiful, indomitable Camille Winterbourne.
She looks past Kynan to me and offers a faint smile of uncertainty.
“Well, now that Jackson is done with his dipshittery,” Kynan says softly, but neither of us looks over at him. “Please feel free to use my office as long as you need.”
Dipshittery?
I can’t help but look at him, and he winks as he exits and closes the door behind him.
My head swivels back to Camille. I check her out head to toe and then do it again. “What are you doing here?”
“Um…”
“Never mind,” I mutter and snatch her into my arms. My mouth is hot on hers, and I’m not sure I’ve ever felt anything as right as this.
Her arms go around my neck, fingers threading through my hair, and I kiss her as if my very next breath depends on it. I bend her backward, kiss her for what seems like forever, but then a strange, uneasy feeling comes over me. I lift my head slowly and look out through Kynan’s office window. Several people are watching us, and the minute I make eye contact with them, they scatter like cockroaches.
Moving my eyes back to Camille, I let her stand upright but I don’t release her. “Again, what are you doing here?”
Her arms stay around my neck. “I came to get you.”
“Get me?” I ask, not understanding what that means, but by the way my heart starts galloping, I think I have an inkling.
“Yes,” she says with a smile. “I want you to run away with me… wherever you feel like. Somewhere here in the States or Europe or even Africa. Anywhere we want to go.”
“Extended vacation?” I tease, because I know she’s talking about something big.
Instead of answering, she adds a new destination. “To Bretaria, if you want.”
I go still.
Bretaria? Where she’s expected to marry a rich royal?
Camille takes a breath and when she lets it out, she says, “Apparently, the whole royal-and-rich thing is not a true prerequisite for my prince.”
“Says who?” I ask curiously.
“My father.”
I’m confused. “But… isn’t he the one who told you the type of man you had to marry? I know damn well he’s the one who told me I wasn’t good enough for you.”
“As to the latter, he regrets those words and said they were out of anger,” she explains. “As to the former, he never actually came out and said this is the type of man you have to marry. It’s just that he and my mother kept pushing those type of men toward me as it was their preference. But my father told me that he’d much rather I be happy and in love, no matter where the man is from or how much money is in his bank account.”
I’m reeling. That’s huge.
“Your father is now playing matchmaker, huh?” I ask.
“He literally shoved me onto his plane to come after you,” she replies, and I chuckle at the imagery. “Of course, he insisted I go to bed and get a good night’s sleep first.”
“If you slept, then how did you get here so fast?”
Camille laughs. “Turns out my father’s plane is a lot bigger than mine—and a lot faster.”
“Makes sense.” We smile at each other, no words needed, just happy to be in each other’s arms. We now have potential.
Serious potential to be something.
“You said we could go anywhere,” I say, coming back down to earth. “You didn’t give up your right to the crown, did you?”
“No,” she replies, stepping out of my embrace and clasping her hands. “My dad gave me several choices, and well, I guess I need to know if any interest you.”
“Choices?”
Camille nods. “You could come back to Bretaria with me with my father’s full approval. And there would be no pressure for us to be anything other than what we are right now, although my father seems to think we’ll be so much more.”
Fuck… I think that too. The king is smart.
“Or,” she continues, “I can take some time off. A sabbatical is what he called it, and I can come here and be with you, so we can see what we might become together.”
“Or,” she says in a somber voice, and I can hear within her tone that while she’ll consider it, it won’t be the right choice for her, “he’ll let me abdicate my right, and he’ll choose another family member as his heir. I can be free of the crown forever.”
“Not an option,” I growl, reaching out to take her hands. “You love Bretaria and the people. You have a deep sense of duty to them. You not being involved in the monarchy and the mines is not an option.”
“But I don’t want you to give up your job here,” she says, pointing out a dilemma for her. “I can’t ask you to give up what you love so I can have what I love.”
“I don’t have to give it up,” I explain. “Whether we’re living in Bretaria or Africa or somewhere else, I can still work for Jameson. I’ll be able to go on missions no matter where I’m based.”
Camille’s eyes light up hopefully. “Really? That’s amazing.”
“So the only question becomes… where will we go?” I lift her hands to my mouth and kiss the knuckles on one, then the other.
“I’d like to see Pittsburgh,” she says, “maybe starting with your apartment.”
Yes, I’d like that too. I kiss her again, wrapping her tightly in my arms. When I lift my mouth from hers, I say, “I want to go visit my parents. Up for a stay in an old farmhouse?”
“I’d love it,” she replies brightly. “And maybe we can see a bit more of DC?”
I nod, digging the flush to her cheeks and the sparkle in her eyes. Seeing it on her face and hearing it in her words… she’s happy.
Really, really happy, and that means I am too.
“Then after,” I say, without needing to think on it much, “we’ll go home to Bretaria.”
Camille gasps. “Really? You’d want to do that?”
I cock an eyebrow. “Your dad isn’t going to throw me in his dungeon, is he?”
She giggles and shakes her head. “There’s no dungeon.”
“That’s not what Dmitri said,” I mutter, but then I sober so she knows I’m not making my decision lightly. “But yes, really… I want us to go to Bretaria. I want you to be the best princess ever and run those mines like the boss lady I know you are. And I’ll work for Jameson and take missions when I’m not helping you do whatever you want me to do.”
“Dreams come true,” she murmurs, more to herself than to me. But then her eyes cloud over. “It’s a lot of pressure… being with me and what I do.”
“I expect if I were to become a prince, I’d have even more pressure, huh?”
Eyes as big as saucers, she asks hesitantly, “Would you ever want to be a prince?”
“I know I want to be with you forever, so if that means becoming a prince, I suppose I could live with it. But if and when the time comes to put those desires into action, I’ll be doing the formal proposing, okay?”
“Okay,” she whispers.
“I might ask your dad to borrow an appropriate ruby, though,” I say.
Camille shakes her head. “A diamond, please. It can be small. I have enough ostentatious jewels.”
I laugh as I nod. “Deal.”
Camille’s eyes well with tears, and I fear I’ve said something wrong.
“Hey,” I urge, catching one on my finger. “Don’t cry.”
“I’m just… so happy. Yesterday, or was it the day before, I don’t know … I’m so discombobulated with everything that’s happened… we were over. We said our goodbyes. Nothing was going to change that. And now…”
“And now, our life starts,” I finish for her. “I get to be with the woman I love, and I get to live out my days making her happy.”
“I don’t know that you can make me any happier, Jackson,” she says on a tiny sob. “But I love you so much and I’m willing to let you try. As long as I have the same opportunity.”
I laugh and pull her in close, hugging her so hard she gasps. “How about we go to my apartment right now and make each other even happier?”
Camille’s smile burns brighter than the sun as she takes my hand and tugs me to the door. “That’s the smartest thing either of us has said so far. Let’s go.”
And I follow the woman of my dreams toward a reality I never thought possible.
This mission will change Ladd McDermott’s life forever.When he gets word that the CIA has disavowed his former partner, who also happens to be his ex-fiancée, he’ll risk everything to rescue her. Click here for details about Code Name: Disavowed.
Take a walk on the wicked side!Head up to Wyoming for a dose of kinky cowboys, broody alphas, and more pleasure than you can handle. Click here to read Wicked Fall.
Click hereto see other works by Sawyer Bennett
Don’t miss another new release by Sawyer Bennett!!! Sign up for her newsletter and keep up to date on new releases, giveaways, book reviews and so much more.
Connect with Sawyer online:
Website
Goodreads
Amazon
BookBub
About the Author
New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal Bestselling author Sawyer Bennett uses real life experience to create relatable stories that appeal to a wide array of readers. From contemporary romance, fantasy romance, and both women’s and general fiction, Sawyer writes something for just about everyone.
A former trial lawyer from North Carolina, when she is not bringing fiction to life, Sawyer is a chauffeur, stylist, chef, maid, and personal assistant to her very adorable daughter, as well as full-time servant to her wonderfully naughty dogs.
If you’d like to receive a notification when Sawyer releases a new book, sign up for her newsletter (sawyerbennett.com/signup).