Page 25 of Igniting Her

“Do not mistake operational trust for permission.”

“Permission for what? Standing in your hallway while you pretend your hands weren’t an inch from mine?”

“For believing this can be uncomplicated.”

“I never said uncomplicated.”

“You are twenty-six.”

Ellie’s eyes flashed. “And you’re forty-four. Look at us, both excellent at math.”

“I’m old enough to understand consequences you are choosing not to consider,” Cassie asserted.

“Stop doing that.”

“Doing what?”

“Making me younger every time I disagree with you.” The accusation stopped Cassie. Ellie’s hands had curled at her sides. She opened them deliberately. “I came here off shift,” she said. “Out of uniform. I know you’re my captain. I know this could be messy and stupid and bad for both of us. I came anyway. You don’t get to turn that into me not understanding my own choices.”

“Wanting something does not remove the imbalance.”

“No. It means the imbalance isn’t the only thing here.”

Thunder shook the window. Cassie had commanded inside burning structures with less effort than it took to hold her ground. “There are things you don’t know,” she said.

Ellie’s gaze flicked once toward the living room, as if the plaque might somehow exist in this house too. “About Calloway?”

“Leave her out of this.”

“I am.” Ellie’s voice gentled, which was worse. “I asked once. You made it clear that door was closed. I’m not here to force it.”

“Then what are you here to force?”

“You to stop lying.”

Cassie’s voice finally sharpened. “You know nothing about what I am protecting.”

“Maybe not. I know what you’re using to protect it.”

“And what would that be?”

“Me.” Ellie closed another foot of distance. Two remained. “You can tell yourself this is about rank or my age or whatever is behind that plaque. Some of it probably is. But you’re also scared because you want me and wanting me means you might have to let me matter.”

Cassie felt the hit of that behind every defense she had built. “Everyone on my crew matters.”

“There she is.” Ellie turned her face away for half a second. Hurt moved across it before anger covered it. “I didn’t drive through that storm for the captain’s answer.”

“The captain is not removable.”

“Neither is the woman in the tent.”

“She should have been.”

“But she wasn’t.”

Cassie said nothing. Rain hammered the roof. Ellie stood two feet away, breathing hard, freckles dark across her damp skin. “Say you don’t want me,” Ellie said.

Cassie’s pulse struck once, heavy and slow. “Want is not the question.”