I crushed her against me, my arms locking around her as if I could hold her inside my ribs, inside my skin.
Never let go.
I pressed my lips against her hair and the crown of her head, breathing her in.
She was fierce. But right now, she was holding on. To me. Her fists clung to my shirt, her breath ragged.
I cupped her face, my fingers threading into her espresso hair and tilting her head up. Her pulse thundered beneath my touch, matching mine, wild and unchecked.
Her eyes went dark, furious that she’d needed me, furious that I’d come for her anyway. Relief warred with pride, defiance with desperation.
And under it all, she was trembling.
She didn’t want me to see it. Didn’t want to break.
But I saw her anyway. I always did.
Her lip quivered for half a second before she caught it with her teeth. Her breath hitched.
“Blue,” I whispered, my forehead leaning against hers. “You don’t have to hold it together for me.”
She tried to turn her face, to bury it in my chest like maybe the silence would swallow the sound. But I wouldn’t let her hide. I didn’t want her to be alone in that kind of fear.
So I held her.
I let her cry.
And when her tears finally slowed, I brushed them from her cheeks with my thumbs.
Then, I kissed her, willing it to shield her, to make her untouchable even to fate.
She kissed me back, all desperation and disbelief, as if second chances were a myth she didn’t dare trust.
I eased her down onto the hay with my arms braced around her, caging her in. Not to trap, but to protect. I needed her close. Needed her safe.
Her fingers twisted in my hair, pulling me tighter.
The world could be burning outside that barn. Let it.
Right now, I wasn’t letting her go.
Every ounce of love. Every promise. Every damn thing I had left in me, I gave them all to her.
36
NOAH
“I don’t like this, Dom,” I said, cold. “We’ve got to get Maya out of Buffaloberry Hill.”
Maya didn’t say a word, her silence uncertain.
“No,” he shot back. “That’ll make her look guilty. A flight risk.”
Damn it. He was right.
He added, “What we need is to hide the necklace. Not her.”
I scrubbed a hand over my face. “So what do they have? Enough for a warrant…how?”
