He pressed me gently against the door frame, one hand at my waist, one tangled in my hair. My breath caught. My knees went weak. His forehead rested against mine between kisses, breaths mixing.
“I’m not leaving again,” he whispered against my lips. “Not unless you’re coming with me.”
“Promise?” I breathed.
He smiled faintly—small, real, just for me.
“I swear it, Detective.”
My heart finally steadied.
“Good,” I whispered. “Because I wasn’t planning to let you out of my sight.”
He huffed a soft laugh. “Good. Because I’m not planning to go anywhere.”
I pulled him into my lake house, kicked the door shut with my foot, and—
The rest of the world fell away.
41
Hawk
The door clicked shut behind us, and everything in my chest exhaled at once.
Julia didn’t let go.
Not when I dropped my duffel.
Not when I pulled her back into my arms.
Not when she buried her face in my neck and breathed me in like she’d been holding her breath for three days.
“You’re here,” she whispered.
“I’m here.”
Her fingers curled into my shirt, pulling me down into a kiss that was nothing like the frantic, desperate ones we’d shared under fire. This one was slow. Sure. A claiming and a homecoming at the same time.
The kind of kiss you give someone when you're sure you want a lifetime with them.
Her lips were soft and warm, tasting faintly of mint and cinnamon. I cupped her jaw with both hands, tilting her face up, deepening the kiss until she sighed into me—a sound that undid every knot inside me.
When she finally pulled back, her breath brushed my lips.
“I thought you’d stay away,” she whispered. “That the service would pull you back into that world, and I’d lose you.”
I slid my hands down her arms, slow, deliberate, feeling the tremor there.
“No,” I murmured. “Not this time.”
“Promise?”
“I already did.”
I brushed my nose against hers.
“And I meant it.”
