Breathless and contented, they remained locked together, his chest heaving against her back.When he moved away, it was slow and careful, as if she were the most precious thing on earth.
* * *
“Are you trying to kill me with an overdose of pleasure?”Sable suggested when she finally released him and relaxed.
He laughed deep and slow.“I want you alive.Fit and back working on the team.”
“Working.”She sighed heavily.“Right now, that has to be a joke.”
“The closest I’m ever likely to get to one,” he conceded.“But that was great sex.”
“Is that all it is for you?”
“Should it be more?”The words were out of his mouth before he could stop them.
She looked so hurt.Why did he keep doing that?Why were his shields always up?He reached out and pulled her close.“How many times must I prove I can’t live without you?Losing you would be the greatest regret of my life.”
Pushing back, she looked at him, her eyes full of tears.“Crazy man.How long have you been holding that thought back?”
He shrugged.“Maybe for a moment, maybe since we met.”
“You don’t know?”
“Does it matter?”
This mix of emotion and need was new to him.Before Sable entered his life, if he wanted something, he took it.Now, if he wanted more, he had to give more, and keep on giving for the rest of his life.More than embracing that, he wanted it with every atom of his being.
“You’re the only one who can break me,” she husked, linking her arms around his neck.“You do know that?”
“I do now.”
“I would never have left unless it was to save your life.”
“I’m a big boy.I can look after myself.”
“Big boy, yes,” she conceded wryly.“Not sure about the rest.”
Laughing, he gently disengaged her hands to kiss each fingertip in turn.His kisses were tender.Sex, though incredible, wasn’t enough.He wanted more of Sable.He wanted all of her.Before her disappearance, he’d been a different man, but now he knew what he stood to lose.
“Hey,” she breathed, “You okay?Still want me?”
So much, it was frightening.“I might even love you—just a little, of course.”
Throwing her head back, she laughed with the confidence of a woman who knew she was loved.“I want all of you,” she said fiercely.
“Me too,” he admitted.
For once, that thought didn’t alarm him.
* * *
Elijah cupped her face, his thumbs brushing away tears.“Look at me,” he said quietly.
When she lifted her gaze to his, Elijah’s eyes were stormy and unguarded.“You’ve changed me,” he said, as if he could hardly believe it himself.“Something broke inside me when you left.I guess we never appreciate what we’ve got until it’s too late.”
Pressing his forehead to hers, he pledged softly, “I never want to be parted again—not for Black Meridian or to save my life.Not for anything on this earth while we’re still breathing.”
His words meant more than “I love you,” but it was his smile—not cynical or mocking—that wiped the years away, allowing her to believe, perhaps for the first time, that this could work.“If I go missing, would you hunt me down?”
