He gently tossed the autographed ball to me. I caught it and studied the signature. Sure enough. There was the little smear on the corner of the signature from when I had taken the ball back and touched the signature before the marker ink was dry.
“Lover boy finally take no for an answer?” Jude asked, bringing me back to the present.
I rolled my eyes. “Did you bug my car too? My purse?”
“No.” Jude sauntered over to the couch and sat down like he owned the place. “I just recognized the look on his face. He wasn’t mad I was here because he thought I was a threat to you. He looked at me like I was a threat tohim.”
I braced my hands on the kitchen island. “Whatever. This is not about him. This is aboutyounot understanding boundaries. Get the fucking cameras out of my apartment. And whatever you did to the door.”
“And windows,” he added.
I balled my hands into fists and pursed my lips as a scream vibrated in my throat. “Are you kidding me?”
“They’re just sensors,” he said as he casually scrolled his phone. “I get an alert when they open or close.”
“And that doesn’t seem creepy to you?!”
“It seems like a reasonable safety measure,” he said with an irritable level of nonchalance.
I was going to kill this man.
He had survived a mobster, men hunting him on a train, and an FBI investigation, but he was going to die at the hands of a pissed-off professor.
I stomped toward the couch, ready to berate him, when he reached out and slid his hand around the back of my thigh.
I froze as my mind was immediately taken back to the cabin. To the last time he was sitting on the couch and I was standing in front of him. To the moment he cupped the back of my knee, drew me in, and gave me my first kiss.
But we weren’t in the cabin.
We were in my apartment. I was still dressed in my teaching attire.
Everything had changed. Right?
The distressing pang in my heart told me that absolutelynothinghad changed.
“I’m trying to keep you safe,” he said. “The Marshals won’t step in. I’m at the limit of how many favors Cole can do for me. I’m trying to give you space, but I can’t stomach the thought of something happening to you.”
“Breaking into my apartment isn’t the answer.”
He squeezed my thigh. “Technically, I didn’t break in. I had a key.”
“A key that you stole.” I dug a hand into my hair. “I’m trying so hard to give you the benefit of the doubt. To forgive you. To move on. But you lied to me. You said you never make promises that you can’t keep, and you promised to be truthful. You promised you wouldn’t keep me in the dark.” I tipped my head back and laughed at the ceiling. “I don’t even know who you are.”
Slowly, he stood, his hand never leaving my body. He slid his palm from my thigh to my hip to my waist before stretching to his full height and towering over me.
But his touch was gentle as ever. With his free hand, he took mine and laced our fingers together. “Hi. My name is Judah Greear. I live in Newark, New Jersey. I work for the FBI out of the headquarters in New York City. And I am madly in love with Dr. Amelia Hawthorne.”
My throat constricted and tears pricked my eyes. I stumbled back as he took a step forward.
“She was the last person I was supposed to fall in love with, but I fell anyway.” His hand left my waist as he tucked my hair behind my ear and cupped my cheek. “I fell in love with her mind. I fell in love with her sassy mouth. I fell in love with her heart and how tender it is. I fell in love with her wit. I fell in love with how fucking beautiful she is.” His thumb smoothed over my lips. “I fell in love with every piece of her in ways I didn’t think were possible.”
Another step forward for him. Another step back for me.
“I fell in love with her eyes. With her lips. With her smile. I broke every rule for her because, for the first time in my life, I fell in love with something bigger than the duty I felt for my country. I risked everything for her. And I will keep risking it all. There won’t be a day that goes by that I will not wake up thinking of how to protect and serve her above all else.”
I gasped as my back hit the wall. His lips ghosted over mine, teasing me with the familiarity I had missed.
“It doesn’t matter if she never loves me. It doesn’t matter if she hates me. The only thing that will ever matter is how much of myself I can give her.”
