Page 426 of A Matter of Time

I couldn’t speak, feeling too much, heart and body both crazy, madly in love with Sam Kage. Sometimes it was overwhelming, what I felt for him, and all the words caught in my throat.

“Shit,” he muttered. “I had things to say.”

“Say them,” I said, staring down at his flushed face.

He shook his head.

“Why?”

He threw up his hands and then gestured at me.

I chuckled, my muscles tightening around him, and he groaned.

“You’re gonna kill me,” he muttered as I lifted up off him, causing him to grimace and grin at the same time. He patted his chest. “Lie down.”

I snuggled down into his shoulder, and he wrapped me in his arms, tucking the blanket around me. I never felt as cared for as I did when I was in Sam’s arms. “So tell me what⁠—”

“I love you.”

“What?”

“You heard me,” he grumbled.

I smiled at him. “Why do you love me?”

“Because you’re you and you’re mine,” he answered, his thumb sliding over my lips before he tipped up my chin and bent to kiss me.

It was a slow, deep, sensual kiss that I felt slither through my entire body.

“All mine.”

I was boneless in his arms, his warm skin and the hand stroking through my hair lulling me quickly into a very relaxed state. I was utterly spent and completely at his mercy.

“You know that, without you, I have no home,” he murmured, his lips on my forehead, his arms tightening around me, plastering my body to his. I willed myself not to cry. Sometimes the things he said were just too much. His honesty and the heat and strength of his words were overwhelming. “I really love you.”

And there was no doubt that he did.

“Did you hear me?”

“Yes.”

“Good.” He sighed, kissing my eyebrows, the bridge of my nose, whatever passed under his lips as I continued to lift my chin. “Now you gotta focus here, because I have a ton of stuff to tell you, and Dane’s gonna be here in probably another five minutes or so. I just barely convinced him to let me see you alone, and Agent Calhoun is…”

I shifted against him, and he made the contented noise I loved before he continued talking. It was no use explaining to him that my brain had shut off ages ago. I drifted off and didn’t worry about bringing it up. I was safe in his arms, and that was all that mattered.

The way Agent Calhoun kept glancing at me, it was easy to tell I was not his favorite person. He did, however, like Sam, which was why, even with what he called my shenanigans, he wasn’t throwing me into a deep, dark hole. For my part, I remained quiet. When he asked about the cuffs, and I explained, he looked really annoyed. Sam, on the other hand, was impressed with where I’d gone to get out of them.

“Only you,” he said, and his fingers trailed up the back of my neck into my hair. He couldn’t take his hands off me. “People will do anything for you.”

Which wasn’t true, but the way he was looking at me, I didn’t want to argue with him.

“So your hunch was right, Jory,” Agent Calhoun said slowly. “It looks like your friend Caleb Reid is actually innocent and his mother is the murderer.”

I leaned forward and looked at him, giving him all my attention.

“The knife we recovered at Mr. Reid’s residence had his mother’s prints on it and nothing else.”

I tried not to smile.