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“You risked your life by trusting Camille.”

“So? It’s my life to risk.”

She nods, turning over the information, asking herself if this is a set up. From me. Or my boss. Or some other organization. She shakes her head, shaking off all those possibilities.

And she looks at me like she’s settled on one:

I betrayed her.

“How am I supposed to trust you now?” she asks.

“I didn’t kill you,” I say.

“You need me alive,” she says.

“I won’t kill you.” I look her in the eyes. I admit the truth, even though it terrifies me. “I can’t. I’m too in love with you.”

For a second, her cheeks flush. She hears it. Believes it even. Then she shifts into assassin mode, all steel and need to fight her way out.

The phone interrupts us with another ping. An update on the offer for her life.

Last known location, Greece.

Along with the coordinates of Yorgos’s hideout.

“Fuck, Matteo. You really don’t want to give me time to have my way with you, do you?” She shifts off the bed.

Even though she’s naked and I’m dressed, she exudes power and control.

Jamie in all her glory.

If I have to die, this is how I want to go.

She looks me in the eyes and she launches herself at me.

But she doesn’t hit me. Or knock me over. Or plunge a knife in my heart.

No, she does something far stranger.

She kisses me.

She throws her arms around me.

She melts into my body.

My lips part for hers. My tongue swirls around hers.

Her kiss is soft and slow and packed with every bit of life and death we share.

It might be our last.

It needs to stay with us to wherever we go after this.

I hold her close, kissing back with everything I have.

I’ve never wanted life the way other people have, but mortality tastes different on her lips.

“You did this. Figure out how to undo it,” she says as she releases me. She slips into her sundress and sandals and moves into the main room in search of her bag.