“Oh my God. What the fuck is this?” His lungs burned with his whisper, and his tongue felt heavy, numbly expressing his confusion. “Are you real?”
She let the bike fall as she scrambled off it and launched at his chest. He stumbled back, breathless, dazed, arms around her too-thin waist, and tripped over a branch. His back hit the ground, her body draped over him.
Then her lips fell upon his, moving desperately, urgently, wet and salty with tears. She scattered kisses across his face, his cheeks frozen in shock. “I didn’t expect you until tonight.” She kissed the corners of his mouth, his chin, his nose. “I’m so sorry, Jay. I’m sorry. I missed you so much.”
He traced the smatter of freckles on her cheekbone, the satiny skin warm with life. “I don’t understand. How is this real?” He slid his hand through the hair draping her face and watched it fall through his splayed fingers, mesmerized.
She sat upright, straddling him, her jeans hanging from her bony hips. “Let’s go inside.” Climbing to her feet, she bent over the bike.
“Leave it.” He missed her weight instantly, slight as it was, and desperately needed it pressing against him to validate his sanity.
As they walked back to the cabin, he intertwined their fingers, staring at her, unable to look away for fear she would disappear. “You haven’t answered me.”
A smile lifted the edges of her mouth. “Colson didn’t know about the custom hatch in the bus?”
He tripped over something beneath his feet, his eyes locked on hers. “No one knew.” It was a hiding place for his gun, and no one outside of the security team carried one. “You hid in the storage compartment?”
“I escaped through it with a gas mask, thermal imaging goggles, and a fire extinguisher.” She held up her arms, his hand still laced with hers. “Didn’t even get a burn.” She smiled, lowered her arms. “Though I wouldn’t have minded matching scars.” She brushed her ear where the bullet had grazed her. Then she reached for the backdoor and held it open. “I worried if Colson knew about the hatch, Roy would figure it out.”
He followed her inside, the tingling in his body residing, though he was far from lucid. “The remains…they removed a body.”
“Wasn’t the first time I framed her death.” Nathan stepped out of the kitchen and walked through the living room, approaching Jay slowly with his hands in his pockets. “Borrowing a charred cadaver was one of the easier tasks, especially since it didn’t need to be placed at the crime scene. Its existence was for you and Roy only. Though I may never be able to repay all favors I owe from this little venture.” He shrugged.
Jay’s emotions rocked from confusion to elation, landing in a blood-boiling rage. His teeth snapped together, and his muscles quaked. “You knew? You fucking knew all this time?”
She slipped between them and held up her hands. “Jay, calm down. This was my idea. It was the only way to end it.”
A red haze swarmed his vision. “Am I the only asshole who was excluded from this brilliant plan?”
“No.” She stepped into him and settled her hands on this chest. “Nathan was the only one who knew, and I didn’t call him until I made it out.” Her lashes fluttered over her hollow cheeks. “You couldn’t know. Roy would’ve seen right through you.”
Fuck Roy. His heart pounded as he sifted through all the risks she took, all the ways it could’ve gone so horribly wrong. He wanted to wrap his arms around her and never let go. And he would, after he sorted out all the hurt battling through him. “Go to the bedroom. I’ll deal with you in minute.”
She huffed and balled her hands on her hips.
“Now!” He thrust a finger at the hallway.
Charlee’s shoulders shot to her ears, and she took off in the desired direction.
He dropped his hand, flexing it at his side, and glared at Nathan. “You’ve lied to me about her death not once, but twice. Never. Again.”
The skin around Nathan’s eyes tightened. “There won’t be an again.”
“No, there fucking won’t be.” He nodded to Tony, who lingered in the kitchen doorway. “Call that pilot, ask him to come back. You and Nathan have the next three months off. A paid vacation. Go on a trip, practice drills, fuck each other’s brains out, do whatever it is bodyguards do.”
He pushed past Nathan and followed Charlee’s sweet scent down the hall. Two weeks of pain lifted little by little with each step. He breathed clearer. His feet moved steadier. It was funny how a passing of time could rip you apart, and all it took was one freeing moment to solder the pieces back together.
Closing and locking the bedroom door, he turned to face the incarnation of his universe. She was a goddess in a way, wielding the power to destroy and rebuild him at will. His blood pumped with appreciation, respect, longing. It also thrummed with the need to balance that power. “Take off your clothes.”