Page 178 of The Fallen One

I was pretty sure that man would always be paranoid when it came to my safety, even when the threat of The Collective no longer loomed overhead.

Right now, Carter was chasing a lead he’d somehow pulled from Craig Paulsen last week. I didn’t even want to know how he’d managed to get Craig to talk after Falcon faked his death.

Carter had smiled over FaceTime and casually promised, “He’s alive, and he can still walk.” Then he’d winked and added, “Just not well.”

Honestly, I was just impressed Craig was still breathing. I knew Carter was trying hard, in his words, to be a better man, and I’d give the man an A for effort. I planned to thank him, too, in many, many ways and with a plethora of orgasms as soon as he returned home.

When my phone lit up from a notification, I hurried over and grinned at the sight of his name there.

Hubby: Miss me?

Me: More than a little.

Me: Tell me your lead gave you a new lead.

Since the mercenaries who’d tried to kill Craig had been dead ends, we only had Craig’s “tip” to go off, in addition to the name of one elite hacker Gwen had finally discovered. The problem was, we couldn’t find the hacker, and Carter had concerns that was because he was already dead.

Hubby: Yeah, we got a pretty big lead, but it’s going to require some deep cover work.

I dropped onto the couch at his words, trying not to let the sting of disappointment that he’d be gone longer hit me. I understood why, but I just . . . well, loved and missed him so much.

Hubby: Mya and Oliver volunteered to do it since they’re the only ones on the team without families.

Hubby: Go to the bedroom door, angel.

Before I’d even registered what Carter was trying to tell me with his last text, Dallas was on his feet. He ran to the door, scratching at it and trying to use his jaws on the handle.

I dropped the phone in my rush to get to the bedroom door and unlock it, hauling it open with much more force than necessary.

Carter was standing there, hands bracing against the exterior frame, wearing a sexy smile and nothing else. There was a trail of his clothes behind him, and it was the best sight I’d seen in a long time.

“For the sake of expediency,” he said with a smirk, then dragged me against him.

After coming down from the high of his arms around me and his mouth on mine, I murmured, “What a way to greet a girl. Guessing security’s not allowed upstairs.”

“Definitely not.” Keeping my feet off the ground, holding me tight to his hard frame, he whispered, “Do you know what day it is?”

It took me a few seconds to work through the memories, and then it dawned on me. “Thirteen years since you rescued me. Since our first time meeting.”

He brushed his lips against mine, still holding me up against him. “I’ll never let you fall, angel. Not ever.”

Pressing my mouth to his, I murmured, “Just fall in love. More and more.”

PART IV

NEXT…

EPILOGUE

CARTER

BUSHKILL FALLS, PENNSYLVANIA – THREE MONTHS LATER

“Stalker tendencies, huh?”

I about dropped my phone at Mason’s words. I closed the security app on my phone since he’d caught me checking in on my wife at her lab in Dubai. “Any news?” I asked, hoping to deflect from the fact I was most definitely obsessed with my wife, and I had no plans to ever change that. Thankfully, that was exactly how she liked me.

“Nothing from Oliver or Mya yet.” Mason looked around Falcon’s headquarters, his gaze shooting to Gwen working quietly behind her laptop. It was only the three of us there tonight.

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