Page 31 of Concerto of Crows and Cowards

“Promise, promises,” she said.

He was laughing as he kissed her.

“Should we leave?” Nate asked. “I could be wrong, but I don’t remember make-out sessions being part of the ops.”

“Hey,” Atticus said. “My agency has a reputation to uphold. Maybe if you two are finished we can get out of here and call this in for cleanup. The SEAL commander just radioed in and said the senator’s daughter is secure. We can debrief later.”

“Much later,” Max said.

Chapter Fourteen

Jade wasn’t surprised to see a very irritated Max standing on her doorstep in DC two days later. They’d flown back to Texas together, but as soon as Atticus had debriefed the team, she’d snuck away like a thief in the night and flown back home with Atticus. She’d been trying to make it a clean break. End of mission. End of their affair.

They didn’t have a future together. Max needed someone who could pass on the Devlin name, someone who could give him more than she ever could. And she needed—no, it was best not to think about what she needed. Those answers hurt too badly. She was doing what was best in the long run. Now she just had to make Max understand it.

But him standing right in front of her, looking rumpled and sexy, was more than she could resist.

“You couldn’t possibly think I’d just let you go,” he said, pushing past her into the apartment.

She let out a little sigh and wondered what to say. What to do. “No, but I had hoped maybe you would. For both our sakes. You’re making this too hard, Max. Why do you have to be so stubborn?”

His smile was a vicious slash of white, and she swallowed at the determination she saw there. No, he wasn’t going to make this easy.

“I’m a fool in love, and I guess you’re just lucky that way.”

She didn’t try to move away from him as he came closer, his body heat enveloping her like a caress. He touched the side of her face and lowered his head so their foreheads touched. “I thought I’d lost you. Nothing in my life has ever been that terrifying.”

She closed her eyes and soaked up the comfort he was offering, touching her hands to his chest to offer her own. “It scared me too,” she admitted. “I thought of you. It’s what made me fight to get there in time. I wanted to be able to touch you again. To taste you just one more time.”

“And yet you ran away,” he whispered against her cheek.

“Yes,” she said. “Because I had to see if I was strong enough.”

“And what did you discover?”

“That when it comes to resisting you I’m very, very weak. Kiss me, Max. Make me feel alive.”

His mouth devoured hers in a kiss meant to show them both that they were still living—still breathing. Her hands clasped around his neck and he encircled her in his arms.

“God, I love you,” she said almost desperately and then tried to pull away as panic engulfed her.

He froze and then captured her before she could escape his grasp. “Hold on a second. Say it again.”

“I can’t,” she said, shaking her head. “It hurts too much.”

“I’ll go first,” he insisted. “I love you. I heard you say the words, and you can’t take them back. I need to hear them again.”

“It’s just something people say in the heat of the moment.” Her voice caught on a sob, and she wondered if she’d ever be able to forgive herself for lying to him.

“God, Jade. Give me something. Anything. Why are you being so stubborn?” Frustration edged his voice and he ran his fingers through his hair.

“You don’t understand!” she cried out.

“Then explain it to me! You’ve given me your body. You trust me with your life, but not your heart. And you say you love me like it’s torture, but you can’t look me in the eye and say it now. So yes, explain what the problem is. Explain why I can’t get down on my knees and ask you to spend the rest of your life with me. To grow old with me and have children with me.”

“I can’t have children!” she screamed and then clamped a hand over her mouth as a sob escaped.

Every last bit of air deflated from his lungs as the words penetrated. It felt as if the oxygen had been sucked out of the room. Sound ceased to exist—just an empty void as the blood rushed to his ears.

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