Page 54 of Cross Point

“I hate that you’re seeing me break like this,” she said, her voice cracked.

Maxwell gripped her face in his hands, forcing her to look at him. “You did not break, Trinity. Never that. You are the strongest person I have ever met, and I’m sorry that we added to your pain last night.”

“Of course, you would have had a nightmare after we made you talk about what haunted you.” Jackson’s voice was rough with self-recrimination. “I’m sorry, baby.”

“I want to go outside. I can’t breathe in here.”

“Here, baby. We’ll go outside, then. Anything you want.” Jackson picked her up, grateful that she didn’t push him away or try to get him to release her. Honestly, he wasn’t sure if he could let her go.

He needed to hold her.

He needed it like he needed air.

Maxwell opened the door leading to the balcony as Jackson carried her outside. He sat down on a large wicker chaise with thick, soft cushions with her in his lap. Maxwell sat down next to them, rubbing her back as they both continued to comfort her. She had stopped crying and was simply quiet.

Somehow the quiet worried him more.

Trinity fought to get her emotions back under control. Embarrassed, she sat up, wanting to put some distance between them. “I’m okay now.”

“Don’t. Please don’t pull away from us,” Maxwell said softly.

Allowing herself a few more seconds of comfort, she curled up on Jackson’s lap, letting herself enjoy the feeling of his arms wrapping around her as Maxwell rubbed his large hands up and down her legs that were lying across his lap. She took one of his hands and held it in hers, needing that added connection.

“Did you have a nightmare?” Jackson asked softly. “Was it about your last mission?”

She nodded. “Since then, I’ve had a problem with being in the dark. It’s why I’m still on medical leave. I can’t put my team at risk if I might freak out on an op. I’d put everyone in danger.” She sighed. “The problem is, I don’t know what else to do. I love my job and can’t imagine doing anything else.”

The men were quiet for a moment until Maxwell broke the silence. “Would you consider being my security expert?”

She looked up at him, stunned.

“I know this is pretty quick, and who knows, in a few months you may want to go back to being an agent. But until then, I could use someone with your expertise to look over my hotels and point out where we are deficient. You could travel with me.”

Jackson’s jaw tightened at that. He wanted to punch Maxwell in his rich fucking face for trying to lure her away from him. His life was on Crescent Island, and if she left with Maxwell, Jackson would lose her. Her small hand rubbed over the tense muscles of his chest, making him relax even when it took everything in him to keep his mouth shut.

“The offer is intriguing, but I don’t want to leave Jackson,” she said honestly. “His life is here on the island.”

“Understandable,” Maxwell said slowly. “I know this is soon, however, if we are going to make this relationship work, then maybe we should both consider moving here for the foreseeable future. What do you think of that, Jackson?”

“This is a lot of house for one person,” Jackson said softly, unsure how she would react.

Trinity was quiet as she thought it over. Her apartment back in Chicago wasn’t anything special. It was nice, but the real reason she liked it was because it was in the building that a lot of the IAD agents lived in, so she was closer to her friends. But that wasn’t enough to hold her there.

Her mind made up, she said, “I’ll have my stuff shipped out tomorrow.”

Pleased with her decision, she snuggled closer to Jackson, smiling when his arms tightened around her.

“Seriously?”

She raised her head to look at Jackson’s narrowed eyes. “Weren’t you serious?”

“Well, yeah. I just didn’t think it would be that easy.”

She smiled at him. “I have nothing holding me in Chicago. If I need to go back, I can always visit. And this way if I do some consulting for Max, we can both come back here when we aren’t traveling.”

Not wanting to push his luck, Jackson still had to ask, “Just how much traveling are we talking about?”

“It would be simple to switch my headquarters to the resort here instead of my hotel in London. I oversee most of the hotels in Europe, and I do have to travel to at least one of the locations about once a month, but most of my work is done by video conference calls and phone,” Maxwell added. “I am also training my sister to take over managing some of the properties.”

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