Page 157 of Covert Mission

Don’t be a fool. You’ll only get hurt more.

“Lucas… There are too many reasons why we can’t be together. And… and I’m just not the woman you deserve.”

His thumb caresses my cheek. “I don’t deserve you, Camile. You’re the one that deserves better. I knew this would happen. I knew it was too good to be true.”

I swallow hard. Because there would be no swallowing otherwise. I didn’t know that a person’s heart could literally suffocate them.

“I feel the same.”

If only I could open myself up. If I didn’t walk around with scars binding my heart.

He lowers his forehead to mine and breathes me in. Then he kisses me. Holding my jaw with tight, trembling fingers. Lucas devours me with such slow intensity that I think my soul will explode.

He scoops me up in his arms. Wrapping me tight in his strength but there’s a gentleness to him that breaks me in a way I didn’t know I could be broken.

He inhales sharply against my hair. “I’m in deep with you Camile.”

I touch his face. Drawing him so we’re eye to eye.

It takes every ounce of strength inside me not to break down. At the unfairness. Letting bitterness overrun me. If I was another woman…

If I were brave enough to trust.

If I was a woman without demons driving me to prove to myself, I would love this man so hard.

His voice is jagged, as rough as broken glass. As damaged as my tattered soul. “Do you want to stop?”

“No. Don’t stop, please.”

“I cherish this gift.” His words are low, pulling through a throat that’s tight with emotion.

Lucas levers up, props himself on one elbow, and skims his hand down my body. His eyes trail his touch. Memorizing. He’s committing the feel of me, the sight of me to some deep place in his mind.

Probably a place he’ll lock tight. Where he can throw away the key and never open it again.

I know it’s the only way I’ll survive what comes after him. I was lonely before… after walking away I’ll a ghost. A hollowed out shell, scorched and charred on the inside.

With blazing intensity, he slowly undresses me.

I watch through a wavering sheen of tears as he takes off his clothes, too. He’s so breathtaking.

I reach for him, feeling the strong planes of his muscles with my lungs caught in a vice.

Then he lowers himself to me again. The delicious weight of his muscular frame presses me deep into the mattress. His skin heats mine, making me dizzy with need and heartache.

God. I’ll never forget the way he feels.

“What are you thinking about, beautiful?”

I turn my face away, trying to breathe through the ache.

“Tell me,” he murmurs against my cheek before he brushes a burning press of his lips there.

“That I’ll never forget you.”

He crushes me to him.

I dissolve into his arms, melting into him. One last time.

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