Page 60 of Out of Control

I wiggled my eyebrows at her, letting my hands go from holding hers to glide around her waist.

“No!” she giggled, pushing me back with a light hand. “You’re going to the hospital to get your injuries treated first!”

“But they’re just going to say I should take it easy. I think it would be better if we could get some first before they tell me not to.”

I could see the ambulance rounding the corner down the street, a couple cop cars right behind.

“You’re good, Lucas, but I don’t think you’re that good. I doubt you could finish that fast.”

“You came almost that fast last night.”

“Almost. But if you started now we could get in trouble for indecent exposure.”

“Might be worth it.”

“So much for being a rule-following model citizen,” she said, but her eyes weren’t teasing. They were affectionate, smitten,lovingas she looked up at me and met my eyes. I needed to make sure she knew the truth.

“I’d break all the rules for you, Athena. Every single one of them.”

The emergency vehicles were all parked and everyone was hurrying over to us to assess the situation.

“I love you,” I told her before we were swarmed with paramedics and cops asking questions. “I tried to tell you before, but I don’t know if you—”

“I know,” she whispered, scooting closer until her chest was pressed against me, her lips resting with mine. “I heard your words. You said it, and then you went and proved it when you put your life on the line to make sure I was as safe as possible before we hit the water. Even if you never got a chance to say the words, I would have known it, Lucas.”

The relief was unexpected, but instantaneous. I didn’t end up dying, but if I had she would have known how I felt. I closed my eyes in gratitude, kissing those lips still pressed against mine.

“I love you, too,” she whispered, the words caressing my lips.

My eyes popped back open.

“How could I not? You’re selfless. An ass sometimes, but a selfless ass.”

I pulled back so she could see my smirk, but before I could retort, one of the cops made it to our side.

“Someone wanna tell me what’s going on here?”

I jerked back farther in surprise, recognizing Mark Rosenberg’s voice. Shit.

Athena answered for us both, covering up my shock.

“Leo Lombardi cut the brakes in Lucas’s car. Lucas drove us into the bay instead of running over pedestrians. Lombardi pulled us from the water, took us to this warehouse to torture information about the case out of us, and instead got his ass handed to him.”

I shrugged. That about summed it up.

“And this canoodling?” Mark asked, pointing back and forth between us. There it was.

“None of your goddamn business,” she returned, but her tone held amusement, not aggression.

Mark held his hands up in surrender, much like I did minutes before. He gave a whistle to a couple of his fellow cops. “You two check out the building. We got a suspect in there ready to—”

“Actually not,” Athena interrupted, looking uncomfortable for the first time. “He’s dead.”

Mark’s eyebrows rose almost to his scalp at this point. “How did that happen?”

“Self-defense,” I interjected before Athena could say anything else.Fidelity, bravery, integrity.My fidelity, my loyalty would be to her first and foremost from this point onward. “There was a struggle, and he was shot in self-defense.”

“Who shot him?” Mark asked, getting down to business and pulling out his little notebook.

---