Page 66 of Falling Fast

A slow, tender smile lifted the corners of her mouth. “Even though I’m trouble?”

“Becauseyou’re trouble.” Unclenching his fists from her hair, he cradled her head in his hands, swept his thumbs back and forth across her bold cheekbones. “You said you love me.”

Her dark eyes stared up into his, mysterious and deep. “Yeah, I did. And you said you love me. How about that.”

“I do. I love you like crazy.” He would have sacrificed himself in a heartbeat today if it meant saving her.

Her smile widened and she skimmed her hands over his upper back. “I think I like this romantic side of you.”

She hadn’t begun to see that side of him yet, and he was looking forward to showing it to her. A real date. Dinner out somewhere, then a romantic walk, complete with a full-on seduction long before he got her home, so that she was desperate to have him before he ever started peeling her clothes off.

Slowly, so she’d bite her lip and tremble with anticipation.

“No running, Trouble. It’s way too late for that.”

For a moment she hesitated, and he thought his heart might implode from the stress. Then she sighed and shook her head slightly. “No. No running. I’m all in.”

He smiled so damn wide it was a wonder his face didn’t split in half. “Glad you feel that way, because there was no damn way I was letting you go,” he said, and took her mouth in a slow, possessive kiss, ready to give her another demonstration of the side benefits that came with being his.

Epilogue

Sugar Hollow, VA

Two weeks later

The creak of the wooden floor outside her room brought Charlie’s eyes open from a decadent, delicious afternoon nap.

Couldn’t be a family member coming down the hallway, since everyone knew exactly which old floorboard to avoid—a handy bit of knowledge for her and her brothers during their teenage years when they’d snuck in after curfew and tried to slip into their rooms without alerting their scary-ass father.

So it had to be Jamie coming toward her.

She rolled to her back in her childhood bed tucked under the eaves of her second-floor room in her father’s house and stretched her arms over her head, a smile curving her mouth. The weeks since the ordeal in New York had flown by, and she’d recently returned to her duties full-time, after helping with the investigation.

With Baker and his pilot both dead, there hadn’t been a lot of intel to work with. Baker’s laptop had been conspicuously absent from the property when the taskforce had gone in with the search warrant. No one knew where it was now, but it had likely been destroyed by one of Baker’s men. The files she’d managed to send from it were sparse, and what was there was so heavily encrypted, Taylor’s team was still working on cracking it.

Not only that, investigators were still trying to figure out why the pilot had killed Baker. Someone from the cartel must have ordered it, they just didn’t know who.

Thankfully that was mostly behind her now. And she’d also traveled to southern California with Jamie ten days ago to meet his family. His mother was gravely ill, but her entire face had lit up when he’d walked into the house. It had put a lump in Charlie’s throat, seeing how much they loved each other. Getting to know his family had only solidified her feelings that he was the man she wanted to spend the rest of her life with.

Her gaze fell on a framed picture of her and her mother. Charlie was about three, curled up in her lap while reading a story together, big smiles on both their faces at some funny part. A bittersweet feeling spread through her chest as she looked at it.I miss you, Mama. I wish you’d have been able to meet Jamie. You’d have loved him.

A soft knock on the door, then the knob turned and the door pushed open. Jamie was there in jeans and a T-shirt that hugged his muscular torso, his dark gold eyes warming to molten honey when he saw her sprawled out on the bed in her jeans and snug T-shirt. “Hey.”

“Hey,” she murmured, unable to keep the smile off her face. “You’re early.” He wasn’t supposed to arrive until close to midnight.

“Couldn’t wait to see you,” he said, crossing the room to sit on the edge of the bed.

Her heart beat faster as she sat up and crawled into his arms, nestling her head on his shoulder. “Mmm, you smell good.”

He chuckled. “Yeah, because I smell like coffee. Easton’s just making a fresh pot.”

“He’s a good brother,” she said with a fond smile. Easton had been wholly supportive of her relationship with Jamie, and she loved that the two of them were so close.

“Did you tell your dad yet?”

“No.” She’d only arrived a few hours ago, and her dad had been out working with the farrier. “And that’s not something youtellmy father, it’s something youaskhim.”

He chuckled. “My brave-heartedpequeña’snot so brave all of a sudden, huh?”

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