Page 68 of The Sniper

The motion was quick, jarring, her body weight momentarily pulling against him before she was over the ledge, rolling straight into him.

Her back hit his chest.

Daniels wrapped an arm around her waist and flipped them, shielding her body as another explosion—farther away, deeper in the warehouse—shook the ground.

For a moment, neither of them moved.

“I love you, Reyna,” he said.

“Yeah, well, I guess I have to tell you I love you too… you know, because you saved my life and all.”

Reyna’s breathing was labored, and her fingers clutched at his shirt, her forehead pressing against his collarbone as the adrenaline spiked and crashed all at once.

Daniels’s heart thundered beneath her ear, his arm a vice around her waist, his grip firm like he was afraid she’d disappear if he let go.

“What the hell were you thinking?” His voice was a rasp, strained and furious.

Reyna let out a breathless laugh, still too shaky to move. “Not dying?”

Wrong answer.

Daniels shifted abruptly, rolling her onto her back and pinning her beneath him.

She barely had time to react before his hands framed her face, his thumb brushing against the cut on her temple. His jaw was clenched, eyes dark with something she hadn’t seen before.

She knew that look.

It wasn’t just anger.

It was fear.

Not for himself. For her.

That realization sent a strange warmth through her chest.

“I told you to hang back,” he growled, voice low, dangerous.

She lifted her chin. “And I told you I loved you.”

Daniels closed his eyes for a fraction of a second, as if trying to keep himself from shaking her. When he opened them again, the fire in his gaze burned straight through her.

“You scared the hell out of me.”

Reyna’s breath caught. Daniels didn’t do vulnerable. He didn’t show cracks in his armor, didn’t let emotions get the best of him. But right now, he wasn’t hiding it.

Not from her.

She reached up, fingers tracing the back of his neck. “I’m okay,” she whispered. “I love you.”

His jaw ticked. His grip on her tightened. “I love you, too, that’s not the point. You could have died.”

“But I didn’t.”

Daniels inhaled sharply, like he was trying to swallow whatever war was raging inside him. His hand slid from her cheek to her throat, his thumb pressing lightly against her pulse.

A test.

To feel her heartbeat.

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