Page 43 of Code Name: Dante

My heart skipped. “Who?”

“We don’t know yet. The files are sealed.” His jaw was tight as he looked out over the water.

A branch cracked in the woods behind us, making us both turn. Tank emerged from the tree line, speaking quietly into his radio. Just another security check, but it was a stark reminder of the danger that still lurked around us.

I looked up at Alessandro, seeing a mix of the same relief I felt, combined with his own uncertainty. We weren’t related by blood. That door was closed. But others were opening, leading to places that might be just as complicated, just as dangerous.

Still, standing there, with his hand in mine, watching the sun sink toward the horizon, I couldn’t help feeling that whatever we discovered, whatever secrets still lay buried in our families’ past, facing them with him was better than facing them alone.

“We’ll do this together,” I said softly, and felt his fingers tighten around mine. A loon called again, its cry haunting and beautiful across the water. Like my mother’s disappearance, like Alessandro’s DNA results and his own mother’s whereabouts, like all the mysteries still waiting to be uncovered, some things were both beautiful and painful at once.

The breeze carried the scent of another storm approaching. But for now, in this moment between revelations, I let myself feel the simple comfort of Alessandro’s presence.

“Lark?” His voice was different somehow—lower, rougher around the edges. When I raised my face to look at him, the intensity in his dark eyes made my breath catch. He leaned closer, one hand coming up to cradle my cheek, and when his lips touched mine, it was tentative at first—a question, an offering. But then I sighed against his mouth, and something inside him broke loose.

The kiss deepened, became hungry, desperate. His tongue swept against mine in a dance that made heat pool between my legs. Before I could process what was happening, he lifted me in his arms, and I went willingly, wrapping my arms around his neck. He carried me over to a bench on the dock, and we sat with me on his lap. My fingers threading through his hair drew a low sound from his throat that made me shiver.

“Do you know how much I’ve wanted this?” he asked when we finally broke apart, both breathing hard. His forehead rested against mine, and I could feel his heart racing where my palm lay against his chest.

I traced his lower lip with my tongue, delighting in seeing his pupils dilate. “As much as I have?”

“It’s been much longer for me,” he confessed, his hands spanning my waist, thumbs drawing maddening circles against my ribs. “Since that first morning you handed me a perfectly made cappuccino and smiled like you could see right through my disguise.”

“I knew there was something special about you, even then. I just wasn’t ready to acknowledge it.”

His smile was tender, almost reverent, as he brushed a strand of hair from my face. “And now?”

“Now, I know exactly how special you are.” I leaned in to kiss him again, slower this time, savoring the taste of him, how his beard felt soft against my palms as I cupped his face.

“I hate that I have to return to the city next week,” he murmured against my lips.

I pulled back just enough to look into his eyes. “I do too, but knowing that, when you return, I can be in your arms, kiss you, without fear of what our connection might be makes it seem more bearable.”

He grinned, the expression transforming his face. “Does it?”

“No,” I admitted with a laugh that he swallowed with another kiss. “You’re right. It’s different, though, isn’t it?”

“Everything’s different now.” His arms tightened around me as thunder rumbled in the distance. “No more hiding, no more uncertainty—at least not about this.”

The first drops of rain began to fall, cool against my heated skin. Alessandro stood in one fluid motion, keeping me steady in his arms. “We should head inside before we get drenched.”

But I wasn’t ready to let go of this moment, not yet. “Just a little longer,” I whispered, pressing closer to him as the rain began to fall in earnest. Water droplets clung to his eyelashes, and I couldn’t resist kissing them away.

His laugh was low and rich. “You’re impossible,” he said, but there was such affection in his voice that it made my heart ache. When he shifted me slightly in his arms, one hand came up to tangle in my rain-dampened hair as he claimed my mouth again.

The storm broke overhead, but we barely noticed. There on the dock, with the rain falling around us and the thunder rolling across the lake, we were lost in each other. Every kiss felt like a promise, every touch an assurance that whatever mysteries still lay ahead, we would face them together.

Finally, when we were both thoroughly soaked and shivering—though not entirely from the cold—Alessandro broke away. “I need to get you inside,” he said, though he made no move to set me down.

I nodded but stole one more kiss before letting him carry me back toward the camp. As we walked, I rested my head against his shoulder, breathing in the scent of his cologne. The security team was probably having fits about us staying out in the open for so long, but at that moment, I couldn’t bring myself to care.

Some things were worth the risk.

15

DANTE

The feel of Lark in my arms, rainwater dripping from her hair, made something in my chest tighten. We’d barely made it inside when Tank appeared, his expression a mix of exasperation and amusement.

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