Page 71 of Cyclone

She rolled to face me, her hair a mess, eyes still shadowed with everything she hadn’t said yet.

“I don’t know how to do this,” she admitted. “I haven’t been with anyone since my Tyler.”

“Do what?”

“Wake up next to someone and not immediately start building walls. Not to calculate escape routes. Not brace for the worst. I love you, but will my past always be in our way?”

I tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. “Then don’t try to do it all at once. Just start here. With me. Right now.”

Her eyes searched mine. “I meant what I said last night. I don’t want to be afraid anymore.”

“Then you won’t be,” I told her. “Not while I’m breathing.”

She smiled, small but real. “That’s a big promise.”

“It’s not a promise,” I said, leaning in to kiss the corner of her mouth. “It’s a fact.”

She let out a shaky breath and nestled closer, her head resting under my chin.

And for a while, we just stayed like that.

Wrapped in silence.

Wrapped in each other.

The outside world would come soon enough, with answers, threats, maybe worse.

But in this bed, in this moment, Jude wasn’t a ghost from the CIA or a woman on the run.

She was mine.

We were still tangled in each other when the knock came.

Three sharp raps on the front door.

Not urgent. But not casual either.

Jude stiffened in my arms.

She didn’t speak.

She didn’t have to.

I felt it in the way her breath caught. The way her body went still, like she was bracing for something she couldn’t name.

“It’s okay,” I murmured, already sliding out of bed. “I’ll get it.”

She sat up slowly, wrapping the sheet around her like armor.

I grabbed a T-shirt off the floor, yanked it on, and crossed the room in three long strides. One quick glance out the front window told me what I needed to know.

River.

I cracked the door open. “This better be good.”

He held up both hands. “Sorry to drop in, but… we’ve got something.”

My gut tightened. “Bad?”

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