Page 39 of Burning Secrets

The only thing.

He stepped up to her, both arms around her now, and she let herself hold on to him, let him take control.

Let herself go.

He emitted a tiny groan, but she didn’t let him pull away. Tightened her hold on him, urging him to deepen his kiss, and letting him.

He was rescue and danger, safety and recklessness, secrets and vulnerability. And he tasted like the woods, of the world she wanted to inhabit.

Don’t go.

But she couldn’t hold on to him. Not when she had to come up for breath and he met her eyes. “You’re making this difficult.”

“I hope so.”

He touched his forehead to hers. Took a breath.

“I knew you wanted to kiss me again.” She wasn’t sure why she said that, but something simply nudged her to reach out, push at the darkness in his eyes.

He smiled at her, shook his head. “Listen. Stay alive. This isn’t over yet.”

“No, it’s not. Please…come back to me.”

He said nothing, so much in his expression, tight, fierce. Then he let her go, just like that, leaving her shaking, a little broken, as he walked out to his truck.

And drove back to the den of iniquity.

SEVEN

How couldshe miss so much a guy she barely knew?

Okay, she knew Crew a lot more than guys she’d worked with for two years. Like for example Hammer, who’d surprised her the night she got back by sitting down at the mess hall and asking her if she’d found her baby wolves.

She’d barely heard the man speak a full sentence in two years, so, yeah. But she had worked with him, knew he was a guy she could count on.

But she knew Crew’s dreams, his fears, his hopes.

And for the life of her couldn’t erase from her brain, her lips, the touch of him as he’d kissed her.

Yeah, she knew him, enough to know why she’d stared at the ceiling, tossing the last three nights away.

Her heart just couldn’t stop conjuring up the terrible things that Viper or Jer might be doing to him.

Which was why she’d rolled out of bed at—well, it couldn’t rightly be called dawn, not with the sun already blazing, but early enough to see the mess hall closed, not even coffee perking. So she’d taken a run down the dirt road, all the way to theconcrete drive and then down a ways, enough so that the smells of the forest could clear the fog from her brain, renew her spirit.

Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

Yes. Truth. She breathed it in as she turned and ran back.

Please, God, help Crew to see Your faithfulness. Deliver him from evil.

Her feet slapped the dirt, her breaths hard as she rounded back onto the drive.

But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

Yes.Please, God, help him to not grow weary…

Footsteps sounded behind her, and she jerked around.

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