Page 67 of Jump or Fall
He gave her arm a light squeeze. “It took a year for me to use a knife again,” he said. “I avoided eating anything that needed to be cut—hell, my hair isn't this long just to hide the scar. I’d be an asshole to expect something like sex to be easy.”
“How did you get better?”
“I still have bad days and a lot of nightmares. Kimmie gave me a fake dagger when I left for Naxos, and I carry it with me when I’m struggling. It kind of helps with facing my fear, I think.”
“Hmm, so we need to keep having sex,” she teased.
His chest shook with a chuckle. “I won’t complain. But we can take it slow. I hope you realize—I don’t see this as short-term.”
She pressed her lips to his shoulder. “Me either.”
After so many years with Dawson, she’d stopped entertaining the idea of a real relationship. She’d only been with Lukas for a short while, and she was twenty when that had ended. The possibility of being with someone she loved seemed so out of reach.
Gordon’s heartbeat quickened beneath her cheek.
“Are you okay?”
He hesitated. “I don’t want you to go back.”
“I don’t want to go back either,” she said, “but I still have a job to do.”
“We could leave everything and go to Naxos. Or live on the road. Find somewhere else.”
She sat up slightly, bracing on one arm. “What about the mission?”
He brushed his fingers under her chin and drew her in for a kiss. “The only reason I agreed to do this was because I had nothing to lose. Now I do.”
“What about Silva and Kimmie and all the others who need this?”
“They can figure it out.”
“I want to take them down,” she said. “I want to help Nella. Most of all, I want to destroy him.”
His jaw tensed. “It’s just… I can’t stand the thought of him touching you with those fucking claws or any other part of him.” He let out a shaky breath. “The first time we met and I saw you on the floor, I thought you were dead. Then, when you woke up sick and I watched you stitch up the new stripe…” He paused. “I don’t know what he did that day, but I hated him even more. And the night you showed up with the scratch on your face? It took everything in me to not track him down and shoot him.”
A lump rose in her throat. “I can’t run. Not yet.”
He met her gaze, pain softening his eyes. “Then I’m here with you.”
Mara buried her face in his neck. “We will win this.”
She wanted to say more—wanted to tell him how deeply she felt—but it was too soon. She didn’t want to scare him away.
“Yes,” he whispered. “We will.”
A quiet beat passed before she asked, “Do you know what happened to Kimmie and Silva? I didn’t hear anything else after we ran.”
Gordon reached over for his tablet and showed her a message.
Kimmie
All ok. In Horus. Contact ASAP.
The message had come through twenty minutes ago.
She watched as he typed in a response.
Gordon
