Page 109 of The Secrets of Lord Grayson Child
And understood how much—how very much—she wanted to live.
And why.
Then the reason had arrived and saved her.
Saved them.
She could barely believe she was still alive, and that he was, too.
Slowly, he uncoiled from his protective shell, ending on his knees, and she followed suit.
Whump!
They both jumped as the remnants of the briefcase landed in the middle of the street.
Then several branches and twigs from the overhanging trees rained down.
Her hearing must have been affected; their immediate surrounds seemed preternaturally quiet. There was a commotion somewhere, but it was distant and muted.
After looking around, Gray grasped her hand, got slowly to his feet, and helped her up.
She dragged in a breath and turned to him. “You saved me.”
Gray had been staring dazedly around, but her comment jolted his wits into place. He turned an incredulous look on the love of his life, the holder of his heart; that she was that and more was indisputable. “You ran off carrying a live bomb.”
He heard the words, even understood them, but a large part of his brain refused to believe them.
He stared at her, then glanced upward and flung out his arms. “I don’t know what to say.”
His instincts knew what to do.
He seized her, hauled her to him, and kissed her—voraciously, desperately.
Needfully.
She clutched and kissed him back with equal fervor. With an equally urgent desperate determination to cling to the other and never let go.
Relief, hunger, and an immensely powerful joy snared them. They’d nearly died, but they’d survived, and each knew, incontrovertibly, that for them, above all, the source of that joy would forever be their touchstone.
The only thing that truly mattered.
They could face near-insurmountable challenges—and both had—but this, being together, living together, was the essential necessity they would fight to keep, to defend.
A clattering of boots forced them to end the kiss.
Their gazes met and held for an instant, then they turned to Martin and Toby as the pair came up the steps two at a time.
Seeing them standing, patently unhurt, the duo deflated in relief and bent to catch their breaths.
Toby gasped, “Thank God you’re all right.”
Straightening, Martin looked at Izzy and Gray and shook his head in amazement. “That was the most heroic action I’ve ever witnessed.”
Izzy glanced sidelong at Gray. “I could hardly leave the bomb there, not with a little girl and her mother standing beside it.”
Gray shook his head in defeat rather than censure. “I understand why you did it, but I still can’t…”
He shook his head again. He couldn’t even explain what he meant.
