Page 37 of The Girl He Wanted

"If I stop, then I have to think about everything that's happened. I have to think about Jennifer leaving me, then her dying. I have to think about how just catching Anne Dawson isn't enough. It doesn't make any of the pain go away."

Paige took a deep breath and sat down next to him. "I know it's hard, Christopher. But running yourself into the ground isn't going to help anything. We need to take care of ourselves too."

"I know," Christopher said, his voice thick with exhaustion. "I just feel like if I stop, then everything is going to come crashing down on me."

Paige put a hand on his shoulder. "We're in this together, Christopher. You're not alone."

Christopher looked at her, and for a moment, Paige thought she saw tears in his eyes. But then he blinked them away as he looked at her. He’d always been so tough, so strong. It was the first time Paige had seen him this vulnerable.

Paige felt a lot of the same things that he did. She felt the same strange emptiness at the news that the woman they thought was the Exsanguination Killer had been arrested. It felt as though a whole section of her life had been ripped away, and merely arresting Anne Dawson didn't replace that.

Paige took a deep breath. "It's okay to feel that way. It's normal to feel overwhelmed, especially with everything that's happened. But you don't have to do it alone. I'm here for you."

They sat in silence for a moment, sipping their coffee. Paige couldn't help but feel a sense of closeness with Christopher, a sense of understanding. They were both going through a tough time, and they were both doing their best to cope.

She wasn't sure when the moment shifted to more than that, but it did. Somewhere in those moments of looking at one another, the attraction that Paige had felt towards Christopher since the start of all this flared up again, becoming something more urgent, more intense.

Christopher seemed to feel it, too, because he leaned in closer to her, his hand moving up to cup her cheek. "Paige," he said softly, "I don't know what it is about you, but I can't get you out of my head. I shouldn’t. Not now. I know I shouldn’t, but I still feel it every time I look at you. It’s why I couldn’t call. It’s why I couldn’t see you all last week."

Paige felt a rush of heat in her cheeks, and she found herself leaning into his touch. "I feel the same way," she whispered.

Christopher leaned in closer, his breath hot on her skin. Paige melted into him, taking him into her arms, feeling the warmth of his body against hers. It was like the world outside had ceased to exist, and they were the only two people left in it.

Somewhere in that moment, their lips inched towards one another's.

The kiss was soft at first, then became more passionate. Christopher's hands slid down Paige's back, pulling her closer to him. Paige's fingers tangled in his hair as they kissed.

They pulled back, both out of breath, and looked at each other. There was a moment of hesitation as they both tried to process what had just happened.

"I'm sorry, Paige," Christopher said, his voice low. "I shouldn't have done that."

Paige shook her head. "No, it's okay. I wanted it too."

"That doesn't make it right," Christopher said. "We're partners. Jennifer ..."

Paige could hear the pain there. She knew that things were too complicated. They'd been too complicated since she first became Christopher's partner. It was the main reason Paige had wanted to transfer. She hadn't been able to deal with this pull towards Christopher even as she knew that nothing could happen.

"Put it down to working too hard," Paige said, not wanting to deal with the situation. "Or to both of us feeling too much now that the Exsanguination Killer has been caught."

That wasn't it, and Paige knew it. She'd kissed Christopher because she'd wanted to, because she'd been so attracted to him in that moment that she couldn't do anything else. Putting it down to other things meant that they could both take a step back from one another safely.

Christopher nodded, looking relieved. "Yeah, you're right. We're both just ... emotional right now, and we need to focus on the case."

Paige nodded, feeling a pang of disappointment at how easily they both seemed to be able to put what they felt aside, but she knew that Christopher was right. They couldn't let their personal lives interfere with their work.

But as they went back to their work, Paige couldn't help but steal glances at Christopher. She couldn't shake the feeling that there was something between them, something that couldn't be ignored forever.

Christopher was typing, his eyes fixed on the computer screen. Quitepointedlyfixed there, as if he didn't dare look anywhere else. Certainly not at Paige.

"I found something," he said. “Or rather, someone.”

Paige straightened up, feeling a spark of hope. "What did you find?"

"A professor at a local university who specializes in Ancient Greek mythology," Christopher said. "His name is Dr. Alexander Kostopoulos."

Paige's interest was piqued. "What’s his focus within the field?"

As someone who had briefly been planning to go into a life of academia, Paige knew as well as anyone that each field could have a hundred small specializations, some relevant, some not.

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