Page 98 of Second First Kiss

Nolan didn’t wait for his fellow agents to respond. He moved on instinct and was at Kat’s side within seconds. He dropped to his knees and cupped her face. “Jesus, when you fell, I thought I’d lost you,” he whispered against her forehead.

His hands immediately began a skilled examination of her body, seeking out injury. He quickly came to a halt when he touched her hand and she grimaced.

“I think it’s broken,” she said, as he cradled it with his hands. “R. J. might hit like a girl, but his nose it built from granite.”

“We need a medic,” Nolan shouted to no one in particular. “Call a bus.”

“Or you can just drive me to the hospital.”

“Or that,” he whispered, his heart in his throat.

“You showed up,” she said, sounding marveled by the idea.

“I’ll always show up for you. Always.” He kissed her forehead, then rested his against hers, closing his eyes. He needed a moment to breathe her in, feel her beneath his hands, take in the fact that she was alive and his. “No matter what.”

“I meant what I said,” she said shyly, and his gaze met hers. It rocked his foundation how open and raw her fathomless green eyes were. “It wasn’t a deathbed confession. It’s the truth.”

“What’s the truth?” he asked, desperately needing to hear her say it aloud.

“That I love you. And I think I have since that night I fixed your leaky pipe.”

“Who knew having a leaky pipe could land a man the most amazing woman in the world.” He gave her the gentlest of kisses. “And in case you’re wondering, I’ve loved you since the kiss in the bar.”

“It was an awful kiss.”

“I know. But it was perfectly awful,” he said. “How about a do-over? Unless…” He looked around at the scene, with a dozen responders buzzing about. “I don’t want to blow our cover.”

“Screw our cover.” She slid her arms around his neck. “If a judge has a problem with healthy love, then that’s on them. If anything, you are a safe, stable force for me and Tessa, and anyone in their right mind will see that.” Then she leaned in, and they had a PG-rated do-over.

“Gross. Can you stop making out for like one second?” Tessa asked. She had tears in her eyes and was shaking.

Nolan helped Kat stand, but when it came time for a hug, it was Nolan’s arms that the teen flung herself into. “You okay, kiddo?” he asked, his shocked eyes meeting Kat’s over Tessa’s head.

“You were right, R. J. is a jerk,” Tessa said. “I can’t believe it took seeing him with a gun to realize it. Even then I had to be sure, which is why I went in the back.”

“Wait,” Kat said. “You knew he had a gun and still went outside?”

“I had to be sure. I didn’t want to look like an idiot if it turned out to be nothing.”

“You should have stayed in the house and locked the door,” Kat lectured. “And who would you have looked like an idiot to?”

“I wanted to see if what Nolan said about R. J. was true and it was. I saw what I thought might be a gun in his back and texted Nolan like I promised I would, but R. J. saw me, so I had to play it cool.”

Kat’s eyes narrowed in on Nolan’s and he could see the betrayal start to build within. “What do you mean, ‘You promised Nolan?’”

His gut tightened as Tessa’s confused expression hit his. “He told me to call him if I saw R. J. do anything sketchy.”

Kat turned to look at Nolan, betrayal so thick in her beautiful eyes he couldn’t breathe. “You used her as one of your CIs?”

“It wasn’t as official as that,” he said, but now that he looked at it through Kat’s eyes it was exactly like that. He’d been so damn set on catching R. J. that he’d done what it took to get his man without thought of the repercussions. Of how it would affect Kat and Tessa.

He’d once again put his job first.

“You promised you’d never put my court case in jeopardy, but you pulled my sister into this anyway. By asking her to keep an eye out for sketchy behavior you were essentially encouraging her to hang out with him, which was in direct opposition of what I was trying to do.”

“I told her he was trouble and to stay away.”

“She’s a teen, all you did was give her an excuse to go behind my back and see him, and because of that she could have been killed. You put her in danger.” She jabbed a finger at his chest. “This is on you.”

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