“Then you will.” He kissed her softly on the lips, and she shuddered against him as the weight began to lift from her shoulders. “We’re going to do it right this time. There are still going to be trouble spots ahead of us. But we’ll do it together. No more running for either of us. I think it would be a good idea to see a grief counselor. I think it’s time for us to heal.”
The tears she thought were gone slipped down her cheeks. “I’d like that, but what if it doesn’t work? I’ll kill you if you ever tell anyone this, but I’m so scared. What if I keep having these breakdowns?”
“Then you do, and I’ll be there to help you through them. Don’t worry about what you can’t control. All we can do is our best and fight through it together.”
They looked at each other a long while until she finally found the courage to say the words she’d never stopped feeling.
“I love you, Gabe.” She touched the ends of his hair and rubbed the silky strands between her fingers, then trailed her way down his neck and up to the coarse beard at his cheeks. She wanted to memorize every texture of this moment. “I just thought I should tell you.”
He kissed her softly, his lips tasting and savoring as if it were their first kiss. It was the kiss of new beginnings, and the slow, dizzying feeling of falling in love all over again.
She didn’t know how they got from the floor to the bedroom, only that everything around her was a hazy dream. She’d remember the love and tenderness he was showing her for the rest of her life, and the way he looked at her as if she were the only woman in his universe.
They undressed each other slowly, his calloused fingers bringing chills to her skin with every caress. And when they were naked, he lowered her to the bed so they were skin against skin. The hair on his chest rubbed against her nipples and made her breasts ache, and she could feel his hardness pressing against the juncture of her thighs.
Grace moved against him, begging without words for him to fill her, but instead he began to kiss his way over every inch of her body, worshipping her with his mouth and hands. He licked and stroked until she was like liquid fire in his arms, and then he rolled her to her stomach and kissed every bruise and scar on her back.
“Please, Gabe. I need you so much.”
He nipped one last time at the base of her spine and then turned her over. He moved between her thighs and she lifted her legs so they twined around his back. Her heart pounded, and her lungs couldn’t seem to remember how to breathe properly as she felt him prod against her entrance.
“Open your eyes and look at me, Grace.”
Her eyelids were heavy, but she heard the plea in his voice and did as he asked. The stark need on his face was almost her undoing. Her eyes burned with unshed tears.
“This is forever, sweetheart. I love you.”
She couldn’t get the words past her throat, but she inhaled sharply and held his gaze as he pushed inside of her slowly. She felt every ridge of his cock against her inner walls, and her nails dug into his shoulders. He was determined to move at a slow pace—to savor the moment—but she was just as determined to get what she wanted.
She arched against him, her back bowing, and she was climaxing before he was inside her to the hilt, convulsing around him in fine tremors that made him grit his teeth and the muscles in his neck go rigid with his restraint.
“Jesus, Grace.” He held perfectly still, trying to get himself under control. “I want this to last, sweetheart.”
He leaned down and kissed her again, soft lips and the gentle invasion of his tongue as it rubbed sinuously against hers. And then he began to move his hips in tandem with his tongue and all thought left her head. This wasn’t a fast coupling or the frantic mating of two lost souls. It was making love at its core, for two souls that had just been found.
Their fingers entwined, and their gazes held steady even as their bodies slicked with sweat and heartbeats raced. Grace felt the tingles of pleasure gathering low in her womb, as if her skin were too tight for her body. Flutters of pleasure skittered across her sensitive flesh, and she cried out as he began to move faster, plunging inside of her from hilt to tip, making sure he claimed all of her.
“Gabe,” she cried out, locking her legs around him and arching into him as her orgasm started from the tips of her toes and the top of her scalp and then raced like lightning across her skin until she exploded into a million pieces of pleasure.
He shouted her name as he came inside of her and buried his face against her neck. The last thing she thought as she drifted off to sleep was that it was nice to finally be home. She’d missed it.
They didn’t speak much over the next two days. There was no need for words. But they touched often and made love as if their lives depended on bringing each other pleasure.
“We’re going to eventually have to go downstairs,” Gabe said, skimming his fingers down the gentle slope of her breast and watching in fascination as her nipple hardened under his touch.
“Jack will let us know if Ethan gets a lock on the auction. We’re just waiting at this point. We don’t even know for sure that his scientist was able to recreate The Passover Project. There haven’t been reports of other testing sites.”
“That’s what worries me. It’ll be much harder to isolate The Passover Project as a murder weapon if it’s only killing one person instead of many. I’ve got Ethan looking for high-profile unexplained deaths.”
He pulled the sheet down so she was completely exposed to him. God, she was beautiful, and he felt himself start to get hard again. He should be exhausted, but found he suddenly had energy to spare.
“Can I ask you something?” Grace said.
Gabe could tell by the tone of her voice that the topic was something she’d rather not have to talk about. He rolled to his back and pulled her on top of him, loving the feel of her hair as it slid like silk over his chest.
“I’m serious, Gabe. This is important.”
“You can ask me whatever you want and I’ll give it to you. I’m desperate here.” He held her hips and positioned her over his cock, using the pressure of his fingers to push her down. But she held steady above him, not letting him get what he wanted just yet.
“Do you think we can get married again?”
He froze in his attempts and looked up to see if she was serious. Her face was flushed with a combination of desire and embarrassment, and she wouldn’t quite meet his gaze.
“I know it’s probably not necessary at this point, but I thought—”
“You’re right. It’s not necessary.”
He tried not to smile at the disappointed look that came over her face, and he held her steady on top of him when she tried to go back to her side of the bed. The nightstand that sat next to the bed held a number of important things he always wanted to have on hand. His gun was one of them. His wedding ring the other.
Gabe sat up and pulled the drawer open. Grace struggled against him in earnest now, and he held her in place with one arm as he felt around inside the drawer for what he was looking for. He pulled the silver chain out and held it up in front of her face so she’d see the wide silver band that dangled from it.
The band was plain, with no adornments, and he always wore it around his neck because it was too dangerous to wear a ring in the field. She froze in his arms, and her eyes widened in shock.
“Where’s yours?” he asked.
“I threw it away, you jerk.”
She punched him in the arm and struggled to get out of his lap once again, and he couldn’t help but laugh.
“Like hell you did,” he said, adjusting her legs around his waist so he could slide deep inside of her. She inhaled sharply at his intrusion, and her breasts rubbed against his chest with every shuddering breath she took. He held perfectly still and kept his fingers clamped to her hips like a vise so she couldn’t move.
“Where is it, Grace? I know you still have it.”
“In the bottom compartment of my rifle case,” she finally said.
Gabe gave a crack of laughter and then groaned as it made him move inside her. He stood up and held onto her as he made his way to the kitchen table where her rifle case sat.
“Put me down, Gabe. Why are you doing this?” she asked, struggling against him. “If you don’t want to get
