“But you did everything you could, Ana, and that’s what matters.” He bent at the knees, scooping her into his arms, and it was then she’d noticed he wasn’t wearing his arm sling. He was at risk of doing more damage to his shoulder, but he kept his attention focused on her. Always on her. The main level of his house passed in a blur as he carried her down the hall and into his bedroom. Laying her in his bed, his hands trailed to her boots, and he unlaced each one before discarding them onto the floor. Slowly, carefully. Treating her as though she were glass. Had anyone taken such care with her before? The mattress dipped as he took position beside her, his gaze centered on her. “You’ve been so focused on saving everybody else. But who’s going to be there for you when you need it?”
She didn’t know what to say, what to think. The Tactical Crime Division—JC, Evan, Smitty, Davis, all of them—had become a large part of her life over the past year since Director Pembrook had requested her reassignment from missing persons, but there were still pieces of her she kept hidden from her team. From everyone. Her parents, her three brothers, the friends she’d cut from her life. Any one of them would race to help if she asked, but she didn’t deserve their support. Not after what she’d done. He traced her jawline with callused fingers, and right then she couldn’t escape the feeling he might know her better than she knew herself. In ways no one else had. “I...”
He leaned into her, pressing his mouth to her forehead as she slid her hand around his wrist, begging him not to leave. Closing her eyes, she reveled in his touch, in the way he always smelled of pine and outdoors, in how he made her feel wanted and strong and beautiful.
Trailing a path of soft kisses to her temple, then lower toward her ears, he brushed his beard against her oversensitized skin, and she shuddered. “Let me be that man who can be there for you, Ana. Tell me what you need. Don’t think about it. Tell me what you need right now.”
The answer sat on the tip of her tongue, but she didn’t have the courage to say those words. Instead, she opened her eyes, framed his face between both hands and brought his mouth to hers. She kissed him hard, desperation sliding into every stroke of her tongue against his. She felt as if she’d been starving for air, and he was oxygen. He was her whole world in that moment, the only one who mattered. Her weaknesses, the lack of evidence, the night she’d walked away. None of it existed inside the bubble they’d created. Him. She needed him.
He leveraged his injured arm on the other side of her head, then latched on to her hip before his fingers moved beneath her shirt. Eyes—brighter than the clear blue sky—roamed down the length of her body, and every cell she owned heightened as though he’d physically touched her. “You are the strongest, most dedicated and beautiful woman I’ve ever known, and you deserve someone who’s going to treat you like the queen you are, who will put your needs first and make you happy for the rest of your life.”
“You make me happy.” Her admission slipped past her lips without her permission, but she couldn’t take it back now. She wouldn’t. Because it was the truth. The three months they’d been together all those years ago had been the best of her life. Until now. These past few days, seeing him again, seeing him as a father to an amazing little girl and how dedicated he was to protect his children, had shifted something inside her. Opened up a lifetime of possibility she’d never considered before. Given her hope.
A slow smile stretched his lips thin. “You make me happy, too.”
Carving a path through his beard with her fingernails, she lifted her mouth to his. What their mutual admission meant for the future, if they even had one, Ana didn’t know, but excitement coursed through her as she committed herself to finding out and chased back the fear burning through her. She’d spent her career dedicated to saving as many victims of violence as she could, put her entire life on hold to give them a chance to live the rest of theirs, but maybe she’d finally sacrificed enough to make up for her past. Maybe it was time for her to take that same chance she’d battled so hard to give to the victims who’d been taken. With him. With Owen and Olivia. “We have the house to ourselves now.”
“Believe me, that’s all I’ve been thinking about since we finished running through the Britland Construction employee directory.” His voice graveled, warming her from the inside. He hauled her off the bed, careful of her injuries, and carried her into the attached bathroom. The same gray wood-like tile directed them toward a large open shower set at the farthest end of the space. Sharp layers of stone and rock made up the back wall of the shower, two square rainshower heads lighting up as Benning twisted on the water. In seconds he’d stripped himself, discarding his clothing outside the reach of the water pooling at their feet, and closed in on her. All predator. All hers. Ridges and valleys of muscle carved shadows
