hands lifted and his fingers curled around her shoulders. “You know I don’t mind danger.”
“That debt I was going to call in? It wasn’t to protect me,” she said. Had her eyes ever seemed bigger? Bluer? “I can protect myself. It was...I needed you to help me vanish.”
He frowned at that bit of the news.
“I’m leaving the CIA. I’ve been compromised.” She gave that bitter laugh again. The one that made him worry she’d changed—too much—since they were together. “Compromised again and again. I thought I could get away clean, but it sure seems my enemies aren’t going to stop hunting me.”
“You know who they are...”
“Actually, I don’t. I’ve made a lot of enemies in my time at the agency. I joined right after college, was recruited straightaway. I was perfect for them, after all. No family. No close friends. No ties that would hold me back. I could become anyone they wanted me to be, and for a while, I did.”
His hold tightened on her. “You have ties now.”
“No, I don’t. And that’s why it was going to be so easy for me to leave.”
But what had happened? Why was she quitting the agency? “The CIA was your life.”
“Was it?” Her eyelashes flickered and then she seemed to notice that he was touching her. He felt her stiffen beneath his hands. “I’m sorry I broke into your place. After everything that went down tonight, I just needed to make sure you were all right.”
She’d been worried...about him?
“But no one saw me enter your home. I was careful this time.”
She pulled away. He let her go, but the temptation to hold her—it was far too strong.
“Maybe I will call in that debt you promised me one day. My plans have changed now, so who knows?” She pushed back her hair, tucking a lock behind her left ear. “Remember what I said before, though. Watch your back.”
She was walking away. Again. And he knew that if she slipped away, he wasn’t going to see her again. Despite her words, she wouldn’t be back to call in her debt. He suspected she wouldn’t return to him at all. “Who is going to watch yours?” Sullivan wanted to know.
Celia tilted her head back as she gazed up at him. “Oh, Sully, be careful,” she chided him. “It almost sounds as if you care about what happens to me.”
I do. I never stopped caring, no matter how hard I tried. Some obsessions couldn’t be conquered. “Stay here,” he heard himself say, his voice way too gruff.
Celia shook her head. “What?”
He cleared his throat. “Stay the night. You said yourself that no one saw you come into my place. That means you’re safe here. Stay the night. Get some sleep. Then you can make a new plan of attack or escape—or whatever the hell it is you want to do—in the morning.”
She bit her lower lip. After a moment, voice strangely subdued, she said, “You know that’s not a good idea.”
“Do I?” It had sounded like one damn fine idea at the time.
“Yes.” She sighed out that answer. “Sully, you know that—”
“I still want you.” There. He’d said it. This time he wouldn’t have lies or secrets between them. He’d tell her everything, because he wouldn’t crash and burn again. Neither would she. Not on his watch.
“No.” She put up her hand, as if to ward him off. “Stop it. Just...stop it.”
No way. He wasn’t stopping. He could see her slipping away, and if she did—what would he do then? Go back to the bleak, empty world he’d been living in since he lost her before? Go back to looking at crowds—and always searching to see if he’d find her?
Mac had brought them back together on that last case. Sullivan had tried to warn his brother that he’d made a mistake. How am I supposed to let her go again? But Mac had been blind to the danger.
The simple truth was that Sullivan couldn’t let Celia go. Not without losing too much of himself.
“I can’t stop wanting you. Baby, I tried, but it just doesn’t happen.” He caught her hand in his and put it against his heart. A heart that always beat faster when she was near. “You think I don’t know how much I screwed up before? I didn’t trust you. I— Hell, I won’t make the same mistake again. Give me a chance.”
Her gaze searched his, but she shook her head. “I can’t.”
Those words—it felt as if she’d just driven her knife into his heart when she said them. The knife he knew she liked to keep strapped to her ankle.
“I can’t go down this road with you again, Sully.”
“I’m not talking about forever.” He had asked for that, once. And he’d gotten it, with her. In a Vegas chapel, on one wild weekend. He’d promised forever to her.
I want it again.
But he knew he had to take small steps this time. “I’m talking one night. One night of safety for you. I have a guest room you can use. Just stay with me tonight. Tomorrow, we can make another plan together.”
Maybe by tomorrow, he would have figured out a way to keep her with him.
“Hasn’t your family been through enough?” Celia asked him. “Do you really want me and my danger close by?”
It wasn’t about his family—and that alone told him just how far his obsession with her had gone. Family had always come first for him. The bond that he shared with his brothers and with his sister, Ava, was unbreakable, but...
But this isn’t about them. It’s about Celia.
“You have new evidence that can help you find your parents’ killers,” she said. “You should be sharing it with them and not—”
I haven’t even opened the envelope. I was too worried about you. “It’s almost midnight. Anything new I have can wait.” Their parents had been waiting to receive justice for years. A few more hours wouldn’t change anything. “Stay with me, Celia. I need to know you’re safe tonight.” And that was when he noticed the faint dark mark on her right cheek. His right hand lifted immediately and lightly touched that bruise. A bruise she hadn’t possessed when she’d been in his office before.
“I think my cheek hit the steering wheel,” she said, and Celia swallowed as his fingers lingered against her skin. “I got lucky—the air bag didn’t deploy and I maintained control of my steering. If he’d hit me harder, the car could’ve died right there. He would’ve had me.”
No one is getting you, Celia. I’m here now. “You saved my life once,” he reminded her.
She gave a quick, hard shake of her head. “No, that’s—”
“Did you think Mac didn’t tell me? He did.” And as a thank-you, I signed divorce papers. Dammit, could he have
