I knew what I wanted. I knew what I needed to do to protect my heart and mind. But the instant Luc kissed me, I forgot everything but him.

This. The way we fit together. The feelings he stirred inside me when he pulled me in, when he consumed me, when he claimed me and reminded me just how perfect it was to be his...

All that rushed through my heart and mind as his mouth moved over mine. The reason I’d kissed him faded from my memory. The anger that had spurred me to follow him to this mansion dissipated. The only thing that lingered was him. This moment.

Us.

He drew back long before I was ready to let him go, and I was sure if he hadn’t been pressing me into the wall I’d have swayed. Blinking, I looked up into his mesmerizing eyes, unable to think, unable to speak, unable to do anything but hold on to his strength and an emotion I was suddenly terrified I’d never feel again.

A quote I’d read once in college filtered through my mind as our eyes held. One that said love was a fire. That eventually it disfigured everyone in its path. I wasn’t sure who’d said it, but it had stuck with me all these years because I’d believed it to be true. I’d seen love incinerate my parents. I’d lived through the scars after my ex had dumped me. I’d even witnessed it destroy Elena. But as I stared up at Luc in that dark corridor, something in the back of my mind whispered that fire doesn’t always consume. It also purifies. It illuminates the darkness. And all those who rise from its ashes, stronger and more resilient, first have to endure the burn of its flames.

He let go of me and stepped back, breaking eye contact, sending a chill over my skin. Reaching for the edge of the mirror’s frame once more, he said, “Come on. They’re gone. Let’s go before anyone else comes down here.”

I didn’t know where the people I’d heard on the stairs had gone. I didn’t remember them passing us or moving through one of the doors in the hallway. All I could think about as I stepped through the hidden doorway and into some kind of secret passageway was Luc. That kiss. The connection between us that was still so powerful. And walking away from that—from him—for good.

He closed the door behind us, dousing the stone tunnel in darkness. My pulse ticked up, but seconds later, he flipped on the light from his phone, using it as a flashlight. With a muttered “Come on,” he stepped in front of me and led the way. He didn’t take my hand. Didn’t try to touch me again. But my skin still warmed as if he were holding me. My lips tingled with the memory of that kiss. And my heart raced as indecision warred inside me, reason and logic in a bitter battle to keep me sane.

I wasn’t sure how long we walked, but eventually we came to another steel door, this one thicker than the ones I’d seen in the mansion. Luc told me to step back, to remain in the shadows while he checked to make sure the exit wasn’t being watched, and I did as he said, mostly because I couldn’t do anything else when my heart was beating double time. Moonlight slanted through the door as he pushed it open. I held my breath while he stepped outside. Seconds later, the door pulled open wider, and he motioned for me to join him.

The air was fresh, the ground damp as if a rain shower had just come through. Moonlight illuminated tall trees around us—trees I hadn’t remembered seeing when Felicity had brought me to the mansion.

“Where are we?” I asked as Luc closed the heavy door and carefully camouflaged the entrance with brush.

“On the edge of the estate. We’ve still got about a mile walk.” He tugged his mask off, stuffed it into the pocket of his slacks, and turned toward the trees. “Come on. Fee’s waiting for us.”

I tugged my own mask off, unsteady and conflicted as I followed. He didn’t speak, but his pace wasn’t hurried, which was one relief—at least it meant we weren’t being pursued. I slipped my heels off as I followed him through the forest. We went up and down several small hills, over a stream, staying off any main paths where we might be spotted. And even though my feet hurt, I was suddenly scared to death of what would happen when we reached our destination. Because every time I looked at Luc’s back in the moonlight, I thought of that kiss, of the way he’d held me, of all the things I felt when I was with him and just how empty my life had been before him.

We crested a hill, and I spotted lights reflecting off wet pavement not far ahead. My pulse picked up. There were two cars parked on the side of a dark road. Two figures leaned up against the trunk of the closest car. A man and a woman. And through the eerie darkness, low voices met my ears. Familiar voices. Marco’s and Felicity’s.

Luc picked up his pace, reaching the cars before me, and as I drew closer, I heard the three of them speaking quietly in Italian. Their voices died off as I approached. Luc didn’t turn to look at me, but Marco and Felicity both met my gaze with sad smiles that spoke volumes.

Felicity immediately reached for my hand and squeezed. “Are you sure about this, Natalie?”

My pulse ticked up all over again as I stared at this woman who’d become my friend in a mere matter of days, unable to answer.

Was I sure? Was this really what I wanted? My mouth couldn’t seem to form words. My throat felt as if I’d swallowed a ball of cotton.

“Yes, this is what she wants,” Luc said at my side.

Felicity flicked an unsure look his way, and my gaze followed, but Luc still wouldn’t look at me. His eyes were guarded, his jaw clenched, his shoulders as tense as I’d ever seen them. Even out here in the dark where we were safe and no one could touch us.

“Because this isn’t something you can change your mind about,” Felicity said warily, looking back at me. “Once I make the handoff with my operators, the risk to my team is too great. You won’t be allowed to come back here. And you can never return to your family in the States. You’ll have a new identity, a new life, everyone you’ve ever known will think you’re dead. It’s the only way this works. It’s the only way everyone involved stays safe.”

I thought of my mother on her farm in Montana with my stepfather, and pain lanced my chest at the thought of never seeing her again. But that pain paled in comparison to the pain suddenly stabbing into every inch of my skin when I glanced at Luc again. When I thought of never waking up next to him, never feeling his body pressed against mine, never again tasting his lips and losing myself in his kiss, in his scent, in his warmth, in his love.

“She’s sure.” Luc pulled the passenger door open. “You both need to go before someone realizes we disappeared. It’s not safe for Natalie to be out in the open like this.”

His voice was all business. Not even a hint of emotion in his stone-cold words. And I saw from the frown on Felicity’s face that she caught it too. Caught it and did not approve.

She looked back at me and squeezed my hand once more. “Last chance. What do you want, Natalie?”

I opened my mouth—

“She wants what we all want.” Luc grasped my upper arm and pulled me away from Felicity. “She wants to get the hell out of this fucked-up House. Stop asking questions we all know the answer to.”

Felicity sighed and turned toward Marco. The two whispered something I couldn’t hear because Luc was all but pushing me into the car.

My heart pounded hard, echoing like doomed drumbeats in my ears, and my hands shook, my heart and mind still at complete odds about what I should do, what I really wanted, and what was the right decision. All I knew was that this was not the way it was supposed to end. Not after the things Luc had made me feel, not when that connection still burned hot between us. Not when my heart was telling me this was wrong.

I struggled against him. The air caught in my lungs. Instead of dropping to the seat as I knew he wanted me to do, I wrapped my arms around his waist and held on tight while tears flooded my eyes and a searing pain ripped right through the center of my chest. “Luc...”

He froze.

I held him tighter and pressed my face to his throat.

His hands closed over my shoulders, but he didn’t push me away. He just held still, his heart thumping rapidly in my ear, his chest rising and falling slowly against me.

Long moments passed. I couldn’t stop the tears from sliding past my lashes. Couldn’t keep from hoping he’d wrap his arms around me, tug me away from the car, and beg me not to leave. But he didn’t. He only swallowed against me and very quietly in my ear said, “You were right. There’s nothing here for you anymore. Nothing but shattered promises and misery to look forward to. It’s time for you to go. I want you to leave before you end up broken and angry like me.”

His fingertips dug into my shoulders, and very carefully, he pushed me away, stepping back until his touch was nothing but a memory and I was left standing cold and alone beside the open car door in the darkness.

For the first time since he’d kissed me, our eyes met and held. But through blurry vision I didn’t see the anger he claimed was in him. I didn’t see a broken man. I just saw the man I loved, his eyes filled with regret. A regret that cut me to the quick because I knew this was not what he really wanted. This was what he thought I wanted. This was what he thought was best for me. Only I suddenly couldn’t think about me. The only word echoing in my head was us.

“Natalie,” Felicity said from inside the car. “If we’re going, we have to leave now.”

Marco stepped into my line of sight, blocking my view of Luc, and gently took me by the elbow, helping me into the vehicle. He and Felicity exchanged quick words as he stretched my seatbelt over my lap and Felicity latched it, then he closed my door with a snap and moved back.

The engine hummed, and the car pulled away from the side of the road. It all happened in a blur. So fast I barely had time to process let alone react. All I could do was stare at Luc standing in the shadows as we pulled away, his hands in his pockets, his eyes locked on the car. All while a blinding pain overwhelmed my senses.

This was what I wanted, wasn’t it? Freedom? The chance to make my own decisions? Then why did I hurt so bad? And why did I suddenly feel as if I was making the biggest mistake of my life?