The waters of the Seine rippled with the summer breeze. Grace lifted her face to the gust of warm air as it teased through the waves of her hair.

“You should get a sunset picture,” she said, pointing to where the sky was turning pink and purple over the spires of Notre Dame. “Or do you have enough of those in your portfolio already?”

I ducked my head to kiss her cheek. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned about stock photo customers, it’s that they can never get enough sunsets. But I’m not working tonight. I’m taking a romantic stroll with the love of my life.”

I was never going to get tired of seeing the way her face lit up at those words. She stopped, turning toward me, her hand rising to my face.

“I love you too,” she said, her voice thick with emotion. We kissed slowly but eagerly, enjoying the moment. Enjoying the thought of where moments like this would lead once we were back in our cramped fifth-story apartment on the other side of the river.

We ambled on toward one of Paris’s huge arched bridges, hand in hand. Grace paused to look at a jewelry vendor’s rack of wares, and her fingers abruptly clenched around mine.

My body tensed. “What?” I said, looking in the same direction she had. And then she didn’t need to answer the question.

A thin man with light, reddish hair had just passed us. He hadn’t given us a second glance as he headed toward one of the cobblestone streets. Because it wasn’t Malcolm, just a guy who looked a little like him at a glance.

“I’m sorry,” Grace muttered. She tugged at my arm for us to keep walking. “Sometimes, especially being here, I almost forget there’s anything to be worried about, and then something that reminds me just sneaks up on me...”

I squeezed her hand in what I hoped was a reassuring way. “It gets easier. Your reflexes will become more honed. But... we might never be able to relax completely.”

“Because the Alpha Project people are never going to stop looking for you. Or the rest of your family.”

“No.” I’d told her about my parents and my brothers after we’d left San Jose. If she was going all-in with me, I couldn’t hold anything back. “But we have all stayed ahead of them for a long time.” I glanced at her. My chest tightened, but I made myself say the next words anyway. “If it ever gets to be too much for you—you know we could find a way to let you set up a new life again, a proper one, without my presence making things—”

“Jeremy,” she said, firmly enough that I shut up. “This is a proper life. And it’s the only one I want. Don’t you ever doubt that.”

She looked so determined and fond at the same time that I had to smile. “All right. I won’t. Promise.”

Grace let go of my hand to sling her arm around my waist. Her hand dipped into my pocket, her smile turning sly. My breath quickened a little at the feel of her fingers tracing over my thigh. Three months of heaven and I still wanted her every second of every day.

Her hand slid lower and stopped. She tugged something out of my pocket. “Why are you carrying this?”

She’d pulled out that piece of car window glass, the shard I’d kept on me for nearly twenty years. I froze up for a second, looking at it. Somehow, despite all the family history I’d shared with her, I’d never mentioned the moment that had defined so much of my life afterward.

“That’s... a long story,” I said.

She raised an eyebrow at me. “I’m pretty sure we have time.”

I stopped and leaned against the railing along the river. When I held out my hand, Grace passed me the shard. I ran my thumb over one of the blunted points.

Was it a long story, really? Maybe it had only seemed like that when I’d poured so much meaning into it. I’d held onto this piece of glass out of habit, but I hadn’t really thought about it in the last three months. Now that I was thinking about it, the whole incident felt way too simple.

“When my abilities were first emerging, when I was a kid, I accidentally broke a car window,” I said, keeping my voice low. Grace propped herself against the railing next to me. “I got angry at my dad and threw something with my mind without really meaning too.”

“Oh no,” Grace murmured.

I nodded. “We’d just arrived in that town, and because I lost control like that, we had to move on again right away—all seven of us. I felt so guilty that I’d let my parents and my brothers down... I grabbed this piece thinking it’d help me remember not to get caught up too much in my own emotions. To always put the family first.”

Grace’s eyes had widened. “So when you stayed behind in San Jose instead of leaving right away—”

“I was breaking a protocol I’d been following for twenty years.” I turned the shard over in my hand. “But I’m glad I did. You’re part of my family now, Grace. It’s hard to even think about who I was before you. I let that one accident pin me down for too long. I don’t need to carry around a piece of garbage to trust myself.”

My fingers closed around the shard. Then, with a leap of my heart, I hurled it down into the river.

It hit with a splash almost too faint to hear. In an instant, it was gone. Just one little chunk of glass, but suddenly I felt ten times lighter.

Grace looped her arm around mine. We stayed joined that way the rest of the walk back to the apartment. After the long hike up the stairs, I sprawled on the narrow sofa. Grace went into our perfectly orderly if tiny kitchen to pour us some wine.

My phone buzzed—not the new one I’d bought for work clients, but the family burner. Grace’s hands twitched, recognizing the sound, the glasses she held clinking against the counter.

“It’s probably just my parents checking in,” I called over to her as I pulled out the phone. “They’re about due to.”

But it wasn’t Mom and Dad. I read the message and then read it again, my stomach knotting. I was still staring at the phone when Grace poked her head out of the kitchen.

“What is it?” she said.

I closed my eyes and rubbed my hand over my face. “Nothing that affects us. Not yet. But my brother Nick thinks Alpha Project has just shown up in London. And they’re looking for him.”

* * *

Will Jeremy’s brother Nick keep his calm under pressure when he’s faced with an enemy with her own psychic powers—and with a vulnerability that tugs at his heart? Find out in Hidden Hearts, the second book in the Alpha Project Psychic Romance series.

Want to discover the history between Alpha Project and Jeremy’s parents?