Cassidy gingerly folded her hands in her lap, the gashes beneath her arms from the metal cable now stitched and bandaged, but terribly sore. She stole a glance at Austin.

He was driving them to a hotel. She didn’t know where he got the car and she didn’t care. He’d cleaned up at the hospital, the familiar spicy scent of him making her feel safe.

She’d been so sure she was going to die.

She’d even made her peace with it, hanging in the sky. She didn’t want to die yet, but she was grateful for the life she’d had.

Grateful for Austin.

The love in her heart was the greatest gift of all, but as the surreal quality of the last few days began to lift like a heavy fog dispersing, she wondered if his declaration of love had more in common with a deathbed confession.

People wouldn’t confess to the stuff they did if they knew they had to live with themselves afterward, and maybe—just maybe—Austin wouldn’t have said he loved her if he knew they’d be okay.

They reached the hotel, her weary legs trembling as she walked until Austin realized she was in pain and carried her. She wanted to cry then, the tears coming quickly and soaking into his shirt.

He kissed the top of her head.

She spent the whole night asleep in his arms. After their ordeal, it was all she wanted to do—the safest place in the world to combat the closest to death she had ever come.

She awoke once during the night, grateful for his strong arms around her, her eyes tracing the lines of his Navy SEAL insignia tattoo. She never expected Austin to come back into her life and she certainly never expected it would be her father to invite him here. She’d said as much to Austin as she was falling asleep in his arms, babbling from sheer exhaustion. “Maybe you two can get along after all.”

Austin hadn’t answered.

She tried not to read too much into that.

Hours later when she finally awoke, it was to the lazy sensation of Austin stroking her skin from her scalp to her ankles, desire for this man filled her like warm pudding in a cup. He kissed her skin beside her wounds. “I’m so sorry.”

“You saved me.”

She was at his mercy. She always had been, and she feared he would leave her again. They had no reason to stay together. David Kelleher was dead, Julianne was safe and Austin’s assignment had been completed.

But she wasn’t ready to let him go. Not now, not ever.

His touch became more sensual, his focus centered on her breasts. Then he was kissing them, tasting them with his tongue, the gentle motion and erotic thought of him there making her desperate for more. He sucked one nipple deep into his mouth.

He moved down her body and she wantonly spread her legs beneath his kisses, his tongue finding her most sensitive spot. His fingers slipped inside her, stroking and caressing, sliding in and out.

She cried out as she crested the wave of sensation, but still he touched and licked and kissed her as if he could never get enough. She came again as he entered her, lifting her ankles and resting them on his shoulders so that he filled her completely with his very first thrust.

She was flying, the ordeal she’s been through only making the sensations sweeter. He squeezed one breast in his hand as he drove into her.

“Look at me,” he commanded. She opened her eyes.

“I love you,” he said, his thumb slipping between her folds to pleasure her. “I’ve always loved you.”

Happiness filled her at his words. “I was so afraid you were going to leave.”

“Never again. Not unless you want me to.”

“I love you too.”

He thrust into her harder, increasing his tempo, and her body convulsed around his shaft. He linked his hands with hers as his orgasm overtook him, moans of ecstasy rising up from his chest.

Cassidy smiled into the darkness as he came, wondering if she’d ever felt so happy or so loved. Austin was going to stay.