Page 46 of Tormented Hearts

“Thinking about what?” Her heart started pounding faster.

“My father.”

She blinked at him through the dark. “What about him?”

“He left. Walked out when I was a kid, and never came back.” His eyes were fixed on a point beyond her. “Our talk today… It made me think that I’ve spent most of my life leaving everyone else first. My unit, the agency. I think…”

She waited, and when he didn’t speak, she drew her arm free of her sleeping bag and reached for his hand. It landed on the solid, warm back of his, and his stare returned to her face, intense in the dark.

“I think I told myself I was looking for a place where I belonged. You made me see I did belong—everywhere, even with the mercenaries. I just left before they could walk out on me first.” He paused. “I never really put it together until you told me you never felt like enough for your father.”

She swallowed around a lump thickening her throat. They were both lying there thinking about injustices done to them by their fathers.

Part of the wall inside her crumbled, leaving her soft and unguarded. She caressed the back of his hand, and he turned it over to clasp hers.

“I can see it,” she said quietly. “The leaving first. It makes sense.”

He flipped fully to face her, and she turned too, close enough that she could see the faint shine of his eyes.

“It’s harder to stay than to leave. I think that’s true for most people. Leaving is easy. Staying can actually cost you something,” she whispered.

He stroked his thumb along her wrist, over the point where her pulse throbbed fast. Too fast.

“I’m staying right now.” His voice dipped, low and gritty. “And not just because you can’t dismiss me because of a stupid clause.”

She issued a laugh that sounded throaty. Too throaty.

Hawk leaned closer. “I’m staying, Sinead. Here. With you.”

He reached for her, drawing her in, and she slipped into his arms without any hesitation at all. He wrapped his arms around her and tucked her against his chest. Under her ear, his heart beat like a steady drum.

Even though she was in the most danger of her life, she felt utterly safe in Hawk’s arms.

Heath’s arms.

The lines between professional and personal were blurring. And if given the choice, she didn’t want to go back.

She tipped her head back to look at him, only to find he was already staring down at her, his expression more unguarded than she’d seen it yet.

There was a stillness in his eyes, like he’d battled his own demons and come out the other side, at peace.

She closed the gap between them and kissed him, a slow, soft brush of her lips. He let out a groan and brought his hand up to cradle her cheek. Then he angled his head and kissed her back, letting his tongue coax open the parts of her she’d kept closed off her whole life.

When they broke apart, neither of them spoke. Just held on, in the dark, warm and close, and she wondered if he’d been missing this too.

Chapter Ten

Hawk kissed Sinead like they were the only two people in the world. Right now, they might as well have been.

Alone in the wilderness, within the nylon walls of the tent, every soft catch of her breath against his mouth unlocked a door he never realized he shut.

“Sinead.” Her name came out as a hot rasp of want.

“Don’t stop,” she breathed and pulled him back down.

He didn’t. He kissed her jaw, learning the places that made her gasp and squirm. Pressing kisses down her throat, he memorized the rhythm of her pulse hammering beneath his lips, as fast as his own.

She arched into him, and that motion nearly snapped his control in half. His own heart pounded in his ears, loud enough to drown out the wind outside. Loud enough to drown out everything but her.