Page 86 of Tormented Hearts

The contract between her and Black Heart Security.

Their contract.

The one that had started this whole impossible, life-altering chain of events, ended with nothing more than a signature.

Her chest tightened, and she gripped the door frame to steady herself.

Well. He might be signing off on the terms of their arrangement and closing out whatever official language had bound them together in the beginning, but she wasn’t ready to close out anything between them.

Not even close.

She must have made a noise, because everyone in the room looked up, but only one person mattered at that moment, and it was her amazing bodyguard.

She crossed the room and stepped up beside him. “If you’ve wrapped things up, I’d like to talk to you.”

The expression in his eyes shifted, and shadows darkened them. “I’m finished here.”

He pushed back from the table, and Sinead caught his hand. Right there, in plain sight, not caring what anyone thought about her unorthodox and probably scandalous relationship with her bodyguard.

She was her own woman. She didn’t have anyone to impress but herself.

And somehow, she felt her father would have approved of her choice in Heath Hawk. Not that she would ever listen if he disapproved—she was her own woman, strong enough to make her own decisions in life.

He looked up at her, surprise crossing his face before his eyes softened.

They left the office together, hand in hand. The second they cleared the door, she curled her fingers into his shirt and pulled him toward the side of the building.

He issued a huff of surprise that cut off as she went on tiptoe and crushed her lips to his. She kissed him hard, with all the passion that had been bubbling inside her.

He cupped her face and kissed her back with equal fierceness, his tongue sweeping through her mouth and tugging little noises from her without her meaning to make a sound.

When they finally broke apart, he turned the tables on her, walking her backward until her shoulders met the wall. As he slammed his mouth over hers, desperation gripped her insides.

“I love you,” she breathed against his mouth.

“I love you too.”

She froze, heart stuttering. She blinked up at him. “You…do?”

A rough noise broke from his throat. “God, Sinead, I love you so much.”

He said it like the words had been sitting on his tongue, waiting there this whole time, ever since the mine.

He leaned in and claimed her mouth again. Their kiss moved slower this time, and she savored every stroke until she forced herself to pull back, breathing hard.

“I wanted you to come with me.”

“I’ll follow you to the ends of the earth. I’ll even let you carry a weapon so you can have my snakebitten six.”

They shared a smile, filled with the trials they’d lived through and the promise of what was to come.

“I want to check on Shiloh,” she said.

They walked to the main house and found Shiloh in her bedroom, curled against Oaks’s side.

The pair looked up at their visitors, and Shiloh pushed up to rest on the pillows propped behind her.

Sinead settled into the chair beside the bed. She searched her friend’s face, noting the swelling on her temple. Things could have gone so badly, and her own role in Shiloh’s injury weighed on her.