Page 106 of The Deadly Shallows

If someone was watching them already, what would happen once they really started poking around?

His breath fogged in puffs, the temps dropping steeper than anticipated, and yet he remained, surveying her street and the leafless tree line across from it.

“Thanks for seeing her off,” Austin said.

He turned to find her leaning against the doorframe, the kitchen light spilling out around her. She held Jaxon in her arms. He wiggled and squirmed as Caleb approached.

“I’d say someone definitely likes you.” She smiled.

Jaxon nearly burst from her arms as Caleb entered the house and shut the door behind them, locking it.

“All right,” she said, laughing as she set the wiggly dog down.

He raced straight for Caleb, jumping up and pawing at his legs.

Caleb leaned down and picked him up.

“Looks like I’ve got some competition for those arms.” She winked.

“I’ll dump the dog right now,” he offered.

“Don’t you dare,” she said as Jaxon nuzzled into his chest. “I’m just kidding.” She turned and headed for the living room. “Sort of . . .” She smiled over her shoulder.

The air left his lungs. He was falling hard and fast.

“I’ll grab you some bedding,” she said.

He frowned. While he did plan to bunk on her couch, given the men watching her place, he hadn’t said anything yet. “Am I that readable?” he asked. For a special agent, readable was never a good thing.

“More like predictable,” she said, opening the small closet on the back wall of her living room.

His frown didn’t lessen.

“That’s a compliment,” she said, moving to set the folded pile of bedding onto the far end of the sofa.

He arched his brows. “Predictable is a compliment? Maybe for a tax accountant.” Certainly not the adjective he hoped to hear from the woman his heart was racing for.

She stepped back toward him. “Reliable might be a more apt description. You’re . . . dependable.”

“Not exactly the words that describe a man trying to whisk you off your feet.”

She pattered across the kitchen floor separating them, her feet bare. She halted a matter of inches in front of him and raised up on her tiptoes. “On the contrary,” she whispered. “Consider me whisked.” She pressed her lips to his.

FIFTY-TWO

Austin exited her bedroom at 0505, dressed in her wet suit, half hoping not to wake Caleb when he needed sleep, and half hoping to wake him as she longed to share this with him.

A laugh slipped passed her lips at the sight of Jaxon curled around Caleb’s neck, but she stifled it.

“Why are you going diving at five a.m.?” he asked, his eyes still closed.

“How’d . . . ?” She shook her head. “Never mind. I’m not diving. I’m going for my sunrise swim.”

“In fifty-degree water?”

“Hence the 3/2mm wet suit.”

“Ah, so you wake up snarky,” he said with a grin. “I’ve always wondered.”