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“Oh, Dane.” My tears spill over, and I wipe my cheeks with the sleeve of my jacket.
He steps toward me, his hands flexing like he’s struggling against the urge to touch me.
“I’m sorry.” He stops, dragging a hand through his hair with abrupt frustration. “I’m so fucking sorry. I wish I could have told you what was going on, but I couldn’t. If I had, I wouldn’t have been able to get you out of jail, much less make sure the charges were dropped.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I made a deal with the DEA.” He fixes his wary gaze on mine. “Special agent in charge Mark Sommers has been after the Venado cartel for a few years. I’d heard all the rumors and have a lot of contacts to get intel, plus I know the streets. I contacted Sommers and offered to go undercover if he got you released with all charges dropped and a clean slate. He agreed.”
I shake my head, almost unable to believe what I’m hearing. “All this time, you’ve been working undercover for the DEA?”
“Yes. But that meant I couldn’t tell anyone, least of all you, what I was doing. If you’d known, you’d have been in danger, and no way would I risk that. Leaving without a word was the best way I could protect you and take Keller down at the same time.”
The connection snaps in my mind like a padlock clicking into place. “I saw the news reports. Eddie and a bunch of cartel traffickers were arrested in a massive drug raid. Did you have something to do with that?”
He nods, though there’s no pride or pleasure in the acknowledgment. Only grim satisfaction in a job well done.
“We tracked the smuggling routes from Colombia to the Bay Area and found out where they were stashing a huge shipment. The feds executed the raid the same day I told them the location. It went like clockwork. I guarantee Keller’s going to be put away for life. And this place”—he indicates the building—“was once used as a distribution point by the cartel. It’s been vacant for at least two years, mostly because no one wanted to buy it with that kind of history…and the fact that it’s falling apart. So I got it pretty cheap, all things considered.”
Silence falls. My heart hammers with a mixture of relief and lingering pain. I clench and unclench my fists as a firestorm flares inside me.
“Hey.” Dane approaches, still somewhat wary even as he lifts his hand to my cheek.
His touch is my undoing. Sobs well up into my throat with the force of a tidal wave. His eyes darken.
He grips my shoulders and pulls me against him, wrapping his arms around me so tightly that I know nothing in the universe or beyond—not even tsunamis or dragons or asteroids—could break his hold.
I collapse against him and cry and cry until my whole body aches. He doesn’t tell me to stop. He just holds me, strokes my hair, and murmurs low words of comfort that rumble through his chest and into my blood.
“My beautiful, sweet, brave girl.” He pulls back and gazes down at me, stroking my hair away from my face. “I love you, Hannah. Not a day—hell, not a minute—went by when I didn’t think of you. I lost track of the number of times I came close to quitting just so I could get back to you. Only the determination to take Keller and the traffickers down kept me going. I’m so fucking sorry I had to leave you without an explanation. That I had to stay away for so long.”
“You’re sorry?” I stare at him in disbelief and curl my hand around his T-shirt, which is wet from my tears. “Dane, I’m the one who’s sorry. I can’t believe you did that for me. I mean, Icanbelieve it because that’s who you are—you’re the most loyal, devoted, determined man on the planet—but I’m so sorry you had to go to such lengths forme. Because of a mistake I made and the risks I took. I hate that you had to—mmph!”
The pressure of his mouth cuts off my words. A bright, glowing light fires into my heart, easing the darkness and pain. Dane grips the sides of my head, angling our lips seamlessly together. Pleasure floods me alongside the sheer joy of feeling his lips against mine. Less than an hour ago, I didn’t think I’d ever see him again, much less touch or kiss him.
But he’s here. So real and solid that I could spin off into the stars and he would still—always and forever—keep me utterly safe.
“You never have to apologize to me,” he says, wiping my tears away with his thumbs. “I would move the world for you. And ensuring you were free and safe was all that mattered. Both then and now.”
“I love you so much.” I press my forehead against his, tracing the familiar lines of his jaw with my fingers. “I’ve missed you like you wouldn’t believe, and I have a ton of things to tell you.”
“I want to hear it all.” He slides his hands around to grip my ass, heat burning in his eyes. “But right now, if I don’t get you naked in the next thirty seconds, I might explode. I’ve spent all these months jacking off to fantasies of you and dreaming about the day when I could kiss and touch every inch of your gorgeous body again. And that day, my sweet, is today. The moment is now. The place is…well, shit.”
He grimaces, glancing at our dirty, run-down surroundings.
“It’ll only take about…um, an hour and a half to get to my place in Berkeley,” I tell him.
“Way too long.” Dane grabs my hand and leads me to the door.
Ten minutes later, he checks us into a Spanish-style inn in downtown Crescent Bay.
Fifteen minutes later, he slams the door shut behind us, hauls me into his arms again, and kisses me senseless.
Twenty minutes later, we’re both naked and sprawled out on the bed, writhing together like animals during mating season.
We grope hungrily at each other’s bodies—stroking, kissing, licking, biting. He sucks my nipples, squeezes my ass, drags his hard cock between the folds of my pussy. I dig my fingers into his chest and straddle his thigh, wiggling my clit against his rock-hard muscles until I come with a sharp cry.
With a growl of satisfaction, he clutches my hips and rolls me onto my back. He enters me in one powerful surge—a thrust so deep and intense that I shriek with pleasure and practically clamp my whole body around him.
