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Oh my god. Don’t let me be too late.
“Lark!” He threw himself forward and scooped her into his arms.
She let out a gasp that was music to his ears even as it shaved about a decade off his life.
Dragging her out of her silken tomb, he buried his face in her hair and drank in her scent. She flung her arms around his neck and clung to him.
Trembling and crying were good. It meant she was alive.
“Never again, Lark. Never fucking again.”
She found his lips and kissed him with an edge of desperation.
When they broke apart, he stared down at her. Swiping his thumb over the tear streak on her freckled cheek, he searched her face for harm. If he’d even seen a single bruise marring her skin, he’d resurrect those men they just shot so he could kill them again.
“I love you, Clay.”
Her declaration brought his focus to her again. He crushed her against his chest and spattered kisses over her curls. “You said I can’t commit, but I am—to you. I want you, Lark. With conditions.”
She raised her head. “Just what a girl wants to hear after she’s been rescued from death by coffin. The conditions I’ve been waiting for.”
Quaide’s chuckle reached him from around the front of the hearse where he’d taken himself off in order to give them privacy or be on the lookout for more danger.
Clay cupped her cheek. “The condition is that I need to die first.”
Her eyes sparked. “I mean, you are fifteen years older. Older men historically go first.”
He’d come to see her teasing about their difference in age as a way to lighten him up. And he loved her even more for it.
Another laugh from Quaide. Later, Clay would pound some sense into his friend—no, his teammate.
Lark leaned into his hand, and no matter what happened before now or would happen in the future, he had this woman to call his own.
* * * * *
There wasn’t enough air in the world to pull into Lark’s lungs. She sucked in gulp after gulp, and it feltsogood to make her lungs burn like this. Even better that it smelled like Clay’s clean, masculine scent.
“Promise me, Lark.”
“How can I promise that you’ll go first?”
“I go first. Period. Don’t argue with your elder.” He couldn’t stop pressing kisses to her cheeks and forehead.
When he covered her mouth with his and kissed her long and deep, she dug her fingers into his shoulders and held on tight.
The tangle of their tongues sparked feelings inside her that made her feel more tingly and alive. After long moments, they split apart again.
His gaze traveled over her face, his expression filled with tenderness that brought more tears to her eyes.
“I agree to your condition…if you let me do the hiring for Sentry.”
He jerked in her arms. “What? I thought you wanted to bepart ofSentry.”
“That was before I got drugged and stuffed into a coffin. From now on, I’m good with staying on the administrative side of things. And I want to recruit Jacob the Sagittarius.”
His eyes flared wide. “Are you insane?”
She shook her head. “I had time to think about it when I was in…” She shuddered. “Well, you know. I think he could really add to the team.”
