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Another blush. “The lying. You...” She made a gesture with her hands. “You throw me off and I can’t manage to make myself convincing. I wasn’t planning on telling you my real name, but it slipped out.”

That was something interesting. “What were you going to say it was?”

“Elizabeth Cunningham.”

I smiled. “You’re not an Elizabeth.”

“Liz?”

“No.” I shook my head. “And definitely not Beth. Lizzie, maybe.”

“Noted.” Her hands fidgeted in her lap. The only sign that she was nervous.

“How many names have you had?”

“Fake ones?”

I nodded.

She blew out a breath. “Thirteen.”

I couldn’t hide my surprise.

That was a lot of aliases for someone who wasn’t in the business professionally. As a SEAL, I knew my fair share of people who had them, and I knew how to create them. Make them airtight if I needed to. And it wasn’t cheap to have quality false IDs made. Granted, I didn’t know if she’d done that. But it was still impressive. And worrisome.

“That’s a lot.”

“Yeah,” she said. “It is.” Evelyn wove her fingers together and pulled them apart again. “You’ve probably already guessed part of it. Seen it.”

“Your scars.”

She nodded. “Yes. It was a long time ago, but someone... hurt me. Someone I trusted. And I haven’t been able to escape it. I’ve been running ever since, but it always catches up to me.”

“Like the coffee shop.”

“Like the coffee shop,” she confirmed. “I keep hoping that a new place will be safe, but I haven’t found one yet.”

“Maybe this can be your place.”

She looked up at me, face full of hope. “Maybe.”

Without realizing it, we’d shifted closer to each other like that night on the roof. Then, that closeness seemed to scare her. But now, as my eyes dropped to her lips, she didn’t pull away.

“Evelyn,” I murmured.

“Yes?”

“If I kiss you, are you going to run away?”

She stopped breathing for a moment, and when she spoke it was in a whisper. “No.”

I waited one more beat, to make sure that she believed it herself before I leaned in. The first brush of lips was gentle, and I’d meant to keep it that way. But when our lips touched it wasn’t possible to keep it soft and simple.

Evelyn’s mouth was sweet, and it unlocked that bone-deep instinct to protect her at all costs, along with a yearning that I’d never felt before and couldn’t explain. Everything had me pulling her closer, gathering her into my arms as best I could.

She melted against me exactly as she had yesterday. She settled against me like she was comfortable there. Her body trusted me, even if her mind couldn’t, and that was something.

One simple kiss, and I felt more alive than I’d ever felt in my life. More than when I’d been in BUD/S or in battle. My focus was sharper than when my team had been on missions that required stealth. I was aware of every breath she took and the hand resting on my leg. Of her velvet lips against mine. Of her pounding heart.