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“Tanner.” Chay’s voice lowered. “You know they’ll do this right.”

“Yeah. Sure. Of course they will.”

The call ended. Tanner stood with Alessandra in the curve of his arm.

“Tell me,” she said.

So he told her. When he’d finished, she stepped in front of him and dug her fingers into the fabric of the T-shirt he wore.

“Helicopters? More than one?”

“Yes.”

“But they’ll take us out together,” she said, she said, her eyes searching his. “Won’t they?”

He nodded. “Sure.”

“Because I’m not going without you.”

He smoothed the golden curls back from her face. He wanted to tell her what she wanted to hear, but he had to make sure she was prepared for a glitch in the plans.

The years had taught him that there was always the chance of a glitch, no matter how carefully a mission was organized.

“We’ll go together,” he said softly, “unless we can’t.”

“What’s that supposed to mean? There’s no way I’ll—”

He kissed her. It was the only way he knew to stop her from making a vow he would never let her keep. She was going home, no matter what.

“Tanner.” He could taste the salt of her tears on her lips. “If anything happened to you…”

“We have less than an hour,” he said. “Much less. I’ll want us to be ready to roll in half that time.” He lifted her face to his. “You want to waste it talking, or you want to spend it with me inside you, where I belong?”

His words, the way he looked at her… He’d managed to reduce all they’d discovered about each other and about themselves to the only thing that mattered.

Being together.

Being one.

“Make love to me,” she said fiercely. “Now. Right now. Just kiss me and touch me and bury yourself deep inside me and tell me that nothing, nothing, will keep us apart.”

His mouth captured hers, all heat and passion and hurry.

He got her jeans down. Unzipped his. No niceties. No finesse. Neither wanted that.

He drew her down to the floor. She wrapped herself around him and he drove into her.

She sobbed his name.

He whispered hers.

She came fast and hard; he felt her muscles contract around him and that was all he needed to go with her.

After, he held her against him. Waited until his heartbeat and hers slowed. Then he framed her face with his hands and took her mouth in long, sweet, tender kisses.

Letting go of each other was difficult, but each knew there was no choice.

The expected eye of the storm was suddenly overhead. The rain became a drizzle; the wind turned into a whisper.