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She rose to meet him, hips moving with his, her cries ragged and beautiful, wrecking him as her climax tore through her.

Pleasure knotted low, fierce and inescapable, pulling him under.

With one final, desperate thrust he came with an animal growl, every nerve alight. His entire world narrowed to her.

In the stillness after, truth hit him. He’d give her everything—his protection, his future, his last breath.

Because—

He was already hers.

28

Kat lay sprawledacross Leo’s chest, her cheek pressed against his skin. A tremor ran through her, aftershocks of pleasure radiating beneath her flushed skin.

She traced a lazy pattern across his torso, fingers skimming the golden hairs that caught in the morning light. His chest rose and fell beneath her, slow and steady. His heartbeat thudded deep beneath the bone, grounding her.

She had wanted him since the first time she saw him, all those years ago in Oslo.

“We should eat,” he murmured, rolling onto one elbow to face her. His eyes searched hers, unreadable. “We’ve got a long day ahead of us.”

He ran a single finger across the curve of her shoulder. The touch was feather-light, but a shiver still rippled through her. Minutes ago, he had been inside her, and still her body ached for him.

She’d never felt anything like this. Not just the sex—though God, the sex. It was the stillness afterward, the weight of him solid and warm beside her.

She braced for the usual flicker of regret, the urge to armor back up. It never came.

Leo pressed a kiss to her shoulder, then collected the tray from the dresser.

He poured coffee, then reached for a croissant, split it open, and buttered it for her without asking—as if he’d done it a hundred times before. As if knowing how she took her breakfast was just another part of keeping her safe.

“Just the way you like it.” He handed her a cup, and she took a grateful sip. The bitter heat cut through the fog in her head.

She took a bite of croissant. “I didn’t realize how hungry I was.”

They ate in silence for a while. It wasn’t uncomfortable. But the space between them was both too wide and not nearly wide enough.

“I’ve never brought anyone here before.”

She glanced up, a piece of cheese halfway to her mouth. The words hung in the air. “No one?”

“No.” He stared into his coffee like it held the answer to something. “This place… it’s always been just mine.”

She studied his face, the tension carved around his handsome mouth.

“Thank you,” she said, her voice low. “For letting me in.”

He stared down at his palms—the same ones that had killed, that had traced the contours of her body with reverence. “There’s something you should know about me.” His voice remained steady, but tension lifted the line of his shoulders.

“About why I keep people at a distance. Why I never thought I deserved…” His hand moved between them, encompassing the tangled sheets, the impossible intimacy they’d just shared. “This.”

Kat waited. She reached out, her fingertips grazing his shoulder where tension had gathered like armor. The musclejumped beneath her touch, a silent betrayal of his struggle to find the words for what he needed to tell her.

She’d heard whispers about his unit, the VARG Unit.The Wolf Unit.A ghost team that handled the missions even special forces wouldn’t touch. Operators who moved through enemy territory leaving nothing but strategic silence in their wake.

But whispers hadn’t prepared her for what she saw now—the human cost etched into the lines of his face.

Leo’s eyes stayed fixed on the middle distance.