Page 44 of Guarded Knight (Echo Valley #3)

My eyes adjust slowly to the morning light, the curtains half drawn and golden at the edges. It’s almost cinematic—the soft glow, the rise and fall of his chest, the way his fingers flex slightly, like even in sleep he’s ready to hold me tighter.

For a few suspended seconds, I let myself believe in this. In us. No complications. No speeches. No stalkers or secrets. Just the way he fits around me like he was built for it.

And then I cough.

He shifts slightly and murmurs, “Morning.”

Cough. “Sorry.”

He brushes his nose against the curve of my shoulder. “Favorite sound in the world.”

I twist just enough to glance back at him. Hair a mess, scruff on his jaw, eyes half-lidded with sleep. Dangerous how good he looks like this. How soft he is with me. How much I want to stay right here and never move.

Xander didn’t scare him off. He said he’s all in. He didn’t say he loved me back, and it stung—but I get it. Gabriel doesn’t make promises lightly.

How will we make this work? I want Echo Valley. I want Gabriel. But wanting and keeping are two different battles, and I’ve never been good at winning the second.

Couldn’t he come with me? Maybe long distance for a while if I get a job, when he proves he can stop running, and then… we reunite. Elsewhere?

But even that feels flawed. We’re both rooted in small towns. Two people without family close by doesn’t feel like us.

Did we even resolve anything last night?

I need to focus on the present, not the future. Because today is the day.

The gala is full of unknowns, and Kevin’s shadow is everywhere—on my car, on my doorstep, in every glance over my shoulder. Maybe he won’t show. Maybe he’s already on the run. But if he’s there in that ballroom this afternoon, I need to be ready. This could escalate.

I won’t be the girl who runs. If I can be part of keeping Kevin close, I can be part of leading him to his demise.

Gabriel watches the shift in me, the way my breath shallows. He leans in and kisses the space behind my ear. “We got this.”

As much as I want to lie here for a million years, I need to get ready to leave. The hotel isn’t close so it’s time to move.

I take a drink of water and allow myself two good clears of my lungs. I peek over, and Gabriel sits up in bed next to me, unfazed by my hacking.

“Do you need more water?” He sits up, and his stunning glutes are on display in a pair of tight boxer briefs at the edge of the bed.

“Or are you ready for coffee?”

“I’m not sure I’m ready for anything.”

He glances over that broad, tanned shoulder of his and smirks. “Man up, Young.”

“Sorry, not all of us are trained killers.” I take the pillow and whack him on the shoulder.

“If you can outsmart me back in the day, you can outsmart that douchebag.” He takes the pillow and whacks me in the arm.

Oh this is fun…

I smack him again, a little harder this time across the cheek. Not too hard. Just hard enough to surprise him and wind him up. His mouth drops open, and I go to hit him again, but he grabs the pillow with a vise grip and snatches it from my hand before it hits.

Oh shit…

Instantly, I snap up out of bed, and he’s coming after me around the room. He could catch me in a heartbeat, but instead he circles the room, stalking me, slow and smug, sexy and merciless. I jump off the bed and to the other side of it, laughter bubbling in my tummy.

Gabriel swipes at me over the mattress, deliberately missing, and my laugh is high and unguarded, like I’m ten years old again. Like we’re back in the Canyon, playing tag at dusk.

He’d chase me then, too, always one breath behind, never quite catching me, like the fun was in the almost. I’d collapse in giggles before he ever had to try, and it reminds me of our cops and robbers’ games, our soldiers and hostages. The ones we used to play with Xander.

Joy explodes in my chest as I snatch a pillow from the bed and dive toward my backpack.

All the while, he beats the pillow down on the mattress, as if he’s some wild gorilla coming for me, and I’m smiling so hard my face hurts.

Out of my workbag, I grab a scissors. “Don’t move,” I warn, brandishing the scissors. “Or the pillow gets it.” I narrow my eyes.

“Put the pillow down and no one gets hurt.” There’s a glint in his eye.

He leaps up on the bed as if ready to attack again, and I panic. I stab the pillow mindlessly and gasp when the scissors go right through.

Shit. Didn’t mean to do that.

I drop the scissors on the floor and try to sound dead serious. “I told you not to test me.”

He laughs, pure and boyish like when I first fell in love. I want to hear it again…

I’m overcome in the moment and I join him on the bed, thwacking him with the pillow, again and again. He pretends to be defenseless and can hardly catch his breath through fits of laughter.

White whisps fly around the room, floating with innocence and joy, hopeful little butterflies, each like a memory of times when every day between us was like this.

For a second, it feels like nothing could touch us.

Gabriel regains composure, tosses his pillow behind him, and lunges for me. He snatches me around the waist, picks me up like I’m made of nothing more than the feathers around us.

I drop the empty fabric and he throws me down on the bed, caging my body under his.

“I was a fool to underestimate you,” he says melodramatically, like some defeated comic book villain.

And then, he kisses me. It’s soft and loving and magical with white fluff all around us, as if we’re a cloud in the sky, in a dream… far away from the reality awaiting us.

I lace my fingers through his hair and hold him to me, grinding myself upward, wanting to merge into one, wanting more than a kiss.

I love this man.

I’ve always loved him.

When we finally come up for air, we both smile not only with our mouths but with our eyes. I’ll give anything to come back to this joy. I’ll be the hunter, the pawn, the bait… anything.

I just want to get to the part where we make this real.

Gabriel rubs his nose against mine. “With moves like that, you’ll be just fine today.” His smile is easy, but his eyes aren’t—they’re sharp, scanning me like I’m a mission he can’t afford to fail.

I whisper. “Sorry about your pillow.”

He kisses me. “I’m not.”

Gabriel’s still smiling as he brushes a stray feather out of my hair. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but I think I liked you better before you stabbed a pillow to death.”

I grin. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but I think I liked you better before you let me win.”

He scoffs, shifting to lie beside me. “You think I let you win?”

I roll onto my back, gaze tracing the ceiling. “I think you didn’t want to hurt your ego chasing someone in bunny-print pajama shorts.”

His laugh rumbles low and lovely. “Fair.”

For a long, quiet moment, neither of us moves. The air is still charged with joy, but a different kind of weight is settling between us now.

Gabriel’s hand finds mine. “How are you feeling about today?”

I flap my lips with uncertainty. I’m determined, but confident would be an overstatement. “I’m good with uncertainty, but something about this is next level.”

“I think you and I together?” His thumb brushes over my knuckles. “We’re a hell of a lot more dangerous than we look.”

The quiet confidence in his voice lights something steady in my chest.

We’ll expose Kevin eventually. We’ll do it carefully. Legally. Strategically.

But when I stare into Gabriel’s gorgeous brown eyes, fear prickles under my skin. Is it because of what waits at the gala today… or because of what waits for us after?