“It looks like you might have had a tough day.” She stopped, realizing going any further would add a layer of intimacy she wasn’t sure they’d progressed to. “You just look a bit tired.”
When he didn’t immediately say anything, the conversation the day before in the precinct conference room came winging back to her.
“Today was Hell Gate. How was it?”
“Tough, as usual. That stretch always is.”
She’d read up on it last night after he’d left, curious what something so darkly named might be like as an actual dive site. The confluence of waterways and the sheer history of the location had sparked her worries, and she’d quickly closed her laptop for fear of moving down a path she wasn’t entitled to.
He had a job, and it wasn’t her place to question his choices. Nor did she have a right to those questions—to any questions, really—simply because she was carrying his child. Even if the reality of what he did for a living had embedded a level of worry in her chest she’d never expected to feel.
Which was just one more layer of weirdness in all that was happening to her.
No, she corrected herself, to them. And to the family they’d inadvertently created.
Gavin smiled as he unwrapped his meal. “Those look like very heavy thoughts in the face of this delicious pita wrapper full of seasoned meat.”
“I—” It had happened so many times in the past thirty-six hours that she should be used to it by now, but as she set down her dinner, Sera had the odd sensation of not knowing what to say. Or more, feeling she had to say something yet having no idea how to navigate the discussion.
She hadn’t felt this out of her depth since she was a teenager, trying to move on after her mother’s death and feeling like the person she used to be was gone. It had been true then, and Sera suspected it was true now.
Why did it feel as unsettling at thirty-two as it had almost two decades ago?
“Why don’t you start wherever you want to start?” His suggestion was gentle yet seemed like the exact right choice.
“I worried about you today. Quite unexpectedly, actually. What you do for a living, it’s...dangerous.”
“It is.”
“And then you showed up, and you look really tired, and you sort of pissed me off with the eating thing, which...” she waved a hand “...I’m over. Truly I am. But I don’t know what to do with you.”
“What to do with me?” He grinned, quite at odds with the serious expression that had ridden his face through her outburst. “I’m not a pile of laundry.”
“I—” She stared back, not sure if he was laughing at her or just making a joke.
She and Gavin didn’t actually know one another’s quirks or moods or what set them off. Because that came in time. After you got to know someone. Day by day.
Not after a night of fevered passion that resulted in a degree of involvement with each other that was going to last, oh, about forever.
“I stand by the statement,” she finally said, sounding rather lame even to herself.
“Then I guess it’s my turn to stand by something, too.”
“What’s that?”
Before she knew what he was about, he’d actually stood up and moved beside the table, extending a hand.
“What are you doing?”
“Isn’t it obvious? I’m standing.” He reached for her hand, tugging lightly. “Now it’s your turn, too.”
“Okay.”
It was the last thing to escape her lips and, she’d admit later, the last coherent thought she had for quite some time.
The moment she stood, steady on her feet, Gavin had an arm around her waist, pulling her close. And in less than a heartbeat later, his lips captured hers in a kiss so intense, she could only wrap her arms around his neck and hang on.
Chapter 5
It might not have been one of his most inspired moves, Gavin thought as the kiss spun out, but it was hands down the best choice he’d made all day.
All month, if he were honest.
He’d wanted Sera back in his arms, and all the strange tension swirling around them since he’d arrived at her place seemed in need of taming. So he’d gambled, figuring kissing her could go one of two ways.
And he was damn glad it was this way, with her arms around his neck and her mouth open beneath his like a warm welcome home.
Because whatever else she was, Gavin thought as a hand drifted down over her spine while the other one remained firmly wrapped around her shoulders, Sera Forte felt like home.
She had from the moment they’d met.
A small sigh rose up in her throat as their tongues met, a joyful sort of remembrance that let him know whatever fantasies he’d had these past three months, nothing could compare to the real thing.
Nothing in his whole life had ever felt like Sera in his arms.
Memories of their time together blended with the reality of holding her again and Gavin recognized the truth. Reality was so much better.
Another small sigh lingered between them as he shifted the angle of the kiss, and he couldn’t help but smile at her full response. Whatever else was between them, they had this.
