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  “Love,” Brody confirmed, as if it wasn’t all over his face. “Now, of course, I’m going to have to earn my money the old-fashioned way.”

  Lyndie shook her head. “So you really got your parents to donate a bunch of stuff just so I’d fly you guys home?”

  “Home.” Brody tried the word out on his tongue and nodded. “Yeah, I could happily call Mexico home. But nope, we’re just visiting. For now, anyway. I called Sam and tried to buy you as a pilot and he said no go unless I contributed to Hope International in some way…so a quick call to Dad, and voila…here we are.”

  “Okay.” Lyndie moved toward her plane. “Let’s just do this.”

  Nina caught up with her and grabbed her wrist. “Hold up.”

  “Why?”

  “I just wanted to say thanks.”

  “For…?”

  “For everything.”

  “I didn’t do anything but give you shit.” But she stopped. “I’d ask you if you’re happy but it’s all over your face.”

  “Are you happy for me?”

  A million quick glib replies crossed Lyndie’s tongue, but she found herself letting out another sigh, and, as she searched Nina’s face, a genuine smile as well. “I’ll admit to being jealous of that grin you’re wearing.”

  “Really?” Nina looked speculative. “You had one on just like it when you first got here.”

  Lyndie opened her mouth, then thought about last night, and promptly shut it again.

  “Uh huh.” Now Nina looked downright amused. “You see any sexy firefighters lately? Maybe sleep with one?”

  “This is about you.” Lyndie moved away with Lucifer in tow. “And let’s not forget, you want me on your side. At least until I back you up with your father.”

  “Avoidance…” Nina tsked. “Not good for the soul.”

  What was going to be good for her soul was getting the hell out of here, at least until she could think straight about last night.

  And it had been just one night, just more scratching of that itch they always generated in each other.

  And if she repeated it to herself often enough, maybe she’d start to believe it.

  “Mew.”

  “Yeah.” She looked down at the kitten that had been nothing but a burden and, oddly enough, felt a warmth spread inside her. The damn thing was just so cute. She tried to summon up irritation at all the expense and hassle he’d created, and instead had only that silly warmth she couldn’t really explain. “Well, if I have to have someone else in my life other than myself,” she murmured. “I suppose it could be you.”

  She’d have sworn Lucifer smiled at that but then she heard Brody whoop out a hello to someone, and that warmth that had just spread throughout her insides froze up solid.

  Griffin. She could hear the low murmur of his voice as he greeted both Nina and Brody.

  He’d come. He’d come after her.

  She stared at her plane while her thoughts raced. What did that mean? Was it possible he could be having some of these same crazy thoughts she was, that maybe, just maybe, there could be something much more serious going on here than just mind-blowing sex? Since she knew it was all over her face, she kept her back to him as she moved inside her plane to set Lucifer down—

  “Hey.”

  Slowly she turned around and looked into the same eyes she’d looked into while she’d had an earth-shattering orgasm only a few hours before. “Hey yourself.” Her heart leapt into her throat, pitifully ready to leap out onto her sleeve with the slightest provocation.

  “You left without a word this morning,” he said.

  “Sam paged me, and you were sleeping so peacefully…”

  “Thanks to you,” he said with a sexy little smile.

  Because all that brilliant wattage made her want to jump his bones again, she looked away. “You didn’t have to come all the way out here—”

  “Yeah, I did.”

  “That’s awfully sweet, but it’s early, and I’ll be back—”

  “No, you don’t understand. I had to come out here.”

  Okay, that had a stupid grin splitting her face. God, it hurt to have fallen for him, but it felt so incredibly good at the same time—

  “Brody called me. He said I had to get—and I am quoting here—’my ass in gear and haul on down here’ if I wanted a ride to San Puebla.”

  She went still. What did this have to do with him coming here for her? “Why would you need a ride to San Puebla?”

  Griffin shrugged. “He was pretty mum on that, just insisting I be here or else. Said he’d clear it all up for me once we got there.”

  So he hadn’t come for her at all. Which led her to the next, and more powerful realization, one she’d already known but hadn’t faced—she’d fallen.

  He hadn’t.

  He still tortured himself over the deaths of his crew and likely always would. Well. She’d wanted to know what love felt like, and now she knew. She just never imagined it would be like this. So…devastating.

  He reached for her hand.

  Oh, no. He couldn’t touch her, not now. “Outta my way, Ace,” she said, pulling back. “We’re running late.” Forcing herself to turn away, she started barking orders. When she had everyone hopping, she stared sightlessly at Lucifer. “I still have you,” she whispered. He would be enough. He would.

  “Hey.” Griffin came up behind her, gently squeezed her waist. “You okay?”

  She stiffened. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

  “I don’t know, maybe because you won’t look at me.”

  Oh, that. Pasting an inscrutable look on her face, she turned and looked right at him, giving him a smile, only called such because she bared her teeth.

  His gaze held hers for a long, uncomfortable moment during which she had the oddest feeling that he could see everything she thought, everything in her heart, and she began to panic.

  “Lyndie,” he said softly, with enough regret that she backed up, holding up a hand.

  “No, don’t,” she said. “Don’t you dare—”

  “Wait.” He grabbed her, held her still. “I have to, we have to.” He cupped her face with his free hand, looking tortured. “God, Lyndie. I’m an idiot. You thought I came here this morning for you—”

  “I didn’t think anything.”

  “Stop it.” He touched his forehead to hers. “Christ. I’m so sorry. I’m…I’m a little slow on the uptake when it comes to matters of the heart these days. I’m just taking this land of the living thing one day at a time, and—”

  “I know.” She closed her eyes. “I know—”

  “I mean, there’s no doubt I am living again. And…and enjoying it very much. Last night—”

  The guilt and misery on his face killed her. “It’s okay, it’s okay that you are, Griffin.”

  “I look at you,” he said in a rough voice, “And I see how you forge ahead with life no matter what it hands to you, and it gets to me. You get to me.”

  “But…?” She took a step back, waiting for the shoe to fall. “Because I definitely hear a big ‘but’ at the end of that sentence.”

  “But…” His eyes were sad, so sad she felt her own sting. “I’m not as brave as you—” He smiled at her choked laugh. “I’m not.”

  “Are you kidding me? You put your life on the line every day on your job and you’re not brave?”

  “Not when it comes to matters of the heart,” he said very seriously, and kissed her so softly, with so much heart, her own cracked. “I thought I could do it, I thought I could give it all, over and over again, but it turns out I can’t.”

  “I understand that about you.”

  “You shouldn’t.” He dropped his hands and stepped back from her. “You shouldn’t.”

  “But…” But nothing, because he turned away. She let her voice trail off, because what was she going to do, beg him? Hell, no.

  Okay, hell, yes. “So that’s it?” she asked his broad shoulders. “We share what, a few laughs. A bed. And maybe