Page 57 of Reckless

He hated seeing the pain in her face. She had been getting her color back and light back into her eyes. Now she looked defeated and so incredibly sad.

“I’m sorry. I just…” She closed her eyes and blew out a long sigh. “I kept envisioning scenarios where the team and Brody, or you and Brody, got into a confrontation. No matter what happened in it, someone I loved got hurt. I thought if I could take care of the matter myself, I could protect everybody.”

Holding out his hand, he said, “Come here, baby.”

She took his hand, and he pulled her gently to him and then into his lap. Wrapping his arms around her, he said gruffly, “You’re not only important to me, you’re important to the entire team. There’s nothing we wouldn’t do for you.”

“I know I should have trusted you. But we’d just had that argument about Brody, and I—” She shrugged and added, “I just didn’t know how you’d handle it.”

He pressed a kiss to her forehead and just held her close while a multitude of emotions battled within him. Yeah, he was hurt that she hadn’t trusted him, but in a way, he could see her point. He hadn’t exactly been quiet about his opinion of her brother. And now it looked like he had one more reason to not like the guy.

“So what happens now?” Jazz asked.

“You know the answer to that. You have to tell Ash.”

“I know,” she said softly. “You think he’ll fire me?”

He jerked at the thought. “Hell no. We’ve all screwed up, even Ash.”

“But I held back intel on an ongoing op.”

“I’m not saying he isn’t going to be pissed, but he’ll get past it. Promise me something.”

“What?”

Shifting her so he could see her face, he let the anger show. “Don’t ever keep anything from me again. We’re partners. We trust each other and tell each other the truth, even when it hurts.”

“I promise.”

Even though he knew they needed to make the call to Ash, Xavier couldn’t resist the luxury of just holding her in his arms for a little longer. When Jazz was healthy and on her game, she could sometimes be as prickly as a cactus. And while he’d never want to see her hurt or weak again, he couldn’t help but enjoy this needy, vulnerable Jazz.

So he held her, relishing that she was in his arms, that she had finally told him the truth, and that things between them, while not perfect, were finally headed in the right direction.

Jazz opened her eyes and looked around, vaguely surprised that she was in her bedroom at the cabin. Her body felt relaxed and worry-free, and for the first time since she’d been abducted, she felt no pain anywhere.

As events from earlier came back to her, she tensed. She had finally told Xavier the truth. It hadn’t been fun. Though there had been hurt and anger, she’d also seen understanding and forgiveness. Other than a few initial questions, he hadn’t even really questioned the validity of her belief that the shooter was Brody. That was trust and true partnership. He had given that to her, and from now on, no matter what, she would do the same.

After that, she’d been exhausted. She vaguely remembered him carrying her to bed, and the instant her head hit the pillow, she’d been out like a light. She also remembered getting up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom and brush her teeth. When she’d come back to bed, she had been surprised because she hadn’t noticed that the place beside her on the bed had been occupied. Xavier had lain down beside her when he’d brought her in and never left.

He’d been sitting on the bed, apparently ready to leave her alone when she had returned from the bathroom. She had whispered, “Stay,” and he’d given her a smile she’d felt all the way to her soul.

“Let me lock up, and I’ll be back.”

True to his word, he’d returned ten minutes later and pulled her into his arms. They had slept like that all night.

Suddenly, achingly aware of the big body lying beside her, Jazz rolled over and let her eager gaze roam over him. When he was awake, Xavier had the alert awareness of a jungle cat. Asleep, his appearance was no less dangerous, but at least with his eyes closed, he didn’t look as though he could see her every thought.

She had never told him that the first time she’d seen him, he had terrified her with that searing look. When she’d gotten to know him, the terror had shifted. Wary respect had moved to admiration and then to genuine affection. Those feelings morphed over time, and then one day, without even realizing when it had happened, she knew she loved him. Not just love in a friendship way, but love in the deepest sense of wanting to spend every moment of every day with him for the rest of her life.

Fantasizing about kissing him, making love with him, had taken up more time than even she would admit. Then there were the days that she had dreamed he felt the same way, too. She had never considered herself a romantic. She’d fought too hard most of her life to not see things in a rational and logical manner, but the emotions Xavier invoked in her made her feel both vulnerable and ultrafeminine.

“Good morning,” Xavier said in a sleep-husky voice.

Startled, she looked at his face, feeling a blush start from the tips of her toes and travel rapidly throughout her body. She couldn’t hide the fact that she had been ogling him like some kind of salivating idiot.

“Morning,” she said softly. “Sleep well?”

“Better than I have in a long time.”