The Espionage Effect(107)

No longer lost on an undetermined mundane path, the million fractures once shattering me apart vaporized. Excitement pulsed through my veins at being on the brink of a new adventure. With Alec. On neutral ground.

A smile tugged at my mouth, seconds before I sealed my fate with a tender kiss. “Switzerland sounds perfect.”





The absolute silence struck me.

Naked under thick bedding on a high mahogany sleigh bed, in a master suite perched on the cantilevered corner of Alec’s home that overlooked the snow-covered Swiss Alps, the effect of the rare tranquility surrounding us began to take deeper hold.

A twelve-foot Christmas tree, decorated by his housekeeper while we’d flown over the Atlantic, occupied the left corner of the room, its solid colored lights reflecting off the nearest portion of darkening glass. A lush sweet scent emanated from the majestic fir, and if I let my imagination go, our lookout transformed into a magical treehouse.

Overwhelmed by the moment, I tugged Alec’s arm, pulling him toward the foot of the bed with me. His deep laughter echoed off the polished concrete walls as we twisted on to our stomachs, ripping the bedding free from its tucked corners. Then we settled upside down on the bed with a mass of white sheets and down comforter tangled around us.

On a relaxed sigh, I entwined my fingers with his as we gazed through his wall-to-wall picture window at the mountain landscape painted with darkening shades of gray.

I leaned toward him, then pressed a tender kiss just below his shoulder, over the spiral-shaped scar caused by the wound I’d inflicted. “Merry Christmas, Alec.”

He turned toward me, rubbing a hand down my side until his thumb gently grazed over my healing bullet wound. “Merry Christmas, Devin.”

I arched up, brushing my lips across his, until we melted into a slow kiss.

When he pulled back, his brow furrowed. “I didn’t get you a gift.”

“You are my gift.”

He was the one thing that remained true. Amid too many lies, after all the deception, Alec remained my rock. And through it all, the deepest part of me knew he always had been.

“This is my first real Christmas,” I whispered. That I could remember, that meant anything beyond a young child tearing open shiny presents.

“Mine too,” he admitted.

We’d both lost so much, had come so far, then conquered our greatest fears to be together. Yet the reward of being with him was so great, the arduous trials to get here had been worth it.

“What will you do now?” he asked.

“We have to do something?” I groaned, burrowing against his side as I closed my eyes. “Thought maybe we’d stay here forever.”

His low chuckle vibrated into me. “Sounds like a solid plan.”

But then thoughts of Geneva trickled in. “Will you help me look for her?”

“Absolutely.”

“What about your commitment to EtherSphere One?”

“Don’t have one.”

I frowned, easing back to look at his face awash in the soft glow of Christmas lights.

His head tilted down a fraction, his gaze penetrating. “My commitment’s to you.”

Understanding began to dawn. “You don’t work for them anymore?”

“No.” Anger flashed in his eyes. “After you spoke to the High Council, and my realization of all they’d done to manipulate you, I’d had enough. Their agendas no longer dictate my actions. Mine do.”

“You’re a free agent?”

“Just like you.”

My heart warmed at the unmistakable support he’d shown for me—for us.

“What if we aren’t able to find her?” he asked, his words softening as he spoke.

I understood the intention behind them. Thirteen years was a long time for my parents and EtherSphere One to come up empty on retrieving her.

“We will.” I had no idea why I knew that fact deep in my bones, but I did. “Maybe not tomorrow, or next week…but someday.”

A vital part of me needed to know she’d been kept safe, had discovered love. And if she hadn’t, that she knew it was out there—at least from me.

Just yesterday, on the beach in front of Alec’s house, I’d claimed I hadn’t known who I was.

His reply, filled with utter conviction, filtered back into my mind: You know who you are. Listen to yourself. Really listen. Then trust what you hear.

He’d been right.

When I stopped looking inside myself, no longer focused on my loss, I realized someone else’s happiness depended on the course of my actions. Alec wanted to be a part of my life.

The darkness ceased to be what I turned to for comfort and safety. I unearthed something far greater: Love.

When I embraced that?

Then I discovered me.

I let out a slow grateful breath. My lips curved into a gentle smile, then I kissed him, heart burning with emotion. “Whatever the world has in store for us, I’ve already found all I need.”

Alec mattered most of all. We did. In our blessed moments together, a profound peace washed through me. And the rest of the world faded away…