Becoming Rain (Burying Water #2)(112)

“Sounds great. Thanks, Warner.”

Heading for the door, he stops a foot away from me. “I don’t want to ever see your f*cking face again, so stay away from trouble.”

With that, he’s gone.

“So . . .” Rain tucks a strand of hair behind her ear, her fingers trembling slightly. “You’re free to go home anytime you want.” Wandering over to the counter, her back to me, she unscrews a fresh a bottle of wine and pours herself a glass. I watch in silence as she takes a long, slow sip of her glass. An agonizingly slow sip.

Where do we go from here?

I don’t want her to leave. That’s all I know.

“Do you remember when I told you that I didn’t like the idea of looking out my window and you not being there anymore?”

Her head bobs up and down.

I step forward, resting my hands on her shoulders, able to see the tears sliding down her cheeks. “I’m dreading tomorrow.”

“Me too.” She leans back and turns her face to rest against my chest, her eyes closed. This is the real girl. And I’ve seen her before. Rain may not have been real, but this person right here is, and I know her. I’ve known her this whole time.

“Can I show you something?”

Glossy eyes open to stare up at me. “Please.”

Curling her fingers into mine, I lead her toward my bedroom.

Chapter 64

CLARA

When I answered the call from Sinclair, my stomach instantly clenched, dreading what he was going to demand from me now. The conversation was brief, and he did all the talking, telling me that the death of Rust Markov caused considerable challenges in this case but we still managed to get some impressive results. That line sounded like a formal statement to quash internal politics. Then he announced that my role in this case was finished and that I would be going home to resume my previous job on the MCU, but that I should fill out another application to join the FBI.

Apparently Sinclair is impressed by my tenacity, my intelligence, and most of all, my resourcefulness. He will make sure that my name rises to the top of the list.

I should be ecstatic. This is everything I wanted. And this could have—and by all rights should have—gone an entirely different way, ending with me working as a rent-a-cop, chasing twelve-year-old shoplifters at the local mall.

But the entire time he was talking, all I was thinking about was Luke. About how I went to sleep after our midnight run thinking that maybe there was a chance to salvage something here. That if I was going to lose my job anyway, then maybe we could make this work.

My career hasn’t ended. I’m getting what I’ve worked so hard for.

Which means that I can’t carry on a real relationship with my former target. I wouldn’t get past the first levels of applicant vetting without raising major flags.

So this, right here, is everything I’m ever going to have with Luke.

He kicks the door shut before the dogs have a chance to join us, and then he doesn’t waste a second, pulling me into a long kiss that has me finally breaking for air.

We become a tangled mess of limbs as our clothes fall to the floor, until there’s nothing between us but skin and this mass of emotions that have somehow survived such a violent storm.

“Hold on a sec.” He leaves me stretched out onto the bed to fish something from his duffel bag. I assume it’s a condom, so when the first sparkles of diamonds catch my eye, I frown.

“I know you can’t keep this,” he starts, kneeling on the bed, his perfect naked form almost as overwhelming as the necklace in his hands. “But can you please just wear it for tonight?” He clasps it behind my neck and then straightens all the long strands, his fingers skating all over my breasts as he positions the diamond raindrops. “When I saw it, I knew it would be perfect for you.”

I simply lie there, letting his eyes roam over me, letting my eyes roam over him. Drinking him up for the last time.

Until it’s just too much to bear.

I wrap my legs around his hips, knowing he’ll get the message.

His Adam’s apple bobs with his hard swallow. “God, you’re so beautiful.”

So are you. That mess of wavy brown hair that somehow looks perfect, even though I know he didn’t do anything to it today. That jawline that I remember staring up at the night I threw a drink at him. It feels like an eternity ago. Those full lips that are almost too pretty to be on a man.

Those sincere blue eyes that have never lied to me.

I give his hips a gentle tug toward me with my legs but he resists. “Is something wrong?”

He blinks several times, as if fighting tears. “You’re never coming back, are you?”

I grit my teeth to fight my own tears as I climb to my knees, until my chest is pressed against his and my arms coil around his head.

Holding him tight to me.

I can feel his heart hammering against my chest. I wonder if it’s hurting as much as mine is. I coax his lips with my own. And then he’s stealing the air in my lungs with his mouth, consuming my body with such palpable emotion, it’s almost suffocating.

I absorb all of it.

Reveling in the feel of being with Luke one last time.

No guilt.

No lies.

Telling myself that I can never forget what this feels like.

Tangled with Luke’s body, I’m so comfortable that Stanley and Licks’ howls don’t register immediately. It’s not until I feel Luke’s body stiffen, and I know he’s awake too, that it clicks.