Page 110 of Rupture

Rose stepped in behind him, slipping her arms around his waist, pressing her cheek to the firm plane of his back as she soaked up the solid heat of his body.

Finn turned in her arms. His broad hands settled low on her hips, pulling her close. She melted into him, the slow thud-thud of his heart beneath her ear easing the last of her nightmare’s fading tension.

“I like this,” she said, her voice muffled against his chest.

“Just as well I’m not going anywhere then.” His lips brushed the top of her head, the rumble of his voice sinking into her.

She lifted her face to his. “You think I’ll get the Bergen position?”

Her research had been suspended, Gina moved sideways to a new project. She’d spent the last few days clearing out her desk under Haverham’s beady eye.

“They’d be fools not to take you. When’s the interview again?”

“Tuesday.” She traced patterns on his chest with her fingertip. “I never thought I’d leave London, you know. Before the Io, my entire world was here. Work. More work. Even more?—”

“And now?” His eyes searched hers.

“Now I’m ready for something new. Being near you,finding a way to help Remy permanently—it’s worth moving for.”

He pressed a kiss to her temple.

“I’m finally stepping outside the box I built around myself. Science was enough before, but now I know there’s more.”

Finn pulled back and his smile morphed into a smirk. “I’d hire you.” His gaze flicked downward, trailing along the curve of her leg where her robe had parted. The heat in his eyes sent an answering flush rising beneath her skin.

God. He only had to look at her like that, and she was burning.

She snatched a grape from the fruit bowl and lobbed it at his head.

Finn dodged, laughing as he caught her wrist and spun her onto the barstool. He kissed the sensitive skin on the inside of her wrist. “Resorting to projectiles now?”

She let out a breathless laugh, her pulse still dancing from the heat of his gaze.

Happiness.The scientist in her had given up trying to quantify it—to understand how it had slipped so easily into her life after years of uncertainty.He was here, and nothing else mattered.

The rest was just details.

He tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear, his thumb brushing her cheek withtenderness. “It’ll all work out.” His voice was certain in a way that made her believe him. “Wait and see. Everything always does. Now—sit. Breakfast is almost ready.”

As she crossed to her small table beside the French windows, she spotted a small package next to her laptop on the dresser. Unmarked, except for a plain white label.

She frowned. “What’s this?”

Finn glanced over his shoulder. “That came for you this morning while you were asleep. Courier dropped it off.”

She stared at the package. It was light as she ripped it open.

Steam curled from the coffee Finn placed at her elbow. “What is it?”

“A key.”

She laid it on the table, dull silver against the pale oak.

Finn lifted the key. “Is there a note?”

She pulled a single sheet of paper from the package.“Just this.A number and a postal code.” Finn pulled out his phone, tapping the information in. A few seconds later, he turned the screen to her. “It’s the number of a unit in a storage facility. Southwest London. What do you say we finish breakfast and check it out?”

The drive tookthem through London’s sprawling suburbs, the city gradually thinning into industrial parks and forgotten corners. She turned the key over repeatedly during the journey, but was no closer to answers when they arrived at the lockup.

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