Page 98 of The Saint

“It’s your bedroom too.”

He waited a long moment then moved to the side of the bed. “What’s going on?”

She didn’t know what to say and shrugged.

Carefully, he eased onto the edge of the mattress. Tears burned the back of her throat. Too much had happened thatday. Too much had happened over the last month. Jonathan was dead. Hailey was gone. People wanted to get her—whatever that meant. And Camden would leave. She wasn’t sure when he would be gone, but that was the truth of the matter. Their worlds didn’t intersect.

He stroked her wet hair and trailed his fingers along her jaw. “Amelia?”

“I miss Hailey.” The tears slipped free. She didn’t know why that had come out of her mouth. She was missinghim, and they hadn’t even gone their separate ways yet. It was his touch and the way he said her name. All of it was too much, too nice. And it would eventually be a memory. She’d attached herself to him after he’d warned them they shouldn’t get physical, and she’d promised she wouldn’t.

Camden stood up. Her heart sank—all the more proof she really should be alone. Wanting what she couldn’t have wasn’t healthy. But he didn’t leave. Amelia glanced over. He unbuttoned his dress shirt and stripped to his boxers. Camden pulled back the covers, slipped behind her, and pulled her against his chest.

He curled around her body and pressed his lips behind her ear. “Do you want to talk about Hailey?”

She shook her head.

“You want to talk about Beth? The party?”

Amelia shook her head again.

His chest expanded with a soul-squeezing breath. Camden rested his chin against her temple and brought her impossibly closer to the broad slope of his chest. “Do you want to talk about us?”

A pathetic explosion of hopefulness splintered in her heart. But reality was reality. The splinters sliced like glass. There was nothing to talk about. They had both been clear when they first slept together. She couldn’t change the situation, and telling himanything different would end what they had sooner than when she had to let him go back to Abu Dhabi.

“I’m just exhausted.”Exhausted and tired and scared and feeling too many things at once.It wasn’t healthy.

Camden shifted away from her. Cool air prickled over her still-damp skin. He was leaving, and she couldn’t handle it.

Her arm reached back. “Stay?”

“I’m just taking off my watch.” He unstrapped it, laid it on the nightstand, and returned to wrap her against his hard body. “I’m not going anywhere tonight. I promise.”

That was what she needed to hear—yet it also hurt. How was he able to be with her so effortlessly? Amelia twisted in his arms until she faced him. Her eyes had adjusted to the dark enough to see his intense eyes. As they locked together, everything inside her hurt again. “Why are you doing this?”

The corners of his eyes tightened. “Holding you?”

She shook her head. That was too basic. She wanted to be able to look into his soul and read him like a book, but the only questions she could think of were surface level. She didn’t know how to dig deeper without exposing herself. “Why are you helping me?”

He shrugged, knowing she already knew the answer. “Titan Group has a vested interest in their partnership with the CIA. The CIA doesn’t work on US soil. So here I am.”

She swallowed hard. “That partnership is the reason why no one has tried to ship me off to witness protection? Because Titan and the CIA—”

“No, Amelia. Just—no.” He ran a hand into his hair. “Before I met you, this assignment was more to prove to my boss I could handle additional responsibility. Dealing with bureaucracies. Something other than using a weapon and jumping out of helicopters.” He scoffed at himself in a self-deprecating way. “I thought Boss Man was firing me before he assigned me to manthe phones the night you called.” He pulled in a long breath. “You and I talked. We clicked. I”—he brushed hair off her cheek—“needed to help you.”

“I’m not going to find Hailey, am I?”

His lips rolled together. “I don’t know, baby.” He touched her cheek and eased an arm around her side. “But I’m going to help you do everything you can.”

“While you’re here,” she amended for him.

Tension ticked in his expression. He licked his bottom lip then gave the smallest, most heartbreaking nod. Her eyes pinched closed.

“Amelia?”

She didn’t want to look at him. In the best-case scenario, Camden would use this as the perfect example of why they shouldn’t have even shared a kiss. In the worst-case scenario, she would cry on his shoulder.

“I’m really tired.” The tears were coming. She couldn’t fight them and turned in his arms. They spilled quietly onto the pillow. “Good night.”

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