Page 73 of With this Ring

With other women, even her sister, he’d been able to keep his emotional distance. He was always in control, always able to walk away without a backward glance.

But Sasha…?

Fuck it to hell.

She demolished his defenses with a single look. The way she surrendered to him, trusted him, became wild and uninhibited in his arms—he’d never experienced anything like it before. She wasn’t any woman.

She was…everything.

His everything.

Fucking her, making love, had been a mistake. One he wasn’t sure he’d recover from.

She tipped her head back, and his gaze was drawn to the elegant line of her throat. Above them, a shooting star streaked across the inky sky.

“Do you believe that wishes come true?” she asked quietly.

He wasn’t sentimental. Didn’t believe in anything other than hard work and persistence. Right and wrong. Rather than darken her mood, he took a sip and countered with, “Do you?”

“Used to. When I was a kid.” Her voice held a note of wistfulness that made his chest tighten. “Before…”

Before her parents’ restaurant had been held up at gunpoint, and she’d been huddled up, frightened and unable to do anything to help them during the robbery. “And now?” he asked.

“Like you, I just believe in getting the job done.” She took another sip of wine, then turned to regard him. “I’ve been thinking…”

In the firelight, he studied her, wishing he could see her eyes more clearly.

“It started after I saw Mrs. Santos in person.”

He looked at her sharply. “The stalking?”

She nodded, and her fingers tightened around the stem of her glass. “I’d been working the case for a while, but nothing happened before we met in person.”

“Where did you meet?”

“I went to her house.”

So Mrs. Santos was being watched. Made sense, especially considering Felix showed up at home, less than twenty minutes after he and Sasha arrived. Not bad for a man who was supposedly out of town.

Before they’d left, Sasha made the woman promise she’d call the moment it was safe. So far, the phone hadn’t rung.

“So who was in my office?” Despite the fact she was bundled up and had a blanket around her, she shuddered. “Argentum?”

That was the only thing that made sense. Santos was mixed up with them, and if he were in trouble, surveilling their home made sense.

And that meant the risk to his Petal was even greater.

They spent the next few minutes talking about other angles to the case, things they’d discussed a dozen times on the drive back to Winter Park, looking for things they’d missed.

Until they heard back from Inamorata or Mrs. Santos, they were at a dead end. “Tell me about your former partner.” Especially after what Hawkeye had said, Gregorio had no reason to trust the guy. “About Toby.”

“I doubt he’s involved. That just doesn’t make sense.”

“We need to look at every connection. Humor me.”

She shrugged. “He was my boss at Hawkeye. I thought he was good at what he did. Smart. Capable. The kind of person people trusted.” Her knuckles went white around the glass.

Fuck.He should have seen this before. “You loved him?”

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