Tyler tugged me to a stop. “Stay,” he said again. “I love you, Sloane Watson. I don’t want to lose you.” He cupped my face with his hand. “I told you once that I always get what I want. That’s you. Don’t make a liar out of me.”

I managed the tiniest of smiles. “I want you, too,” I said. “But I love my job. And maybe you’re even right. Maybe I went into it in part to punish myself. To use the rules and the laws and all the strict procedure as a cage of sorts to punish myself for what I did. I don’t know, but it doesn’t matter.”

“It does matter,” he said, but I shook my head.

“No, because however I came into it, I really do believe in what I do. In finding justice for people who’ve been wronged.”

I drew in a breath, then laid out the horrible truth. “You’re right. I can push the envelope. I can bend the rules. And, yeah, I can break a few. God knows I proved that. But I can’t say that I’m sworn as an officer of the law when the man in my bed is breaking it at every turn. And not to save girls, but for profit.”

“Sloane—”

I pressed a finger to his lips. I heard the anguish in his voice, but I had to keep going, because if I didn’t finish this, I was afraid that I would back away from the decision. And I couldn’t do that. So long as he and I did what we did, this was the right decision. It was the only decision.

In the end, I think we both knew it.

“Please,” I said. “Let me finish. I love you. Dear god, I love you with a length and breadth I never even thought possible. And I will keep your secrets until the day I die. But if we’re together—if it’s the cop and the criminal—and I’m living that lie, it will chip away and chip away at me until I am no longer the woman you love.”

“Then don’t live it,” he said. “Quit.”

“You know better than that. It’s who I am. You say you love me, and I know it’s true. But, Tyler, you see me better than anyone, so you know I’m right. You know this is who I am.”

I managed a smile, thin and a little sad.

“That’s why I can’t ask you to quit, either. You are the man you are—I’m not in love with some polished version of you. And I am in love with you. Desperately. Hopelessly.”

“You’re breaking my heart, Sloane. Before you, I never thought it was possible.”

“I’m sorry,” I said, as a tear traced down my cheek. “But I have to leave. I have to go home.”

Before I could stop him, he drew me close and pressed his lips to mine, soft yet firm. Possessive, yet tender.

When he drew back, I saw the familiar fire in those ice blue eyes. “I won’t try to change your mind. Not right now, anyway. But I want to say something, and I want you to listen. To really hear me. Okay?”

I nodded.

“You’re right,” he said. “I do see you. I see everything about you. The good, the bad, the courageous, the bold. I see a woman who fights for what’s right. And, sweetheart you don’t need a badge to do that.”

He lifted my hand and pressed a gentle kiss to my palm. “This may be goodbye,” he said. “But it isn’t the end.”

Chapter Twenty-Eight

“Isn’t she the most beautiful thing ever?” Candy said, cuddling her new baby daughter close. “My sweet little Brianna.”

“She’s amazing,” I said sincerely, and beside me Amy nodded agreement, still a bit shaky, but doing well after more than a week of recovery.

“I didn’t think I’d get to meet you,” Amy said, bending over to stroke the infant’s head. She turned to look at me, and I saw the gratitude in her eyes, now brimming with tears.

“Do you want to hold her?” Candy asked Amy.

“Oh, yes.”

“I’ll get a chair,” I said, then scooted one of the uncomfortable blue guest chairs closer to the bed.

Amy took the baby, holding her as if she were glass, then started to softly sing. I watched them, then turned to smile at Candy. She gestured me over, and I moved to sit carefully on the side of her bed.

“And how are you feeling, Mommy?”

“Good. Tired. Although this one gave me less trouble than Sam.”

“Is he excited about having a little sister?”

“Over the moon. Jim took him out to the store,” she added, referring to the bartender she’d married, who was the love of her life. “Gonna buy little sis a stuffed rabbit. And maybe something for himself, too,” she added with a wink.

“I’m glad,” I said, feeling foolishly sentimental. And trying very hard not to think of Tyler. Considering he seemed to be in my mind constantly, that wasn’t an easy task.

“So here I am, in this comfy bed with a television and my new baby and friends and people to wait on me. I’m doing fine,” Candy said. “How are you doing?”

“Great,” I said, then conjured a perky smile.

“She misses Tyler,” Amy said, and I shot her a withering look. She just smiled. “Well, you do. When we drove back here after they let me out of the hospital, he saw us off. It was sappily romantic.”

Not romantic, I thought. Torture.

I’d walked away. I’d left him behind. And though I’d been absolutely certain that was the right thing to do, now I was haunted by regret and memory, loneliness and loss.

I moved to Candy and gave her and the baby quick kisses. “I’ll come back tomorrow, okay? I have to run. I’m still on duty.”

That was a lie—I actually had the rest of the day off—but I wanted to get out of there. I loved Candy, but I needed to be alone.

I’d been spending a lot of time alone. Alone and quiet, moving like a ghost through my own life. A life I used to love, but now it just seemed empty.

My apartment seemed empty, too, I thought a half hour later as I approached my familiar blue door. I sighed, then slid the key into the lock. Maybe I should get a hamster. Just so there was some life to come home to.

I started to push the door open—and heard the sharp snap of a drawer being shut.

Shit.

Immediately, I was on alert. I’d come off duty before I went to see Candy, and I was still wearing my weapon harness under my light linen jacket. I reached for my Glock, immediately more at ease with its weight in my hand.

I checked my perimeter, then went in low—and found myself facing Tyler.

A thousand emotions battered me—joy, confusion, even anger because I was trying so hard to get past him, and here he was making me stumble.

Most of all, I felt love.

I wanted to run to him and toss my arms around him. I wanted to cover him with kisses. I wanted to run my hands over every inch of him simply to prove to myself that he was real.

I did none of that. Instead, I calmly put my gun on the entryway table, then looked at him. “Dammit, Tyler, I could have shot you. You can’t just break into people’s apartments.”

“I was hardly going to wait in the hall,” he said, his voice perfectly reasonable, though there was amusement dancing in his eyes.

He crossed the distance to me in three long strides, then stood just inches from me. “I missed you,” he said, and the power of those words seemed to hum between us. Dear god, I missed him, too. Missed the way he looked at me. The way we fit together.

I looked down at the floor. “Don’t,” I said. “You’re not making this easier.”

“I’m not trying to,” he said. “I told you it wasn’t over.”

I stood there, my heart twisting painfully, and tried unsuccessfully to find words.

“I brought you something,” he said, then pulled a small flat box out of his jacket pocket. Out of reflex, I reached for it, only to be stymied when he pulled it back. “It’s contingent,” he said.

“On what?”

“On you agreeing to my proposition.”

“Tyler …”

“I want you, Sloane. And we both know that I get what I want.”

I shook my head. “Please, I can’t do this again. It’s too hard to walk away from you.”

“Then don’t.”

I felt the tears prick at my eyes. Damn him—damn him for making this harder than it had to be.