He was leveled by it, and he had to fight against collapsing on top of her. But she was folded up in a way that had to be uncomfortable, so he used the last of his shaky energy to pull up, pull out of her, and help her straighten her legs.

She was trembling and gasping, and he couldn’t understand the look on her face.

Couldn’t understand the way he’d just been stripped bare.

So he rolled out of bed and then stumbled to the bathroom so he could pull himself together.

He stared at himself in the mirror. Hardly recognized the flushed, drained face looking back at him. He washed his hands, splashed water on his hot face, dried off, and hoped he would be able to speak when he returned to the bed.

Kelly was curled up in a ball when he returned, which concerned him enough to push him back into some semblance of coherence.

“Are you all right?” he asked thickly, getting under the covers with her. “Did I hurt you?”

Kelly shook her head. “I’m fine. It was good.” She pushed her hair out of her face and tried to smile at him. “Just worn out.”

The clench in his chest eased, and he pulled her into his arms. Admitted, “Me too.”

He liked the way she nestled against him, even though the heat of her body only magnified the heat of his.

He wanted to say something else. But he wasn’t quite sure what. So he didn’t end up saying anything. Just stroked her hair until she fell asleep.

No matter how close they’d been just now, how deeply he’d been buried in her, Caleb still wanted even more. He wanted all of her. Wanted to give her all of him.

But it still felt like there were invisible barriers standing in their way.

What had she wanted with that key?

And why was Wes so suspicious of her?

And what would she do if she ever found out some of things he had done?

As he held her in the dark, he felt an incongruous surge of tenderness overtaking him unexpectedly.

Caleb wanted to protect her from anything that threatened her. From everything that might hurt her.

The most bitter irony of all was that “everything” included himself.

She shifted against him in her sleep, and one of her hands unconsciously squeezed at his side.

He fell asleep soon afterward.

—

The next morning he didn’t want to get out of bed.

Kelly was still asleep beside him, looking young, beautiful, and rumpled with her messy hair and closed eyes. He had a long day at work—lasting through a dinner meeting, which probably wouldn’t be over until nine. And his body was exhausted, completely drained, as if last night—as if the last two months—had used up all of his energy.

He just wanted to stay in bed and sleep. With Kelly. But it was just Monday, and the weekend was a long way away.

He reached over for his phone on the nightstand, vaguely hoping there hadn’t been too many emails coming in overnight, although he knew such a hope was futile.

The first thing he saw was a text from Wes.

He clicked on it, pulling up the full message.

I found something on Kelly. Tell me if you want to know what it is. If you don’t, I won’t mention it again.

Caleb stared at the message, a surge of both fear and curiosity rising up at what the words meant.

Wes wouldn’t have posed it like this unless what he’d found was significant.

Maybe it was about the Albanian ex-lover.

Maybe it was about what she’d wanted that key for.

Maybe it would make all of the loose ends about her finally click into place.

“Something bad?” a drowsy voice came from beside him.

He turned and saw that Kelly was awake, watching him with big blue eyes that looked fond and trusting and a little worried. “No. Just work.”

“It’s not even six yet. You have at least another half hour to sleep.” She reached out to him with a smile. “Don’t get up yet.”

He smiled back at her, the tension in his chest relaxing. This was too good. It was everything he’d ever wanted—without even knowing he’d wanted it. He wasn’t going to blow it with his typical controlling nature and paranoia. He tapped out No thanks to Wes and put the phone down.

Whatever Kelly was hiding from him, she would tell him when she was ready. She wasn’t out to hurt him any more than he wanted to hurt her.

He drew her into his arms and settled her against him, relaxing as she started to stroke his chest and belly.

“Close your eyes for a few more minutes,” she murmured, pressing a kiss against his shoulder. “The world isn’t going to fall apart if you sleep another half hour.”

He smiled. “Sometimes it feels like it might.”

“That’s your colossal ego talking. I promise you it won’t.”

“Okay. If you say so.”

He closed his eyes, but he didn’t go back to sleep. He just held her until six thirty, wondering what he’d ever done to deserve someone like her in his life.

—

He was on his way to his business dinner that evening when he got a call from Sean Moore.

He knew it wouldn’t be good news as soon as he saw the man’s name on his phone.

Moore never called just to chat.

“What’s going on?” he asked, pausing in the hall and connecting the call.

“I had a break-in last night.”

Caleb’s body went cold. “What was stolen?”

“An old computer. My wife uses it for her recipes and computer games. It used to be mine.”

“Nothing was on it, was it?”

“I’d deleted everything work related, but sometimes things can be retrieved.”

“Who did it?”

“I don’t know. Professionals. My security system isn’t peanuts, you know. You need to protect yourself.”

“I’m protected. Let me know if I can do anything.”

“Will do.”

When Caleb hung up, he felt rattled and anxious in a way he almost never was.

There was legally nothing that could be done to him. But if certain things became public, then Kelly would find out about them. She would never forgive him. She would leave him. He knew it for sure.

The thought panicked him so much he did his normal mental-defenses thing and focused on what he could control.

He had to get through this business meeting. Then he would call in a few favors to find out who was investigating Sean Moore. If they found out the source of the search, then he’d be in a much better position to make it stop.

Get through the dinner. Find out the source of the investigation. Stop it.

These were things he could do.

Living without Kelly, now that he’d found her, was something he simply couldn’t do.

—

Three hours later he was in his home office, staring at more email on his computer.

He despised his email so much this evening that he felt vaguely nauseated at the sight of so many unanswered messages.

The meeting over dinner had been fine. Then he’d made some calls and gotten things going on finding out who was looking into Sean Moore.

But there was nothing else he could do. Kelly wasn’t even here. She’d gone out to dinner with her friend Reese, so he couldn’t even bury himself in her and start to feel better.

He felt himself going into an emotional spiral of anxiety, stress, and helplessness. He could feel it happening. It had happened before. And every time it had, he’d done things he’d ended up regretting.

He needed Kelly. She could help him stop it. He pulled out his phone and texted her. You coming over tonight?

She’d said she probably would, but it hadn’t been definite.

It was a few minutes before she answered. Yeah. I will. You okay?

Sure.

He wasn’t okay. He hated feeling this way. The first time it had ever happened had been when he was ten, sitting next to Mallory’s bed in the hospital, watching her die and having absolutely no way to stop it.

There was no reason to feel that way now, but he did.

He pulled out his phone again and texted Wes. Tell me.