Page 163 of His Surrender

“Dean,” she whispers.

I bury my face against her neck. My entire body is shaking now; there’s no hiding it.

Aubrey’s hands come up slowly, first touching my sides, then wrapping around me when she realizes I am not going to let go.

“What happened?”

I can’t answer. My throat has closed.

I pull her tighter, even though she is already pressed completely against me. She shifts enough to look toward the living room.

“Is Liana okay?”

I nod against her neck. “Yes.” My voice breaks on the single word.

Her hand moves up my back in slow, uncertain strokes.

“I’m sorry,” she says softly. “My phone died, and the lines were insane. I knew I was almost finished, so I kept thinking I’d get through one more store and then come home. I didn’t realize how late⁠—”

I shake my head. I cannot listen yet. The explanation doesn’t matter. Not while my mind is still trying to separate what I imagined from what is real.

Aubrey is alive. Her heart beats steadily against my chest. Her fingers are in my hair.

I focus on each physical fact, forcing them into my brain one by one.

“Dean.” Her voice is quieter now.

She leans back, but I resist until her hands frame my face. The concern in her eyes nearly undoes me.

“What is it?”

I try to speak, and nothing comes. I look at her and see every image my mind created over the last hour.

I grip her wrists, not to move her hands away, but to keep contact with her.

To prove she is still here.

“I called you.”

Her eyes fill with guilt. “I’m so sorry. I should have found a charger or used someone else’s phone.”

“I called over and over. I checked downstairs.”

Her expression changes. The guilt gives way to something deeper. Understanding has not arrived yet, but she finally sees that this was not annoyance.

It was not anger. It was terror.

My chest tightens again.

I stare at her beautiful, living face and hear the truth leave me before I can soften it.

“I thought you were dead.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

AUBREY

For one suspended moment, I can only stare at him.