Page 82 of Deep Cover

“Watch this.” He pressed a button and the screen lit up. He flipped through the settings, showing her mountain trails, desert canyons and coastline, the imagery so clean it looked like she could step right into it.

She spun to him and threw her good arm around him, resting her cheek on his chest. “Thank you.” Her voice caught.

“Oh, Ryss.” He squeezed her back and bowed over her, brushing his lips over her hair.

She pulled back enough to see his face. “I have a surprise for you too.”

He raised a brow.

“I’m staying.”

He gaped at her for a second, face blank. “What? You’re serious?”

She nodded, letting her excitement show at last. “It’s a liaison position. Cannon and Doyle agreed.”

His expression shivered and then his face crumpled and he yanked her against him, squeezing the breath out of her. “I’ll have you for good,” he rasped into her hair.

Tears flooded her eyes. She drew back and cradled his jaw, searching his eyes. “We’ll have each other, Reid.”

He crushed his mouth to hers with the fever of a man who’d just been handed his whole future.

A commotion at the door interrupted the moment, and they swung as one to see Jolie and Stina bursting in, both in tears.

Caryssa rushed forward to see what was wrong. But Jolie launched herself into a hug that nearly knocked Caryssa off her feet.

Stina threw her arms around both of them. “We heard you’re staying!”

She hugged them both tight. “I am!”

When they broke apart, Stina pressed a package wrapped in tissue paper into her hands. Just when Caryssa thought her heart couldn’t fit anything else, in walked two friends—and an entire Blackout team with them.

Between rolls of tape and package bombs, everyone on this base had become the family she hadn’t known since she left Philly.

Eyes brimming with tears, she looked at Stina and Jolie. “For me?”

They nodded.

“Open it,” Jolie urged.

Reid held the gift while she used her good hand to unwrap it. An uneven tangle of mismatched yarn fell into her hand.

“We both worked on it,” Stina said.

Caryssa unfurled the item to see it was a scarf. It was lumpy and it wasn’t perfect. In fact, it was downright ugly.

Tears spilled down her cheeks. “I love it!”

She wound the scarf around her neck and met Reid’s stare. His jaw worked hard and his eyes were suspiciously bright.

“Are you crying?” Her voice was watery.

“Smoke damage,” he said. “Slow healer.”

They all burst out laughing, and the ladies embraced her again before they left the gym.

Alone with Reid again, she slipped into his arms, right where she belonged. Where she’d always belonged.

He brushed his lips over hers in a lingering kiss that sent shivers through her and made her push closer to the hard length of him.