Page 89 of Shadow Burn

He studied her for another second.

She smiled. “Please?”

He took the plate. “Sure, boss.”

He left the kitchen with the plate in hand. Halfway down the corridor, he slowed. The common room door stood partly open. Light spilled across the floor. Something clicked softly inside.

Jasper stopped breathing and pushed the door open.

Katherine stood on the far end of the table, paddle in one hand, ball in the other, her dark hair loose around her shoulders and a smile trembling at the edges of her mouth.

On the couch, Priss sat with imperial dignity, watching him through narrowed eyes.

Katherine lifted the paddle. “Rematch?”

The plate nearly slipped from Jasper’s hand. He set it on the nearest table, then crossed the room so fast that Katherine barely had time to set down the paddle before he reached her.

He pulled her into his arms, careful for exactly one second before she wrapped herself around him and held on.

Her face pressed into his neck. His arms locked around her. He breathed her in and felt three months of discipline, worry, patience, and half-lived days break apart inside him.

She was here. She was solid and warm and laughing against his shirt while he held her too tightly and didn’t care. “You’re here,” he said, because apparently all his words had been stripped down to the obvious.

“I’m here.”

“When did you get in?”

“Twenty minutes ago.”

“Vivi knew.”

“She arranged it. She gave me the new code to get in the service gate and said she’d distract you from the monitors.”

His gaze sharpened at the mention of the east service gate, and Katherine’s smile softened. “Vivi said you’ve replaced everything twice.”

Her eyes were brighter than they’d been when she left. Her wrist was no longer braced. She looked whole.

He touched her cheek with the backs of his knuckles, almost afraid the contact would prove she wasn’t real. “Are you okay?”

“Yes.” She covered his hand with hers. “Actually okay. Not Katherine-functioning-while-everything-burns okay.”

Priss meowed, jumped down, and circled his legs. Katherine glanced at her. “She would like you to know she has not been properly greeted.”

Jasper released his hold on Katherine and scratched under the cat’s chin. “Hello, terrorist.”

Priss blinked slowly.

“I missed you too.”

Katherine looked back at him and turned serious. “She wasn’t the only one who missed you.”

His heart kicked once, hard. He cupped her cheek and smiled. “I’m glad.”

“I left the CIA.”

For a second, he couldn’t make the words connect. “What?”

“I resigned.” She smiled faintly, though her eyes were bright. “Officially, I’m on leave until the paperwork processes. Agent Porter called it a catastrophic loss for the Agency and then congratulated me in the hallway where no one could hear her.”