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“I…” A shiver ran through her

At his intensity?

At the dire “consequences?”

He had no idea

“Nikki,” he quietly asserted “I never considered the backend result to be of no value Not even to be of lesser value But I had to obtain that information—that’s my bottom line That’s my cut-and-dried, my absolute The rest… It’s not any less relevant, it’s just…subject to being a casualty of war”

More tears sprang to her eyes

“Goddaain—and leapt swiftly to his feet

He set his cocktail on the coffee table and took tide strides to reach her His fingertips swept her tears away the very second they spilled

“Hey,” he said as his hands cupped her face “We could be torturing ourselves for no good reason here”

Dare he offer her some sort of hope? Take back the extremeness of the situation, and instead attempt to return to her the positive affir this subject?

And Jesus Christ, the only reason he’d brought it up in the first place was because…

“Nikki, I was just trying to be honest with you earlier Open I don’t want to keep anything from you The unfortunate reality of that honesty is that I ended up hurting you in the process And robbing you of the opti to I’m an asshole for—”

“Doing your job?”

She stared up at hireen eyes He ht them and made the rich eles

He limmer in them And the spunk in her voice He missed her radiant smile