He groaned at her nudged.

“Wyatt.”

“Huh?”

“We should get up. Gotta go back home. Need to think about Friday.” Charley rolled over to face him, nuzzled his nose. The colors, a sickly green and blue, reminded her of the pretty light that shone upon them.

Ouch.

He opened his eyes one by one. “Time is it?”

Charley rose up on her elbow, peered over his shoulder. “Seven ten.”

“’K.”

“Um, Wyatt?” she asked while she yanked sheets and blankets to fit the mattress.

He stood in front of a chest in mid-clothes-selection. “Yeah?” he said without turning.

“I’m going to need a shirt that doesn’t contain… blood, please.” Charley moved around to the other side, tugged the spread to align it to the bed’s frame.

Wyatt opened a drawer, pulled out a red shirt and threw it to her. “Red… In case you opt to slug me again, it won’t show as much.” He chuckled and went back to his search.

Charley grimaced. He’d taken her complete overreaction in stride, but she’d broken one of her cardinal rules: no force when not in a life or death situation. He’d shrugged it off as if it happened every day.

She pulled the edge of the blanket and smoothed it out but stretched it again.

“Shower?” He strolled back to the bathroom as well dressed as a new born baby.

Charley patted the edge once more, looked over the space where she’d lain curled into him and listened to his heartbeat. His breath against her neck had warmed and soothed, his arms had protected and his presence had filled her with a light the stained glass window didn’t come close to in comparison.

This is what I want. All of it. Charley sighed.

He started the shower but leaned over the counter when she caught up to him. Charley noted the two heads at opposite sides went along well with the dual sinks.

Handy.

“Penny for your thoughts?” Wyatt said.

Charley turned to him and smiled. “You know you said that to me way back when?”

“Probably. It’s a favorite cliché of mine. Do I need to offer you a quarter?”

She walked to him where he’d stood, razor in hand, and wrapped her arms around his waist. Her cheek against his back, she listened to the thump-thump within. He moved his arm around her after he set the razor down, turned and kissed the top of her head.

“Your eyes are that funky purple again.” He trailed the kisses down to her lips.

I’ve missed out on years of this. Her heart throbbed. “Matches your nose. I figure we can stay even for a while.”

Wyatt’s thumb trailed along her jaw. “You have a question but don’t want to ask it. Why?”

She laid her forehead against his chest. “I just-”

“I’m not mad at you, Charley. Quite the opposite, in fact. I feel like we’ve known each other forever, that it’s like time never separated us.” He pushed her hair behind her shoulder. “Do you want more than that?”

She moved her head against him, unsure if he’d pick up that the movement meant to relay a solid ‘yes’.

He tilted her head up with one finger under her chin. “Do you love me, Charley?”

She tensed, her gaze on his. “I never stopped loving you, Wyatt.”

He hiked his butt up onto the counter and pulled her up to him so her knees rested on top of it. Their bodies fit together again with a simplicity and ease.

Wyatt cupped her cheeks with both hands. “I have loved you since the day I met you. And not some stupid high-school love everyone knows is fleeting. A love so deep-down painful, I never thought I’d find a way to make it go away. Everything I have done for nearly sixteen years has been because of that.”

Tears threatened to spill as his words hit her in the most tender of spots and filled the void she’d forced upon them both.

“No, no. Don’t do that. I’m not unhappy, and I can see your perspective… now. I have you, here in my house, in my life, and if I’m lucky enough to keep you for another forty or maybe even fifty years, that’s enough for me.”

She tried to move from his grasp, to lean against him and soak up his warmth, but he forced her to remain at eye level.

“I love you, Charley Randall. I love your uniqueness, your quirks, those wicked eyes, that temper and what you do. I don’t want any of that to change. You are who you are, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

She dove into the kiss, putting passion and force behind it-a move to tell him she understood, agreed and believed it, too. “I love you, too, Wyatt, with every cell in my body.”

I just hope you think the same when you learn you’re the key to keeping me the same.

21

Wyatt adjusted his tie by his bedroom mirror, cursing at the over-under-too-tight state he managed to get it in, and yanked it off. “Charley?”

She walked out of the bathroom, rubbing her hair with the towel as tiny drops of water glistened on her body. The towel moved lower until she rubbed at her calves, moving back up to her thighs and higher, repeating on the other side.

Wyatt swallowed hard, forgetting the tie.

As she stood again, her smile followed with the maneuvering of the towel behind her, rubbing it against her back with an air to drama and sexual fantasy. He moved to her, grabbed her by the waist and pulled her in for a kiss. Her hair fell around him and left watermarks on his crisp button-down, the tie still hanging at his neck.

“You’re dressing up?” She released their lips.

“Standard-issue FBI.” He stuck a finger through the loop, prepared to start again.

Charley bit her lip.

“What?”

“How about you go a bit more… casual?”

He let go, the tie hanging loose around his neck again. “Why?”

She dropped her head against his chest. “You’re going to think this is stupid.”

He chuckled. “After everything else you’ve told me? Try me.”

She tilted back up to him as he scanned the length of her body, and his own responded with heat and desire.

“So this little plan I’ve come up with-”

Wyatt resisted the urge to tuck her in a closet for safe keeping. Instead, he withheld the sigh. “I haven’t agreed to it.” He didn’t even know what she’d come up with.

She ran her hands up his chest, leaving trails of intentional heat along the way. “You will.”

He hid the smile. “You can give me your idea, and I’ll… consider it.”

She did not hide the smile. “I want as many ‘me’s’ as possible. If you recall, you mentioned, and I blew it off, that they might know Chase is safe. That could mean they also know Chase’s gift if he left behind his clothes.”

Wyatt pinched the bridge of his nose out of habit, cringing at the pressure it added behind his eyes. “Okay, I think I’m following.”

Charley giggled. “If they know what Chase can do, we need someone with his skills but with experience.”

“And who would that be?”

“Her name is Maggie. She’s a bit… overwhelming… more so when she’s attracted to someone… and she has a thing for guys in suits.”

Wyatt let his head fall back as he laughed. “Charley Randall… are you jealous? Are you worried I’ll give you up and turn to her when she plies me with her feminine wiles?”

“Oh, she will. Trust me,” Charley said. “You’re used to Lily-”

Wyatt pulled Charley to the edge of the bed. “What’s up with Lily? I mean, are she and Cael a something-or-other?”

Charley giggled. “So, you’ve seen it, then?”

“I saw it when they were Carter and Leena and again in Montreal. Why aren’t they together already?”

“There are reasons. Until they work through them, they’ll continue to fight the urge to… do anything about it.”

“You said ‘blend’ before.”

She bobbed her head up and down. “I did.”

Wyatt pulled to the bed’s surface, rolled to his side, and placed a kiss on her forehead. “What does that mean?”

“So… we can only… ah… find a match with someone who shares our birthday.”

He raised an eyebrow.

“It’s like a dog and cat mating. Gross, I know, but they couldn’t… you and I can’t until I-” She looked up, stopped.

“What?”

Charley dropped her forehead against his and drew in a deep breath.

Wyatt tugged at a lock of hair. “Tell me.”

She looked back up at him. “I have to give up who I am to be with you. To have children with a full-blooded human, I have to give up my life as you know it today. No more morphing. No more hero work-unless our clients still want us-which by the way, they usually don’t. I choose a body and make that change on our birthday, and from that point on, age as would any normal human-because I will be.”

“Wow,” Wyatt said. “So, really, no other option?” He ran a thumb across her cheek.

“Not if I want the true human experience. Kids, real family, et cetera.”

“But you have an amazing family already. What if you found someone else-of your kind? So you could just keep going?” Wyatt asked.

Charley’s eyes grew wide. “I’m almost two hundred and thirty-four years old, Wyatt. Don’t you think by now I’d have found someone of my own kind if I was meant to? Whose birthday do I share?”

“Apparently, mine.”

“And how many times have we been together?”

“This would be our… second?”

“Fourth, actually.”

Four?

“Do you really think there is anyone else for me?” Charley stared straight at him.

“But do you want to give up everything that you are?” Wyatt asked. For me?

“I have to one way or the other, Wyatt. This is my last shot at this.”

“What do you mean?” He sat up, confused by the assertion. One last chance? One last birthday? One last year?

Charley sat up with him, leaned her head on his shoulder.

He let her touch, her softness, her presence invade his mind. “Tell me.”