“Oh, there’s something. Spill it. You don’t see us taking this thing back with us to Sky High?”
Yeah. Yeah, she did. That was the problem. But it wasn’t going to happen, unfortunately.
“What was your original plan, before you and your sister got your signals crossed?”
“Brody-”
“Ah, Christ. Tell me you weren’t going to just run away.” He stared at her. “You were.” He pushed to his feet, staring down at her. “You were just going to leave your place, your job, the people in your life. Shayne, Noah…”
Him.
But he didn’t say that; he just shook his head in disbelief. “Come on.” Turning back to the room, he began searching again.
She got to her feet and joined him. They worked in silence, and as they decided a few minutes later, in vain.
Defeated, they left the workroom. Not stopping at the kitchen, utensils or otherwise, they headed straight for Leena’s room.
Maddie had no idea if the surveillance cameras were back up and running, but knowing it was a possibility, she didn’t say a word. Didn’t have any words to say anyway.
But it was nearly dawn now. They could go to meet their charter boat for their ride to Nassau.
“Get your things,” Brody said. “We’re getting out of here.”
When she didn’t respond, he tugged her close, bending a little to look directly into her eyes, his own a little hot, undoubtedly because she’d failed to tell him about her plan. “We’re leaving,” he repeated very softly but with unbendable steel in his voice. “We’ll find another way to deal with what we need to deal with.”
“Brody-”
“No, I mean it. I’ll help you find another way; you’re just going to have to try something new and trust me.”
Trust him. A promise that just might be even more terrifying than anything she’d faced so far, and that was saying something.
Brody didn’t take a deep breath until they’d set foot down on Nassau’s shores. He took Maddie directly to a huge, luxurious five-star resort, not even wincing when he handed over his credit card to be abused because he wanted that look of failure off of her face yesterday.
Then, and only then, could he deal with how furious he was at what she and Leena had planned to do.
Maddie stood in the center of the lobby looking out the huge windows toward the ocean as he waited for their room key, and when he got it, he walked up to her.
“I can’t believe Rick actually let us go,” she said.
Brody either. “At least you’ve given your sister a head start. Rick won’t need her again for a while.”
“Hmm,” she said noncommitally and followed him to the elevator. “Why are we staying here?”
“You said you wanted to take a shower.”
She stared at him. “Are you telling me you just paid nearly a thousand dollars for a five-star suite so that I could take a shower?”
“Yeah.”
She just stared at him some more as if maybe he was the best thing since sliced bread, so he moved in close, lifting a hand to her jaw. With his thumb, he stroked her skin, not liking how pale she seemed or the purple bruises beneath her eyes. “Let’s call it a present. From me to you. Okay?”
“I want to give you a present, too.”
“Yeah? Then abandon your plan. That could be a great present. The best present. The king of all presents ever.”
They got off the elevator to walk to their spacious, gorgeous room. Maddie checked her cell phone for at least the hundredth time, waiting fruitlessly for a call from Leena. Then she looked at Brody.
The despair in her gaze killed him, and he discovered standing there, exhausted himself, feeling more than a little raw and unsettled, he needed to touch more than her face, so he pulled her into his arms.
“I could have gotten you killed,” she whispered.
“But you didn’t. I’m still very much alive and well.”
That she even allowed his hug told him more about her mental state than anything she might have said. She simply wrapped her arms around his waist and set her head against his chest with a long, shuddery sigh. “Brody.” It did something to him, her holding on to him. It cut through all the uncertainty of his feelings for her, the ones he’d simply set aside rather than face, and told him the truth.
He had it bad for her. Caressing her back, he felt her willowy body curl into his like a heat-seeking missile as she let out another long breath.
How could she walk away from this?
“I’m afraid it’s not over,” she whispered.
Yeah. Him, too. He was afraid it’d never be over between them. And he was afraid that was okay. Really okay.
“Rick isn’t going to ever let it go.”
Right. Rick. Not him. Got it. Staring grimly over her head out the picture window that revealed the gorgeous day in the making, the ocean dotted with whitecaps and sailboats, he waited until he could speak evenly. “It’ll be over soon enough.”
He’d see to it.
“I didn’t want you to come here with me.”
“Yeah. You’ve mentioned that a time or two.”
“I didn’t want you to see any of my past.”
He understood that, too. What he didn’t understand was how such an amazing woman had come out of those circumstances, and at age sixteen. She hadn’t said; she’d been careful not to say, but he could only imagine what it had been like for her growing up under the care of Rick Stone.
It had to have been pure hell. Knowing it, picturing it made him want to go back there and do something about it. Even thinking about doing it gave him a rush of satisfaction that faded when Maddie let out another of those sighs that seemed to reach right in and grab him by the throat and not let go.
“I want Leena to be safe,” she said. “But I don’t think she is. I just feel like she’s in danger.”
“We’ll find her. Back at Sky High, we’ll use all our resources, and we’ll find her.”
She nodded but didn’t say anything.
She’d made plans to walk away… He was still having a helluva time processing that. But they’d been together now, both in bed and out of it, and things had changed. At least for him. Just standing there holding her, feeling her face burrow into the crook of his neck so that her lips were touching his skin, made him ache.
And also hard.
Nice show of self-control. But when it came to her, he had none. Knowing it, he let his mouth brush her temple. He told himself he was offering comfort and nothing more and managed to keep his hands light and easy on her back to prove it. That was him. Light and soothing.
But then she slid her hands beneath his shirt, putting her chilled fingers against his heated flesh, digging into the muscles of his back as if he was her anchor.
Feeling distinctly unsoothed, he got a little harder.
Clearly feeling his reaction, she pressed more fully against him, her breasts to his chest, her thighs to his, going for more of that comfort he told himself he was offering. God knew, she probably needed it. Hell, after the past twenty-four hours, he needed it, the simple comfort of knowing she was okay and safe and out of harm’s way.
This hug, that would do it. Yes sirree, that was all he was going to do. Keep hugging her.
“Brody,” she whispered in a sort of breathy tone, shooting his comforting theory all to hell.
“Yeah?”
“You’re…strange.”
“Um, thanks?”
“No. I mean…” She hesitated. “This is strange.”
“Actually, it happens every time you touch me.”
“I don’t mean that-” She actually laughed. “I like that.”
