She just looked at him.
“Am I right?”
“I’ve never needed anyone in my corner.” She rolled off the bed. “And you did not pay a fortune for this room to lie here and talk. Let’s check out that shower.”
“After you tell me your new plan. There’s a new plan, right?”
She sighed.
“Christ. What is the plan, Maddie?”
Now she tightened her mouth.
“Are you kidding me?”
“And you call me stubborn.”
“I’m still in your corner,” he said. “I’m here, and I’m sticking.”
“No one asked you to.”
“I know.” He slipped out of bed and lifted her in his arms, heading toward the thousand-dollar shower. “It’s part of your charming personality.”
She slid her arms around his neck. “What is?”
“Your undeniable inability to ask for anything.”
She stared up at him for a beat, then set her head on his shoulder. “You say the nicest things.”
Chapter 24
Leena and Ben were instructed to buckle into their seats. “This is ridiculous,” she said to Rick’s men. “You can’t take me as a prisoner to my own home.”
“Stone Cay isn’t your home anymore.” This from Ed in the shotgun seat. “Hasn’t been in years.”
Crap. In her panic, she’d nearly forgotten they thought she was Maddie. “Well, you can’t take Ben there against his will. You’re kidnapping an innocent man.”
Saul buckled himself in. “He chose to come. That’s not kidnapping.”
“He changed his mind!”
Saul looked at Ben.
Ben looked back coolly. Calmly. And with just enough attitude that Leena felt terrified for him.
“Look, he’s crazy,” she said. “Don’t listen to him. We’re not even together.” She was desperate for them to let him go. Shaking with it. But she had to be Maddie, and Maddie didn’t shake. Maddie wouldn’t show her fear. She’d kick ass. “I demand that you let us both go.”
Ed rolled his eyes in Saul’s direction before turning back to Leena. “Rick wants to see you.”
“For what?”
“He needs to talk to you. See, he thought maybe you were interfering with Leena’s interest in her job.”
“What?” Oh, God. “I’m not!”
Ed and Saul just shrugged.
“Please. Let him go.” Leena turned to Ben. “Tell them. Tell the truth, and they’ll let you go. There’s no reason for you to have to go to Stone Cay.” No reason at all…
Ben looked at her for the longest moment, into her eyes, his touching each of her features before he slowly, unbelievably shook his head. “I’m not going to lie for you, Maddie.”
Oh, my God. What the hell was he doing?
Leena and Ben were taken out of the Jeep and led through the house that for nearly all of her life, had been the only home she’d ever known. They passed through the large living room, surrounded by the wealth and elegance and sophistication that Rick’s dealings had purchased, and she wondered how she’d ever enjoyed it here. It was as if her eyes had been shut for years, but they were open now.
This wasn’t her home, and it never had been.
They were taken to Maddie’s old bedroom, and the minute they were left alone, she whirled on Ben. “Why did you do this?” She knew that all of the house was under camera surveillance except the bedrooms and bathrooms, but she didn’t trust Rick. She knew she needed to be careful what she said, but she couldn’t help herself. “They might have let you go if you’d only agreed with me.”
“You think I should have just let them take you all by yourself?”
“Yes!”
His gaze on hers, he shook his head. “Then I wouldn’t have known what happened to you.”
“What do you care? You would have been free!”
He didn’t answer that. Frustrated, petrified, she paced the floor. “It makes no sense. Taking you makes no sense.”
Ben didn’t say anything to that, either. He just looked out the window into the black night. His jeans were loose on his body and still splattered with paint. His T-shirt was vintage and fit him in a way that would have made her want to touch…if she hadn’t been preoccupied with being so absolutely terrified for him.
In some deep recess of her mind, she recognized that this man made her feel things that no other did. Not that it mattered at the moment. Not that it would ever matter if she didn’t manage to get him out of here safely. She glanced at him. “I’m sorry I got you into this mess,” she said to his strong, solid back. “So damn sorry.”
He stood there, shoulders broad and strong, hands in his pockets, giving nothing away of his thoughts, not even a hint. “I don’t need you to be sorry.”
She wondered what he did need, but didn’t have the nerve to ask.
“And taking me makes perfect sense, really.”
“How’s that?”
“More leverage with which to manipulate you. The only problem will be, of course, once Rick sees me. He’ll take one look and realize I’m no stranger, not to him and not to Leena.” He turned to face her. “But unfortunately, to Maddie I would be.”
She stared at him as the truth sank in. And it no longer mattered if they were being watched or not because he was right. “You met Rick in person? When? He rarely meets clients in person.”
“And yet I met you in person.”
“Yes, but that was only because…” She broke off, blushed. She’d flown to him under the guise of needing to talk to her client, an excuse that had worked with Rick at the time but had been nothing but a big, fat lie. “Never mind.”
The truth was, she’d flown to New Orleans to meet with Ben because she’d been attracted to him from the very start, to his voice, to the way he strung his words together, to how he seemed so laid-back and easygoing, so intelligent and yet utterly approachable.
And genuine. Kind and warm and genuine.
There had not been enough of that in her life, and she’d homed in on it like a bee to honey. Meeting him had only deepened her crush, and it had been a crush. A deep, heart-yanking crush. In person, he’d been even more dynamic than she’d expected, and her visceral reaction had shocked her.
She wanted him. Mind, spirit, and even more shocking, physically.
He’d been completely clueless, of course, and one-hundred-percent professional. Together, they’d pored over her design, talking for hours and hours.
And then he’d taken her to dinner. And over sushi and candlelight, over laughter and more easy talking, she’d done the unthinkable. She’d fallen.
Hard.
And then she’d had to go back to Stone Cay to make his design a reality and screw him over.
That she’d done so was her own personal humiliation and shame, and she’d take that to her grave.
But Ben would not be taking anything to his grave, not if she had anything to do about it.
He was regarding her from unfathomably deep eyes. “I contacted him after I discovered the swindle,” he said.
Her mouth fell open. “You what?”
“Did you think I wouldn’t? That I would just let it go and not care about the fact that I was robbed?”
