“One of the night maintenance guys hit a transformer with his truck. The electricity’s out at this part of the resort.”
“Everyone’s cell phones were checked.”
“Yeah. Someone already brought them back to the lobby. You can pick yours up there. Five minutes and we’ll have staff lighting the way.”
“Good. Okay. Anything I can do?”
“Nope. All in a night’s work in the hospitality biz.” Kane grinned. “Gotta go.”
“Yeah.”
Alec redirected his attention to the building’s exit, where men and women straggled through, their relieved expressions discernible as more staff arrived with portable lanterns. He expected Lilly any second, but as the line of people coming out of the structure trickled to nothing, he still didn’t spy her.
Where was she? Had she left from some other exit or had he missed her while talking with Kane?
Then Alec thought of his instructions. Wait right here and I’ll be back for you, I promise.
With a curse, he ran for the entrance where a skinny guy was just crossing the threshold, a small flashlight in hand. “Everybody’s out, man,” he said. In the glow from the lanterns, Alec saw his polo shirt read “Oscuro Events.” Oscuru was “dark” in Spanish.
“I’ll just check for myself.” Alec grabbed the flashlight from the guy and shouldered past him.
Maybe it was Alec’s air of authority, or his grimace of worry, but the other man didn’t object as he rushed into the still-dark space and the heavy door closed behind him.
Trying to get his bearings, Alec glanced around as he moved farther inside. The coasters had dimmed to nearly nothing and his feet crunched over broken glass.
“Lilly?” he called softly, some instinct warning him to go gently. “Are you here, sugar?”
A sound alerted him to the left rear of the room. A stifled sob?
“It’s Alec,” he said, following the noise. “I came back for you. All’s well now.”
Running the flashlight’s small spot of yellow illumination around the area, he noticed that a belly table had been knocked over. As he drew nearer, he could make out a small figure sheltered behind it, her legs folded to her chest, arms surrounding them, forehead to her knees. Something moved through his chest, more than relief, more than sympathy. Tenderness, both sharp and sweet, like a paper cut, he thought, as he dragged the piece of furniture away from Lilly.
He crouched down. “Are you hurt?”
Her head shot up. She shook it.
“Okay.” Instead of drawing her to her feet immediately, he operated on instinct and dropped to the floor beside her. “Other than not hurt, how are you?”
“Fabulous,” she said, with a faint heartiness that didn’t have him fooled. With her lousy sense of direction, the dark and the chaos had likely confused and alarmed her, big time. “Really, I’m just fine. I needed a moment to…to get my bearings, so I took a seat right here.”
Still obeying instinct, he lifted Lilly to sit sideways on his lap.
“Hey,” she protested, struggling. “What are you—”
“Shh.” He wrapped his arms around her, trying to cease her wiggling. “I need a moment now. I got a little rattled myself when I couldn’t find you.”
Her movements subsided. “Oh, all right,” she said, as if put out. But when she relaxed into the curve of his body, he felt a tremor run through her.
He tightened his hold and pressed a soft kiss to the top of her hair. “Why didn’t you leave with the others? Were you terribly disoriented?”
After a long moment she answered. “You promised you’d come back for me.”
Another paper cut, and then another, a thousand of them, all torturous and all so fucking gratifying as well, because Lilly’s words implied she trusted him—or at least wanted to. You promised you’d come back for me. And she’d waited for him.
God, Alec thought. The idea of that hurt so damn good.
He squeezed shut his eyes to ride out the ache even as he pulled her more closely against him, all the while aware it was sending the wrong message. He of all people should know never to promise anything.
Chapter 6
Lilly had lied.
When Alec found her sitting on the floor, she hadn’t been fabulous or anything close to fine.
The explosive sound, the breaking glass, the shouts had sent her into an instant mental tailspin. Before Alec had even left her side she’d retreated inside her head and became once again that little kid who locked herself into the hall closet while her aunt and uncle’s “passion” raged on.
Not until Alec returned had she realized that the space surrounding her had cleared of other people. Not until he lifted her onto his lap and wrapped her in his warm arms had she breathed easy.
Everybody had their little quirks, she consoled herself.
“What happened?” she asked him now, sounding drowsy. A lethargy was overtaking her body as adrenaline seeped from her system.
His voice rumbled in his chest and was a deep hum against her body. “Nothing dire. A vehicle ran into a transformer and the power’s out.”
“Everywhere?” Her heart sped up again at the thought she’d have to spend the night without light. Even the closet had not been completely impenetrable. A crack at the bottom of the door had been enough to illuminate the scruffy toes of her sneakers as she sat curled in the cramped, dusty-smelling space.
“No,” Alec said, and he lifted one hand to smooth her hair from her face, a gesture both soothing and intimate. “But even if it was, we’d get your cell phone back and scare up a few flashlights.”
“Right.” No need to panic. Again.
“What about you, Lilly?” he asked quietly. “What happened to you?”
She held herself very still. “I told you about my bad sense of direction. When I heard the explosion, the screams, the breaking glass, I just sort of…got lost.”
“My question wasn’t about tonight, Lily.”
Her heart started thumping madly. He’d sensed there was something more complicated behind her reaction. Her face burned with shame and she fought the urge to bend into herself like a pill bug, protecting her sensitive
