I took a quick shower, and when I came out, she was sitting in the desk chair at her laptop again. She had her long, dark waves pulled over one shoulder, baring her neck on the side closest to me. Her eyes were trained on the screen, but since I’d opened the bathroom door, she’d pulled her shoulders back, straightening, showing no cracks in her veneer.
I wanted to kiss the soft flesh facing me until she let the veneer fall away. Until she was reaching for me and my body and forgetting everything else but her and me and the way we moved together. Instead, I did what I was good at. I boxed up those emotions and slammed them into the footlocker deep inside me.
“How do you feel?” I asked.
She glanced over at me, then away, and then her eyes came back, taking me in from the top of my wet, dark hair down to my tactical boots. She assessed me in the way I often did her. Weighing. Classifying. Trying to pinpoint the thing about her that was driving me insane with need.
“I’m actually starving, but I’m not ready to put food into my stomach yet,” she said. “You aren’t in cargo pants.”
I looked down at the jeans I was wearing. They were worn and comfortable.
“I do own civilian clothes,” I said with a half-smile.
“This might be only the second time I’ve ever seen you in them,” she said, turning back to her screen with a hard swallow that made her throat move up and down. It was good to know she was struggling against desire as much as I was. I wasn’t the only one waging an internal war.
After spending an hour on the computer and her phone, breaking Brady’s disappearing act to the world, she got ready for the day. Every time I heard a noise in the bathroom, all I could see was her naked frame in the shower all over again.
Her perfect curves. Her perfect skin. Her perfectly kissable lips.
Mac’s name lighting up my screen reminded me of exactly what he’d do to me if he knew where my thoughts had gone.
“Yeah,” I said.
“What’s going on?” The demand in Mac’s voice was both expected and humorous until my thoughts went to Dani vomiting in a bathroom stall.
“What do you know, and what do you need to know?” I asked.
“Damnit, Nash. You went down there to protect them, and now Brady is canceling concerts and disappearing. What the hell is going on?”
The bathroom door opened, and Dani emerged in the white sundress she’d worn for about a minute the day before. It made her tanned skin stand out as if it were glimmering with fairy dust in the half-light of the hotel room.
“Dani hasn’t told you?” I asked, surprised.
She froze and then started waving her head and her hands in a wild “no” fashion.
“Told me what?” Mac asked.
I sat down, running a finger along the scar that was hidden under my T-shirt.
“She was―” The phone was ripped from my hand.
“Mac, stop pestering him. He has a job to do, you know,” she said, flashing a wink at me. At least she was more herself this morning.
I could hear Mac’s tone but not his words. He clearly wasn’t happy.
“Look, we just need to stay low for a little while until the police catch up with her.” She paused to listen. “Yes, there were some more incidents. Enough to have the Otter suggesting everyone run for the hills.” She eyed me like I’d done something completely horrible, like killing a butterfly. “No, I’m going to stay low for a while along with Brady. Don’t worry. Honest, we’ve got a Navy SEAL looking out for us.” Mac must have said something sarcastic, because her lips twitched. “Ha. Good one. Hug Georgie for me. We’ll talk later. Love you, Squirter.”
She winced at the nickname, hung up, and handed me back my phone.
“Sorry. I just don’t want them to worry,” she said.
It wasn’t my place to get involved, but I couldn’t help saying, “Mac’s going to be upset and hurt when he finds out.”
“You promised to never speak of it. Remember, I’ve got the goods now. I’m sure I’ll be able to dig up that cadet calendar without too much effort.”
I chuckled. It didn’t bother me, but I was fine with letting her think it did if it made her feel better about yesterday.
♫ ♫ ♫
By the time we made it down the stairs, checked out, picked up a rental, and got out of Tallahassee, it was midmorning. While I drove toward Thomasville, Dani took calls, responded to emails, and commented on social media posts. She hadn’t stopped since she’d woken up.
She had to be tired and hungry after yesterday, but you’d never know it. She was acting almost as if nothing had happened. As if it had been a bad dream I’d lived through alone. Reality ripped at my guts.
I hadn’t protected her.
That one thought was a harsh bellow in my brain that had been on repeat since yesterday.
It wouldn’t happen again.
We were a few miles outside of Thomasville when I took a turnoff I knew like the back of my hand. Nothing but the green of farmland and a wave of wild trees surrounded us. It felt almost like nothing had changed until we drove over a newly repaved road instead of the potholes and cracks I’d known from childhood. Proof it had been too long since I’d been back.
I hadn’t texted or called ahead, and I was regretting that choice a little. I didn’t want Dani to be caught in the middle of an argument
