“Yes. But he went through it a long time before I ever knew it.”
“How long?”
“Before he married me. My father…” She shook her head. Here was the hard part of the confession. “My father screwed him out of a bunch of money. He never recovered from that.”
“So what, your father gave him you?”
At that humiliating truth laid out bare, she closed her eyes. But there was no more hiding what her life had been. He’d seen the proof in her eyes. “You could say so, yes,” she said, remembering the feeling of betrayal when she’d found out the truth.
But now she felt as if the cold night had gotten inside her bones and was going to rip her apart. She heard Noah swear, the rough sound from deep in his throat only making her shiver yet again. She turned her head to the window and stared into the black, stormy night.
She felt stripped bare, and more vulnerable than she’d ever been in her life.
“Bailey,” he said very quietly, reaching out for her hand, rubbing his fingers over hers, clearly trying to infuse her with his heat.
Helpless against the pull of his voice, she looked at him.
“There’s more.”
Yeah, there was more, lots more, including the answers he wanted. It was just that she didn’t have as many as he might have liked, and she didn’t intend to give them to him in any case. “Alan owed people big. And when he couldn’t pay, they killed him.”
“And now they’re after you. Which makes sense if they’d killed you, but they didn’t.”
She just looked at him, warring with her own serious trust issues. Luckily for her, he seemed to take this all in with a grim composure that was somehow, shockingly, like a calming balm on her panic.
“They want something from you,” he said, watching her very carefully. “Whatever it is, they want it badly.”
“Yes.”
“And they’re not going to give up until you deliver.”
True enough.
He looked resigned. “So where are you headed next?”
“To either of the two remaining resorts in Alan’s name.”
She watched him absorb that, then slowly shake his head. “You’re still hiding.”
“Yes, because if they catch me-”
“No, from me. You’re still hiding from me.”
What could she say to that? To the utter truth? “It’s nothing personal,” she said quietly.
“Yeah, it’s personal. It’s very personal.” And he got out of the Jeep.
Frustrated, uncharacteristically uptight, and the capper…inexplicably aroused, Noah came around the Jeep for Bailey, leading her through the garage to the inside of the house.
He had no idea what it was about her, either that fierce pride in her eyes that said she’d rather not have needed his help, or the way he felt when she laid those eyes on him, or maybe it was more base than that; maybe it was simply her mouth-watering body.
He had no idea, but he tried to put it, and her, out of his head.
He’d stayed here before, many times, and was already familiar with the house. He cranked up the heat, all while holding on to the soggy, still shivering woman.
The people who owned the house were incredibly wealthy but not showy. As usual, the place was clean, warm, and cozy. Just as he liked it. The living room opened into the kitchen, and on the counter was a basket filled with his favorite junk snacks: cookies, donuts, and chips. Maddie had had it stocked for him. “Hungry?”
Bailey looked at the offering and shook her head.
“Don’t tell me. Health food nut.”
“Good food never hurt anyone.”
He, not nearly so picky, grabbed a large chocolate chip cookie, and munching, found her an apple in the refrigerator, which she took with a wild shiver.
“Come on.” He led her through the house and up to the master bedroom, where he would have pulled her into the bathroom, thinking a hot shower was what she needed, but she dug her heels into the carpet and shook her head more violently than the rest of her was shaking, which was really saying something.
“You need to get warm,” he said.
“I’m fine.”
Bullshit, she was fine. The car ride might have begun to warm her up, but it hadn’t fully done the job, and he needed to do something. Clearly she was pulling the shy card, but it was too late for that.
“N-no need for a shower,” she said through chattering teeth.
“You have to get warm.” He lifted his hands to his own shirt, which he unbuttoned.
Her eyes widened. “Um-what-”
“I don’t know about you, but I’m just about done with being cold and wet.”
“Yes, but-”
“Hurry.”
Her gaze locked on his chest. “H-hurry to what?”
“Strip.”
Chapter 10
Bailey could not have possibly heard him right. Strip? Strip? Was he insane? Suddenly being too scared to think and too frozen solid to imagine ever being warm again took a backseat to this new and entirely disconcerting situation.
She was alone in a house with a man she hardly knew, a big, strong, tough man who knew his way around trouble, who looked like sin on a stick, oh, and he’d unbuttoned his shirt.
Strip…
How was it even possible she wanted to do just that? She’d seen men naked before, so she had no idea why the sight of Noah undoing his shirt, revealing a wedge of bare torso, made her mouth suddenly dry, but she wasn’t sticking around to find out. “Noah-”
He took a step forward, and she took one back, which had the high mattress hitting her in the butt.
As if that had been his plan all along, his hands went to either side of her hips, resting on the thick bedding, his body close enough to share some of that heat he had radiating off of him, not to mention the sheer, hard strength of him pressing against her.
Strip…
She wanted to, she really did, and it had nothing to do with impending hypothermia and everything to do with how he made her feel when he looked at her, touched her.
Kissed her.
God. She was really losing it here, as surely as the room was beginning to warm from the hot air coming out of the heater vents, enclosing them in an intimacy she wasn’t sure she could face. He couldn’t really want her, could he? Not after what she’d done, dragging him here.
Putting his life in danger.
That last thought made her breath catch, made her hug herself and close her eyes until he lifted her chin. He was close enough that his broad shoulders blocked out the light. “Just want to warm you up, Bailey.”
She was cold, beyond cold, and shaking so hard she could feel her brain cells rattling together.
And still, she could think.
And what she thought was that things were worse than ever. She hadn’t found the money. One resort down, two more to check. And now that Noah had helped her lose the men on her tail, she should go immediately. That meant going back out there…
Closing her eyes again, she weaved in exhaustion, then felt his hands on her arms again. “Hey,” he said, bending a little to peer into her face. “Hey, it’s going to be okay.”
“Really? How?” She didn’t pull away. She no longer had the energy; the cold had sapped it right out of her. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I have to go. I need to call a cab, or-”
“No. Hell, no.” With that he dropped his shirt to the floor and pulled her into the heat of his body. “No one’s going anywhere, not tonight.”
She resisted-barely-the urge to bury her nose against him and inhale him up like a forbidden treat. But she couldn’t resist the heat of him. “I have to-”
“Stay,” he commanded quietly. “You have to stay. Tomorrow is soon enough to figure it all out.”
At the thought of turning it off for the night, she nearly melted. She was helpless against the pull of him, and couldn’t help but lift her arms and wrap them around his waist.
When she did, he sucked in a harsh breath. “Your hands are frozen.”
Yes. Yes they were, and to prove it, she ran them up and down his back, gliding them against sleek, smooth skin and sinew, thinking, Yum.