He cupped her face, her small bones swallowed by his big palms, and laid a soft, chaste kiss on her lips. For a long breath, he gave her his kindness and adoration. It flowed bittersweet between their lips and hearts as they said their final good-bye as lovers.
More than ready for his future, he broke away and led her toward the dungeon, hoping that he’d be introducing her to a special man who would take her in hand and make her whole.
* * *
MYSTERY raced around the bedroom she and Axel had shared an hour ago. She tried not to look at the bed as she packed up her toiletries, tossed on some clean clothes, zipped up her bags, then waited.
Maybe she was being hasty. She should at least ask Axel about what she’d seen. There must be some rational explanation, right?
For him cuddling another woman and whispering endearments? How often had her mother said she wished she’d listened to her gut about her father’s alibis, rather than his slick words? On the other hand, Axel wasn’t her father. Daddy liked attention—needed it. Axel stood quiet and watchful. He didn’t mind solitude. He wasn’t for show, didn’t care about flash . . .
But what man turned down sex when a pretty skank in a short skirt offered it? Axel and her father might not be cut from the same cloth, but they were both men with dicks. Maybe that was the only similarity that mattered.
Pacing and chewing on a ragged nail, she waited for Axel to return. She’d ask him about the woman she’d seen him with and his relationship with her. She’d listen and try to make an unemotional judgment. After all, despite the sex they’d had today, he’d never promised her an exclusive relationship.
But what kind of man jumped from the most amazing sex with her—twice—to put another woman on his lap minutes later?
Mystery crossed the bedroom again. Damn, she could talk herself in circles all night.
Bottom line: She had to ask Axel, listen, then do what was best for her, depending on whether he set off her bullshit meter. Heath would want an explanation, and she would give him one but—
Suddenly, the lights flickered, then died. Everything around her went still, black. She stood unmoving, afraid that she’d trip over something in the unfamiliar room. Then slowly, she began feeling her way back to her suitcase near the door.
When she turned the knob and eased into the hallway, a hand suddenly gripped her arm, pulling her against a hard body. Before she could even gasp, he covered her mouth with his palm. Adrenaline surged. Terror spiked. Had whoever left the picture in her hotel room somehow found her?
“We’re leaving via the back door now. Stay quiet.”
Heath. Mystery heaved a giant sigh of relief. “We should talk about this before we run off. Maybe I’m being hasty.”
“Would you really give him more chances to crush your heart? What would your mother say about that?”
To run like hell if she had any suspicion at all that Axel had cheated. “I know.”
Heath released her, then brushed past her. She heard a vague grunt as he lifted her admittedly heavy suitcase. “Wrap your hand around my arm and follow.”
“But what if I’m safer with him around, too?” she murmured.
“You’ve let the pleasure cloud your thinking. I’ve kept you safe all these years. I’m still more than capable. Follow me. We have to hurry. It won’t take Axel much longer to figure out that I’ve simply tripped the breaker.”
Mystery hesitated, so torn. She sensed Heath’s impatience.
“I told you at the onset that Axel was a player,” he pointed out. “It took him less than fifteen minutes to find another woman to seduce.”
“He didn’t make me any promises,” she pointed out.
“But don’t you deserve them?”
She sighed. Yes, she did. Her mother had often said that she felt as if she’d accepted feeling like second best because she’d lacked the confidence and temerity to leave. Mystery didn’t want to be a victim of her own weakness.
Heath sighed with impatience. “Axel knows where you’re heading. If he truly wants you and cares, he’ll come after you. If not, then you’ll know. But we must leave now.”
What he said made a lot of sense. Besides, some time away from Axel and all of his trappings would allow her the space to get her head together and figure out her next step. He wouldn’t be thrilled with her departure, especially since this wasn’t the first time today she’d run out on him. But she needed some solitude to process.
“All right.”
As Mystery allowed Heath to lead her to the back door, a voice inside her kept shouting that she was making a big mistake. Before she could question her decision again, the back door slammed shut behind her.
Mystery hesitated, fighting every instinct to pound on it until someone let her in, until she could see Axel again so they could work their differences out.
“Look forward, not back,” Heath encouraged, tugging her along.
No choice now . . . The door through which they’d just exited was locked.
Heath led her across the lot, then hustled her into the town car and pulled away. They sped into the inky night, and Mystery prayed that Axel would come for her. Otherwise, she worried that she’d not only be fending off bad guys but fighting a broken heart.
Chapter Thirteen
AXEL fidgeted in the seat of his rented sedan parked on a rise of the dirt road and behind the tree line, out of sight from Mystery’s aunt’s farm. For the hundredth time since Mystery had taken off—again—he wondered what the fuck had happened. One minute he’d been sharing mind-blowing sex and turtle cheesecake with the woman he felt himself falling hard and fast for. The next minute, he’d been preparing Sweet Pea to meet Stone before suddenly being plunged into darkness. Once he and Zeb discovered that someone had tampered with the electrical panel and the two of them had restored the lighting, Axel had gone on a frantic search for Mystery.
He’d known in less than sixty seconds that she was gone. Since her personal items and suitcase were absent, too, he didn’t think anyone had taken her from the club against her will. But Heath was missing, too. Axel had no doubt the Brit had planned their escape. The question was, had he dragged Mystery out or had she left with the other man of her own free will?
Axel felt as if someone had gutted his insides with a chainsaw. What if he never saw her again? What if he’d failed to protect her from a man she’d mistakenly trusted? Or, Axel wondered, what if she’d scratched her itch for him and simply moved on?
Apprehension brewed in his belly.
The minute he’d realized that Heath, Mystery, and her luggage had all escaped out the back door, he’d hopped on his bike and sped like a wild man down the streets, onto I-35. Mystery wanted to visit her aunt, and Axel suspected the pair would head to Marion, Kansas, about an hour west of Emporia, where the woman lived. But the duo’s head start had been too big, and Axel hadn’t been able to track them down.
Thanks to Javier and Xander Santiago’s plane, he’d instead jetted north and arranged a car so he could reach the middle-of-nowhere farm quickly. That left him plenty of time to worry that his hunch about Mystery’s destination wasn’t right and to call Joaquin to have him gather some essential facts about her aunt Gail—and her bodyguard, Heath.
The aunt’s story checked out. Gail Leedy was a spinster, born and raised in Marion. She’d worked as a nurse for a local doctor for the past twenty years. After a failed attempt at Hollywood fame with her sister, she’d returned to Kansas and taken up residence in the farmhouse that had once belonged to her parents, though she’d sold off the land more than a decade ago. Deeply involved in her church, she sang in the choir and organized the bake sale for their annual Sunday school fund-raiser. She sounded like a lovely lady, and Axel would have simply walked up to the woman’s door and introduced himself, then waited for her niece. But Mystery’s aunt hadn’t been home when he’d arrived. At that point, he’d tracked down Marshall Mullins and explained that his darling daughter had run off. The famous director had blown a gasket, then launched into a tirade about Mystery’s safety. They’d both tried to call her and come up empty, so Mullins had promised to ring Aunt Gail and let her know that she should make up another guest room.