No Escape From War (Trouble for Hire #1) - Cynthia Eden Page 0,12
explanations.”
“I already figured that out.” The Impala shot onto the street. Slid through the darkness. “But you’re still going to tell me everything.”
“Okay…” A pause. “I get the forty-eight hours, though, don’t I? You promised, and I will pay you whatever you want.”
He didn’t remember promising. But… “You get forty-eight hours.” And in terms of payment… “Whatever I want?”
“Don’t be dirty, War. I’m not sleeping with you for payment.”
“Sex between us would never be about payment. Sweet—” He caught himself before he called her sweetheart. “Rose, you know that, for us, sex is always about pleasure.”
“Just drive the damn car.” Disgruntled.
“Yes, ma’am.”
Chapter Three
“Why on earth are we here?” Rose wondered if she sounded as nervous as she felt. She certainly felt very, very nervous. When War had promised to help her hunt, she had thought they would actually…hunt. As in, hit the streets running as they tried to track down the man who’d attacked her. Instead, War had brought her to his place. A place that held far too many memories for her.
“We’re here because I want to check you out.”
“I don’t need checking out. I’m fine.”
He grunted.
Then he reached for her hand.
She jerked it back. “What are you doing?”
His home—an old beach house that he’d bought with plans to renovate—seemed to rock gently on its heavy wooden stilts. They were on the home’s screened-in porch, a porch that gave them a killer view of the Gulf of Mexico as the waves pounded onto the shore. It was after midnight, and the full moon glowed down on the beach.
They’d made love on that beach. Beneath the moon. As the waves crashed against the shore.
They’d made love on the hammock that hung on the porch. Swaying back and forth as pleasure pounded through them both.
They’d made love on the floor of his den. In his massive king bed. In the shower that he’d renovated. They’d—
“I want to take a look at your wrist. And, jeez, what are you thinking about right now? Your body has gone all tense on me.”
“I’m thinking,” she huffed out, “that this is a colossal waste of time. I don’t need you to check me out. We need to be out hunting. Pounding the pavement. That’s what you promised to do.”
“I’m not hunting until I get the full story. To get that story, you need a safe haven. This is it.” He motioned vaguely around them. “Not like people will expect you to be bunking at your ex’s place. You should be good here, since coming back to me is the last thing most people would figure you’d do.”
He wasn’t wrong. But she didn’t like being surrounded by all the memories there. Everywhere she looked, Rose saw them.
“You think I don’t know you’re dead on your feet? You did a great job with the makeup. You’re gorgeous, as always, but I can see the shadows beneath your eyes. You need to crash. You can do that here. Talk to me. Tell me everything. Then sleep. When you wake up, we’ll find your attacker.”
Suspicion immediately had her spine straightening. “You mean when I wake up, I’ll find you gone as you hunt him on your own and leave me behind.”
He didn’t deny the charge.
“No.” Rose stepped toe-to-toe with him. Her head tipped back as she stared up at him, or tried to stare at him. The porch was dark, and he was in shadows which meant seeing his expression was hard. “You are not leaving me behind.”
“I didn’t plan to leave you. I said I wanted you at my side, remember? You’re the one who just jumped to the wrong conclusion. Tsk. Tsk. Shouldn’t do that. Because despite your best efforts, you don’t know what I’m thinking.”
No, she’d never known. Not until the end. When he’d told her what he really thought. She sucked in a breath, remembering the pain, and started to slide back—
“What?” A quick demand. “What just hurt you?”
You did. “I can’t see anything out here. Let’s go inside.” Mostly so she could try to put distance between them. But when they got inside, and he flipped on the lights…
The floor. The couch. They’d made love so often, and she’d been so happy and— “Is that a picture of me?” She gaped at the framed photo on the end table. Then Rose marched toward it.
He beat her to the punch and flipped it down, face first. “Been doing lots of work at the bar. Renovating the area upstairs. That’s where I’ve been mostly living the