me. He scared the crap out of me, but I’m okay. He wasn’t trying to kill me. I don’t know what he was looking for—”
“My laptop,” Ethan interrupted. “It sounded like he was planning to take both that and you. Fuck. If I hadn’t gotten here….”
“Thank God you got here so quickly. You even made it before the police. How did you know?”
The confused look in her blue eyes made his heart melt. He’d do anything to make sure this woman was safe and secure. Anything. After nearly losing her today, he realized exactly how much she meant to him. “We’d spent the afternoon looking at photos of the Afghani interpreters but kept coming up short. I knew you really thought you’d seen him at Bagram though. That’s when we realized it could’ve been the informant. He’d have a reason to be on base, he’d know who you were and where you were held when he tipped us off, and he was relocated here to the States.”
“Holy shit,” she muttered. “But how’d he know I was here? The apartment makes sense because he could look up my information, but to fly out to California?”
She frowned, and he lightly ran his thumb over her lips as he cupped her cheek, trying to soothe her.
“You wrote down my contact info for your family. Apparently, you or your sister left it in your apartment. He broke in, but when he realized you weren’t there, he saw the sheet of paper. He was able to quickly buy a plane ticket and fly here.”
“But that’s…insane. All of it is. He was livid he never got a ransom for my kidnapping. Why’d he tip off the authorities in the first place?”
“It was always about the money,” Ethan said, clenching his fist. “He probably realized the government wasn’t ever going to negotiate with them for your release. You went through hell because of him, but now he’ll never touch you again.”
“What about his family?” Kim asked.
“I don’t know. Honestly? I don’t really care. I don’t mean to sound cold, but after everything you’ve been through, I’m having trouble giving a damn about the rest of them.”
She blew out a breath, leaning her head against his shoulder. His chest filled with warmth. She was so damn perfect in his arms, it practically slayed him. “Are you ready for bed?” he asked gently.
She nodded and stood up, holding out her hand to him, and Ethan’s lips quirked. He’d never get tired of how Kimberly loved holding his hand. Hell. He hoped they’d be eighty years old someday, and she’d still be grabbing onto him. He knew she’d done it when she was frightened, but now she just seemed to like the connection between them. And damn if he didn’t love it as well.
They walked down the hallway to his bedroom, Kim barely coming up to his shoulder. The little tank top and shorts she had on were cute as hell. Her dark hair contrasted with the pale pink cotton, and when she looked up at him, the intensity in her blue eyes nearly made him stumble. He wanted to take her to bed and slowly kiss her everywhere, but he knew it was too soon for that.
“I need you, Ethan,” she said softly when they stopped near his bed, bringing her other hand up to rest on his chest. He felt her touch burning through the tee shirt he had on, and his dick twitched in his boxer shorts.
“You want me to hold you?”
She shook her head, flushing. “I want you to make love to me.”
Heat coursed through him, but he didn’t move, his cock hardening further as she lightly trailed her fingers down his chest. “Are you sure?” he asked softly. “I can wait however long you need. I don’t want to rush you, and you’ve been through a lot today.”
“I’m sure,” she said, stepping closer to him. Kim stood up on her tiptoes, her breasts brushing against his chest, his erection pressing against her stomach. There was no concealing his desire for her in his boxers, but she didn’t pull away. Her hands went to the nape of his neck, and then he ducked down, holding her close as he kissed her.
She gasped the moment their lips touched, and he kissed her gently, trying to go slow for the woman he was falling for. She opened her mouth to him, and then his tongue was sliding inside, rubbing against hers as she whimpered.