could actually trust that, my heart had followed right along with my body. Because it was pounding away right now, each beat shouting, “Jack, Jack, Jack” and drowning my brain—and that logical caution—right out.
God, you’d think I’d never been the head of one of the most successful companies in Silicon Valley. You’d think I’d never gone up against the best brains in the country and that I’d never won a negotiation in my life.
Because in that moment, I’d been reduced to a woman who was making decisions based only on what she was feeling. My friends back in San Jose would have died with laughter—if they’d recognized me at all.
“Hi,” I whispered, doing my best to keep from diving right into his arms and snuggling up against that glorious body of his. Doing my best not to grab his face and bring him to me for a kiss. Trying to control my body, which was still demonstrating an alarming tendency to press up toward him in suggestive need.
“Hi,” he whispered back. And without another word, he read my mind, leaning forward and brushing his lips softly across mine, the very definition of a gentle giant.
I couldn’t help it. I melted right into him. If this was what Stockholm syndrome felt like, I thought, then it was worth every single second. Because this was glorious. Better than glorious. Sinful and dangerous and wonderfully bad—which made it unlike anything I’d done in the past ten years.
It was just too bad I’d had to get kidnapped to find it.
The thought jerked me back into the real world and I physically jerked back in reaction, staring up at him as I remembered all the aspects of our current situation. Including the one that said we were supposed to be watching the entrance to this parking lot, not naked and making out like freaking teenagers in the back of his mom’s van.
“Any sign of them?” I asked, my voice now taking on a panicked, hurried tone.
He shook his head, his gaze sliding toward the opening of the parking structure. “Not that I’ve seen. But it’s almost dark out, which means it’s high time for us to get the hell out of here. I want to get to the airport before they have a chance to find us again. But first…”
He dug into his pocket and pulled something out, handing it to me a moment later. I looked down and was shocked to see my phone. The one I’d had hidden in my purse—and the one he’d taken out, turned off, and then shoved in his pocket before we started our little midnight road trip to Reno.
I glanced back up at him, questions written all over my face, I was sure, and found him grinning shyly at me.
“I figure you’ve got to be dying to call your daughter,” he said. “And she’s got to be dying to hear from you.”
I almost cried, then, and I’m not even ashamed to admit it. Because I’d been thinking about Rhea obsessively—but hadn’t had the time or the breathing room to say anything about it. The fact that he’d known, that he’d actually thought about it…
“Thank you,” I whispered, unable to give him any words beyond that.
He smiled and nodded as if he understood exactly, though, and then went up toward the front of the van to give me some privacy.
I opened the phone and hit the first number on the list of recent calls—the number I called nine times out of ten, if I was being honest, because Rhea was the most important person in my life—and waited impatiently for her to answer. It was evening, and normally she would be at a school club or with her friends right now, but if I knew my girl, she’d have her phone on her, just waiting for me to get in touch with her.
“Mom?” a tremulous young voice said a few seconds later.
My heart tried to explode at the sound, and I had to swallow three times before I could get my voice to work.
“Baby!” I said, working hard to keep my voice from shaking. “Are you okay? Is everything okay?”
“Yeah, I’m still at Laurie’s house, but Mom, where are you? Why didn’t you come home? Why didn’t you come get me?”
She was still at Laurie’s. Thank God. We’d had that plan in place for some time—that she’d stay there if I ever couldn’t come to get her—and I’d arranged it with Laurie’s mom, with a checking account set up