him to stick around once the mission was over. He wasn’t lecturing her on illusion, adrenaline-inspired emotions or any other subject guaranteed to ruin this incredible moment.
Perhaps the declaration of love had been a silent one. She could only pray it was, because she would be damned if she wanted to face one of Jordan’s all-knowing, love-is-an-illusion dissertations.
He had simply picked her up and carried her to bed where he now lay close to her, the warmth of his body wrapping around her.
One muscular calf pressed between hers, his forearm lay against her stomach, his chin rested atop her head. Intimacy wrapped around them and infused every breath.
She felt wrapped in security, safe and settled.
It was a feeling she hadn’t experienced even when she bought her first home, or her business. Never in her life had she known this feeling, though it seemed she had ached for it most of her life.
It was a feeling of almost complete peace. It would have been complete if not for the knowledge that once she was safe again, he would ride off into the sunset.
Wasn’t that what the white knight always did?
There was always someone else to save wasn’t there? She wasn’t the only damsel in distress in the world.
“You’re not sleeping.” There was a lazy, relaxed quality to his voice. A sense of male satiation that sent a surge of feminine pride racing through her.
But sensual pride, intimacy, or a hidden love couldn’t sustain her. Reality washed it away quickly enough as she remembered exactly how they had ended up here, and the argument that had spurred that kiss.
Dominating, domineering, and arrogant. He had made his plans and he was determined to follow at least one of them. Unfortunately, all of them involved the same family.
Her family.
“Why are you involving the Taite family?” she finally asked, rather than facing the emotions tearing through her or a feeling she knew she couldn’t hold on to.
His arm moved, his fingers caressing across her stomach before coming to rest against the top of her thigh.
The physical caress sent waves of warmth washing through her. A warmth that invited her to lie back and bask in the aftermath.
“For several reasons,” he finally said quietly. “One being the fact that the two men who checked into your death in Afghanistan are watching Stephen Taite. Someone is obviously waiting on something where you and your family are concerned and reporting to someone. The best way to get a response is to give them something to report.”
“Someone really knows I’m alive, then and that I’m Francine Taite’s daughter,” she whispered painfully. “Nothing lasts forever, does it?”
“Some things do,” he said with a sigh. “Unfortunately, this didn’t.”
Tehya licked her lips. The nervous energy surging inside her should have been enough to force her out of his arms. Instead, she was still lying there, still trying to make sense of what she should do versus what she wanted to do. And how she was going to handle the fact that she was no longer as safe as she thought she was.
“I won’t reveal myself to them,” she stated, fighting back her tears knowing she couldn’t bear to face them or to endanger them. “This has to be done without their knowledge. It’s too late for me to go back, Jordan. It’s too late to be a part of a family that’s doing fine without me.”
Jordan remained quiet behind her. Her eyes closed, pain twisting inside her at the fear that it was what he had planned. That his intentions all along had been to bring Tehya together with her family.
He might not love her, but Tehya knew he cared for her. Years before, he had suggested that she go to her family, that she let them know she was alive. She’d refused then, and she wouldn’t change her mind now.
“I wouldn’t force such a decision on you.” The clipped words assured her she had managed to offend him. “Do you believe I would hurt you in such a way, Tehya? That I would risk your future like that now, while I know your past hasn’t yet been resolved?”
It wasn’t her future that frightened her, it was the rejection she knew she would face and the possibility, slight though it was, that the dangers she faced would risk them as well. Besides, the last thing the Taite family would want would be her return.
And Stephen Taite knew his family would lose Taite Industries to Tehya and her heirs if she returned. When