a finger and signaled the waitress. “Check, please.”
Kat looked up as he climbed out of the booth. “Where are we going?”
He nodded toward the flashing neon sign across the street and pulled cash out of his wallet. “To bed. I think it’s been long enough, don’t you?”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Six years earlier
Cairo
Kat was waiting for him when he walked out of security at the Cairo International Airport. Standing amidst a sea of people, looking so goddamn gorgeous in her jeans and sleeveless blouse, she made his heart turned over in his chest. It was the first time she’d ever met his plane.
Then again, it was the first time he’d ever told her he was coming in.
He saw only her as he approached, and the moment her eyes found his through the crowd that spark they’d had from day one flared hot and bright.
“Hi.” She rose slowly on her toes when he reached her, wrapped her arms around his neck as he pulled her close.
“Hi, yourself,” he managed. She felt so good. Smelled like heaven. It’d been two weeks since that horrible scene in her apartment. He’d flown from Cairo to Bangkok that day with the weight of the world on his shoulders, and before he’d even landed in Thailand, he’d known what he was going to do. Maybe he’d known it from their first night at the Mena House.
His mother’s antique ring was a solid presence in his pocket, and he itched to give it to her, but this wasn’t the time. They still had a thousand things they had to deal with first. And most importantly, it was time he laid it all out on the line to her.
She eased back, and in her mocha eyes he saw relief and a whole lot of uncertainty that tightened his chest like a fist. “How was your flight?”
“Long.”
“You look tired. Were you in Europe?”
“No. Miami.”
She threaded her fingers in his as they headed through the terminal. “How long are you staying?”
“Two weeks.”
His arm jerked, and he turned when he realized she’d stopped. Confusion drew her brows together. “How long did you say?”
“Two weeks,” he said again.
“What about—”
He knew what she was thinking. He rarely stayed a week at a time when he visited, and he was always rushing off unexpectedly when he got word from a seller or a buyer that there was a deal to be had. That was going to change, but she didn’t know it yet. He’d worked his ass off the last six months to get his gallery to the place it was now, and he wasn’t about to blow all that he’d built if it meant she wasn’t going to be around to enjoy it with him. Being here now might set him back a few weeks, but he’d stay a month if it meant fixing what was broken between them.
“I cleared my schedule, Kat. No business meetings. I didn’t even bring my BlackBerry.” She looked so damn cute with her brows drawn together and that little crease in her forehead, he moved closer. “I know you have to work, but I’ve got two full weeks off, and I want to spend them with you. However I can. If, that is, you’ll have me that long.”
She stared at him like he’d grown a second head, and just when he was sure she was going to ask what he’d been drinking on the plane, she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him. “Yes. Oh, yes. I even have some time off coming to me. Not a full two weeks, but—”
Thank you, God.
His arms tightened around her. “Doesn’t matter. I’ll take whatever you can give me.”
She laughed against his throat, a warm, relieved, loving sound that tingled all the way to his toes and told him they were good. This was right. They’d make it work. “Oh, Pete. Two full weeks. I can’t believe it. I’ve missed you so much.”
He held her close, buried his face in her hair and breathed in her sweet jasmine scent as people continued to rush around them.
And knew she couldn’t possibly miss him as much as he’d missed her.
Camden, New Jersey
Present day
Kat stared at the bed in the middle of the room—the only bed in the run-down, forty-nine-dollar-a-night motel room—as her pulse jumped. From the bathroom, she could hear the shower going and knew if she was going to make her move, now was the time.
So how come her feet were cemented to the floor? How come she couldn’t take her eyes