Page 38 of The Millionaire's Mechanic

“I’m not exactly subtle, am I?” Rainer laughed self-deprecatingly. “And George—my issues aren’t about the kidnapping attempt. I never agreed with Powell that you were involved. It’s crystal fucking clear that you’re not. Even Powell knows that now. Else you would have told the kidnappers where we were.”

Frowning, Georgia closing her eyes when the obvious answer to his puzzling words bloomed in her mind.

“Powell bugged my phone, didn’t he?”

Rainer’s head pulled back. He grimaced. “I am not defending myself because I should have known, but I didn’t ask until we were already here for a couple of days. Please know, I would never have authorized such a serious breach of your privacy. Had I really been worried about you, I would have tossed your phone away before we got on the plane.”

She suppressed a snort.At least he’s honest.And finding out the true reason behind his withdrawal tonight made her lenient. “Well, I hope you and Powell enjoyed my texts to Ephraim dissecting everything he ate and the ones to Judy from work on the man she’s dating.”

“I didn’t read any,” Rainer told her, holding up his hands. “Only Powell. He considers it part of his job.”

Georgia leaned back, bracing her weight on the heels of her hands. “At least I know why he’s so overprotective. He was your head of security when you were drugged.”

Rainer nodded. A few more tears escaped, but even though he wiped them away, he didn’t try to hide them.

Georgia could feel her heart cracking open, but not in heartbreak.

She wanted to travel in time to stop the event that had done this to him. But she also knew if she did, he wouldn’t be the same Rainer. He wouldn’t be the sensitive man who’d taken a good look at himself and decided to helpwomen, the same sex as the person who’d hurt him, because he knew what it meant to be vulnerable. To be made powerless…

“I don’t want this single shitty thing that happened to me to get in the way of my life, of whatever is going on between us,” he breathed, looking down at his hands. “But it just keeps circling back.”

He started to say something else, but stopped himself, closing his eyes. “I’m being stupid about this whole thing. I won’t go to the other room to sleep. It’s time I dealt with this.”

Leaning over, he nudged her. “And there isn’t anyone better to do this with than you—you’re worth it. Also, it’s not like you could strangle me in my sleep, even if you wanted to.”

Mouth twitching, she acknowledged that.Eileen must have been tall. And stacked,she added morosely.

“I guess it pays to be a shrimp sometimes,” she murmured.

“I didn’t mean it like that,” he apologized.

“I know…but I also think it’s going to be harder than you think to just turn off that part of your brain that wants to protect itself.” She reached over, squeezed his hand. “I mean, you could just stay awake until exhaustion finally drags you under, but that’s doing it the hard way.”

He raised one fine dark brow. “There’s an easy way?”

She bit her lip, a tiny part of her flatteringly aware of how his eyes zoned in on that.

“Not easy, but less hard…if you let me help.” Because she had an idea—or at least the beginnings of one.

Rainer took her hand in his, threading his fingers through hers. “What did you have in mind?”

CHAPTEREIGHTEEN

Rainer looked at the climbing ropes in Georgia’s hands in disbelief. “You’re kidding, right?”

This had to be a joke, but the look on her face was almost solemn. She handed him the colorful pile.

“I’m not. Look at them.” She traced the red length of rope at the top. “These are fancy rock-climbing ropes, made out of some high-tech fiber. I’m sure they’re strong, but, more importantly, they’re soft. You can use them to tie my wrists. As long as we don’t get too carried away, I should be fine.”

But Rainer was still skeptical. “I’m not into BDSM, George. You don’t have to do this to make me happy.”

She pointed to a wall sconce on the right side of the mantelpiece. “The other end can go there, looping over the brass joint, that way I can reach the bathroom if I need to go in the middle of the night. More importantly, I can’t get into the kitchen if we measure the length exactly right.”

He frowned. “Why wouldn’t I want you in the kitchen?”

Georgia showed him her teeth, sheepishly mugging in a way that surely made her look manic. “It’s where we keep the knives.”

He was still looking at her like she was crazy. “Okay. Err, I’m not sure I can tie a knot well enough that you couldn’t get it undone.”

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