Page 13 of Cruel Ice

“Because I did, in fact, save you.”

And now he was going to have to save her. Something she would not understand, not until it was too late. But as James had revealed, the press was, in fact, salivating.Billionaire kidnapped, held in torture basement.That headline was too salacious to pass up. Especially because his family had been tabloid fodder for years and years. With good reason. And bad reason.

I am not my father.

At least, he normally wasn’t like his bastard of a father. Declan’s right fist slowly unfurled. His hand lifted, and his fingers skimmed over the scar that would mark him for the rest of his life.

“I saved you, and now you’re carrying me off to your…hotel suite?” She blinked those deep and dark eyes at him. “And youkeep telling everyone I’m your fiancée. I get it, I shouldn’t have said that bit. My bad.”

No, she should not have. A target had been placed on her back the minute that she helped him, and with her claims to the EMTs and the hospital staff that she was personally involved with Declan, that target had only gotten bigger. “You’re the one who insisted on staying with me.” So this was her fault. She’d also insisted on helping him to escape from hell. “Tell me…” His fingers stroked once more over the scar before his hand dropped. “Do you always risk your life to save people you don’t know or am I special?”

Her long lashes flickered. “I feel like you’re playing with me.” She turned away. Slithered a bit across the leather seat and then her hand was rapping on the window that separated them from the driver. “I’m just going to get out now. I don’t enjoy being someone’s joke.”

Lightning fast, he closed the distance between them and caught her hand mid-rap. “I could never think of you as a joke.” No, she was far too important for that.

He heard the faint catch in her breathing.

“You feel the attraction, too,” Declan noted.Good. I sure as hell don’t want to be alone in this madness.

The screen that separated the front of the limo from the back slowly lowered. “You need something, boss?” His driver—and bodyguard—Andy Greer stayed focused on the road ahead of him as he asked the question. Marley had been right when she said that he normally had an army of guards around him. A man in Declan’s position required protection.

Except, last night, he’d ditched the protection.And someone had been watching. Waiting for that mistake.

But the thing about Declan—he was an extremely fast learner. And he never, ever repeated the same mistake twice.

“Yeah, I need something,” he told Andy. “Gonna want you to make a pitstop by Marley’s place so that she can pick up her luggage.” He couldn’t help but glide his fingers along her inner wrist. Her pulse raced beneath his touch.

Was that because she felt the surge of attraction like he did?

Or because she was pissed as hell because he’d basically forced her into the back of the limo with minimal explanation?

“What’s the address?” Andy asked.

Declan stared at Marley.

“Why do I need luggage?” she whispered.

Tread carefully.“Because I’m hiring you. Didn’t you say I needed protection?”

“Uh, boss…” Andy began. “You’ve got plenty of?—”

“The address, Marley,” Declan demanded, cutting through Andy’s words because Declan was quite aware that he did, indeed, have plenty of protection. Not like he needed a reminder. “Rattle it off, would you? Then we’ll talk more.”

Though her delicate jaw hitched up, she rattled off the address.

Declan barely held back his smile. Hedidkeep holding her wrist, but with his free left hand, he hit the button to raise the privacy screen once again.

Her gaze never left his face. Her angry, distrustful, and utterly delightful stare.

“Where have you been all my life?” he wondered.

She blinked. Then frowned. “You’re still not yourself, are you?” Marley pulled her hand free of his grip.

Dammit.

But then she reached her hand up—both of her hands, actually—and she cupped his face. “You should have listened to the doctor and stayed put in the hospital. The staff there should have kept observing you, but, oh, no, you had to be the big, demanding, billionaire badass who left right away.Againstthedoctor’s orders. Do I have to remind you that you were drugged?”

Yeah, he was quite aware. No reminder necessary. “Someone slipped something in my drink.” A mistake—theirs and his. “I saw the bartender prepare the drink myself.” Which just meant that the SOB had been damn good at slight-of-hand tricks. A real magician, that asshole.

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