Page 31 of Fast Vengeance

Brock lowered the phone to his lap, his whole chest tightening until it felt like his heart might explode.

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Three minutes to four.

Brock wasn’t here yet. Victoria paused outside the hotel room and waited while one of the marshals swept it. He reappeared a few moments later. “All clear. We’ll be here to get you at five.”

“All right. Thanks.” He and the others knew why she was meeting Brock here, and she wasn’t even embarrassed because she didn’t care what they thought. She shut and locked the door, then looked around the room. It was on the eleventh floor with a view of the river.

A king-size bed dominated the space, covered in a thick white duvet and fluffy pillows. Staring at it, nerves buzzed around in her belly. The other day at Brock’s place hadn’t exactly gone according to plan for either of them.

For whatever reason, at the critical moment her body had just…shut down. She hadn’t even had a flashback, which was what she’d been most worried about. Hopefully tonight would be different, because she wasn’t going to get another chance to do this. At least not with him, and right now she couldn’t imagine ever wanting to do it with anyone else.

Tonight was their goodbye.

Not wanting to think about that because it brought too many painful emotions with it, she carried her overnight bag to the dresser and set it on top. She’d packed light, just toiletries and a change of clothes. Then she paused to check her reflection in the mirror above it.

She looked pretty good, all things considered, her royal blue wrap dress flattering her figure that hadn’t quite filled out to her pre-captivity weight yet. She’d left her hair down and used a curling iron to give some body to the ends where they bounced along her shoulder blades. A light blue decorative scarf concealed her most hated scar and finished off the outfit with an elegant touch.

Someone knocked on the door and her heart jumped. “It’s me,” a deep, delicious voice said from the other side.

A smile curved her mouth, the nerves in her belly changing to excited flutters as she went to check the peephole before opening it. Brock stood there in dark jeans and a black T-shirt that stretched across his muscles, and the smile he gave her made her heart flip-flop.

“Hi,” he said, stepping inside with a bag in hand, his gaze roving over her body. “Wow, look at you.”

“I haven’t dressed up for anything in a long time. It felt nice to put on a dress again,” she said, her heart flip-flopping all over the place. She’d ached in places she hadn’t even known she had over the past two days, waiting to see him again, never sure if she would be sent from D.C. at a moment’s notice. Now they were finally together again and she was going to make the most of it.

Brock set his bag down next to the door and stared at her. “You’re so beautiful.”

Her cheeks heated. “Thanks.” She wanted to hug him so bad, but didn’t want to seem needy or desperate so she stayed where she was, hesitating.

Thankfully he made the first move, closing the small distance between them and wrapping his arms around her. Victoria sighed and let herself cling for a long moment, breathing in his scent, trying to memorize everything about this moment so she could carry it with her for the rest of her life. “I missed you,” she murmured.

“Missed you too.” He squeezed her tighter, kissed the top of her head, her temple. “Feels like forever since I got to do this.”

To her, too. “They told me today where I’m going.” Bellingham, Washington. An hour or two drive north of Seattle.

He stilled. “Oh?”

She couldn’t tell him where, even though she wanted to. “It’s far away.”

He made a low sound. “When?”

“Tuesday.” She pressed her lips together as something close to grief welled up inside her. No, damn it, she was not going to spoil this and cry all over him. She was going to enjoy every last minute of their time together, and hopefully now that they didn’t have such a tight deadline, things would go better. “Do you think you’ll be back before then?”

“No.”

She nodded, smothering the disappointment. “So this is it, then.”

He sighed, his breath stirring her hair. “Looks like.”

Pushing back to look at him, she gave him a bright smile. “Well then, let’s not waste any of it.” Taking his face in her hands, she kissed him.

Brock groaned and slid one hand into her hair, the other splaying over her lower back to pull her into his body. But after a moment, he pulled back. “I was going to ask if you were hungry. We could order something up to the room first.”

“Not for food.” She didn’t want to wait, didn’t need to ease into this. They only had hours left together. After two days of anticipation, he was finally here and the change of setting made it feel like she had a clean slate to work with.

He gave a low laugh. “Okay then.” His eyes gleamed with an odd mixture of hunger and tenderness that turned her heart over. “But wait, I brought some things.” He gently disengaged from her arms.

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