Page 17 of Rescuing Tobias

Right or wrong, she wanted more.

Good idea or not, her body couldn’t seem to help but crave more Tobias.

With a sigh, she shoved back the covers and sat up. Her body protested the movement, and as she looked down at her naked self, she hated the patchwork of bruises mottling her skin. At least they would fade. In a few weeks you wouldn't even be able to tell what she’d been through by looking at her. Now that no one was restricting her food, she’d put weight back on, and then on the outside, she’d just go back to looking like herself again.

The inside was a different story.

Both anxious for Becca to arrive, and for time to slow down so she didn't have to say goodbye to Tobias, she wandered into the bathroom, his T-shirt in her arms. Now that her bubble had popped and she couldn’t hide in Tobias’ bed, the restlessnesswas back, and she hurried through her shower, then toweled off, left her curls to dry on their own, and slipped the T-shirt back on.

Her bare feet padded down the hall toward the living room, and she took a moment to watch Tobias as he bustled around the kitchen making her breakfast. His dark skin was so smooth, so soft, other than the callouses on his fingertips and the litany of old scars from his time in Delta Force. His closely shaved head and the little bit of short scruff made him look delectably handsome, but it was the compassion and care he’d shown her more than the perfectly defined muscles that made him truly attractive.

In another life there could have been something between them.

She wasn't in the right place at the moment to be entertaining even the idea of a relationship, and Tobias didn't want one. Although she had no idea why. From the pictures of his parents hanging proudly on the walls, it looked like he had a good example of love growing up, same as she’d had.

Whatever his reasons, he was entitled to never want to see her or hear from her again. To close the small chapter of their story and walk away. While it might have been short, their story was still powerful, and even though she agreed there were no other options but to walk away, Isabella knew she was never going to forget the man who had saved her life.

A knock at the door snapped her attention away from Tobias and what could have been as she took off at a run for the front door. As badly as she wanted to stay strong, remain her tough and independent self, the second she flung the door open and saw her best friend standing there, Isabella sobbed and threw herself into Becca’s arms.

CHAPTER 6

March 15th

11:01 A.M.

A sob fellfrom Isabella’s lips as she threw open his door and flung herself into the arms of a pretty woman with long dark hair, dark blue eyes, and a small baby bump.

Tobias knew it was Becca Marsden, soon to be Becca Charleston, even though he’d never met the woman before, and as happy as he was that Isabella now had her support system around her, he couldn’t help a pang of regret as reality sank in.

This was it.

Sometime in the next few minutes, he was going to have to say goodbye to Isabella for good. She’d come barreling into his life in a crazy way, their meeting was about as far away from usual as possible, and he’d known from the beginning that even though he was attracted to her, nothing was going to happen.

When he’d agreed to one night, he hadn't realized it would be this hard to let go.

It shouldn’t be. He didn't want a relationship. The pain in his back this morning after sex with Isabella was a pertinentreminder that his condition was only going to keep declining. According to his doctors, there was every chance that as he got older his mobility would decline, possibly to the point that he wound up in a wheelchair.

How could he subject Isabella, who had been through so much, to a life where she would have to be his caretaker?

He couldn’t.

Not when she had so many of her own issues to deal with. Again, that trauma would be lifelong, although he had no doubts that Isabella would figure out how to deal with her ordeal and still live her best life.

Hard as it was, and much harder than he’d been expecting when he got on that plane with Isabella to fly back home, saying goodbye today was the right thing to do for both of them.

“I can't believe you're alive,” Becca said. The woman was also crying, and he was pretty sure that if Connor hadn't gently guided the sobbing pair inside and closed the door, they would have stood in the open doorway indefinitely, crying and clinging to one another.

“I didn't know if they got you too.” Isabella wept.

“Connor and I got away quickly,” Becca assured her. “But when we got back to the village and you were gone, and then people said they saw you kicking and screaming and being shoved into a jeep, I thought I would never get to see you again.”

“You should know I'm too stubborn to die,” Isabella said, laughing through her tears.

“Course you are.” Becca laughed, too, and pulled back, her hands on Isabella’s shoulders, her gaze raking over the other woman. “Let me look at you. Izzy, you're so thin. And you have bruises, and are these … burns?” Becca’s fingers traced along the red marks on Isabella’s neck, left behind by the shock collar.

Isabella shrugged, but he could sense she was uncomfortable. Now that she was with her friend, she was goingto have to fill in the blanks of what had happened to her, and that wasn't going to be easy. While Tobias was sure he didn't know the half of it, he knew enough. But what he knew he knew because he’d been the one to find her, well, along with Rocco’s team, so she didn’t have to tell him everything, some of it he’d seen with his own eyes.

“They liked shock collars because, well … because Tobias thinks I'm a firecracker, and I guess that’s about as good a description of me as anything else. I didn't go quietly, and I didn't willingly do what they took me for, they needed something to make me more cooperative.”

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