Page 65 of Radar

“That he just buzzed over to you and grabbed you from his snowmobile? You must have been terrified.”

Elyssa caught the guy’s gaze in the rearview mirror and nodded.

But she had been thinking of Xander when she’d said that.

That feeling in his arms. The sacrifice of running out into the subzero temperatures. The sensation of being deeply cared for as she was cradled against him.

Elyssa had needed him, and he was there.

Her heart failed her, and she thought she was going to pass out. But when she didn’t trust her body, she had oddly trusted Xander. Behind the orange words telling her how to save herself had been the conviction that she wasn’t alone; Xander would be there.

Strangely, it seemed unfathomable that he wouldn’t protect her.

But with Xander, it was like the temperature on the water tap running hot, then cold, then hot again.

That had started after they’d had sex.

She was in his arms, feeling perfectly content. She’d gotten out of bed to go to the bathroom, and when she’d crawled back in bed expecting the same sense of warmth, and—well, they were strangers, so what would she call that? Companionship maybe? The feeling was one of connection, but something had shifted. There was a sense of distance between them.

Did he regret saying he wanted to see her again? Regret asking for her contact information?

Just ghost me, then, whatever.

But then he raced onto the scene barefoot in only a pair of pants. It wasten below.

In his arms, she was safe.

When he was threatening the driver, all warrior-energy, scaring this poor stick of a man—Look at him, driving, Elyssa thought, with a constant flick of the eye to see if anyone was following them, hands so tight on the steering wheel that his knuckles were white.

What was that threat about?

She was, by anyone’s definition, a one-night stand.

It was all she’d expected when she asked to see his room.

Hewas the one who asked for more.

She didn’t need another pendulum relationship. She’d tried that. Married that. Divorced that.

Of course, Xander Belov was very different than Glenn Landers.

Elyssa needed to stop comparing everyone to Glenn and then running away.

This was all so confusing. Elyssa had never felt the things she’d experienced over the last twelve hours before in her life.

Xander was dangerous as hell. She felt his force at the moment of the attack, both his physical strength and the power he held over her heart.

This hot-to-cold business?

The hot was addictive, so the cold felt brutal. Not quite punitive, but something close. Is that how abusive relationships started off?

Well, Elyssa wasn’t going to find out.

She wouldn’t answer the text when it came in, she decided.

She was done. “I’m done,” she whispered to her backpack.

Even with her abiding gratitude to Radar and Xander for her safety, that wouldn’t change Elyssa’s decision.

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