Page 9 of Hidden Dane
The plane came to a complete stop. “It’s probably not, but it’s how I feel.”
“I get it. I was there.” She refused to relive those moments where bullets flew past her head, though both times that had happened she’d been with Dane.
As they disembarked, he took her elbow and stopped her, midway down the metal stairs. “You saved my life, which is why I should send you home right now.”
She winked at him and shook her hips a little as she took her hand back. “I’m not going anywhere but with you.”
They stepped off the plane to the tarmac and his two cohorts followed. A limo waited a few feet away. Dane opened the rear passenger door for her but stopped her from heading inside. ”Swear you’ll stay away from anything dangerous.”
Dane was sweet when he worried, but thanks to Michael, she could take care of herself. She patted his stomach and sailed past him into the seat. “I will be careful.”
The moon and stars weren’t visible in the night due to thick clouds around London that made visibility hard two feet in front of her nose. Dane told the driver the name of a fancy hotel, and despite her efforts to stay awake she dozed in the car. He guided her inside the hotel, but her head was fuzzy as they checked in—separate rooms.
So much had happened in the past few hours! She focused on the red carpet under her feet as they walked to their rooms. Dane stayed next to her as his men went into one room, mumbling goodnight. He escorted her to the next one. As she slipped her electronic card into the reader and the door opened she said, “I’d like to see the jewels just once.”
“Why?” He made no sign of moving from her doorway.
She patted his face again as she liked the ruggedness of his scruff under her touch. “It’s the right thing, you’re doing. It makes me proud of you.”
He stepped into the hall and placed his hand on his heart. “You are too much, Emily.”
For what? She flipped on the light, holding the door open as she watched him. “Which is exactly why you like me. Good night, Dane.”
“Uriel.” He countered and returned to her side.
Butterflies grew in her stomach as her eyes closed and her lips pursed.
A moment later, she was still the girl she’d been and he was still that boy who’d kissed her and made her forget the rest of the world existed.
His arms around her made her feel alive and able to be herself.
No one else had a kiss that came close to his.
As his hard lips left hers slightly bruised and trembling mouth, she whispered, “You still kiss like Dane.”
He backed up and into the hall. She closed the door behind her and leaned against it.
Dane Pearce or Uriel Delligatti or whatever he called himself now… he’d filled her childish dreams of happily-ever-afters once. Clearly he still had something that rocked her to her core.
Chapter 4
Uriel tucked his pocket watch into the front pocket of his indigo designer jeans—the bank opened in an hour, and they needed to be there before Ted. He slipped on his lightweight jacket as he imagined how the meeting might go. As soon as it was done, he’d send Emily home, where she belonged.
The last thing either of them needed was more complication—they were far too deeply intertwined, and on paper, related. She’d be better off alone, the same as he was.
He listened from the hallway outside her door and heard the shower running. The necklace he’d given her had looked like it belonged around her neck, but he needed to right the wrongs of the Pearce line. Torn, he used his extra key and let himself in.
If he could leave her out completely, they’d both be better off.
The shower behind the closed bathroom door ran and he quickly checked the safe in her closet—open and empty—then the drawers of her room.
The necklace was nowhere.
He closed the last drawer as the shower turned off and glanced up—Emily leaned against the open bathroom door fully dressed in dark blue pants and a coordinating light blue and green blouse, with a flash of the diamond and emerald necklace under her collar. She crossed her arms and grinned knowingly at him. “Dane… Uriel, what are you doing in my room?”
His eyes widened in surprise at being caught and heat rose to his cheeks. “You’re wearing the necklace in the shower?”
She sauntered over, tapping his shoulder as she took her phone off her charger and added them both to her pocketbook that perfectly matched her outfit. How she’d shopped was a mystery but he didn’t ask as she closed the bag and said, “I didn’t trust you to be honest. It seems I was right.”
