Page 54 of Desire Me
Rae refused to raise her eyes from her glass. “Take your time.”
“Rae”—he pushed a thread of steel through his voice—“tonight, you and I are going to talk.”
“I’ll be leaving with Leah, so no, we won’t.”
He had his hand in her hair, holding her still to meet his eyes, before he even realized he was moving. Not a tight grip, but just firm enough to ensure she got his point. “You’re not leaving, Rae, not until we get this worked out.”
“Why?” She jerked impatiently, grimacing when his fingers tangled in her curls. “Why do you care? Soon I’ll be out of your life and you won’t even have to think of me anymore.”
How the hell could he make her see how impossible that was? He untangled his fingers but couldn’t resist caressing his thumb across her cheekbone. “I’ll always think about you, Rae. Always. I know you don’t believe it right now, but you’ve gotten so deep down inside of me that I’ll never get you out.” His voice cracked with emotion, but he forced it away. “I know I hurt you, and I’m sorry, but I won’t walk away, cariño. And I won’t let you walk away either.”
He bent in before she could stop him, his mouth taking hers without warning, his tongue dipping inside for what might very well be his last taste of her. And then he was gone, his heart aching to hold her while he hurried out the door.
Chapter Twenty-Five
“I noticed you two didn’t answer King’s question.”
Rae looked at Elliot, considered the woman’s narrow gaze. She’d been giving Rae and Leah that hard stare since the men had walked out the door a few minutes ago. Guess now they were getting down to why. “No, I didn’t.” Rae didn’t intend to answer it now either.
“She called us with the phone I gave her,” Leah said. Apparently she didn’t have the same stubborn need to keep Elliot in the dark as Rae did. “She was going home with a stranger. Did you really think I was going to let her leave the hospital without me and without something to be able to contact help if necessary?”
“Actually no, I didn’t.” Elliot gave them a little grin. “I know I wouldn’t have. I was just curious how she managed it.”
Leah hmphed. “Then back off with the hard-ass shit.”
Rae walked back to the sliding glass doors, hiding her own grin. At least until she focused out on the empty backyard. The expanse echoed something inside her she couldn’t quite put into words.
“You came to get me,” she said to Leah.
“I told you I wasn’t leaving you alone.”
“Alone is pretty much all there is in this situation,” she said wryly.Alonewas the best descriptor of her life for, apparently, the past six months or so. “Even with you and Remi, I know you’ll take me wherever I need to go, but it isn’t going home. Nowhere familiar.”
Leah followed Rae to the window, staring out, their backs to Elliot giving them a slight amount of privacy, although Rae had no doubt the other woman was listening carefully. “Do you want to stay, Rae? Because you can. We’re not going to be upset either way.” A moment of silence passed, then, “If Saint hadn’t lied, would you even consider walking out that door?”
She took the time to really consider that question, not just knee-jerk respond. But her heart, gut, and brain were all in alignment on this one. “No, I wouldn’t leave.”
“Then maybe it’s worth staying to fight for what you have, what you want, instead of running away.”
The laugh that escaped wasn’t a happy sound. “What is it that I have? It’s hard to know when the person I’m relying on isn’t telling me the truth.”
“He told you all the truth that matters,” Elliot said behind them. “His only goal was to keep you safe, to figure out where the threat was and eliminate it.”
“And keep me in the dark in the meantime.”
“Would you have gone with him if he hadn’t? How could he keep you safe if you weren’t with him?”
“Why was it his job to keep me safe?”
Elliot stood, started across the room. Closer and closer, step by step. Rae held her breath.
“You know, I get being hurt,” the younger woman said. “Hell, if it were me, I might rip his balls off—although they might come in handy later on, so permanent damage might not be in your best interest. Just sayin’.” Coming to stand at Rae’s side, opposite Leah, she sighed. “But maybe you’re not hurt because you’re afraid Saint wants to physically harm you. There’s no way, after the past few weeks, that you can truly believe he’s working with the enemy. Maybe—and I’m just spit balling here—all of this is more about being afraid of exactly how much Saint can hurt your heart.”
A sudden bubble of pain swelled up and burst behind her breastbone. “I needed him, damn it! I needed him.” She rubbed at the ache in her chest. “I let him become my anchor, the only person I truly trusted when I didn’t even remember what trust was anymore. And he took that away from me.”
Elliot didn’t bother arguing. “That’s exactly what you should tell him, Rae. That’s what he needs to make up for. But don’t throw the baby—or the balls—out with the bathwater. You can still trust him, I promise you.”
“I don’t know if I can go back to where we were, not anymore.”
