Page 28 of Prince of Tides
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “But it’s over now. Done. You’re okay. He won’t bother you again.”
She nodded jerkily, very shaken by the ordeal.
“Can you drive?”
“I think so,” she said, lifting her hands to the wheel.
They were trembling so bad she had a hard time getting them on the wheel.
“No,” I said as she tried to turn the car on. “Come on, you aren’t in any condition to drive, Laurie.”
“What am I supposed to do? Go back up with you?” she asked hoarsely.
“Yes,” I said, meeting her eyes and not looking away. “That’s exactly what you’re going to do.”
“Oh,” she squeaked.
Chapter Sixteen
Laurie
Iwas going to protest. To tell him that I could still manage to drive. Yes, I was shaking, but once I started going, I was sure I could manage.
“Don’t bother arguing,” Rip added, his hand extended to help me from the car. “You aren’t fit to drive.”
“Just ‘cause my hands are shaking a bit doesn’t mean I won’t be able to hold on to the wheel,” I said a bit defiantly.
Rip sighed. “Right, and how about your leg? That you don’t even know is shaking right now.”
“Huh? What leg?” I glanced down. My foot was moving with a mind of its own. “Oh.”
“Come on, Laurie,” he said, waggling his hand a bit. “Come up. Settle down. Once you’re out of shock, then you can go. I’m not going to force you to stay past that.”
I started to argue against it, but a wave of weariness washed over me, and I slumped back into the driver’s seat, stunned by how swiftly the energy was drained from me.
“Okay,” I said, recognizing defeat when I saw it. “Fine. I’ll come back up. But that’s it. Nothing else.”
“I haven’t forced you into anything you didn’t want to do yet,” Rip said. “And I don’t intend to ever change that. You’re safe with me, Laurie. If you look inside yourself, I think you’ll realize you know that to be the truth.”
“How do you know what I feel?” I asked, perhaps a bit harsher than necessary, judging from the surprise that rippled across his face.
“Call it a gut instinct,” he said calmly, not rising to my bait. “Am I wrong?”
I declined to answer, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of knowing he was right. But I didn’t have to. I saw it in his eyes.
“Damn you,” I said without any heat to it. “How is it you know me better than myself after so little time?”
The time might not be long, but he sure knows you intimately. Maybe he’s just really good at reading body language.
“Intuition,” he said cryptically. “That, and I know I’m no danger to you, and you, being a smart woman, can pick up on that.”
“Men like that are usually the most dangerous,” I pointed out. “Because they can trick us.”
“If they do that, then they aren’t men like me.”
“So confident,” I observed as I stepped out of the car and closed the door.
“It’s no different than saying I’m tall or fit,” he said. “I will never hurt you or make you do anything you don’t want to do. This I swear to you.”
