Page 80 of Hard Limits

“Why? I don’t want to go to South America.”

“Because if your family has six different places to look for you, they’re less likely to find you in Portugal.”

“But I can’t get to Portugal now. Thanks to you, I won’t make boarding. And I can’t afford to pay you back for six plane tickets either.”

“I’ll treat that second part of your comment with the contempt it deserves. And we’re going to fly to Portugal from a different airport where the staff understand the meaning of discretion.”

“We’re going to fly?”

There was that naivety again. She really thought he’d let her do this alone? Brax tucked a stray lock of hair behind Indi’s ear, pleased when she leaned into his touch.

“You can run from me, my sweet, but I’ll always find you. Shit, that sounded creepier than I intended. Of course I’m coming.”

“You’d help me? Even after all the lies?”

“On one condition?”

“Which is? It doesn’t involve chopsticks, does it?”

“You don’t like Chinese food?”

“Never mind. What’s the condition?”

“No more lies. You tell me the absolute truth from now on, and I will have you thoroughly background-checked to make sure.”

“But…but why? Not the background check—I understand why you’d want that done—but why help me at all?”

“Because underneath the lies, you’re still the same person I fell in love with, more or less. The sexy-as-hell ingénue. The girl who follows her heart, even when it’s not an easy path to take. The woman who’d risk everything for a friend. And you fell for the man who understands what it’s like to be trapped in a loveless marriage. The man who missed an opportunity to save a friend and wishes he could turn back the clock. The man who changed his name to escape his past, albeit slightly more legally than you did.”

“You changed your name? Why?”

“We can discuss that later, when we’re in the air. It’s nothing that you need to worry about, I promise. But right now, we need to get home, make new travel arrangements, start some preliminary enquiries, and find a suitable place to stay because you didn’t book accommodation, did you?”

“I thought I’d just get a bed in the same hostel as Meera.”

Brax hadn’t spent the last decade of his life working his ass off in order to stay in a hostel.

“Find somewhere else. A good hotel or a villa. Book it in my name so it doesn’t link back to you.”

“But—”

“If the words on the tip of your tongue include any complaint about affordability or a suggestion of paying me back, don’t waste your time.”

Indi closed her mouth again.

“Where’s your necklace?” Brax asked.

“I pawned it to pay for my flight,” she said in a small voice.

“Ask Charlotte to pick it up. And put your seat belt back on. Actually, no. Kiss me, and then put your seat belt back on.”

“Are you always this bossy?”

“Only when the woman I’ve waited my whole life to meet does something monumentally stupid, like trying to play detective in a foreign country on her own.” Brax smiled because now he knew he had her back. “And also in the bedroom.”

Indi shifted to her knees and leaned over the console to kiss him deeply, her arms wrapped around his neck and her fingers tunnelled into his hair. He had her, and he was damn well keeping her.

“I like you bossy in the bedroom,” she mumbled.

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