Page 13 of Keep Me Safe
He leaned back, taking the heat away, and left me staring up at him, my skirt riding high and just barely covering my underwear. I felt exposed and vulnerable, but he didn’t seem to notice. His face had gone blank, as if my statement had taken his brain offline.
There was a small part of me that wanted to wrap his tie in my fist and pull him back to me. But he’d stopped so abruptly, it made me nervous.
“What?” I asked and dimly realized the car wasn’t moving anymore. How had we made the trip so fast, and in the rain? It wasn’t possible. Oh, God, I’d lost all track of time once he’d descended upon me.
“I can do that,” he said, his voice unsteady. As if unsure. “I can convince your mind, too.”
“Good luck with that,” I eked out.
I sat up and pushed my skirt down, then wrapped my jacket closed. The more layers between us right now, the better. And I meant it, too. He had a significant mountain to climb to change my view on him.
My breathing slowed to almost normal, making me believe I could do this. I could climb out of his car and get him to stay there. My words had stunned him, maybe even wounded his continent-sized ego?—
One look said that was doubtful. He flashed a brilliant smile. “I don’t need luck.”
My hand shook as I grabbed my laptop bag off the floor and slung the strap over my shoulder. I reached for the door, but he placed his hands on my waist.
“Am I coming up?” He claimed my mouth once again, and this kiss tasted like sin with a side of persuasion. Even through my coat, I could feel the heat of his hands on my waist.
I tore my mouth away. “I don’t think so.”
Would he accept my answer, or make me stay right where I was? Surely, he knew he had that power. His kiss was intoxicating, and I suspected one more taste was all it’d take for me to give in.
“Very well.” He looked disappointed, but only for a split second. “Ich werde Sie bald sehen.”
Whatever that meant. I didn’t say goodbye. Instead, I fled from the car without looking back.
It wasn’t until I was in my hotel room and flung face down on the bed that I could breathe again. I hadn’t gotten over the jet lag and needed sleep. That and the incident with Scott was why I had waffled so badly. If I weren’t so emotionally and physically exhausted, I’d be immune to him. Maybe immune wasn’t the right word. Resistant, perhaps.
We hadn’t taken our clothes off. We’d done nothing more than kiss, and Shawn had barely touched me. And still, the encounter had left me desperate and shaky. Filled with need for him. Wanting him.
It had easily been the hottest twenty minutes of my life.
Good-looking, my sister had warned me about him.Not even close.Jason, Shawn’s brother, was good-looking in a rough-and-tough sort of way. My sister had always liked the bad boys. And while Jason, the head of Osterhägen security, looked more conventionally dangerous, I knew better.
The taller brother in the suit was cunning and manipulative, making him far, far more dangerous than the one who carried a gun.
“Ma’am,” the ticketing agent said, waving me over. “I’m ready for you.”
I pulled my bag along as I walked up and dropped my passport on the counter. “Hi. I checked in for my flight yesterday, but my boarding pass disappeared from my phone, and now I can’t pull it up.”
“Let’s take a look,” the woman said, scooping up my passport and scanning it in.
It was insanely early, and I’d been bleary eyed in the back of my Lyft this morning, not understanding what I was seeing in the app. The only plus side to being at the airport so early was I was first in line, waiting for the counter to open at four a.m.
The agent leaned in to better study her screen. “This was for the trip to Amsterdam, correct?”
“Yes.”
She pressed her lips together. “The system shows this reservation was canceled.”
“Wait, what?” I stiffened. “No, that has to be a mistake. I checked in yesterday. I had a boarding pass.”
The woman nodded as she peered at her screen. “I see that, but I also see a cancellation was logged last night. Looks likeit was done over the phone.” She lifted her gaze to me. “Your travel credit should show up in your account right away, but sometimes it can take the system a few hours to update.”
I stared at her with disbelief. “But I didn’t cancel it.”
The ticketing agent looked as lost as I felt, before turning her attention back to her computer. “So, I can’t rebook you on the six twenty-five because there aren’t any seats available.” She clicked her mouse a few times. “I could put you on standby for the seven fifty-five flight tonight. It gets into Amsterdam tomorrow morning at eight fifteen.” She glanced at me, paused, then looked back at her screen with confusion. “Kara Hayward?”
