Lucky for me, he pushes back and sets me away with a groan, because no matter how resolved I think I am, I’m feeling so much right now I can’t be sure I won’t do or say anything to give my feelings away.
“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I have to go,” he mutters, kissing me once, hard, before turning on his heel and striding out the door.
“Love? Wear the black tonight, would you!”
And then he’s gone. Leaving me grinning and more than a little relieved for this reprieve. I need to get myself in line before he comes home, and I need to do it fast.
It’s only when I’m pouring myself a fresh cup of coffee that I realize I never asked how they’d found the ring or what, if they’d found Wesley too, they had done with him.
I guess I must not care as much as I would have in my previous life. That makes me happy, and a little sad, because while I’d been enraged and disappointed in him, I never thought I’d get to the point that my own…father…would mean less than nothing to me.
Chapter Twenty Two
Luc
“What the fuck do you mean? He’s not a sodding ghost, Ivan!”
“Aye, boy, but this damned country is so big and full of Americans I canna get a lead on the bloke. I picked his trail up in Texas for ya, and that’s as far as he got before he disappeared. He’s got a couple thousand in his pocket and is close enough to the border that I canna but guess he’s going south, if he hasna already.”
I blow out a hard breath and lean back in my chair, replaying this morning in a loop that makes me want to grin and shout with joy. I have my love back, well, in part at least, but I have no doubt that she’ll be back to her old self and loving me in no time.
I’m actually anticipating it at the moment. I’ve waited seven years for this moment, and despite my earlier misstep, I have not a worry in the world as far as that’s concerned.
I am by no means a cruel man, but I need her love the way I’d needed my first million: with a desperation that leaves me sweating and filled with hopeful anticipation.
Now, don’t mistake me: I have no intention of ever feeling those things, not ever again, but I’m a man, and I need to have that security of knowing my woman is emotionally dependent upon me.
“Are ya gonna answer the bloody question then, lad?” Ivan demands, bringing me back to the present.
“What?”
“Are ya afeared the man will go after the lass again?”
“No. He only took her to scare us, nothing more. He’ll stay away from her and the lad from now on, since he’s a bleeding coward. No, my need to find him has nothing to do with the safety of my family.”
Ivan nods and grins, stroking a hand through his bright orange beard. I don’t understand why the Scot has always grown the monstrosity that thick, not with that bright tinge making him look like he’s been having a go at a bloody pumpkin patch.
“Ya plan to return the favor, do ya? Good lad. Now then, I think I’ll get back to work looking for that piece of rubbish,” he mutters, heaving himself to his feet.
Ivan McDonnell may not be buff or young, but the man has the nose of a blood hound, and I know I can count on him to get this job done.
Like I said, I’m not worried about that bastard coming near my family again, but I will not let this rest till I’ve taken a decent strip off his hide in payment for the hurt he caused my love.
“Call me when you have something.”
“Aye.”
As soon as I’m alone I dial Frank and get my mid-morning update on my girl, half groaning when he informs me she’s eating lunch with her newest friends, a set of women I have no personal objection to but have the feeling might be more of a bad influence than I’d like.
“What are they doing then?”
“They’re—ahem —they’re looking at some stuff,” he says uncomfortably, clearing his throat a few times.
“Just spit it out, man,” I mutter, though I have a rather good idea of what they’re doing to make my unflappable security captain so uncomfortable.
“Intimate paraphernalia.”
Aaah.
“Sex toys? Does she look even halfway interested?” I ask, wondering if she’d be into that sort of thing.
I have no objection to people using these things, mind you, I just have never had the need to sublimate my performance with aids. The thought of Ash thinking we need these things makes me a bit green, and a lot bloody annoyed, if you want the truth.
“Naw, she’s giving the big purple thing the evil eye, and I think I heard her say it’d be a cold day in hell and that you sure didn’t need it. Jesus, half those things look like they’d hurt, not add to the, ahem, pleasure.”