Stepbrother Thief(61)

I don't wait for instructions, moving over to the passenger side and grabbing the handle as soon as he unlocks it. Unhurriedly, Gill starts the engine, checks the rearview, and reverses out of the space.

I don't let out an easy breathe until we pull out of the parking garage.





I won't say that I'm happy about sharing a hotel room with Gill, but it is what it is. We're here; we're not going back to the house; there are two beds. Thank God. In all the best romance movies, there's always that silly tussle when one of the two characters sharing a room realizes that there's only a single bed and hilarity ensues. And sometimes sex does, too. I don't intend for either of those things to be a part of my evening, but I do appreciate the fact that Gilleon didn't make any assumptions about us.

“You sure you're not worried?” Gill asks, tilting his head to the side and looking at me with unabashed curiosity. His blue eyes are lit from within, sparking with the flame of the hunt, the thrill of adrenaline, the grit of a challenge; Gill likes challenges. Loves them, maybe. And that could be all I really am to him—a challenge. One of few single women he couldn't get to look his way if he wanted them to. Hmm. “The heist didn't seem to set you off, the shooting, this.” He gestures around at the room and then sits down heavy on the bed next to me. The mattress dips towards his large frame and our thighs bump together, sending a thrill of energy through my body.

How ridiculous.

I'm in my thirties. I don't need electric pulses and fireworks and butterflies, definitely not quickies in the front seats of SUVs. I don't need any man really, but if I were going to look for one, I'd be aiming for one I could trust. I can't trust Gill anymore—not with my heart. But I can trust him with this.

“I'm not worried because I know you wouldn't leave your dad to die at the hands of merciless criminals.” I force a tight smile to my face. “And I know you wouldn't leave your daughter either.” My voice gets really soft when I say that, too soft. Gill looks at me and we stare into each other's eyes for a long, long moment.

Daughter.

That's a weird word for me to say. I don't even usually let myself think it. I feel like a failure as a mother, like I should've stepped up and given Solène everything I could give and everything that Gill should've given. But I couldn't, and I didn't, and that's okay. I've made peace with that. But this …

“I can't believe I have a daughter,” Gill says, and then looks away. I glance down at his fingers, at the dark whorls of tattoos as he curls his fingertips into the white comforter. I'm not sure how to respond to that, so I don't. I keep on going with the previous conversation.

“If you say that Karl won't hit your house, I believe you. What I'd like to know is why.”

Gill sighs and stands up, the mattress evening out as his weight lifts off it, giving me some very sudden and explicit memories of nights spent in bed with this man. I almost wish that was all he'd ever been to me—good sex. Great sex. The best sex. If that was it, I could walk away right now and forget he ever existed. But it's not. It's the soft half smile on his face when he turns to look at me, the way his eyes seem to shift to different shades of blue depending on his mood, the simple fact that he gives a shit about what I have to say. Gill never just let me talk; he listened.

“I have so much to say, and not all of it's good,” he admits, shrugging off the North Face jacket and tossing it on his bed. Carefully, he slips off the shoulder holster and lays that down, too.

“Start with this,” I say, gesturing at the hotel room, the guns. “Tell me who Karl is and why he hasn't reported a hundred million in stolen jewelry to the authorities.”

Gill sucks in a breath and rakes his fingers through his hair.

“Do you want to take a swim first?” he asks, and I raise an eyebrow.

“A swim?”

Gill tosses a wry smile my way.

“In the indoor pool? I have a lot of … energy that I want to blow off,” he says, shaking out his hands, and neither of us misses the unspoken joke that lingers unsaid in the air. There are other ways to blow off energy than in the pool. “I've got a massive adrenaline rush and no bad guys to take down.”

“Can I stay here?” I ask, knowing the answer to that question.

“We should be safe here for tonight, but I can't risk it. I promised I'd get you through this safely, and I will. Especially since this entire situation is my fault.” Gill whispers this last part under his breath. I want that secret, I think, hoping I won't have to pry it out of him. “Come sit in a chair by the pool? You don't even have to get in. I'll swim a few laps and then we'll order room service.”