She touched her throat.
Oliver rolled his deep blue eyes. "Of course. You thought it was a good idea to traipse around London after dark, wearing a fortune in jewels. You got what you deserved for that foolishness."
Anger flared. He'd been determined to make her miserable all night. "Yes, well, he also wanted to rape me. I'm sure I deserved that, too."
Oliver clenched his jaw. "You should have let me kill the bastard. All I can do now is ring the police."
And then her well-meaning brothers-in-law would probably smother her with guards and take away her freedom. "No. Please, don't. We don't have a description of him. We don't have anything to go on. It would be a huge waste of time."
"And the sheikh would find out if you filed a police report detailing the attack."
Well, she'd never accused him of being dumb. "If he finds out something like this happened, I will likely find myself in the custody of the royal guard."
"Well, we can't have that." He pocketed the phone. "Do you mind if I clean up?"
"Go ahead." He could take the jewelry with him when he left and return it to Callum. Then she'd have one less thing to do before she left London.
She crossed the lobby to the lift, which still sat open. Her hands shook as she entered, still clutching her shoes, with Oliver following behind. She pressed the button for four. Her floor. Well, not for much longer.
"Do you have anything to drink?" Oliver asked after they'd ascended and the doors opened again.
"I have a little bottle of Scotch." Her neighbors had brought it over as a gift after she'd collected their mail while they were on holiday.
"Excellent." Oliver stopped in front of her door.
He'd never been here. How had he known what flat she lived in? She let it go. Why question it? It didn't really matter.
She pulled the key out of the hidden pocket in her dress, but she was still shaking.
Oliver wrapped his big hand around her own, warming her icy skin. "Give it to me."
He didn't wait for her reply, just took the keys from her. With steady fingers, he opened the door, ushering her inside.
The minute they were alone, he turned on her, charging into her space, and pressed his body to hers against the back of the door. "He could have killed you. He could have raped you and killed you."
He could have. And she would have lost something precious that should have been hers to give. A violent stranger could have taken it from her before he killed her, and she would never have known what it meant to lie with a man she cared about.
Oliver Thurston-Hughes had been a dick to her this evening, but it didn't wash away all the months of his kindness, his friendship. Maybe that should make her want him less, but it didn't.
As she stared at him, separated by only a few feet, their breaths rough, all she could think about was him and the regret she'd have if she let this moment pass and never knew what it felt like to touch this man she loved.
When his mouth descended on hers, the adrenaline that coursed through her body morphed into a desperate arousal. She softened against him, ready to have him in any way she could.
* * * *
"What do you mean she's gone?"
Rory looked at His Highness, the Royal Sheikh of Bezakistan, and wished the night would end. "Tori wasn't feeling well and she decided to go back to her place."
Talib al Mussad's eyes narrowed as though he'd detected a lie. "Without informing her sister? That seems very unlike Tori. She is always quite thoughtful about such things. Piper raised her, you see. She wouldn't leave without informing my wife. It's a bit of a habit. She rarely lets a day pass without informing her sister where she is and how she's doing."
"She wasn't feeling well." It was all Rory could think to say. It wasn't surprising that Tori was close to her sister, even though they lived in different countries. From what he understood, they'd always been very close, especially after their parents had died.
"As I said, Tori definitely would have sought out her sister."
If he didn't deal with the sheikh, the entire al Mussad clan would leave this event and go straight to Tori's. And Rory would be shocked if those overprotective men didn't haul her off to the palace where he'd never see her again. "She wanted some time alone."
"Why? I can only imagine she would desire such a thing if she was upset."
It was time to start staking a claim, as the Americans would say. Callum had pushed the subject earlier. Tonight's debacle would affect all of them, so no one could pretend that Tori was merely a colleague or a friend anymore. Rory knew he had to push through. One way or another, Tori was going to belong to the Thurston-Hughes family, and it was time the al Mussads learned that.