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“He’s right. Whatever you decide to do, we’re with you. But I’d be lying if I said I wanted you to leave.”
She pulled her hands from Nathan’s loose grasp, opened her eyes, and looked down into her palms. She should go. She should take this generous offer and get out of town before Marcus showed himself. And he would show up sooner or later. Of that she had no doubt.
“Thank you so much for understanding.” She sniffed again, embarrassed to be so emotional over her fears. “I’d like to go back to your house for now. I’ll lay low for a few days and think about what I’d like to do this time, instead of reacting in the usual knee-jerk fashion. That’s what I always end up doing, and then I have to live with it. Although, I will also say that the gut-reaction move that brought me here was the best idea I’ve ever had.”
“I’m grateful that you trust us. We’ll figure this out.” Gabriel rubbed her back gently.
Dylan returned. “I parked it out back, but I’ll keep it inside at night.”
“No. Leave it out. It doesn’t matter now.” Marcus could waste his time and put whatever he wanted inside. She wouldn’t be lured out until she was ready. He could just wonder where she was.
She tightened her fists around both the key and the money briefly before handing them back. “Thanks for this.” She stared into his eyes with adoration she couldn’t control. Hero worship was an unfamiliar concept, but now she had it for both Gabriel and Nathan.
“Are you ready to go back to our place?” Nathan asked.
Suzanna nodded. She didn’t have the capacity for more. She was wrung out. Had experienced the full range of emotion starting from all the way down to all the way back up.
“Yes.” Thinking about going back to their home made her remember the first time they’d gone there. And the sex. She planned to ensure that the double-penetration sex she’d wanted was a component in their near future. But first she needed to calm down and sort a few things out. And she needed to make a better plan than running away from the two men she’d fallen in love with.
What would she do in the short term? What would she do in the long term? What else would Marcus do? What could he do?
All of a sudden, an unexpected fury ignited in her belly. Currently it was set to a low simmer, but it was there, and the flames of anger grew with each passing moment. She wasn’t stupid enough to disregard Marcus or his probable actions, but she was also quite a bit less afraid of him now that he’d shown her what he was capable of. Bastard.
Fear diminished in favor of her newly generated backbone. Animosity grew in place of the alarm that had consumed her for days. A new thought crowded her mind. How dare he do this to her?
Gabriel left the auto shop first and headed to their house, mentioning he had to take care of something. So she rode back with Nathan this time in the truck he’d offered to just give her to run away in.
Belted in and slumped in the passenger seat, Suzanna gazed at Nathan’s amazing profile. A serene sigh exited her lips, inciting a quick glance from him in her direction.
“What’s up?”
“You were just going to let me drive away in this truck?”
He laughed. “Yes.”
“You don’t like this truck?”
“I love this truck. I had to custom order this vehicle and wait weeks for delivery.”
She reached out and stroked her fingers down his forearm that was leaning on the center console. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” He glanced at her and asked quietly, “Will you let me be your bodyguard?”
She shrugged. “Actually, I’m starting to feel like maybe I don’t need one. Like maybe he should be worried about me for a change.”
The corner of his lips lifted in a half-smile and made her want to drop her panties to the floor. “Will you tell me why the air fresheners in your car made you so upset?”
She shrugged. “I suppose so. Remember the guy back in college?”
“The stalker guy?”
She nodded. “When things intensified, and he kept showing up everywhere I was at school, I got a restraining order, but he still wouldn’t stop following me. So I moved. I left college, practically in the middle of the night, and moved to another city well away from where I’d been.”
