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“I’m not sure Liz will have time to visit me. The president seems to need meetings with her all the time now,” she commented with a ghost of a smile.
It was better to concentrate on the happy couple, especially since it seemed as if Zack had learned something from Mad’s idiocy and finally admitted his feelings for Liz.
“You mean he has a lot of meetings with her vagina.” Gus was the queen of snark. Even normally stoic Thomas choked at that, though he went right back to his usual badass glower.
“I’m glad they’re happy.” She followed as they turned down the hall.
“Me, too. But I’m worried. I’m almost positive Roman is plotting something,” Gus admitted. “I don’t like the way he looks at those two. He’s worried, and when that man is anxious and itchy like that, he can do truly terrible things.”
“Why would he be worried about Liz?” Zack’s Press Secretary hadn’t grown up with the guys the way she and Gus had, but she’d been part of their group of friends for a long time.
“My man always worries about everything, but he’s veering close to paranoid now. I have to watch him like a hawk or he’s likely to do something stupid. I haven’t schemed and plotted all these years to get Liz and Zack together just to have Roman rumble in and destroy everything.”
“Schemed?”
Gus waved a hand grandly. “Totally. I’ve been pulling strings for some time so that Liz and Zack can reach happy coupledom. I take credit for Dax and Holland, too. I didn’t exactly get them together, but I did send them a gift that kept them alive. Gemma, the bodyguard, kicked ass on my behalf, so technically that’s a win for me. And I often talk Lara out of doing crazy shit that would drive Connor off the deep end. Though I didn’t manage to talk her out of chaining herself to a tree he wanted to cut down on their property. She said it was a squirrel’s home or something. I’m pretty sure that’s why he wanted to cut the sucker down.”
“She chained herself?”
“Yeah, so Connor got creative. I’m glad whatever security footage he keeps around his perimeter didn’t see the light of day.” She stopped in front of the door that marked the end of the hallway. Like all the rest, it looked large, utilitarian, and unwelcoming. “And I’m definitely responsible for that little nugget there.”
Gus put a hand on her belly. Sara didn’t mind since it was Gus. Besides, the touch made her feel like she wasn’t alone in caring for her daughter. But she did have some questions. “Why? Did you supply Mad with the incredibly breakable condom?”
Gus grinned. “No, but I totally scared off the other applicants for your job and persuaded Gabe not to flip his shit about you taking the job at Crawford. I actually even convinced Gabe that Mad would never sleep with you out of deep and profound respect for their brotherhood. It was a good speech. I swear I could almost hear the music swelling behind me.”
Sara shook her head because Gus was incorrigible. “I don’t know if I should thank you for that or not.” But her baby was fluttering inside her as if she had her own opinion. “But I can’t be too angry. I got something good out of it. I know you need to go. It was nice of you to come down here with me. Thomas can be very grim.”
“It’s a requirement of the job,” Thomas offered almost apologetically, swiping his keycard over the door. The light turned green and the lock clicked open. “This is the only living quarters we have available. I’ll let your roommate show you around.”
“Roommate?”
She walked in. Then her purse fell from her numb fingers and onto the ground.
There sat Mad, lounging on the comfy-looking sofa, his dress shirt opened just enough to show off his new, outdoorsy tan and the beginnings of what she knew to be a spectacularly muscled chest.
“Hey, baby. These are some nice digs,” he said with a heart-stopping grin. “Don’t you think?”
Nope. This wasn’t happening.
Protective custody, my ass.
She turned to insist Gus take her from here because she was not staying.
Instead, her friend waved as she began to shut the door. “I had absolutely nothing to do with this. Bye. Have fun, you two. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”
Sara watched in horror as the door closed and locked behind her.
Was this a joke? It had to be. She stood, blinking. Waiting for Gus to open the door with a giggle and deliver the punchline.
It didn’t happen.
Holy cow, this wasn’t a joke. She was really stuck here with Mad.
She turned on him, her eyes narrowing. “You planned this. Now I know why you seemed so passive this weekend. You knew all you had to do was be patient and you’d have me cornered.”
He didn’t even try to look innocent. “I couldn’t take the risk that I’d run you off before I closed the trap door behind you, baby. We’re stuck here for our own protection. At least for a few days. Maybe weeks…”
“No. This”—she gestured between them—“is not happening. I won’t stay here with you.”
His gaze turned calculating. “So you’re going to react emotionally and put yourself and our daughter at risk. I factored your safety into this plan. Last time, you were angry that I left you and kept you in the dark about all the deep, dangerous stuff. You can’t say that now.”
“Those are two completely different situations, you massive ass.” She should have known he would pull something like this. It was a perfectly Mad Crawford thing to do. The man was never going to grow up. “I’m sure my brother will be more than happy to find me a place that’s safe, preferably on another continent. So whatever you intend to say, get it all out now, Mad, because I’m leaving here in the morning.”
“Gabe knows,” Mad replied, patting the couch beside him. “He’s happy with this plan because he doesn’t have to worry about you while he and Everly are doing some hands-on investigation in Moscow.”
Her heart flipped in her chest. “He’s going to Russia?”
“Yes, he plans to talk to some people there about records we need. He’s also in discussions with a company there about selling them private jets. It’s a good cover.”
“But he’s not a spy.” The idea of her brother walking into the lion’s den terrified her.
“Except for Connor, none of us are. But we can’t bring in outsiders. I managed to survive and I didn’t have my own personal security expert, who also happened to be my wife, by my side. Gabe is smart. He’ll put his hands on the information we need, and Everly will help him. She’s really good. The one thing that could trip him up, though, is not knowing his sister is safe.”
She crossed her arms over her chest because it was obvious he was fighting dirty. “That’s emotional blackmail.”
Mad simply shrugged. “No one ever said I played fair, and you should know it. Now, there’s no TV in this place. Whatever shall we do?”
Sara scowled. He couldn’t possibly be serious, right? Then again, this was Mad. “I am not having sex with you.”
“I don’t see why not. You know I can make you happy in bed, and there’s absolutely no risk of further consequences now. You can’t get more pregnant than you already you are. Consider me your pleasure slave. Use me all you like.”
She ruthlessly shoved aside the dirty thoughts rolling through her head. Following the first three months of her pregnancy, which had been nothing but nausea and fatigue, she’d been horny, wracked by her aching body with no one on
whom to release all her pent-up need. The idea of using Maddox’s virile, muscular body as her living vibrator held a twisted appeal. But then she remembered what that incredibly talented cock was attached to. “No consequences? You know what you could give me? A big old STD. Nope.”
He frowned as though he hadn’t expected that. “Sara, I’m perfectly clean. You should know that since you made me take a test before you’d go to bed with me. Not the most romantic way to start a relationship.”
Did he think she was stupid? “We’ve been apart for months, and you dated some of the skankiest models on the planet.”
By skankiest she also meant beautiful and sexy and not carrying a soccer ball where their abs used to be. She knew Mad. He never went without. Sex was his drug of choice, and since he hadn’t been getting his fix from her, he’d been getting it from someone else.
Mad stood and crossed the room to her, hovering in her space but not touching her. He reached up as though he wanted to touch her, then forced his hands back down. “Sara, I haven’t touched another woman since the day I realized I might actually have a future with you. You’re the only woman I’ve ever loved and I did not cheat on you. I wouldn’t do that.”
He sounded so sincere, and she wanted to believe him. Despite his reputation, Mad had never been a liar, especially not a skilled one. That was one reason she’d believed him when he’d texted those awful things to her. Damn it. It was the reason he’d texted rather than broken up with her face to face.
“You coward. You knew you wouldn’t be able to say such horrible things and break up with me if you’d come to my apartment that day, so you texted all that vile shit.”
He shrugged. “I also knew I couldn’t be near you and not tell you everything. You don’t understand how much I needed you that night. I know it doesn’t sound manly, but I was scared and I wanted you so much.” He paused, obviously trying to find the right words. “I know you think I made a mistake, but if I did, it’s because I love you so much. We’re stuck here for a while and yes, I trapped you here with me, but we have some things to work out because you were right about something else. Our daughter has to be our number-one priority now. She is everything. We have to find a way through the mess I made for her sake.”
