As soon as she planted that visual in my head I shifted in my seat, groaning, and squeezing her hand when she laughed at my discomfort. “Behave. I’m talking about extending the ruse a little. Just until the buzz around that stupid list dies down.”
“What’s wrong?” she asked, batting her long eyelashes at me. “You don’t like being one of the most eligible bachelors in the state, Mr. Lennox?”
“You do realize I’m going to put you over my knee when we get home, don’t you?”Home.Damn it. It hit me like a sledgehammer. I wanted to go on sharing a home with this woman.
“Promises, promises,” she said, clucking her tongue. “Well, since I have to be your fiancée untilheisno longer a threat—”
“He was arrested today.” I let that settle in before I said, “Apparently, he’s been using his talents for evil. Skimming from the financial institution he works for. Fraud. Identity theft. Credit card scams. He’s going away for a long time, Briar. You won’t have to worry about him again.”
She stared at me, slack-jawed. “Seriously? When did this happen? How long have you known he was… a criminal?”
“He was arrested today. I got the distinct pleasure of watching it go down.” I glanced at her out of the corner of my eye when we pulled up to a light. She was pale and looked shaken, and I would have paid a small fortune for the ability to read minds in that moment. “As for how long we’ve known… as soon as we started to do a little digging into his background, we spotted red flags. They might have gone undetected by a routine background check, but there’s nothing routine about what we do.”
“Wow.” She shook her head. “This is amazing. When I asked you to help me, I never expected we’d be able to get this guy off the streets for years, Rhett.” She was absently rubbing her thumb against my wrist, making my whole body hum with awareness. “I just thought we’d get him to back off if he thought we were a couple. But this is even better because I know if he terrorized me there have probably been other women—”
“There were.” I nodded. “I talked to his ex, the one he’d lived with. He was the reason she took the job out of state. After she broke up with him he started hassling her. She didn’t feel safe living in the same city with him anymore.”
“Wow, so he’s been doing this for years.” She bit her lip. “Just goes to show, even the guys who seem so harmless can be dangerous. Makes me wonder if dating is even worth the risk anymore.”
I didn’t want her to live in fear, but I hated the thought of her dating random guys who might have an agenda. “You just have to be careful. Don’t give out your number or take guys home until you know them well enough to trust them.”
We shared a look and I got the feeling she was thinking about the same thing I was… how weird it would be for her to share her bed with anyone other than me. God, just the thought of it made my gut churn.
She nodded. “So, I guess that means you’ll be heading back home then?”
“Yeah, I guess so.” I was white-knuckling the wheel when I said, “I’m sure you’ll be anxious to get your life back.”
“You think there’s a chance he might get bail?”
I swung my gaze back in her direction. Her tone of voice led me to believe there was only one right answer to that question. Was it possible she wasn’t ready for our time together to end?
“There’s no way to know for sure. It is his first offense, but I guess it depends on whether they consider him a flight risk. They’ll freeze his assets, take his passport—”
“But criminals can be resourceful, can’t they? And a man facing hard time might do something desperate, given the chance.”
“His bail hearing should be within the next couple of days. Would you feel better if I stayed with you until it’s over?”
She seemed to consider that before nodding slowly. “Even if he’s denied bail, maybe we should wait until after the hospital benefit to… announce that we’ve broken up, hmm? It might look weird for us to show up there together, be photographed together, if you’d moved out.”
I didn’t know how anyone would know I’d moved out of her house unless we told them, but if she wanted to extend our time together I sure as hell wasn’t going to argue. “You’re probably right. Let’s plan for me to move out Sunday then? Assuming he doesn’t get bail.”
“Okay.” She cleared her throat, looking out the window. “Sunday it is.”
* * *
Briar
When Rhett suggested it was time for him to move out, I panicked. Not because I was afraid to live alone, or felt threatened, but because I wasn’t ready for him to leave. I’d gotten used to having him around. My house would feel so empty without him now. Which was ridiculous. He hadn’t been there long enough to warrant those feelings, still I tried to prolong the inevitable. I knew he was probably anxious to get back to his own home and resume his busy life, but letting him go was a hell of a lot harder than I’d expected it to be.
We were grilling steaks and vegetables on my back patio. Enjoying a bottle of wine. Talking and laughing, and it hit me. This is whatreallife with Rhett could be like. I suddenly understood why my friends didn’t seem to mind trading their single status when they found the right guy.
But Rhett couldn’t be the right guy for me, could he? Forever was a hell of a long time. I glanced at the ring on my left hand and wondered if I ever had it in me to make a promise like that…‘til death do us part.Ugh. That was scary as hell.
“What’re you thinking, gorgeous?” He tipped his head, looking down at me as he manned the grill. “And don’t tell me nothing, I can practically see those wheels turning.”
No other man had ever known me as well as Rhett. Probably because I’d never let anyone else in. None of my previous boyfriends, if you could call them that, had been allowed to see me at my worst. Sobbing in fear. Wailing in frustration. Grumbling obscenities before my first cup of coffee… with a serious case of bedhead. But Rhett had seen it all, and he still didn’t seem ready to bail.This man is a keeper, Briar.My mother’s words, and damn it, I feared she was right. But I couldn’t keep him. Could I?
“I’m thinking you’re dangerous,” I teased, hip bumping him. Keeping it light was my only recourse. Telling him the truth, that I was having feelings that were scaring the hell out of me, would make things awkward if he wasn’t feeling it. Even if he was, an admission like that would force decisions I wasn’t ready to make. “Pampering me like this,” I said, gesturing to the mouth-watering dinner he was preparing for me. “Could get you in trouble.”
