Fuck.
We had over twelve hours on this train. How much could we do in twelve hours? I pushed up against her core, showing her how much I wanted her, and her fingers clenched in my hair.
She moaned, and her legs latched around me as her chest swelled.
I stood, lifting her with me and bracing my legs as the train swayed. I needed more of her. I needed to put her on her back and peel her clothes off and?—
The train lurched.
The brakes engaged hard, throwing me off balance. I kept one hand under her and tried to brace myself, but fell back, smashing my head against her bunk before I crashed onto the bed. The train shuddered, slowing, and my brain snapped out of its haze.
What’s happening? Are we stopping? Why are we stopping?
Grace was still on my lap, breathing hard, her hands gripping my shoulders. “What?—”
“I don’t know.” I was already scanning the compartment, the door, the window. The train was moving, but slower. Probably a signal. A scheduled slowdown before a junction that they’d approached too fast.
Nothing. There was nothing.
But my heart was pounding, and it wasn’t just because of Grace anymore.
This is exactly what you were worried about. You got distracted.
“Garrett.” Her voice was soft. She shifted her weight on me, maybe getting comfortable again after we’d fallen.
“This is—” I stopped. Tried to find the words that wouldn’t make me sound like an asshole. Failed. “This is a job. I shouldn’t be?—”
“You refused the job.” She took my face in her hands, not letting me back out with ridiculous excuses anymore. “Remember? Tristan offered, and you said no. You said this was a favor. So don’t tell me it’s just a job.”
She was still pressed against me. Still looking at me with those green eyes that saw too much. My cock argued with me to keep going, but this was wrong.
“If something happens.” I shook my head, trying to calm my brain. “If Kessler’s people find us and make a move, I need to be ready. And if I’m—” I glanced at her lips, and my dick urged me to kiss her. “I need to be able to protect you. That’s the most important thing.”
“Nothing’s going to happen while we’re on the train.” She said it gently. “We’re safe here.”
“But what if, Grace?”
What if?Those two words were all I had. But those words contained everything—every worst-case scenario I’d ever run, every time I’d been too slow or too late. My mother’s face that night with the broken bottle. Carissa confessing about the other man, while I was recovering from the bullet.
What if.
Grace studied me for a long moment. She would argue, push, try to convince me I was being paranoid. Instead, she nodded and climbed off my lap. “Okay.”
The loss of contact was wrong on every fucking level in existence.Apologize to her.
“I’m going to read for a bit, then get some sleep.” She grabbed her phone and climbed the small ladder to the upper bunk, and the mattress creaked as she settled in.
I sat for another minute, trying to find the center I’d lost the moment I’d first held her hand. Trying to get everything under control. I lay on the lower bunk and stared at the underside of hers. The train had resumed its normal speed, the rhythm of the tracks steady beneath us. I switched off the pink light. The compartment went dark except for the glow of Grace’s phone from the bunk above me.
She deserves a man who can commit to her. Who’ll always be there. She deserves someone better than you. Don’t forget that.
Chapter 26
Grace
The car door opened,and one of the men with earpieces looked down at me. “Ms. Laurent.”
“Thanks, Radek,” I said, swinging my legs out onto the cobblestones. He was one of the Pendragon operators Arthur had arranged. He nodded but didn’t smile. Fair enough. He was working, and I was getting accustomed to overly serious bodyguards.
