While twenty-four hours wasn’t trulyhertime limit, she did have one. And time was running out.
“Fine,” Jack said. “I’ll help you get to Suspicion. I’ll do my best to get you in to see the Secret Keeper, but keep in mind that it won’t be up to me. It’ll be up to him.”
Relief filled her right up. She almost sagged against him. “Thank you,” she said, her tone soft and squishy.Stop it.Don’t be soft. Think of what you had to do to get here.
“Oh, don’t thank me yet,” Jack said. “At best, I’m a reluctant participant, and at worst, I’m an adversarial combatant you’ll have to deal with every single minute we’re together.”
Madelaine nodded and stuck her hand out, ready to make their unholy deal. Jack took her fingers in his.
The moment they touched, she was transported back five years.
Before she’d been summoned.
Before she’d left him.
Before she realized what was going to be required of her with an unwanted “opportunity” thrust upon her by right of birth and the unlucky death of a distant cousin she’d never even met.
Madelaine savored the familiarity of his hand in hers as her heart pounded hard in her chest. Maybe it had been a bad idea to touch him. At least she didn’t seem to be alone in whatever was happening. Jack seemed equally taken aback by their sudden physical contact. His body had straightened the moment they touched.
She should have released him, but found she couldn’t let him go. Not yet.I just want a few seconds to remember the way we were.
Surprisingly, he didn’t jerk away from her.
Jack’s gaze found hers as their hands remained connected. His expression seemed to intensify as he stared into her face, her eyes. Madelaine was lost in him, in their connection, in the love she had for him, even though she wasn’t allowed to love him anymore.
Fate had decreed a path she was destined to follow. A path that didn’t include Jack. But for now, she soaked up the warmth and love she felt for this extraordinary man.
Jack Grey. The one. Her one.
Chapter Four
Jack held Madelaine’s hand as a whirlwind of emotions spun through him. Just holding her hand brought everything back. Their love. The dreams they’d shared. The future they’d planned. But it was all gone.
He’d loved her like no other. They’d met in their sophomore year of high school, when he was transferred into her class because his had too many students. He might have eventually met her some other way, but for him, it had been fate.
Madelaine was seated in front of his assigned chair.
When he’d walked toward it, he’d scanned the other students in the row and fixated on her. He had to pass right by her to get to his seat. She looked up at him, returning his interested gaze and he’d almost stumbled. She smiled and a choir sang in his head.
Before he even sat down, the teacher had told Madelaine to help Jack find the right page in the science book they were studying. She had turned in her chair and smiled the whole time she helped get him ready for class.
After class, he followed Madelaine to her locker for the extra handout she had detailing the class syllabus, including the Thursday science labs for the semester. Yes, he could have gotten it from their teacher, but preferred that Madelaine gave it to him instead.
From that day forward, they’d been inseparable. They’d graduated from high school and gone on to college together—until she abruptly left the planet for a significant familial opportunity that she couldn’t turn down.
Yes, he loved her like no other woman he’d ever met. Then and now.
But he couldn’t trust his heart to her. Couldn’t go through that unrelenting pain again. He wouldn’t. Nope.
Jack released Madelaine’s hand and willed his arm not to move to reconnect. The battle not to touch her began in earnest. Head and heart, with advice from his soul, told him to keep this professional. He would help her like he’d help any other friend or relative.
He didn’t know if he could be friends with her, but he was about to make the attempt. She had once been very important to him and their shared experience meant something to him. He couldn’t turn his back on someone he’d loved so deeply. He wouldn’t let the way they parted turn him into someone he wasn’t.
He refused to be bitter.
So, Jack put up a shield around himself, vowing to help her, but remain wary of his more ardent feelings. Those he’d bottle up and shove aside for the time being, maybe forever.
“Are you ready to go?” he asked, and wondered ifhewas ready.
