Page 62 of Shallow Remains

“No, I meant it as a compliment. But don’t you…”

Oh yes, he did. Would give away his beloved houseboat for free to the first person who walked by for the chance to be inside her. “Not tonight.”

“Why n⁠—”

He stopped her protest with a slow, tender kiss. God, she was sweet. He couldn’t get enough of her. “Because this is all new for you. You deserve to experience the magic of building up to it and to enjoy it without being pressured for more.”

Before she could answer, he turned onto his back and rolled her on top of him. One hand cradled her head to his shoulder, her cheek nestled in the hollow there, her warm weight snuggled against him.

He drew the covers over them. Kissed her forehead, flooded with a staggering combination of tenderness and protectiveness he’d never felt before. Not this powerful. “Think you can go back to sleep now?”

Her fingertips traced the valley between his pecs. He could feel her working up to something. But he wouldn’t have guessed what she said next.

“Not yet. I want to tell you about Syria.”

THIRTY-ONE

It was much easier to have this conversation without looking at him. So much had happened today, it was hard to process it all. Now here she was, lying naked in Lachlan’s arms after he’d given her so much pleasure without expecting or asking for anything in return.

She felt safe with him. Safe enough to risk baring her soul here in the seclusion of his bedroom. He’d already proven that she could trust him with her body. She was ready to trust him with more.

“Okay,” he murmured, stroking his fingers through her hair.

“I felt stifled at home. My parents were…I think they were trying to be protective, but wound up being controlling. I wanted to stretch my wings and put some distance between us, and I found out about an IT government contracting job overseas.

“They sent me to Syria, and I met Blaine my first week in country. He pushed to get me a security clearance so I could work with him and his team on various projects. We also worked closely with intelligence contractors operating in the region. That’s how I met Elliot.”

Just saying his name out loud made her stomach clench, the betrayal still painful enough to cause a visceral response. “We started seeing each other a few months after I arrived. I trusted him. Thought I was falling for him. And stupidly, I believed he was falling for me too. In reality, he’d marked me as the weakest link in the chain. Everything he did was a ploy to get me to let my guard down. And it worked.”

Lachlan made a quiet sound and moved his hand up and down her back in a soothing rhythm.

“I’m not a great hacker, but I’m good with puzzles and codes. I did some cryptology work for Blaine, really enjoyed it, and made the mistake of mentioning it to Elliot.” She drew a deep breath, exhaled slowly. Beating herself up about her past actions changed nothing.

“What happened?”

“I was working on a cryptology project at a secret location near Damascus. Elliot went behind my back to make a deal with an enemy militia and leaked my location for a large financial reward.”

Lachlan’s hand stilled, his body tensing.

She kept going. “I was at my desk in a back room, working alone with my headphones on as usual. I didn’t know I was in danger until someone grabbed me from behind and yanked a hood over my head.”

“Oh, shit, Maddy.”

She swallowed. “They put me in a vehicle, drove for a few hours and then carried me into a building. Tied my hands and feet to a chair. When they took the hood off, I was in a concrete cell, and Elliot was standing in front of me with this evil smirk on his face. There were others around him from the enemy militia.

“One of them started interrogating me, and when I didn’t answer fast enough…” She broke off, struggling to find the words to describe it.

“Maddy…”

No. She needed to get this out.

“He kept asking me what I’d been working on. Things I knew about current and upcoming operations. Tried to overwhelm me and trip me up. I didn’t know most of what he wanted. He threatened me, but I was too scared to talk. So they put the hood back on me.

Her pulse beat faster. “A few seconds later I heard a hose running. Didn’t think anything of it until they tipped my chair backward and started waterboarding me.”

“Jesus Christ,” Lachlan breathed, hugging her tighter. As if he could stop or protect her from what had already happened.

“I thought I was going to drown. They stopped when I blacked out. Slapped me to bring me around and then questioned me again, but by that point I was too terrified to think straight, much less form a coherent sentence.