AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“And then what?”
“I move on. Fairly quickly.”
Taking his money and running from Drake? “Where will you go?”
“Somewhere a long way from Drake. By this time to morrow he's going to be…displeased with me. He'll have figured out that he's been taken for a very expensive ride.”
She moistened her suddenly dry lips with the tip of her tongue. “And what about me?”
“You'll be safe. I have a plan to get you away as I leave.”
Focusing very hard on her questions rather than her pain, she looked at her hand where it rested on his chest. The borr
owed gold band on her finger was just visible in the shadows, but she felt its weight as her hand pressed against his steadily beating heart. “Will you be safe?”
His silence was an ominous reply in itself.
“Will I ever see you again?” Though she spoke in a whisper, she knew he heard her.
The fact that he didn't answer broke what remained of her heart.
“What did you expect, B.J.?” he asked roughly after a long, painful few moments. “I've told you what I am. What kind of life I live. There's no place for you in it.”
It was amazing how a heart that was already broken could still shatter further.
Fool, she told herself angrily, blinking away tears. You knew this was coming.
Which didn't make it hurt any less.
Keeping her face averted from him, she tossed off the sheets and reached for her robe. “I think I'll take a shower. I feel a little…grubby.”
He made a move as if to detain her, made a sound that might have been the beginning of her name. But then he went still. “Save some hot water for me,” was all he said.
Maybe he was feeling grubby, too.
Her legs were somewhat rubbery when she stood, but she thought she could make it to the shower. Just.
Closing the bathroom door behind her, she crossed the spacious granite floor and reached into the glass-enclosed shower stall to turn on the water. She didn't step in immediately, taking a moment to bury her face in her hands and get her emotions under control—at least, as much as possible just then. She refused to allow herself to fall apart in front of Daniel, no matter what might happen between them next.
She would save her tears for after they said goodbye.
Daniel looked at the closed bathroom door for a long time, and then he shoved himself from the rumpled bed and began to pace in long, furious strides. He would have liked to have thrown something, smashed something fragile and expensive against the elegant walls of this oppressively lavish suite, but that would have brought B.J. running to find out what was going on. And he wanted a few minutes away from her.
Damn it, he didn't need this. Hadn't asked for this. He'd been operating just fine on his own, without anyone special in his life. A man with no past, no future, only a grim determination to achieve his goals and move on victorious to the next challenge.
B.J. made him feel too much. Want too much. Regret too many of the decisions he had made during the past few years.
She was so good. So kindhearted. She should never have been tainted by her association with him. She deserved a hell of a lot more than he could ever offer her. He wouldn't invite any woman into the darkness of his life—especially B.J., who belonged irrevocably in the light.
He had to send her back to Texas, back to the family who loved her and protected her, the parents and siblings and aunts and uncles and cousins who would all want more for her than the likes of him. He had never belonged in that circle, never been more than a generously welcomed outsider. He had known that the first time he'd seen her among them. He had known it the first time he had kissed her. And he had known it the first time he'd told her goodbye—a parting he had always believed would be permanent.
He wished it had been permanent. It would have been so much safer for her…and God knew it would have been a lot less painful for him.
Throwing on a robe, he reached into his bag and drew out a cell phone. The shower was still running, so he figured he had a few minutes of privacy.
It was time that he did something productive with those stolen minutes, before everything he had worked so hard for fell apart around him.
Drawing a deep breath, B.J. dropped her hands and reached for the tie on her robe, intending to step into the now-steaming shower. Only then did she realize that she had forgotten her nightgown.
