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“A vacation?” she repeated back, sure that she’d misheard him.
“Yeah,” he said, letting out a sigh as he reached back and rubbed his neck, “I could really use a vacation. Somewhere tropical.”
“A tropical vacation,” she repeated back suspiciously as a thought occurred to her.
Christofer would never abandon a woman that needed him. His sense of duty was too well ingrained too ignore. He’d move heaven and hell to take care of a woman that he felt responsible for and she knew damn well that he felt responsible for her. It wasn’t flattering to be considered a responsibility, but to him, she was one. He would never just walk away like this, not this easily and certainly not to go on a vacation, which meant…….
The bastard was toying with her.
She hitched her blanket up higher, narrowed her eyes on the bastard and quickened her pace until she’d caught up with him and then she kept going, deciding that she had way too much shit on her mind to play this game. If he wanted to be an ass**le then that was more than fine with her. Here she was trying to give him an out to keep him safe and he was toying with her? Seriously?
Oh, he could go f**k him-
“In a rush to get away from me, mein Schatz?” the bastard asked teasingly as he easily caught up with her.
“Fuck off, ass**le,” she snapped, quickening her pace yet again, but it was pointless since the bastard’s long legs made it easy for him to keep up with her.
“Ouch,” he said with a mock wince, further pissing her off. “What happened to the gentle let down?”
“It went on vacation!” she snapped, wondering how she’d ended up falling in love with the big jerk.
Out of all the men that she’d known in her life she had to fall for the one that drove her insane and pissed her off. Then again, this could just be a side effect of Stockholm syndrome, which at this point she was ninety-nine percent positive that she was suffering from. How else could she explain the fact that she hadn’t kicked his ass yet? Not only that, but she’d actually slept with him!
God, she was pathetic.
Maybe the bastard was onto something with his asinine vacation plans. Since she apparently had some deranged shifter, leagues of vampires, demons and shifters after her, she might as well go away and hide out on some tropical island until this whole thing blew over. She’d never been on a real vacation before. At least, she hadn’t been on one since she was a kid.
There sure as hell wasn’t anything stopping her from going now. She had plenty of money in the bank, no responsibilities, and no job to worry about. Granted, she’d been saving her money to buy a house when she’d finally had enough of the life of a live-in nurse, but since that was obviously never going to happen…
Why not?
Why shouldn’t she go hide out on a tropical island, lounging on the beach while hot cabana boys served her fruity drinks with umbrellas all day? She’d more than earned it. With every step she took towards God only knew where, the idea of running off to hide on a tropical island and getting over the jerk behind her sounded better and better.
Granted, she didn’t have her ID, credit cards, bankcard, cash or clothes for that matter, but those were all minor problems that could easily be taken care of with a quick call to the agency. They wouldn’t be happy that she was taking a vacation, but she really didn’t care since her career as a home care nurse was probably over now. Since she doubted that there was a high demand for home care nurses that lived off blood and had an army of monsters after her, she was probably going to have to quit.
She hated quitting, but she really didn’t have much of a choice in the matter. She wouldn’t put anyone else at risk, not even the jackass walking next to her, who wasn’t even trying to hide that cocky grin of his.
“So, you’re in love with me, huh?” he suddenly announced, taking her off guard so that she didn’t see the branch lying across her path until it was too late.
Without missing a step, Christofer reached out, caught her elbow and steadied her while she tried to figure out an appropriate response that wouldn’t include the words, “fuck” and “off.” Since she couldn’t seem to make her frustrated brain work, she settled for just pretending that he hadn’t called her out on the stupidest thing that she’d ever done.
“Nope,” she said, lying her frustrated ass off.
“Really?” he asked, still sounding smug.
The bastard.
“Really.”
“I see,” he murmured, sounding thoughtful as she distracted herself with everything that she was going to have to do in order to get some semblance of a life back.
She was going to have to find some clothes, get her hands on a computer and have some money wired to her. Then she was going to have to hole up in a hotel for a few days while she waited for the agency to ship her emergency pack to her. It was something that the agency required of every employee that lived out of a suitcase. The pack held duplicates of her ID, bankcards, credit cards, passport and birth certificate. It was a safeguard just in case things got lost or stolen, or you were assigned to a patient with dementia who liked to set things on fire, which happened to her, twice.
“Where are you headed off to?” Christofer asked conversationally as he reached out and pushed a branch out of her way.
“To find a good travel agent,” she said, storming off.
“Running away from our love?” he asked, making her lips twitch despite the fact that she wanted to kick him in the balls.
“Something like that,” she said, trying to keep a straight face, but that damn boyish grin of his had her heart skipping a beat.
“So, isn’t this the part of the story where you start sobbing hysterically as you profess your undying love for me and start worshipping my body with your mouth?” he asked, sounding so damn hopeful that she couldn’t help but laugh.
Damn him!
She was supposed to be pushing him away for his own good, not finding him irresistibly charming and sweet. Normally she didn’t have a problem getting a guy to split, but with Christofer she couldn’t seem to make the stubborn bastard let her go. Granted, she hadn’t tried the direct route, something that she normally saved as a last resort when a guy just didn’t seem to comprehend that she’d grown bored and moved on.
It wasn’t something that she wanted to do, not with Christofer, but if it meant keeping him safe then-
“Or, maybe this is the part of the story where I confess that I am head over heels in love with you and can’t imagine living a single day of the rest of my life without you,” he confessed, all signs of humor gone from his tone as he took her by surprise, sent her heart skipping and her brain turned to mush, which was probably how she missed the fact that the trail that she was following veered off to the right of a steep incline.
