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Liv slid off the bed, struggling to remember how long it had been. She’d gone without sex for so long, she’d stopped paying attention to her cycle. She was somewhere smack in the middle. Right in the danger zone. Great. Another element of uncertainty to jazz up her life.
She felt big hands behind her, hoisting her up to her feet. He swept her up, which made her squeak with alarm, but he held her against his hard, sinewy chest as easily as if she were a child. He set her down on the tub, grabbed the detachable showerhead and set the water running. He pushed her legs apart, lathered her up. Apologizing with his hands. She stared at the top of his head, relaxing into the soothing, tender caresses. “I don’t know what to think,” she said. “Fifteen years of nothing. Then my life falls to pieces, and you come out of the woodwork, and get all intense about me. I don’t know what to feel.”
“Me neither.” He blotted her dry with the last remaining hand towel. “I think I got imprinted by you, or something. You know, how some dogs bond with one person, and that’s it? No one else will do?”
She snorted. “Um, yes, you do have many doglike qualities.”
“What?” He grinned. “Loyalty? Steadfastness? Selfless courage?”
Yes, and yes.“I don’t think you’re imprinted, though,” she said crisply. “I think you made do just fine.”
“Because I slept with other women?” His voice hardened, and his hands stopped moving. “Do you think for one instant that what’s happening between us is not important to me? It rocks my world.”
“I’m not on the pill,” she blurted. “I could get pregnant.”
He kissed her hands. “For some reason, that doesn’t scare me.”
She pried her hands away and covered her face with them. “Don’t say stupid things like that. It’s irresponsible. It messes with my head.”
“I’m sorry,” he said. “You turn my brain into mush, you know.”
“Oh, my. How gratifying to have such a powerful effect on a man. Don’t you think the timing is bad? On the run from a bloodthirsty murderer while urping with morning sickness. Cool.”
“We can talk about it more rationally if we eat something,” he said. “You’re wiped out. You need fuel.”
The first bite that hit her mouth made her gasp with delight. It was just a honey-nut granola bar, but it tasted like heaven. So did the crackers with peanut butter, the oily sardines, the can of warm Coke. They sat cross-legged on the bed together and went at it like wolves.
“I can’t believe I’m eating this crap,” she said. “It tastes so good.”
“Convenience store haute cuisine.” He handed her another loaded cracker. “Stick with me, babe, if you want to live large.”
“So what are we doing here, anyhow?” she asked. “We can’t hide in this room eating crackers and having wild, crazy sex forever.”
“Wish we could,” he said, sounding wistful. “But I have a friend we can crash with. She’s expecting us late tonight.”
Liv went tense, and was angry at herself for being so. “She?”
Sean lifted his hands defensively. “Not an ex-lover, as God is my witness. I would never dream of getting it on with Tam. She intimidates the living bejesus out of me. She’s just a really unusual, ah, friend.”
“Intimidated? You?” She snorted. “Oh, please. Get real.”
“I’m kind of a wuss, if you want to know the truth,” he confessed.
“Right. Big lily-livered wuss.” She rolled her eyes. “Unusual how?”
“You have to meet her to understand. Tam is indescribable.”
“Whatever,” she said. “I need to contact my parents first.”
“Davy’s done that. They know you’re safe,” he said.
She shook with a burst of dry laughter. “Um, no, Sean. They know that I’m with you,” she corrected. “They don’t know that I’m safe.”
He handed her his cell. “Be my guest. If you have the strength.”
She took a deep breath, and dialed the number of Endicott House. It was snatched up on the first ring. “Hello?”
“Mother?” she asked. “It’s me. I’m—”
