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“Ha, ha, very funny, go ahead, tell me the unless part.”
“First, don’t push your luck,” he warned, raising one wicked eyebrow. “Second, I can’t possibly let you inside now unless you take back that dare, then ask me nicely to let you through the front door.”
“You can’t be serious.”
“Oh, yes, Bianca, I’m very serious,” he replied, lowering his voice and leaning toward her, “but if you don’t believe me, try me.”
“I’m too tired, too cold, and I’m desperate for a warm bed, so that’s not a risk I care to take,” she admitted, staring back at him. “You win this round.”
“I still haven’t heard—”
“Please, Nick, my hero, my knight in swimming trunks,” she began in a whimsical voice and a pleading expression. “I take back my dare, and I’m terribly sorry. Will you please, pretty please, let me come inside with you?”
“Wow, you beg really well.”
“Is that a good thing?”
“That is definitely a good thing. Grab your coat.”
“No, thanks, it’s soaked and I’d rather just make a mad dash. It’s not that far.”
“Yeah, me too, except I need to get your bag.”
“I can wait until morning,” she offered, then with a wink, she added, “I don’t need anything to sleep in.”
He shook his head.
“What? Does that shock you? I bet you sleep naked as well.”
“No, it didn’t shock me, but it’s the middle of the night, you’ve just lived through a horror movie, and you’re sitting here cracking jokes like you don’t have a care in the world. How is that possible?”
As her smile faded and her brow crinkled, he abruptly regretted asking the question.
“It doesn’t matter, and you’re right, laughter is always good,” he added hastily. “I’ll get out first and unlock the door, then you can run inside.”
“Uh, Nick,” she began hesitantly, “the truth is, I feel weird, like buzzed from too much to drink, and I want to laugh, but I want to cry again too, and a part of me wants to scream. I’m all over the place.”
“I see,” he said thoughtfully. “Besides those muffins you had on the drive up here, when was the last time you had something to eat?”
“Uh, Matt brought me a tuna sandwich around lunchtime.”
“That’s it?”
“Yeah, Matt’s an asshole.”
“Stay there,” he ordered, worried if she ran through the weather she might get dizzy and trip. “I’m going to open the front door then come back for you.”
“You don’t have to—”
“Do as you’re told, remember?”
“Oh, yeah, right,” she mumbled, letting out a sigh and closing her eyes. “I suddenly feel like leaning the seat back and going to sleep right here.”
His worry growing, he retrieved the key from the center console, climbed from the car, and ran through the torrent. The slatted pergola offered a modicum of cover as he unbolted the door, then stepping inside, he placed a doorstop against it to keep it ajar and disabled the alarm. But as he ran back to get her, a thought came to mind. Quickly moving back behind the wheel, he turned the SUV around so the passenger side was closest to the front door.
“This will help,” he remarked, but as he turned to speak to her, he discovered her eyes were closed. “Bianca?”
She mumbled a few incoherent words, and he realized her lack of food wasn’t her only issue. She’d probably barely slept since being abducted. Stepping back out into the weather and running around to her side of the vehicle, he scooped her up and hurried her inside.
