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Frowning, he exhaled.
“This is an interrogation room.” Bravely she continued on. “Do you want me?”
“Do I want you?More than my next heartbeat.”
With exquisite care that she’d never experienced from anyone else, he unfastened her bonds. Once he’d rubbed the circulation back into her skin, he helped her down from the platform.
“Is there someplace special you’d like to go? We can stay at a hotel in the French Quarter, or we can go to my house. Or yours, if that makes you more comfortable.”
“Your place, if that’s okay.” At least she could escape if she lost her nerve or changed her mind.
“Anything you desire, Maddie.” He fisted a hand into her hair and pulled back her head so that she had no choice but to meet his steely gaze. “Anything.”
CHAPTERFIVE
Close to an hour later, they pulled up into the driveway of Zander’s North Shore mansion.
It had taken some time to gather their belongings at the club and say their goodbyes.
As they approached the causeway, she’d pulled off her elf hat and tipped her head back and enjoyed the soothing sensation of being near the water. “I thought you might live in the city.”
“I moved out here years ago when my wife got pregnant.”
She turned sideways to look at him. How was it she’d never heard that about him?
“Allison and my daughter died in a car accident five Christmases ago.” Since the evening had cooled a little, he adjusted the temperature. “We were going to spend the holidays in Houston with her family. She left several days before me. I planned to finish the workweek, then fly out to meet her.”
The pain in his voice lanced her heart. What had he been like before the tragedy? “I had no idea.” She reached to place her fingers on the back of his hand. “I’m so sorry.”
“I haven’t coped well.”
“I can’t imagine how you would have.”
In the background, the light Christmas jazz spilling from the speakers became more noticeable.
“What about you?”
“Me?” She sank a little deeper into the comfort of the leather seat. “I thought the interrogation was over.”
Even in the dim lighting that surrounded his property, his smile enveloped her. “The more I know about you, the more I want to know.”
She sighed. How much to reveal? Enough to scare him away? “A few years ago, I came back to New Orleans to be closer to my mom because her health was failing.” That didn’t begin to describe the horror of what they’d gone through. And it didn’t give voice to the way they’d held each other and cried through the pain and loss.
He waited while she chose her next words.
“I was engaged. But… I don’t know.” She still didn’t understand his heartlessness. “I guess my mom didn’t die fast enough to suit him. He missed me, demanded I come home. I…”
“There was no way you could make that choice.”
“That’s not how people who are in love behave.” She shook her head. “He asked for his ring back about two months before she passed.”
“He’s an ass.”
She tried to smile. “Thank you. Naturally I think so too.”
“Which is why you don’t put up with bullshit from men now.”
She winced. “I’m sorry for calling you a grinch.”
