“Stop it, Abi.”
“No.” I threw the other arm at him, and he snatched that one just as quickly.
“There’s no point in doing this.”
“Why? Because you think you might say something? Feel something? Or would you rather just keep me up here trapped like a prisoner. I can be Rapunzel in your rustic cabin,” I mocked. “I can’t live like this. I want to leave. Tomorrow.”
“I would have to perform a complete threat assessment at the Malibu estate before we could relocate. I don’t see why it’s even worth it. You’re safe here. The threat doesn’t know you’re here.”
It was that word that chilled me. The threat was still out there.
“I can’t stop living my life because of a lunatic. If I stay in hiding, he’s won.”
I couldn’t help but feel the warmth in Reid’s hands. His grip on my wrists was steady.
“He’s not winning. And he’s not going to win. I’ll make sure of that.”
“While keeping me hostage?”
“God damn it, Abi. You’re not a hostage. You’re safe.”
I tugged on his grip. “Then let me go.”
“No.”
I pulled again against the restraint. “Reid,” I whispered.
He drew me closer to him, so that my body leaned forward.
“Don’t ask me to let you go again.”
“You can’t keep me.”
He was close enough I could feel his breath on my cheek and the heat from his body. I inhaled his scent, swearing I could reject what these memories did to me. The familiarity of Reid was too much. The closeness. The intimacy. The pain that was between us.
Darkness surrounded us and all I could think about was why we weren’t together anymore. I had loved this man with every part of my soul. And he had left me alone.
7
Reid
The smell of her shampoo made me drunk. Her skin. Her warm breath. I could have had five shots of bourbon and I’d feel as intoxicated as I did in this moment, holding her.
I’d spent the week keeping an eye on her, but keeping my distance. It hadn’t been easy. More like hard as hell.
I handled conference calls in the study, burying myself in numbers and projections. I went through itineraries with Eileen, reframing my appointments for virtual meetings. I listened to the acquisition proposals, studying the due diligences of the companies I wanted to bring into my portfolio. And I did all of it while digging into the details of Abi’s attack.
I hadn’t made much headway. The LAPD wasn’t any more successful.
I’d watched the scratchy feed the gym had provided a hundred times. It was dark and it wasn’t possible to make out the gunman. If only she had hired a new bodyguard. If only she took her safety as seriously as I did.
She wanted to be normal. She wanted to get coffee and go for runs in the park, but that wasn’t the kind of life she lived. A-list celebrities couldn’t do that unless they were willing to hide out in tiny Montana towns.
Wasn’t that what I had loved about her? She was normal. Abi was a breath of fresh air in a town that ran on greed and popularity. It made it even more unbelievable that someone wanted to hurt her.
There had to be more to the attack. There had to be more information out there, but I didn’t want to press her. I didn’t want to ask too much too soon, but part of me knew I was using every distraction I could grab, to keep the inevitable from happening.
My chest pounded. I wanted her as much now as the first time I met her.