Her gaze lowered briefly. “Okay. I shouldn’t have assumed anything had changed, but you called me Jill and I—” her words broke off as JP joined them.
“Excellent job tonight.” He slapped Rob on the back.
Jill offered him a smile, but Rob didn’t bother. “I’m just glad that bachelor is gone.”
“Me, too,” Jill said.
JP nodded. “Yep. Can’t believe he lasted as long as he did.”
“So what’s next?” Jill asked.
“Nothing,” Rob answered. “You’ve been given the night off to rest.”
“To rest?” She met his gaze. “I’m fine.”
“Yes, that’s what I’ve been told. I was also told that you needed to rest.”
“Okay.” She nodded at JP. “I’ll be in my room.”
Rob watched as she spoke to the bachelors before she left the room. Kensington close at her side.
JP slapped Rob’s shoulder one last time, then walked off. But not before tossing out words that twisted Rob’s gut.
“They do make a lovely couple. Maybe the show will have a real honeymoon, yet. Wouldn’t that just push us right off the rating scale?”
# # #
Knock. Knock. Knock. Rob glanced at the connecting door.
Oh no, he wasn’t answering that knock tonight. He already knew what heaven waited on the other side.
“Go away.”
“Please, Rob. I need your help.”
Was she hurt? Had her wound started bleeding again? Against his better judgment, but unable to risk that she might be ill, he opened the door.
She stood, fully dressed and looking nervous. “I need your help.”
“You’ve already said that.”
She glanced into his suite, her gaze stopping on his bed. No, he wouldn’t be giving her that kind of help. Although hell if his body wasn’t responding to the train of her thoughts.
“I need,” she paused, her gaze returning to his face. “I need you to take me to the lake.”
“What?” That sure hadn’t been what he’d expected her to say.
Her weight shifted back and forth. “I have to go back. Tonight.”
“The hell you say.”
“You don’t understand.” Her shoulders visibly lowered. “I’m afraid.”
“You almost drowned today. I think you’re allowed a little fear, don’t you?”
“It’s not a little. It’s a lot, and I have to go to the lake. If you won’t take me, I’ll find another way. One of the crew, a bachelor, or I’ll go alone. But I have to go. Tonight. Now.”
Rob regarded her, trying to decipher the determined glint to her chin, the desperate look to her eyes. “Why?”