I stared at him, surprised by his intensity. “You couldn’t have known this would happen to a one-night stand.”
“It happened, and that’s all that matters.”
I gently took Mason and the bottle from him. Mason stirred but continued placidly drinking from his bottle. “Did you get any rest?”
“Not really,” he said, standing. “We have to leave soon.”
I nodded. “Okay.”
“We’re driving straight to Indianapolis tonight. We’ll stay at the safe house tonight.”
“Okay. Sure.”
“Be ready in fifteen.” He turned and left the room.
I watched the door for a minute, shaking my head. He went from wanting to feed Mason to suddenly being all about business.
Sleeping with him had been a mistake, and we both knew it. Sure, it had felt good, but things were complicated enough as it was. We didn’t need to add that sort of tension into the mix, not when we could easily avoid it.
I just needed to keep my hands off him, which was hard when all I wanted to do was to reach down his pants and feel his thick, hard cock. I wanted to feel the way I did with him pressing himself deep inside me, his hands all over my body, his dirty words in my ears.
But I couldn’t let myself forget why we were running to begin with. There were men after us, men who wanted to kill us. They were all too real.
I rocked Mason and finished feeding him not too long later. Most of my things were still down in the car, so all I needed to do was gather up Mason and his stuff. Then we’d be ready to go.
Emory came back into the room wordlessly not long later and helped me finish packing. Once that was done, we stood together in the living room. He looked at me with a frown on his face.
“Listen,” he said. “Things might get pretty dangerous from here. I don’t really know where this is going.”
“I trust you,” I said. “You may be a cocky asshole, but you saved us.”
He nodded. “Call your parents. Say goodbye.”
“Goodbye?”
“I don’t know how long we need to be in hiding.”
I bit my lip, nervous. “Okay.”
He dug an old flip phone out of his pocket. “This is a burner. When you’re done, we’ll get rid of it.”
I took the phone from him and walked a few steps away, Mason under my arm. I dialed my home number and my mom answered on the second ring.
“Hello?”
“Hi, Mom,” I said. “It’s me.”
“Oh, honey. Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. I’m still with Emory. How are you?”
There was a short pause. “About as good as you’d guess, after seeing that.”
“Yeah. I understand.”
“There are people here, you know, cleaning up. That man Cooper is also staying with us. He seems like he knows what he’s doing.”
“Good, Mom. I’m glad.”
“When are you coming back?”
“Emory doesn’t know,” I said. “It could be a while.”
There was another pause. “I hate this. I wish we could call the police.”
“We can’t,” I said. “Trust them, Mom. They’ve kept us safe so far.”
“You’re right. Your father wants to speak to you.”
“Okay. I love you.” But she had already passed the phone off.
“Tara?”
“Hi, Dad.”
“Listen, I just wanted to say that I was sorry. I shouldn’t have doubted you.”
“It’s okay. We’re way past that now.”
“I know, honey. Stay safe.”
“I will. I’m with Emory.”
“Yes, Emory. The cause of all this.”
I sighed. He wasn’t wrong, but he also wasn’t being fair.
“Dad.”
“Okay. I love you, honey.”
“I love you too.”
I hung up the phone.
Emory looked at me. “Everything good?”
I held the phone out to him. “Good.”
He took the phone and then smashed it onto the ground. He slammed his heel down on it, destroying the phone.
I nearly jumped out of my skin.
He grinned at me. “Why so jumpy, princess?”
“Warn me next time,” I said, taking a deep breath.
“Maybe. I’d rather just scare you.”
I shook my head. “Come on. Let’s go.”
“Whatever you say, princess.”
I headed out, down toward the car, Emory carrying Mason’s things just behind me.
I couldn’t blame my dad for being angry about all this. I was a little angry, too. Things were more complicated for me though, considering Emory was the father of my child.
And not to mention the way Emory made me feel. Excitement was an understatement; Emory sent electric fire down my veins.