Rashid appeared through the crowd of people and shouted orders in Arabic to the men who had been about to grab Jeremiah. They subsided and instead hauled up the man on the floor; Jeremiah stepped back to allow them access. I breathed a sigh of relief when he was hauled away, but still cast a quick glance back toward the shopping area. Two more had gotten away, and I wasn’t happy about that.
Amyrah launched herself at her brother, who enveloped her into his wide embrace. The girl sobbed against him, hiding her face in his shoulder, and Rashid himself struggled not to be overcome himself. He faced Jeremiah, who stared back stoically. “I thank you,” he murmured, laying a hand on his sister’s head.
Jeremiah shook his head. “I wasn’t the one who saved her,” he murmured, moving in behind me.
The Arab man finally looked at me, really saw me, and gave a jerky nod. “Anything,” he told me, then paused as Amyrah tightened her hold. The depth of his love for the sister in his arms shone through his eyes. “Anything you need that I may provide, it is yours.”
I nodded back, unable to speak. Jeremiah’s hands crept to my shoulders and without thinking about the possible consequences I leaned back against him. The adrenaline was still coursing through my veins, making my heart race. My heart sped up yet again however when the billionaire wrapped his arms around me, holding me close to his body. The inexplicable urge to cry came over me; oh, how I’d missed this!
As the throng of security thinned, I watched as Lucas pushed his way toward us. He took one look at me, his gaze flickering to Jeremiah, and a rueful smile tilted his lips. “Looks like I missed out on all the fun.”
I wasn’t allowed to leave immediately. In fact, I had nearly another two hours of questioning before I was finally free to go back up to my room for the night. Amyrah had disappeared, likely under her brother’s lock and key after the kidnapping attempt. Security and what I assumed was Rashid’s own team questioned me relentlessly about what had happened. I repeated my answers over and over again, growing more agitated with each passing minute, until finally Jeremiah ended the interrogation for me. He appeared halfway through my questioning and stayed, but finally he had swept me into his arms and stormed from the room. They let him go, either done with me or not wanting to get in front of the raging bull.
I managed to learn that, right about the time I was heading downstairs to meet Amyrah, her brother had received word of the imminent kidnapping. He’d immediately set out to find her, but the kidnappers had done so first. A van outside one of the catering entrances was spotted on surveillance video leaving with the other two alleged kidnappers. If I hadn’t freed her from the man who’d snatched her, Amyrah would have been inside that van and headed only God knew where before her brother could lock down the building.
The timing seemed too coincidental, and that probably accounted for the length of my questioning. Nobody ran after us or tried to arrest me however, and I laid my head on Jeremiah’s shoulder, exhausted by the whole ordeal. He didn’t release me until we got to the door of my suite, and only then so I could pull out my key card.
All I wanted was to collapse into the bed and not have to think any more about the day so far, but Jeremiah had other ideas. “What kind of self-defense do you know?”
I sagged, groaning, but shook my head in response. He took my hand, flattened my fingers, then pulled it toward his neck. “If you ever get in close quarters, there are several weak areas. The side of the neck is one.” He pulled my hand around so the heel was just touching the tip of his nose. “Hitting the nose like this can incapacitate an attacker long enough for you to get away.”
“Jeremiah...”
Ignoring my plea, he twisted around me, angling one booted foot over my knee. “If you can strike anywhere at the knees, take the shot. Anything to hinder them from running after you.”
“Why are you telling me this now?” I moaned, looking back toward my bedroom.
“I don’t like seeing you helpless.”
That statement got my attention. Jeremiah was staring down at me as passive as ever, but within that stillness I saw the predator struggling to get free. I also became aware of our nearness, how close we were to one another. I stared up into those green eyes and my heart stopped at the depth of emotion I saw there.
He stepped in close so that we were almost touching. I didn’t move, breathing in his exquisite and unique scent. A hand smoothed my hair behind my ear, fingertips running down the side of my neck. I couldn’t drop my gaze; his eyes held me in their power. Reaching up, I traced the lines of his face and my heart skipped as he leaned into my palm.
“Let me stay tonight.” His voice was rough with need, but his touch remained gentle, almost featherlike.
I took a deep breath and let my eyelids fall closed. Blindness didn’t remove him from my senses; I could feel him standing close, his scent and presence enough to make my heart want to beat out of my chest. But it gave me the strength to say three of the most difficult words of my life.
“Good night, Jeremiah.”
The hand caressing my face stopped, then fell away. Everything inside me strained to follow, to reach out again for his touch. I opened my eyes and looked up to see him still watching me, a thoughtful look on his face. Then, to my astonishment, a smile creased his lips. My mouth dropped, the expression so foreign to me coming from his face as to make me speechless.
“I didn’t know what I had until it was too late,” he murmured before stepping away. “Good night, Lucy Delacourt. Our conversation is not over.”
My breathing came in little gasps as he let himself out. I stood still for several minutes, afraid that if I moved, it would be to run after him.
Would that be so bad?
I didn’t know any more.
Part of me wasn’t sure whether my defiance was a result of self-preservation, or a way to punish him. Except, now I didn’t know whom I was punishing more, Jeremiah...or myself. I craved his touch, needed him with every breath in my body. Being around him brought out the best and worst in me; as much as I wanted him, I feared what would happen if I gave in. All I knew was that, this time, I wouldn’t survive it if he rejected me.
The last time I’d bared my feelings, he’d walked away, leaving a crack on my heart that I still had no idea how to fix. How could I even consider trusting him with that power again?
And would he even want me when he learned my secret?
I staggered zombie-like to my bedroom, pulling the covers up and sliding beneath them without even taking off my clothes. Curling into a small ball, I stared out into the darkness, my mind a black wall of pure emotion, until finally at some point I fell into a fitful slumber.