Frustrated, Luc looked around for his flashlight or a candle or anything. What the hell could be worse than brand marks on her back?
“You mean you let them burn you? They hurt you in exchange for…not hurting you?”
“I pretended to repent. For my sins.”
“And what were those?” He spread the blanket over her, pulled his underwear up his hips, and reached for his pants.
“Wanting to save Sammy. Wanting to leave.”
He blinked, the anger swelling on a wave of understanding of what he’d done—he could feel its flush across his chest and face, prickly and uncomfortable. Somehow, he’d managed to forget the boy’s visit. He’d pushed it out of his mind, which had made it easy not to mention it to Abby. He should tell her.
He threw on his clothes and loaded the fire up with logs. He dug his Maglite out from its drawer in the kitchen and handed it to Abby, who’d put on some clothes of her own.
“I don’t want to leave, Abby, but I have to.” She took the flashlight and fiddled with it for a moment before he showed her where to press.
“Lord, you must think I’m ridiculous.”
“I think you’re charming,” he said, and watched the smile disappear from those lush lips. Something passed between them. It might have been awkwardness or embarrassment. Maybe for her it was anoh shit, what have I done?moment, but it felt different, more intimate than any post-sex experience he’d had before.
“I might be gone a while,” he whispered, then leaned in to put his lips to hers in a quick kiss. It was meant to be chaste, with the secretive taste of the Sammy betrayal still in his mouth. But how could he keep it that way when she was so soft and smelled of sex? How could he resist the sounds she made?
And when had kisses been this sexy?
Never before Abby. Not once. Not Sandra Couron in the barn, not even when her cousin from Paris had joined them. He’d been, what, thirteen? And the girls more like seventeen. He’d always wondered why they’d chosen him and not the older, more handsome Olivier, who’d actually known what he was doing. It wasn’t something he’d ever gone back to ask. Certainly not as an adult when he’d run into the exhausted-looking Sandra working the checkout line at the local Leclerc supermarket.
They kissed for a while, until finally he drew back to look at her, a knot of guilt sitting too large in his chest.
“I have to tell you something, Abby.” He waited for her soft, blurred eyes to focus on him and then spoke. “Sammy did come here.”
“What do you mean?”
“He made it here and then…then Isaiah came, with his men. They were armed to the gills and I…” He bent his head and rubbed his eyes at the memory. “He said he wanted to go with them, and they…they threatened you, Abby. And Sammy.”
She swallowed, her eyes flicking back and forth at his. “He just went with them?”
A chill went through Luc as he remembered that moment—Isaiah’s arm slithering around Sammy’s neck. There’d been a threat there, but something else, too. Something almost gleeful. “Sammy was happy to go. He had no idea that his life was in danger.”
“He’s too good to understand people hurting one another.”
“Does he know what they did to you?”
She shook her head and sounded fierce when she spoke—a mother hen protecting her chick. “I’dneverlet him see that.”
“Of course you wouldn’t.” He smiled, wishing she’d touch him again, let him know he’d done the right thing. “I wanted to go out and find you, Abby.”
“They had me locked up.”
“I would have kept him if I could, but they would have killed him and—”
“I know,” she whispered before reaching up to touch the side of his face, the rasp of her fingers against his stubble audible. “But he’ll die anyway, if he stays there.”
Luc shook his head. When had he felt thisresponsiblefor another person? It was a terrible feeling, really. Wonderful and terrible.
“I’ll help you get him out.” When she started to protest, he talked over her. “It’s my fault he’s back there. I’ll go on my own if you won’t let me help. You understand?” After a pause, he went on. “But you have to promise me one thing, Abby. You have to promise that you won’t go until you’re better and the weather clears. If I leave you here tonight and find that you’ve gone back over the mountain, I’ll rush in after you and—”
“I won’t go without you.”
Luc stared at her hard. Was she lying?
