“It means thatreasonablepeople might stop doing something when it is putting them in danger.”
She arched a delicate eyebrow. “Is that what you do?”
He clenched his jaw with frustration. He should have seen that one coming; he’d pretty much said the same thing to the LC. But it was one thing to be pro-feminism with other women and another when it was his woman, damn it.
When he didn’t respond right away, she added, “And how do I know you weren’t exaggerating the danger just to get me out of Vaernes and keep me from following up with Nils’s friend? Is that for my own good, too?”
“That guy in the parking lot wasn’t an exaggeration. If I hadn’t shown up when I did, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”
“Maybe, maybe not. But unlike you, I’m not going to live in hiding forever. I’m going home.”
“What do you mean, you are going home?” Actually, it was pretty obvious what she meant. And the finality of her tone sent alarm, if not something distinctly resembling panic, flickering through him. “You can’t go home yet.”
“Why not?”
“It might not be safe.”
“I’ll take precautions.”
There weren’t any precautions she could take that would make him okay with her leaving. “No, you won’t. You aren’t going anywhere.”
Yep, definitely not thinking well on his feet today. He knew it was the wrong thing to say even before she gave him a long, hard look.
“Are you giving me anorder?”
“Yes!” he shouted angrily.
“Nice try, John. But you don’t have any authority over me.”
He took a step toward her, tempted to prove just what kind of authority he did have. But as he was pretty sure that would only make him the subject of more ridiculous accusations afterward, he restrained himself—barely. But he might have to remind himself a few times why he couldn’t just tie her up. Like to the bed.
He forced his rising blood pressure back down and clenched his fists at his sides instead of touching her.
He could be rational even if she couldn’t. “I’m asking you to trust me. Give me a few more days. If we don’t find something out by then, you can go.”
She shook her head. “You had your few days. And asking me to trust you when you don’t trust me about anything isn’t exactly fair.”
“What do you want from me?”
“A little honesty to start.”
“I’m being honest with you. You’re dead wrong if you think anything about last night had to do with distracting you.”
She held his gaze for long enough to believe him. “Fine. I believe you. But it doesn’t change anything. It’s been a nice few days, but I need to get back to the real world—and my job.”
He heard the determination in her voice and knew she wasn’t going to be easily dissuaded. Whatever trust she’d had in him had obviously reached its limit with the sightseeing/distraction revelation.
How could he make her understand that he wasn’t exaggerating the potential danger?
She turned, grabbed her duffel bag, and started throwing things into it. “Wait,” he said. “Hear me out first. If you still want to go after hearing what I have to say, I’ll take you to the airport myself.”
She paused long enough to turn to look at him. Hewaved to the recently vacated edge of the bed where she’d been sitting previously.
She must have heard something in his voice because she actually did as he requested and sat.
This went against every bone in his body—not to mention direct orders. The LC was going to be pissed when he found out. But John had his back up against the wall. He had to make her see the danger and restore some of her eroded trust in him. “You want me to trust you? Well, I’m about to do that. But you have to promise me that you won’t repeat or print one word of what I’m about to tell you.”
Her eyes widened a little, obviously guessing where this was going. She nodded. “I promise.”
