“Not much,” North told him when she didn’t reply.
“Why weren’t you taking better care of her?” he demanded.
“I tried,” North replied. “She makes it very . . . difficult. She is very difficult.”
“Only to people who kidnap me,” she fired back.
Lord, she smelled. She really needed to shower and wash her hair.
“So you’re not going to be difficult for me, then, are you?” Jared murmured.
“That depends,” she said.
He didn’t know why her resistance and fire lit something inside him. Generally, he preferred obedience and subservience.
Although look who you are with . . .
North was obedient only when it suited him. And only in the bedroom.
But sometimes Jared did want more. Someone he could coddle and smother in protection. Someone who needed more care than North was willing to accept.
However, did he really want more responsibility? Could he keep her safe? Especially since they hadn’t found Beltran yet? If he got hold of her . . .
No! That wouldn’t happen. Jared wouldn’t lose anyone else.
“You took care of me, didn’t you?” she asked Jared. “While I was sick.”
“I did.”
“You guys stabbed me!”
They stared at her in shock and she held out her arm.
“We put in an IV line,” North said dryly. “Trust me, if I stabbed you, I wouldn’t bandage you up after.”
Jared shot him a look.
“You need to keep your fluids up.” Jared pinched the top of her hand.
“Hey! Rude!”
“She’s still dehydrated. I think we should give her another bag of fluid.”
North nodded.
“No,” she said. “I want to go home. Now. Keira and the others will be worried about me.”
“Zander is on the warpath, trying to figure out what happened to you,” Jared told her.
She winced. “Crap. I’m going to be stuck living in his bunker until I’m eighty.”
“You don’t like living there?” Jared asked. “Why? Do they mistreat you?”
“Of course not! They’ve all been really good to me. I just never felt like I belonged there. Like I was an intruder . . . you know what? It doesn’t matter. I need to get back there. I need to call Keira. She’ll be really stressed and that’s not good when she’s pregnant.”
“She’s pregnant?” North asked. “I wasn’t aware of that.”
“We’ll get you on the phone to her soon,” Jared said. “Once you’ve had another IV and some food.”
