“Really?” His attention is like a living thing. He’s always been interested in me. Even when he was being cruel, I knew he wasfascinated by my every response. Odd that the bad memories don’t have as much power today.
An alarm sounds, and I blink. “Oh, dear. Are we going down?”
“Not something you’ve ever complained about before,” the smart alec replies.
“I don’t usually vomit when I do that,” I reply mildly.
“It’s just the engine. Everything is fine.”
The ferry is open to the elements, and a strong breeze picks up, blowing my hair back as we pick up speed. I can hear the slosh of the water and the chug of the engine, and I might enjoy the trip if I didn’t still feel so fucking sick.
“Concentrate on the horizon,” Reuben says, shifting closer. His thigh is warm and hard against mine. He always seems to have a thermostat that’s set higher than anyone else’s.
I huddle into the parka. “Why? Is that where heaven is?”
His lip twitches. “This is the Sound of Mull.”
I open my mouth to either say something snarky or vomit. The jury is out on which one.
His phone rings, and I sit back in my seat and watch as he lifts it to his ear. “Pip?” he says.
I smile, and he offers me a crooked grin. I can hear the tinny sound of Pip talking, but I make no effort to ask to talk to him. Instead, I concentrate on the horizon, feeling my belly turn over ominously. Reuben taps my arm and hands me one of the paper cups he was carrying. He puts his hand over the phone. “Tea. It’ll settle your stomach.”
I take a sip while he goes back to Pip, tasting green tea with lemon and something sweet.
A harsh note in Reuben’s voice drags my attention back. “No, I don’t give a shit. Let him do what he wants.”
Somehow, I know this is about me. I gesture to his phone, and he stares at me for a long second before handing it over.
“Pip?” I say.
“Xavier Quaver. How are you?”
His voice is so warm and familiar that I feel a pang of homesickness, which is ridiculous because I don’t currently have a home to be sick about.
“I’m doing okay for a kidnapping victim.”
“If that man kidnapped me, I would demand that no oneeverpay the ransom.”
“Each to their own, I suppose.”
“I think it’s his hands. He has those long fingers and all those veins, and when he lifted you into the car, he had a vein running down his arm too.”
“Have you got a fetish?”
“Babe, I’ve got so many of those I don’t even have the time to itemise them.” I laugh, and his voice turns serious. “Are you okay, though? I can come and get you if you want. Spring you from the pokey and your extremely sexy jailor. Did you get the bit about the sexy element?”
“Like I took a bat to the face. You’d really do that?”
“Stage a jailbreak or hit you in the face?”
“The former.”
“Of course.” I feel a pang of gratitude for having him in my corner. “But I think maybe this is the right way for you.”
“Do you really?”
“Yep. I think the paths of your life have finally merged.”
