Page 36
Her eyes found mine.
“In through your nose, out through your mouth,” I said. “Slow and easy.”
She tried. Failed. Then tried again.
“That’s it,” I said. “Don’t rush it.”
Her fingers dug into the fabric over her ribs. “I can’t do this.”
“You are doing it.”
“I’m not. I’m standing in an unfinished house having a breakdown while cartel men are probably deciding where to dump my body.”
“Not tonight.”
“You can’t promise that.”
“I can if you come with me.”
She stared at me, and the fight went out of her face so quickly it almost hurt to watch.
I opened my arms a little, giving her the choice instead of taking it.
“Come here.”
She hesitated long enough that I thought she wouldn’t.
Then she closed the distance and walked straight into me.
I wrapped one arm around her back and kept the other loose at my side for a second, giving her room to change her mind. She didn’t. Her forehead pressed into my chest, and her hands fisted in my shirt as a shudder ran through her.
I closed my other arm around her.
“Breathe,” I said quietly.
She did. The first breath came broken, but the next one reached deeper. I held her while she worked through some of the panic, her body warm against mine and still shaking under the oversized sweater.
I needed to get her steady, out of here, and on a plane. Nothing more.
Her fingers tightened in my shirt.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
I lowered my chin, the words brushing the top of her hair. “Don’t thank me yet.”
But she held on tighter, and for one dangerous second, I let myself relax into the hold.
She lifted her face, and the closeness changed before either of us moved. Her eyes dropped to my mouth, then came back to mine, and the air between us seemed to hum.
“Isabella,” I said, warning in my voice because I noticed her pupils blown wide.
“I know.” Her fingers loosened in my shirt, then pressed flat against my chest. “I know we have to go.”
She didn’t step back.
Neither did I.
The space between us sparked, and leaving the house wasn’t the most dangerous thing happening.
