Page 25 of The Risk

“I thought I heard something outside, so I wanted to check the doors again. I’m… a little jumpy lately.”

“So am I. I didn’t want to wake them up.” She’d talked to a counselor at the Barratt. Melody Beck Barratt, whose husband owned the hotel, knew Charlie’s wife and was good friends with Charlotte, had arranged it. Melody had stopped by Chantal’sroom to talk to her about trauma, and what it could do to a person. Melody had told her about W4HAV, a local women’s charity, and suggested she make an appointment with the counselors there.

Charlotte volunteered there. She’d seconded the recommendation.

The counselor had told her nightmares were common. She definitely hadn’t lied. “I had a nightmare.”

That was all she had to say. Then strong male arms slipped around her waist, and Chantal found herself lifted off her feet. Held so close against those perfect muscles. Her entire insides heated in an instant. She hadn’t exactly fallen asleep easily earlier, either.

His fault. She’d been lying there trying to analyze him.

“What are you doing?”

“We’ll both go outside. Prove we can. And we’ll talk. I don’t think we’ve really talked yet. There are… things I want to say to you.”

She just nodded. She’d known this time was coming.

Something had shifted between them out there. She had been wholly dependent on him for those hours. Had been forced to trust him out of necessity when she hadn’t really ever trusted him before.

She still wasn’t sure she trusted him now, either.

Maybe with her life, certainly. But… emotionally?

It was hard to trust him now. Six years of battles were hard to forget. Still… she hooked her arm around his neck and sighed.

“Talk to me,” he said as he carried her through his living room.

She let him. Why was she letting him carry her right now?

She waited until they were past the sleeping bodies sprawled everywhere before she answered. Until they were in the little seating area by the back bay window that looked out over hismother’s rose garden. Only the moonlight shone out there now. The darkness made it feel like it was just her and Gene in the world right now, even with a houseful of other people so close.

“I remember you carrying me. I remember being so afraid. And knowing you were there. But… I don’t really remember much after.” What she remembered mingled with what she didn’t. It probably always would. And… it would haunt her. What had almost happened. How out of control of her own life she had been then.

And how Gene had just… been there. The moment she had needed him most.

“There really isn’t much to remember. After we left the shack, we just kept walking. Until you couldn’t walk anymore.”

“And then you carried me.”

“I carried you.” He lowered her to one of the loungers. The big one. The lounge chair large enough for two. “I’d have carried you a thousand miles if I had to.”

Somehow, he’d grabbed a thick blanket from inside. It didn’t surprise her at all that he lowered himself right next to her. Then she found his arm going behind her shoulders, and he was turning her. Chantal rested her head on his broad chest and just… felt him breathe against her. The blanket cut the night chill, and he was pressed against her…

She wanted to cling. And that wasn’t like her at all.

It felt surreal out here like this, with the scent of him surrounding her. The sound of the night around them.

“A part of me is afraid it isn’t over,” she finally said. “That Charlie was wrong, that someone else is still out there. Watching.”

“I trust your brother. But yeah, things still feel a bit disconnected. But I’m glad of one thing.” He trailed his fingers up her arm lightly.

Chantal had no idea what she was doing there, cuddled up under a blanket, with him like this. This wasGene.

Gene was dangerous to a woman’s well-being in ways that only a bad-for-her man could be.

This man… this man had no relationship staying power. But for the first time since the abduction, she didn’t feel like the world was spinning out of her control. “What is that?”

“I finally saw what I have been missing for years. I’m sorry I was such an ass. About Mandy and… everything else since. I think I may have used anger… especially at the people I cared about who got too close… as a wall. Especially since Carly. I think I just… saw you as a threat.”