Jaxon was probably going to hell for this, but it was for Freya, so his conscience wasn’t all that bothered.

He adjusted the too-small shirt again, waiting for the elevator to reach the top floor.

He’d made it to the hotel downtown in record time but after half an hour cooling his heels with no word from Freya, it was time to go in looking for her. He doubted the Senator would appreciate Jaxon knocking on his door so he’d gone for the undercover entrance.

A borrowed uniform and one of the service carts full of mini bottles of shampoo, lotion and soap, and he was simply part of the scenery.

The elevator dinged and he rolled out onto the floor. There was no doubt what room Freya was in. It was the one with two guards standing watch at the door.

He swallowed and rolled his cart up to the doors.

“Someone called for fresh towels and a refill on lotion?” Jaxon gestured to his wares and kept his eyes lowered.

“I need to look at the cart, please, sir?” The closest guard took a step nearer.

“Be my guest.” Jaxon shrugged.

The guard rummaged through the bin of dirty laundry and peaked under a few of the supply boxes.

“You’re cleared,” he said.

“Thanks.”

The guard opened the door, admitting Jaxon to the suite.

More armed security sat around, eating, bored, uninterested in him.

“Finally!” Freya stood up from the sofa without missing a beat. “I’ve been waiting forever for another shower. In here, please?”

“Yes, ma’am. Sorry about the wait.”

Jaxon rolled the cart after her into a smaller bedroom. She held onto the door with one hand, staring at him with eyes so big he wanted to dive into them.

“Bump the door,” he whispered.

She let it drift mostly shut.

As much as he wanted to hug and hold her, their window of opportunity was small.

“I couldn’t get out,” she whispered.

“It’s okay. Get in.” He reached into the dirty laundry hamper and pulled a couple towels up.

“Seriously?” She stared at the hamper.

“You have a better idea?”

“No, it just seems...whatever. Boost me up?”

Jaxon helped Freya climb into the laundry hamper. He dumped the other towels on top of her, then did what he’d been called to do and deposited fresh towels in the bathroom, turned on the shower and brought the supposedly dirty towels on top of Freya.

“Not a sound,” he said low.

Jaxon muscled the cart around and pushed.

It was considerably heavier with Freya, and the wheels sank into the carpet, but it rolled on with a bit more effort.

He took a deep breath and rolled the cart into the main room.

“Anyone else need clean towels?” he asked with a smile.

“No, get on,” an older man said, waving him at the door.

He had Freya’s dark, brown eyes.

Her dad?

Jaxon pushed the cart out into the hall, barely daring to breathe while he waited for the elevator...which was already coming up.

He tapped his toes.

The lift dinged and he stood cart to cart with a real hotel employee...with more towels.

Shit.

He smiled and pushed the cart past them, jabbing the key for the first floor. No sooner than the doors were shut did he reached in and started unburying Freya.

“We’ve got a problem. They’re going to realize in about thirty seconds I’m not really a hotel employee. Come on.”

Jaxon helped hoist Freya out with one hand and yanked the shirt off with his other.

“Don’t run, don’t run, don’t run,” she chanted.

“Actually, let’s just run.”

“Okay, running, check.”

The elevator dinged, reaching the first floor.

Jaxon took Freya’s hand in his and they sprinted down the hall, through the ritzy lobby of the downtown hotel out onto the street. The sound of someone shouting was cut off as they turned and bolted toward the parking lot where he’d left his car.

He unlocked the BMW, and they piled in, hitting the locks as soon as the doors had shut.

“Did that really just work?” Freya grinned at him.

“I think it did. We have to get out of here.”

They buckled up and he motored out of the parking lot, a sense of finally being free uncoiling inside of him.

“Where are we going?” He glanced at Freya.

“Somewhere with people. And food, please?”

“I know just the place.”

Jaxon could have taken her somewhere closer, but he wasn’t the only one who needed to know she was safe. They made it clear across town without incident.

“Trinity Hall?” Freya glanced at him. They were the first words either had spoken in a while. “This is where Liv works, right?”

“And where we hang out sometimes. They have a good lunch menu, and the others would like to know that you’re okay.”

He got out and circled around the car.

What came next?

He didn’t know, and that was his new problem.

Freya might not want to stay in Seattle after what’d happened to her and her sister. If he left, she’d take a piece of him with her. He didn’t know how to let that go.

They entered through the back door.

The pub was quiet, but Liv was there. She came around and gave Freya a big squeeze before settling them in a more out-of-the-way table than the usual, big communal one the guys favored on most occasions.

“I almost don’t know how to behave in public.” Freya ignored the menu, instead staring at the couple of people quietly eating lunch. “I probably look like a mess.”

“You look fine.” Beautiful even, but he wouldn’t lay it on too thick.

She chewed on her lower lip, her gaze going cloudy.

“What? What is it?” He held out his hands and she put hers in his.

“Can I ever be like them again? Normal? After what we went through?”

“I suppose. It’ll just take time.” He stroked the back of her hands with his thumbs. “Take it one day at a time.”

“I guess.” She stared at their interlaced fingers. “They haven’t found Michelle’s body yet. Part of me wonders if she ran off, you know?”

“Where do you think she’d go?”

“No idea. Somewhere Dad couldn’t find her.”

“He seems like a real winner.”

“The best.” Freya rolled her eyes. “He’s more concerned about the money than us. I told him I hope Michelle is alive and that she sucks the trust dry.”

“You could use some of it. Set yourself up somewhere. Finish school.” He’d had money for a while, but not the kind of money Freya would get if she chose to fulfill the requirements.

“Yeah. I guess.”

“Where do you think you’d go?” It was the question he was dying on the inside to ask.

Freya made a funny face, lines creasing her brow and around her mouth.

“Go? I wouldn’t go anywhere. Seattle...it’s home now. I’ve never felt particularly connected to a place before, but...I like it here. I like the people I’ve met. You. I like the school. And...I could probably have a job if I worked hard enough for it.”

“Oh.” Jaxon breathed a sigh of relief.

“What about you?” Freya turned those too perceptive eyes of her on him. “What do you want, Jax?”

“Finish school? That’s a start.”

“That’s not what I mean.” She traced one of his fingers with her thumb. “I mean—us? What do you want?”

“Whatever makes you happy?”

“I don’t know what makes me happy.”

“Then we should find out. It might be a hard job, but I’m up to the challenge.”

Freya cracked a smile at that.

He loved her, and she knew it. He hadn’t said it in as many words, but it was the truth. He loved her, regardless of what she chose to do, where she went, or how she felt.

“What if...”

“Freya?” He tightened his hold on her hands. “You don’t have to make any choices right now, okay? Except what you want to eat, because I’m starving.”

He’d do his best to let her choose, but his heart had already picked her.

Freya stroked the soft fabric of the shirt Jaxon had loaned her to sleep in. Until her father went away, there was no point in going to her apartment. Her roommate had actually not sublet Freya’s room and was highly sympathetic, which was a relief. She would have a place to live when all of this was said and done.

Jaxon moved around the apartment, doing normal things. Laundry. The dishes. He was being patient, more so than she deserved. There was no pressure, no rush, he even looked at her funny whenever she said thank you.

He deserved someone who had zero reservations about loving him.

Despite what he said, she couldn’t help but feel as though she were lacking some sort of important, emotional growth. That she was stunted in some way.

Was it as easy as simply choosing to love him? Or were there feelings she should have about it?

“Hey.” Jaxon slid his hands around her waist, tugging her back against his chest. She could hear the exhaustion in his voice. “I’m going to bed, unless you want to stay up?”

“No.”

She let him take her hand in his and lead her into his bedroom.

“Sorry the bed’s up against the wall like this. I don’t have sleepovers.” He pulled the blankets down and nudged her in first. The way he ducked his head was kind of cute. As if she cared about anyone who was here before her. It was who came after that worried her. If she didn’t get her act together, someone would win him over.

Of course he’d want to be between her and whatever threat she might imagine.

“You’re a study-in-bed person?” She turned and leafed through a textbook sitting on the headboard.

“Not very often. When I get in bed, I’m usually out.”

“Bed is for sleeping, not studying.”

“Bed is for other things, too.” He lay on his side facing her.

She was rather aware of the things Jaxon did well in bed. Now it was her turn to blush a bit.

“Jax—”

“Sh.” He laid his finger across her lips. “For tonight, give it a rest, okay? Turn that big, beautiful head of yours off and sleep.”

That was easy for him to say.

He’d saved the day, vanquished the bad guy, and rescued the girl—over and over again. And she didn’t know if she loved him or not.

“Come here.” He looped his arm around her waist and pulled her across to him.

“That’s not much of a request.” She chuckled, not minding one bit.

“Think of it more as a warning.” He kissed the tip of her nose.

When he held her, when they touched or kissed, the world was right. She knew what she wanted.

Freya leaned in, finding his mouth with hers. His lips were soft. It was so easy to sink into the kiss, to feel...warmth. Need. Desire. She’d nearly died in those moments she thought he was on the receiving end of the bullet and not Yuri.

She wanted this man more than her next breath. Was that the same as love?

She didn’t know, and if she didn’t let herself experience this, maybe she’d never find out.

“Jax?” she whispered his name, her lips gliding against his.

“Hm?”

“Make love to me?”

“I already am.” He cupped her face and kissed her again, his warmth seeping into her.

Her toes curled into the sheets and she smiled.

Jaxon pushed the blanket down. He pulled his shirt off her and then her panties. The way he looked at her, knowing that this meant something to both of them, was all the foreplay she needed. When his eyes got that glint, she knew that this was something she wanted. Not just now, but again and again.

He stripped off his clothes and then knelt at the foot of the bed. He started with one ankle, kissing his way up her shin, and then switched to the other. His touch warmed her body, but it was the way he looked at her that did her in. She was his focus.

By the time he made it to her lips, she was panting and groaning his name. She lost all sense of time and place, what else was going on around them. Until the blunt head of his cock pressed against her. She wrapped her legs around him and he pressed into her, kissing her mouth, swallowing her gasps.

This was right. How could it not be?

“Look at me,” he whispered. “I want to watch you.”

His movements were slow and deep. She saw what she felt, mirrored back in his gaze.

This was love, wasn’t it?

He grasped her hands, their fingers threaded together.

She could hear the words each time he slid into her, even though he didn’t say them. Had never said them.

“Say it,” she whispered.

Jaxon didn’t flinch or ask what it was she wanted to hear.

He pushed up, his cock inside her, his gaze traveling all over her.

He withdrew and thrust, her body rippling with pleasure at the feel of him.

She fisted the sheets in lieu of his hands.

“Not yet,” he said.

Jaxon bent his head, grinding his hips against hers, and kissed her mouth. His hips pumped into her and she moved with him. He was so close, his face, the burning desire inside of him was all she could see. He tilted his head and nipped her lower lip.

She gasped, her muscles spasming around his cock, spurring on her orgasm. She whimpered, digging her nails into his shoulders.

“I love you, Freya.”

Jaxon stroked Freya’s back, her hair. She’d crawled on top of him without another word, the moment he finished cleaning up and they were back in bed and hadn’t moved.

Was it foolish to think that part of her was growing to love him?

He was trying not to focus on it. To let her come around in her own time. She needed to work through the last few weeks, what had happened to her, her sister, and in time, maybe she’d choose to love him. Waiting was killing him, but she was worth it.

“Jax?” Her voice was so quiet in the stillness of the night he thought he almost missed it.

“Hm?”

She picked up her head, staring at him. She’d been chewing her thumbnail to pieces, which was the only reason he’d known she wasn’t asleep.

“Would...you go to Finland with  me?” she asked.

“What?”

“Part of the trust condition is visiting family in Finland I’ve never met before. It’s the kind of thing I’d have tried to do with Michelle, but...” She lifted a shoulder.

“You can wait until we find her.”

“Yeah, except...that might take time. And maybe it’s petty of me, but I don’t want to give my dad that time to find out how to take the money away. You know? Besides, I’d like to do something with you that’s not work or...”

“Sounds like fun.” He didn’t know how he’d pay for it, but so long as he was there to watch her back, he’d make it happen.

“I know this isn’t...probably what you wanted to hear me say. I just...I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I do know that...I want you to be part of this. I have feelings for you, and...I don’t want to give you up. Not until we’ve had a chance, you know?”

Jaxon swallowed down the knot in his throat.

Coming from her, that was better than I love you. She was choosing to give them a chance and he figured he had a pretty good chance, the longer he got her to himself. She always did seem to like him better after he’d made her scream.

“What do you think?” she asked.

“Can we do it between semesters?”

“Yeah, that sounds perfect.”