Dani
“Are you going to eat all of that?” Marcus asked later that evening as we watched the news, cuddled up on the couch in his living room.
I smiled as I took another bite of the massive hot fudge sundae I’d concocted just a few minutes earlier. I could hear the note of longing in his voice as I leaned back against him. My back was resting against the front of his body, a position that had become our favorite when we were relaxing together.
“I planned on it,” I teased.
He didn’t answer, but I already knew he was hoping I’d share. I’d already figured out that he didn’t shun sugar and junk food because he didn’t like it. He did it strictly because of his rigid discipline to stay healthy and fit for his travels. It wasn’t that I objected. I understood that my obsession for junk food wasn’t healthy. I simply didn’t care. I ate healthy enough most of the time. A person needed some indulgences.
And lately, Marcus had been more than willing to allow himself some foods that were meant simply for pleasure.
My suspicion was that he could normally avoid it because he didn’t see it, but since I devoured it on a regular basis, he was tempted. His mother, Aileen, was a phenomenal cook and baker, so I was certain he’d indulged plenty as a kid.
He wasn’t nearly as snobby as he attempted to be about eating for pleasure.
Marcus could afford to consume what he wanted. He did one of the most brutal workouts I’d ever seen every morning in his home gym. I’d attempted to keep up with him, but had failed miserably.
According to Aileen, Marcus had loved chocolate when he was young, and I could tell that preference hadn’t gone away. He just hid it well.
I pointed my spoon at the bowl. “This is really good. Are you sure you don’t want me to make you one?”
“Nope. I’m fine,” he answered.
Honestly, I think he liked junk food the best when he was eating mine. Maybe he could rationalize that because he didn’t actually eat his own.
I sighed as I took another bite, the explosion of hot fudge and creamy French vanilla ice cream in my mouth absolutely perfect.
“I’d probably be willing to try a little of yours,” Marcus rumbled, his low voice vibrating against my back as he looked over my shoulder.
I smiled broader, finally hearing him request to eat some of mine, just as I’d predicted. In fact, I’d been waiting for it.
“I’d hate for you to force yourself,” I said in a false concerned tone.
“I wouldn’t be,” he contradicted quickly. “I really don’t mind.”
It was as close as Marcus was going to get to admitting he desperately wanted some of the ice cream masterpiece I’d made for myself. Since I knew he was going to want some, I’d heaped a lot in a very big bowl.
I turned, gathered the perfect bite in a spoon, and then held it up to his mouth.
“What do you think?” I asked after he’d quickly taken it from the utensil I’d offered.
He nodded. “You were right. It’s really good.”
I shared the entire bowl with him, amused that it was the only way I could really get him to eat something he enjoyed.
My body was exhausted from our earlier hike and subsequent passionate encounter outdoors. We’d showered when we’d come in out of the rain, and then had some dinner. Now that we’d slowed things down, I could feel the so-worth-it aches in my body from the volatile way we’d come together.
My fingers were scratched, something that Marcus had fussed over when he’d seen them in the shower. I was pretty sure he’d asked me at least ten times if they hurt.
They didn’t.
And I didn’t regret a single moment of experiencing my first kiss—and so much more—in the rain.
Marcus would never call himself a romantic, and maybe in all the conventional ways he wasn’t. But just the fact that he wanted me to live every experience I never thought I’d have a chance to experience was so touching that it didn’t matter if he was generally pragmatic. It made his thoughtfulness special and sweet to me.
I bent forward and put our empty bowl on the coffee table. I’d take it to the kitchen before I went to bed.
“I have to leave tomorrow,” he said unexpectedly, his voice decidedly unhappy as he wrapped his arms around me again, and I rested back against him.
It wasn’t like I hadn’t known his departure was inevitable, but it still stung…hard. “Where do you have to go?” I asked lightly, trying not to sound like the world was ending because it was time for us to part ways.
“I have to go to the Middle East. I wish I could put it off, but—”
“I understand,” I interrupted, not wanting to make a big deal out of the fact that he was going. Inside, I was brokenhearted, but I’d known who Marcus was when I’d chosen to spend time with him.
I can’t lose it. I’ve always known this would eventually happen.
I guess I’d just hoped for more time, but honestly, it was going to hurt just as much whenever it happened.
“No, you don’t understand, Danica. I wouldn’t leave you right now if I didn’t have to,” he grumbled.
I suddenly connected something that had happened after we showered. “Does this have anything to do with your conversation with Jett?”
He’d spoken with my brother at length in his office before finally handing the phone over to me when I came downstairs.
He let out a masculine sigh. “That’s what’s spurring my urgency, yes.”
“What happened?” I turned around to look at him in concern.
“It seems we’re missing a few virgins,” he explained. “Ruby was locked in a room before the auction with two European females, apparently two women who weren’t exactly willing participants. Ruby was auctioned off as planned, and as you know, she’s safe with your brother in Florida.”
“And the other two women?” I questioned.
“They disappeared. They were never part of the auction. Your brother used his skills to track what happened to them. Ruby heard something about them being shipped to Syria, a gift for a rebel leader.”
I closed my eyes in horror. “Oh, God. If that’s true, they’re in trouble, Marcus.”
“I know. But I’m hoping they’re still over the border in Turkey. Jett found some possible leads.”
“Where did he track them to?”
“The same town you left when you decided to follow the teenagers.”
It was actually more of a village, and over the years I’d come to know a lot of the locals, and they trusted me. There was often press there, and the town housed a lot of refugees. My job as a journalist had been to report information on the refugee crisis and the status of the fighting in Syria. I knew that area in a personal way. The region also had medical staff from around the world volunteering to help treat the people who had fled to the border town to escape the fighting.
“I’ll go with you,” I decided. “I know you have more experience with spying than I do, but I know those locals. I speak Turkish and enough Arabic. I can help you get more information if somebody is hiding them.”
“Not happening,” Marcus answered flatly. “You need more time. You don’t want to go back there right now.”
“I do,” I told him fervently. “I need to go.”
Being back in the place that I associated with so much pain was integral to my recovery. I’d always known I had to go eventually. I’d wanted to conquer my fear, but I hadn’t gotten to the point where I was ready to return. Now that there were women in trouble, I was ready.
“You’re not going, Danica,” Marcus insisted. “Christ! You just got out of a bad situation. Now you’re ready to go risk your neck again?”
“Yes,” I said emphatically, my eyes clashing with his in a battle of wills. “Marcus, this is something I have to do. I’ve always known I couldn’t let what happened get the best of me. I can’t let them win.”
“The terrorists who held you captive are dead.”
“Not to me,” I explained. “I have to face that fear before it will go away. That town had nothing to do with what happened to me, but I connect it in my mind with the pain and fear of my capture and torture.”
“Which is exactly why you’re not going.”
“That’s why I should go. You’ll be there with me, and I can help you.”
“I can’t do that,” he answered in a voice cracking with emotion.
I could see the worry in his expression as I replied, “I’ll be safe with you.”
“I’d handcuff us together to keep you from running over the border if you think somebody is in trouble.”
“I’m good with that,” I replied, trying to cajole him into taking me.
“No.”
God, he was stubborn. I knew he was trying to protect me from pain, but I couldn’t be afraid forever. The thought of going with Marcus wasn’t nearly as scary as going alone. “I won’t be afraid. I’ll be with you.”
“I’ll be fucking scared,” he admitted with a growl. “You’ve been through enough, Dani.”
“I have to go sometime, Marcus. And if I can help you, it’s a perfect time. I’m not going to let those bastards win. I’m not spending my life being terrified of a region I spent plenty of my life reporting on. I lived with those people. I was there more than I was here.”
“And it was never safe,” he rumbled. “It’s too damn close to the border. The towns in that region aren’t always secure.”
“Is anywhere safe anymore?” I asked. “Anything can happen anywhere in the world.”
“I suppose,” he conceded. “However, you don’t have to put yourself that close to the line of fire.”
“I’ll go eventually. You can’t protect me forever. I’m safer with you than without you,” I reasoned.
I couldn’t give in this time. I didn’t want to hurt Marcus, but I really needed to go with him and do what I could for the women who hadn’t been rescued from Gregory Becker’s human trafficking ring. Just the thought of kidnapped women being in the clutches of an evil man like the rebel leader made me nauseous. I knew what they’d suffer, and I knew that they would most likely die after they’d been used like they were an old possession rather than a human being.
“Be ready early,” he finally said irritably. “You don’t make a move without telling me you’re doing it.”
My heart clenched as I watched a pained expression cross his face. It was killing him to agree, but I was guessing he decided he would do better with me than without me. He might have contacts in that area, but it wasn’t a town he’d spent a ton of time visiting. His appearances had been quick, probably just long enough to meet with his informants in the region.
I lifted my hand and ran it over his lightly whiskered jaw. “Thank you,” I said sincerely.
His arms tightened around me. “Hell, I never really had any choice. I knew you’d move your ass like it was on fire once you heard that two women were in trouble.”
I smiled. “You’re moving pretty quickly yourself.”
He shrugged. “Your brother can’t go. He’s watching out for Ruby.”
Maybe he didn’t want to make a big deal out of his humanitarian efforts, but Marcus was the type of man who wouldn’t be able to live with the fact that he hadn’t tried to help those women. “You want to help them, too,” I accused gently.
“I want to keep your beautiful ass safe. I shouldn’t have mentioned the captive women. I should have known you’d jump right into the fire to save them,” he countered.
I kissed him tenderly and then pulled back to tell him, “You’re a good man, Marcus.”
He snorted. “Never heard that one before.”
“You should. It’s true.”
“Then you’re probably one of the only people who believe that. Most people think I’m an asshole, even my friends.”
I laughed at his self-deprecating comment. I’d heard Jett call Marcus a jerk on more than one occasion, but I knew he’d been joking. Underneath his bluster, Marcus was an incredible man. Oh, he was cautious, a trait that probably came from the work he did for the government. But anybody who got to know him would eventually see that underneath the asshole exterior, there was a guy with a very good heart.
“You’re taking me with you,” I reminded him.
“Reluctantly,” he answered in an unhappy tone. “And only because I think you’d get yourself into more trouble without me.”
“You know I have more pull in that area,” I argued.
“Maybe you do, but I’m still not happy about this entire situation. But I wasn’t going to lie to you. I guess I assumed you’d be okay with letting me go alone since it isn’t a place you really want to go right now.”
“I need to go,” I said. “I have to set myself free.”
“And I want to lock you up,” he said huskily.
“We could try out those handcuffs in advance,” I suggested.
“You think I won’t?” he asked, one arrogant eyebrow raised in challenge.
I wrapped my arms around his neck. “I’m so not scared.”
In fact, the thought of being naked and at Marcus’s mercy was an erotic pleasure I was pretty sure I’d thoroughly enjoy.
He stood, surging to his feet and pulling me up with him. I squealed as he tossed me over his shoulder. “Marcus, let me down. I think you have a fetish about carrying me around like a caveman.”
I was laughing as he smacked me on the ass, not listening to a word I said as he made for the bedroom.
“Not a fetish,” he denied. “I’m just eager to see you in handcuffs.”
I was still smiling as he took me into the bedroom and then set me back on my feet.
“You’re impossible,” I accused, unable to stop the silly grin from remaining on my face.
“You like that about me,” he said arrogantly.
I couldn’t argue. He was right. I did, in fact, love his stubbornness when he wasn’t driving me crazy.
“I don’t love it,” I denied falsely, putting my hands on my hips as I rolled my eyes.
“Yeah, you do,” he corrected in a husky tone. “You love the way I keep trying until I get you naked, and then insist that you come.”
Oh, hell. I did love that.
“Are you going to keep talking, or are you going to show me?” My body was already on fire for him, and he hadn’t even touched me.
He went silent as he got to work on showing me just how much I loved his persistence.