by Quinn, Cari
“Just pull her up when I get her foot free,” Blake said with a growl.
Jack inclined his head. “Go cut the damsel free, James.”
“Fuck you,” Blake said before gripping the tool between his teeth.
I laughed. How could I not? Blake’s hair was slicked back and he was wearing a full tux. My very own James Bond.
He slipped under the water. His hand was firm on my thigh. I could barely feel what he was doing, but the tightness around my ankle and calf suddenly let up.
Thank God.
Then there was nothing but white hot pain. I thrashed, but he held me still under the water, and there was no forgiveness in his grip.
“Gracie. Honey, stop.”
I couldn’t stop. Just let me free. Please, let me free. The water was up to my chin. I didn’t remember calling his name, but Jack’s wide-eyed gaze dragged me back into myself. Blake’s name still echoed in the cove.
He’d been down there too long.
Suddenly my foot was free. I shot out of the water like a cork. Jack dragged me out of the water. He stripped out of his tux jacket, then pulled it around me. “All right. There’s a girl.”
“Blake,” I screamed. I struggled away from Jack, and got to the edge of the ledge before he hauled me back. His arms were huge and strong, but not the ones I wanted.
An arc of water sprayed my face as my boot suddenly went flying over my head. Blake gripped the ledge.
I tried to help him up, but Jack eased me aside to stand and haul him up.
I curled into a ball under Jack’s suit coat. Wool. Gloriously fine wool, but it wasn’t warm. Nothing seemed like it would ever be warm enough again.
Blake crawled to me. He cupped my face. “Sweet Jesus.” He pressed his forehead to mine. “You have some explaining to do, Ms. Copeland.”
“Later,” Jack said. He reached to lift me off the floor of slick rocks, but Blake body-blocked him. “All right, all right. You get the hero card today.”
“Fuck that. Just don’t touch her.” Blake lifted me against his chest.
“Enough.” I drove my hand into Blake’s shoulder. Okay, so it was more like a glancing blow and I’m pretty sure it hurt me more than him. Could a hand shatter from being cold?
“I don’t know what the hell’s gotten into you, but I’m here for one reason—to help Grace. You know why? She’s my friend. So, pull out whatever boulder-sized bug is in your ass, and let’s get her to the fucking hospital.”
He seethed, but Blake finally nodded.
“I can—”
“Shut up, Grace,” they both said in unison.
“Let me take her, Blake. You’re soaked, and just making her colder.”
He gathered me higher until I had no choice but to curl an arm around his neck. I wasn’t sure which of us was shaking more. “Just hold the goddamn flashlight down at our feet so I can get us out of this fucking cave without breaking our necks.”
Jack shook his head and arrowed the light down.
I didn’t want to be rescued. I sure as shit didn’t want Blake to see me like this, but I was glad he’d found me. For once, I couldn’t complain about his high-handed ways. I pressed my face into his neck. The heat from his skin almost made me pull back. Compared to mine, his was feverish.
Behind us, Jack was picking his way out of the rocky cove. His voice was terse as he spoke into his cell. The moon was a few days from full, so I could see a bit better than usual, but his face was still in shadow. His shoulders were stiff. The white of his dress shirt glowed, showing off a lot more body language than usual.
Jack was the affable one. Blake was intense. They were a good balance usually—but something was off tonight. I was too tired to figure it out, but there was definitely something there.
Blake stumbled. Pain zipped through me like a lightning strike. He caught himself, and palmed the back of my head to hold me closer. “I’m sorry, baby.”
I wanted to sob out my pain and embarrassment, but I decided on stoic silence instead. I couldn’t handle this side of Blake. Not right now when I was fairly sure hypothermia was making me hallucinate.
Because this man didn’t do tenderness. There were pockets of affection in the night, but we were more a clash of wills finally succumbing to passion. The only time he allowed me to breach his walls, it was when we were skin to skin.
“The ambulance is fifteen minutes out,” Jack called out.
Blake tightened his hold. “We can get her there faster.”
“Yeah. Especially if I drive.”
“In that glorified tin can you call a car? I think not,” Blake muttered.
“Can we measure dicks later?” I said against Blake’s neck.
“Oh, I don’t need to whip out a ruler, sweetheart.” Jack’s white teeth slashed in the moonlight. “You picked the wrong team there.”
“I’m certain I exceed any and all measurements required to prove you wrong.”
I pressed my forehead into his shoulder. “Can I go back into the cave now?”
“No,” they both said.
I concentrated on not throwing up as we trudged through the sand. I tried to watch the horizon line, but we were bouncing so much it just made it worse.
“Grace?”
“Hmm…”
“Stay with me.”
“I’m here,” I said groggily. I focused on the moon instead. My arm slid a little.
“Grace,” Blake barked.
“Look, buddy, if you want me to toss my cookies on your very spiffy tux, then keep yelling. Otherwise, let me just do my thing.”
“Then hold on to me, goddammit.”
“I am.” Why was the moon getting fuzzy?
“Grace.”
The moon winked out. Funny, I couldn’t hear him anymore.
I couldn’t hear anything.
Warm again.
Nice and warm.
Three
“Ms. Copeland.”
Why was my hand trapped? I pushed at whatever was holding me down.
“Ms. Copeland, it’s time to come back to the land of the living.”
“Do you not see the oddness of sleeping with a woman you can’t call by her first name?”
“It’s not that I can’t, I choose not to.” Blake tightened his fingers around my hand.
More knucklehead fun. Maybe I could just keep my eyes closed and they’d eventually go away.
“I know you’re awake.” Blake leaned into me, his voice lowering to a mere grumble. “I know every single cadence of your breathing.” Were those his lips on my skin?
I shivered. Why the hell was he saying this stuff now?
One brush with death and now my guy was going to get all talkative and romantic? Well, about as romantic as Blake got, but still.
And really, this was a little too intimate for a hospital room. At least I was pretty sure I’d made it to the hospital. I moved my other hand and something crinkled.
A few flashes of memory came back. The staff trying to get me warm. The tug of an IV in my arm. Heating blankets because the hypothermia was a bit more important than my ankle.
Blake looming over me.
Blake arguing with doctors.
Blake next to me the entire night.
Jack always pacing.
Everything else was fuzzy. And I couldn’t move my damn leg and I was so afraid to open my eyes.
“Ms. Copeland.” Blake’s voice was a purr. I was used to a clipped tone with a hint of sex when he called me Ms. Copeland. He usually saved the purr for Grace.
And he definitely saved the groans to end with my given name.
“Come back to me, Grace.”
How could I ignore him? I lifted heavy lids, and squinted at the sunlight pouring around him. He’d been getting a little scruffier lately. Long hours in the office, and his perennial avoidance tactics in whatever we were calling our relationship…all of it was showing on his face.
His beautiful face, which I never tired of looking at. Even when he
was being an asshole. Sometimes that made things worse. And sometimes he made me want to gain a little personal knowledge of what my palm print would look like on his cheek. All depended on the hour of the day.
“I never left.”
“You took about thirty-seven years off my life.”
I nestled my cheek into my paper-thin pillow. “Come on. Maybe five.”
His long, elegant fingers laced through mine. “Forty years, I was trying not to make you feel bad.”
“Between the two of us the median is more like twenty. Not bad at all.”
His hazel eyes went hard. “What were you doing, Grace?”
I sighed. I didn’t know what to tell him. I’d literally stumbled on the diary that had sent me running for the cove. Of course it had been light when I’d gone in there to check it out.
Okay, so twenty minutes from sunset, but I’d honestly thought I’d find something right away. The number of times my grandmother had mentioned it as her place to think made me hope I’d find some sort of answers.
All I’d actually found was a one-way ticket to the emergency room. At least I was pretty sure that’s where I’d started out. Things had gotten a little wonky before we’d gotten back to the beach house.
Part of me wanted to keep the information to myself. I’d been searching the house for weeks now. Before I got my job working at Carson Covenant, and the long evenings since I’d gotten my job back—no part of my grandmother’s house had been left to chance.
Blake had pulled back, and so had I.
And now he was staring at me with expectant eyes.
I hadn’t exactly lied to him, but I’d definitely been less than forthcoming. He’d shut me out for whatever reason. The problem was, I hadn’t made any overtures to get back to what we’d started to become.
Ever since the break in, we’d been drifting.
It was easier to not talk. The mystery surrounding my grandmother had consumed me, and I’d hidden in the easy part of our relationship. Our physical side. The only part of us that I never had to pick apart. Whether it was a forever kind of love, or infatuation, I still wasn’t sure.
Liar.
I closed my eyes.
No, I knew it was forever. I couldn’t lie to myself about it. At least it was for me. I opened my eyes again. “Did you work on my grandmother’s house?”
He nodded. “I own it.”
My gut tightened. There was no way he’d ever let me forget that. “I mean before my grandmother died.” When he only kept his gaze steady on mine, I sighed. “You told me you knew her.”
After a long moment, he inclined his head. “I’ve worked with Annabelle.” He shrugged. “Lady’s Cove and the homes on the surrounding private beaches were among the first to use my windows.”
I nodded. “All right. That makes sense.”
“Then if you’d be so kind as to clue me in to this little epiphany, I’d appreciate it.”
I pulled my hand away. “Don’t get all Blake on me.”
He sat back in his seat, crossing his arms over his broad chest. “Forgive me. It’s the only way I know how to be.”
“You know what I mean.”
One eyebrow rose. “No, I don’t.”
“Yes, you do, asshole.”
My gaze flicked to Jack. I’d forgotten he was still there.
“Shall I leave so you two can talk? You know, since you’re such good friends.”
Wow. The arctic had suddenly made an appearance in my hospital room. I frowned as I suddenly noticed I was the only patient in the room. Marblehead had a small hospital. There was no way I’d be alone in a room. Not if I wasn’t critical.
I pressed my fingers to my forehead. A dull throb sat there, as well as in every muscle of my body. Let alone the ankle I refused to acknowledge.
One thing at a time.
I dropped my arm to the bed and opened my hand. The muscle in his jaw jumped, and his eyebrows snapped down. I wouldn’t beg, but I wouldn’t shut him out anymore.
We were both far too stubborn. Someone had to give, and I knew it had to be me. Blake was a difficult man under the best of circumstances, and these were less than ideal in any definition of the word.
I’d scared him.
I knew it.
I didn’t want to process it. I didn’t want to look too closely at any level of our relationship. Instead, I’d lived in the mystery of my grandmother’s house. I’d entrenched myself in figuring out why anyone would want to break in. I was used to worrying about my own problems, and far too familiar with being alone.
He fisted his hand under his arm before finally dropping them to his sides, then reaching for me.
Our hands locked.
“I found her diary.” My fingers tensed. “Where is it?”
“I’ve got it.”
I blinked. “Oh.”
“You dropped it on the steps,” Jack said quietly.
My gaze drifted to Jack. He was rumpled. His dress shirt open at the neck, bowtie hanging around his neck, suit jacket missing. “How?”
Jack shrugged. “It’s my job to watch out for you, Gracie.”
“No, it isn’t,” Blake muttered.
Jack dipped his fingers into his pockets. “And that’s why I figured out where she’s been, and you haven’t?”
Blake’s fingers flexed around mine.
“How long?” I asked.
Jack shrugged. “Not long after you started working for Blake.”
Blake’s head fell back.
“So, I guess it’s time for us to have a discussion about this, huh?”
Jack pursed his lips. “Might be a good time.”
“No, it isn’t.”
At a sharp knock, we all swiveled our heads to the door.
Dr. Perrault strode into the room. Some people might have thought the doctor resembled a kindly grandfather, but he was no pushover. Even Blake’s steely stare didn’t slow him down. “I need to examine the patient. Whatever discussions you’d like to have will have to be during visiting hours.”
“I’m paying for a private room,” Blake said between gritted teeth.
“And that’s why Ms. Copeland is in a very nice corner room. She needs her rest, and I need to examine her.”
My eyes widened at his hold. “Circulation, Blake,” I said softly.
He glanced down at our hands and immediately eased up on his hold. “Sorry.”
“Why don’t you go get a shower and change of clothes? You look worse than I do.”
“Ever the charmer, Ms. Copeland.”
“Just…humor me?” I tugged him closer and he stood to loom over me.
His knuckles pressed into the pillow beside my head, and his other hand cupped my face. “This discussion isn’t over.”
“No.”
“Complete transparency.”
“Can you say the same?”
His eyes stayed trained on mine. There were shadows there. Not just the fatigue-soaked kind. “I’ll do my best.”
At least he didn’t lie. That would have to do.
Four
“So, it’s not broken?” I gripped my blanket and gasped as Dr. Perrault rotated my foot. My forehead and pits tingled with sweat.
“No.” He lowered it into the immobilizer, then flipped the sheet back down. “You bruised your ankle bone with the way it was pinned between the rocks, but mostly ended up with a mild sprain as you tried to free yourself.”
I tried to look at him, but there were spots floating in my vision. I almost preferred a break. I’d had one of those before. In fact, Dr. Perrault had set that when I was fourteen. I didn’t remember it hurting nearly as much as this.
He moved to the right of my bed to look over my IV. Various bags were converging together to pump whatever cocktail they’d deemed necessary to get me back on my feet.
I had a feeling there was something in there for pain as well.
Could be the needle the doctor flashed, because suddenly I was feeling a helluva lot more chill.<
br />
“You’ll have some discomfort for a few days, then a twinge or two as the bone heals. You were very lucky, Ms. Copeland.”
“I’ve been in that cove a hundred times since I was a kid.”
“Yes, but we’re far more nimble as a child. And the rocks on our beaches erode more and more every year.”
“I have a firsthand account, thanks.”
The doctor gave me a warm smile. “Maybe you’ll think better of crawling around in there during the winter. It’s been warm this winter so far, but you’re no stranger to the ocean in these parts.”
“No.” I sighed and flopped back on my nonexistent pillow. “It’s been a while since I’ve been in there.” How my grandmother moved around in there was beyond me.
In fact, that should have been a clue.
Annabelle was a fit older woman, but she wouldn’t have been climbing around in there. I’d been so excited to get a clue as to what could be behind the multiple break-ins that I’d jumped on the idea of the cove before thinking.
So stupid.
“You should be up on your feet in a week. If you hadn’t scared us with the hypothermia, I’d have let you go home today.”
“Great.”
I tried to straighten up at a knock on the door. “Am I interrupting?”
The familiar voice brought a stupid wash of tears. I smiled at the huge vase of yellow blooms blocking most of her body. They were a mix of roses, tulips, and daffodils. “Hi, Phil.”
“Get some rest, Ms. Copeland.”
“Thanks, Doctor.”
He stopped at the door. “Just a few minutes.”
Philomena Stanwick made an entrance, flowers or not. She swept in and pushed over the smaller bouquet of flowers that I hadn’t noticed before. A single white rosebud was nestled in a trio of sterling gray roses just about to unfurl.
Without looking at a card, I knew they were from Blake.
Unusual. Thoughtful and memorable with a dash of offhand romance. So much like the man. Always keeping me off balance.
I would’ve expected red, but not those. Those were definitely not the kind that would be ordered by an assistant. Considering I was his assistant, it wasn’t exactly a stretch that he’d have to do it on his own.
But he could have foisted it off on Jack’s PA.