But…

Now, she just wanted to go home, go back to her life, her routine, her bakery, but basically she just wanted to go home where she wasn’t made to feel like everything she said or did was all part of some test that he’d decided to put her through. As much as she loved spending time with him, she would rather do it somewhere else, somewhere where she wasn’t made to feel if she said or did the wrong thing that this entire dream would end without a moment’s notice.

She just wanted to stop playing this game that she had absolutely no idea what the rules were or what she was playing for.

She just wanted to go home.

Chapter 35

Thursday, December 24th.

“What’s wrong?” he asked as he yanked his towel off and tossed it to the side so that he could climb onto the bed and lay down next to the woman that he was starting to think that he couldn’t live without.

He expected her to tell him that everything was fine, let him take her out to dinner once he could move again, make love to her once they got home and fall asleep tangled in each other’s arms. Instead, she told him the one thing that he wasn’t ready to hear.

“Duncan,” she said, toying with a strand of his hair as he seriously contemplated taking a nap before dinner, “I want to go home.”

“What?” he asked, forcing his eyes open so that he could pay attention to what she was saying.

“I want to go home, Duncan. I need to go to work and make sure all the orders go out on time, but I also miss my grandfather. I want to make sure that he’s taking care of himself and eating okay,” she said and if it wasn’t for the fact that she couldn’t exactly meet his gaze, he would have believed her.

Well, he did believe her when she told him that she was worried about the bakery and her grandfather, but he knew there was more to it and until she told him what was going on, they weren’t leaving.

“What’s really going on?” he asked, tipping her chin so that he could look her in the eye the next time she spoke.

She surprised him by meeting his gaze head on and saying, “That’s what I’d like to know.”

“What do you mean?” he asked, pushing back her curly black hair out of the way.

She sighed heavily as she said, “You know exactly what I’m talking about, Duncan. Why are we here?”

Cupping her face, he gently traced her bottom lip with his thumb. “I wanted to get away for a little while and figure some things out,” he admitted, not sure what else to say.

“Am I one of those things that you needed to figure out?” she asked, keeping her gaze locked with his and refusing to look away until he finally answered her.

Instead, he asked, “Why would you think that this had anything to do with you?” before he remembered that he was a horrible fucking liar.

Shaking her head in disgust, she climbed out of the bed and said, “Fine. Don’t tell me,” she said with a heavy sigh that told him just how pissed she really was.

“Necie,” he said, groaning as he got up and quickly pulled his clothes on, terrified that she would do something foolish like swipe his keys and try to drive home without him. “Let’s talk about this.”

“There’s nothing to talk about,” she said, not sounding all that pissed, but he was no fool.

He knew that look in her eye all too well.

She was up to something and whatever it was, it wasn’t going to end well for his balls. Mumbling something, she grabbed the bag that he’d packed for her, pulled on her winter jacket and headed for the door, leaving him with absolutely no choice but to follow her or risk having to hike back home in this weather, which brought up an interesting question.

“You do realize that it’s snowing, right?” he asked as he followed her out the front door, nearly running into her when she suddenly stopped with a pathetic groan and a, “Damn it!”

“Yeah, so I guess we won’t be going anywhere,” he said, not even bothering to hide how pleased he was, because he wasn’t ready to…

Let her go. He wasn’t ready to let her go, didn’t want to let her go and in fact, he was pretty sure that he would do whatever it took at this moment to keep her.

She was the one.

She really was his.

“Oh, shit,” he muttered, stumbling back when he finally got his answer.

Son. Of. A. Bitch!

“What?” Necie asked, looking so damn adorably confused while he simply shook his head and muttered about driving through the fucking snow, how late it was and the fact that he was fucking starving.

*-*-*-*

“Come here, Necie,” the apparently psychotic man that she loved said as he advanced on her.

“Umm, yeah,” she said, taking in the determined look in his eye and the fact that he was holding another roll of painter’s tape in his hands, “I’m all set.”

“Do you really have to make this so fucking difficult?” he demanded, sounding putout when she should be the one pissed since the jerk was trying to kidnap her again.

Granted, it was a sad attempt and she could easily bite through the tape, but still it-

“Oh, fuck this,” he suddenly said, tossing the tape aside and before she could move, because yes, she had wasted precious seconds screaming, he had her over his shoulder and was carrying her out to the SUV.

“Where the hell are you taking me?” she demanded, trying not to kick him too hard since she was pretty sure that she was in love with the jerk, and again, there was also the sad fact that this was probably the saddest kidnapping in the history of kidnapping.

Yup, definitely the saddest, she decided when he actually placed her in the front passenger seat, buckled her in and actually took the time to hunt down a pair of gloves so that her hands wouldn’t freeze. All those drills that her grandfather put her through, all the warnings, the signs to look for and how to fight back were all for nothing, she realized with a sad shake of her head.