* * *
Sabine woke to the sound of ocean waves and the smell of coffee. As she stretched, even her aches and pains didn’t penetrate the lovely glow that greeted her.
Finding her big T-shirt, she pulled it over her head before heading toward the open balcony door. She could see Cullen’s legs where he sat on one of the chairs. Warmth suffused her with the memory of what he’d done with her the night before. In the open doorway, she stopped. He turned his gaze from the ocean and looked up at her. She smiled.
“We need to leave in an hour.”
Her smile vanished along with the lovely glow. Coldness swept into its place. Nothing remained of the gentle and caring man who’d held her and made love to her. He was the purposeful soldier he’d been when he found her in the Panjshir Valley. He was doing his job and she was part of it. Last night had been part of it. Or had it? Why was he so distant this morning? It crashed into her conscience that she already knew the answer.
Chiding herself for letting herself believe, even for a moment, that Cullen would change the course of his mission after one night, that it would mean enough for him to at least acknowledge what had happened, she turned without comment and went to get ready. What happened last night had been nothing more than a therapy session. With that first kiss, she’d asked him for an outlet to her despair and he’d given her one.
Dressing after a shower, Sabine entered the room and found him waiting by the door, rucksack at his feet. He watched her impassively as she approached. To her shame, she couldn’t hold his gaze. She preceded him out the door and discovered he’d arranged for a car to come and get them. She sat on the opposite side of the backseat from him and stared out the window all the way to a small airport on the other side of the island.
She didn’t know where he’d attained their passports and didn’t care enough to ask. Asking would require that she speak to him, and she didn’t feel like doing that.
They boarded a plane to Athens. Cullen let her board first and she sat in the window seat. He made no attempt to talk to her. The few times she glanced at him, he was as emotionless as he’d been that morning. But he watched her. In an unnerving way she was beginning to hate.
In Athens, they had to wait for their flight to London. Sabine found a chair near their gate and occupied herself studying the crowd around them. Greek people were beautiful, which only depressed her further. Cullen was part Greek. He looked Greek.
He gave her a reprieve from his weighty presence and disappeared for a while. When he returned with two coffees, she took one of them.
He sat beside her. She ignored him but felt his frequent glances.
“You knew it would come to this,” he said after a while.
Lowering her cup from the sip she’d just taken, she slid her gaze to him. “If you’re worried about last night, don’t be.”
“Nothing would have happened if I’d have known you were expecting more from me.”
She faced forward and resumed her people-watching to cover the gouge to her emotions. Hadn’t she learned not to expect more from anyone? Every time she’d expected more from her father, she’d always been shot down. Cullen was no different. She reined in her building anger. “Well, I’m not, so you’re off the hook.”
“I can tell you’re upset.”
“I’m upset with myself, not you, so don’t let it go to your head.”
He grunted a short laugh. “You were the one who kissed me.”
“You kissed me back.”
She heard him sigh, a frustrated sound. “But if I’d have known you were expecting more, I would have stopped.”
She hated how he repeated that. “I wasn’t. I was just... I wasn’t thinking, that’s all.”
“Me, neither,” he said.
She caught his gaze and held it. Had he been as swept away as she? Is that what had made him so distant? She fought the desire to cling to that rationale. It was such a familiar instinct, so like how she’d felt growing up, after each time her father came home, then left her mother broken when he inevitably left.
An announcement came to board their plane. Cullen stood and Sabine followed him onto the plane. He stuffed his rucksack in the upper compartment and sat next to her. She propped her elbow on the armrest and stared out the window. Moments later the plane raced down the runway and they were airborne. It wouldn’t be long now. Soon she’d be in London. She’d never see him again.
She tried not to notice how close his thigh was to hers, or his hand on the armrest. The same hand that had touched her so intimately last night. His nearness suffocated her. She could even smell him. It was disconcerting, how her heart had become so tangled with him in such a short period of time.
The plane landed in London and taxied toward the gate. A lump formed in her throat. She didn’t even know the man beside her. She knew only his first name and precious few details about him. How could she have feelings for him? It was her ordeal. She was emotional and vulnerable. Any man would have done the trick.
But she knew that wasn’t true. Not just any man would have done what Cullen had done for her.
He said nothing as he walked with her through the London airport. When they reached the main terminal and the doors leading to passenger pickup, he slowed, taking her hand to stop her.
Reluctantly, she faced him. He wasn’t going any farther with her. She would walk one way and he would walk the other. Her nerves began to fray.
He pulled her toward him. She flattened one hand on his chest as he curved his fingers around the back of her neck.
“I don’t regret what happened,” he said gruffly.
The sound of his voice, what he said and the hungry heat in his eyes washed through her. Finally there was the emotion he’d hidden from her all morning. One night together hadn’t satisfied him any more than it had her.
His head came down. She felt the featherlight touch of his lips on hers. The same fire that had pulsed between them last night flared to life again. He released her hand and slid his to her lower back. She curled her freed hand over his biceps. Angling his head, he kissed her deeper. Harder. She answered with everything she had in her heart. People moved behind her. The sound of voices and people shuffling by were dim in comparison with the riot of sensation clamoring inside her.
Long seconds later, Cullen lifted his head. She shared a silent moment with him, looking deep into his eyes. Then she touched his face, running her fingers along his jaw and lips. She hadn’t imagined the poignancy of last night. He’d felt it, too.
He took her hand in his, kissed it, then lowered it to her side. Letting go, he stepped back.
“There’ll be a black Mercedes SUV parked outside. Waiting for you.”
Reality intruded. Waiting? She stiffened. “Who?”
“You’ll recognize him.”
Dread washed through her in one awful wave. If it was her father waiting outside, then Cullen worked for him. Nothing she’d begun to believe about him was true. She stepped backward, watching a kind of resignation creep into his eyes. He had expected this moment to come. Of course she’d suspected her father might have sent him, but finding it true was far more painful. Cullen was a mercenary. She’d slept with a mercenary.
She turned and walked with a limp toward the door. There, she couldn’t stop herself from one last look. People walked to and fro, taking no notice of him where he still stood near a cement column that concealed him from most angles except behind and in front of him. Hands at his sides, messy dark hair, eyes shadowy and hard, he looked tall and formidable.
She’d never see him again. Part of her screamed not to leave. Pretend he wasn’t the kind of man she feared and that it wasn’t her father waiting outside this door. If she could just stay in Cullen’s arms. Go back to Kárpathos. Keep kissing him and never surface into reality...
But that was
impossible. Sabine had no place in Cullen’s life. He’d deliberately kept details of her rescue from her, knowing she would not have agreed to go with him to London. Not with her father waiting here. Not knowing her father had arranged everything. Cullen. Her rescue. Everything.
Numbly, she pushed the door open. She stayed in the doorway, frozen by the sight ahead of her. A man stood near the rear passenger door of a Mercedes SUV. It was shiny and black, with windows so dark she couldn’t see inside. Her heart turned to ice as she stared at her father.
Noah Page stood with his hands clasped behind him, dark sunglasses hiding the blue eyes that had so bewitched her mother. His dark hair had grayed, and he’d gained a few more wrinkles since she last saw him, but his tall frame was still fit. A requirement of his profession.
Beside him another man leaned against the front fender of the SUV. The open lapels of his jacket revealed the strap of a harness, telling her he was armed.
She looked once again at her father. She hadn’t seen him since the day she graduated from college. He hadn’t been invited and must have known she’d resent his presence. Yet he’d come, as though years of neglect and empty promises could be forgotten by such a feeble gesture of interest in her life.
And now he was here, picking her up after one of his henchmen had rescued her. A mercenary on her father’s payroll. Cullen, who’d made love to her last night like no other. Cullen, who epitomized the worst kind of man for her. A man who lied to ensure he’d get her here.
She wondered what she would have done had he told her the truth. Maybe she’d known the truth all along. Just hadn’t allowed herself to believe it.
Oh, God. Sabine’s hand tightened on the door handle. Ever since Cullen had held her in the helicopter, something about him had reached her heart. His heroism. His strength. Everything good in a man...everything she dreamed a man should be.
Still holding the door open, heart racing with a riot of conflicting emotions, Sabine looked behind her. The spot where Cullen had stood was empty.
Chapter 5
Nothing could have prepared Sabine for the welcome home that awaited her in Denver. She could see the throng that had gathered behind a short concrete barrier as her father’s business jet came to a halt in front of the jetCenter at Centennial Airport.
“My God,” she murmured, staring in awe at the crowd of well-wishers.
“Damn her,” Noah cursed from the leather seat beside her. “No one would have known about our arrival if it weren’t for her.”
Knowing the “her” he referred to was her mother, Sabine turned from the window to glare at him. He’d tried several times on their way to strike up a congenial conversation. More than once she’d caught herself wanting to rejoice that he was showing an interest in her at all, that perhaps she’d finally achieved the ultimate reward and won his respect. But his effort to assume the role of father came too late, and she resented him for having the gall to use her rescue as a means to get close.
“So sorry you’re in a bind, Father,” she said, moving her gaze back to the scene outside the window. So many people. She had no idea what she would say. Did she have to say anything?
Her father stood and extended his hand. “Come on.”
Ignoring his offer of help, she pulled her own weight from the seat and forced him to step back as she made her way to the exit.
Her heart jackhammered as she emerged from the jet. A roar of cheers erupted. Sabine smiled and waved, nervous and happy and confused. She didn’t feel deserving of such a grand welcome. All she’d done was survive something terrible.
Her mother materialized from the crowd, running toward the jet. Sabine laughed and cried at the same time as she stepped down the remaining stairs, using the rail for support.
Nothing had ever looked so good as her mother coming toward her with open arms. Mae O’Clery smiled with tears streaming down her face. An active woman of fifty, Mae had retained her shape and kept her hair shoulder-length and dyed red to hide the gray. Sabine limped toward her. Air whooshed out of her when she found herself encased in her mother’s arms. The cheers grew louder and clicks from cameras went off everywhere.
“My baby girl.” Her mother’s pet name for her had always annoyed Sabine because she used it so often. But now it was like music. Sabine cried harder.
“You don’t know how happy I am to see you,” her mother croaked.
“I think I do,” Sabine said. “About as happy as I am to see you.”
They laughed through tears.
“Oh.” Mae leaned back and touched Sabine’s face with both hands, her green eyes moist with tears. “Welcome home, darling.”
Her mother’s smile faded when her gaze shifted. Sabine watched her wipe her tear-streaked face. Turning, she saw her father standing close, his eyes fixed on Mae with a look of longing.
All the old resentment and uncertainties boiled up, the worry that her mother’s love for him would once again blind her into another brief reunion. Then it would be only a matter of time before her father got restless. He’d leave like he always did. And the agony would play its course inside her mother.
“Thank you,” Mae said to Noah.
A soft smile formed on his lips, changing his expression to one of affection. “You know I would have done anything to bring her back to you.”
“Sabine.”
The sound of her name interrupted the animosity building toward her father. She turned and saw Aden Archer come to a stop beside her mother, wearing sunglasses, a hesitant smile flickering on his mouth. His thinning brown hair waved in a slight breeze. He leaned his wiry, average-height frame forward and hugged her.
Sabine felt awkward hugging him back. It seemed so stiff. So forced.
When he moved back, she wanted to take his sunglasses off to see if there was anything telling in his eyes. And there were so many questions she wanted to ask.
“I’m so glad you made it home,” he said, and sounded deeply sincere. “I wish I could have done something. If it wasn’t for your father...”
“I know.” She didn’t want to say more, to feel so beholden to her father.
“The papers are saying no one knows why you and Samuel were taken.”
She nodded slowly. “That’s true.” Would she ever be able to hear Samuel’s name without feeling a wave of grief? His body had been found along a village road near where they had worked, her father had told her on the way back to the States. It had been left there as a message, but of what, and by whom?
“You couldn’t tell the authorities anything that might help?” Aden’s question jarred her from her thoughts. “No leads? Nothing?”
Still thinking of Samuel, she answered more aggressively than she intended. “No. Believe me, if I knew anything, I’d tell them all I could.”
He nodded. She wondered if he was as guarded as he seemed. Was he hiding remorse, or something else she couldn’t read?
“We should go, Sabine.” Her father cupped her elbow and began to lead her away.
Aden stood watching her, a half smile emerging on his mouth. It gave her an eerie chill. She couldn’t explain why.
When she couldn’t crane her neck to watch him any longer, she faced forward and spotted a dark car waiting. Mae caught up to her and Noah and slipped her arm under Sabine’s.
The renewed roar of cheers was deafening. Cameras went off like firecrackers. Security personnel kept the crowd behind the concrete barrier.
“I’m afraid I caused quite a stir,” Mae said with a giddy laugh. “I couldn’t stop telling people you were coming home today. I’m afraid word got around. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t worry, Mom.”
Noah walked beside Sabine toward the waiting car. If so many people hadn’t been watching, she’d have cringed away from his hand on her back.
“W
ill you tell us about your rescue, Miss O’Clery?” someone shouted.
Sabine saw a young male reporter with determined brown eyes standing behind the barrier.
“Is he the one who got you out of Afghanistan?” another reporter asked.
Sabine saw a woman with short blond hair holding up a newspaper on the other side of the concrete barrier. Trying to hide her swell of foreboding, she stepped away from her parents and took the newspaper from the blonde. A security guard moved between them, but Sabine was barely aware of his protective gesture. She stared in shock at the picture on the front page of that morning’s Washington Daily, a nationally recognized newspaper.
Big and bold, the headline read Rescued Contractor Welcomed Home.
Below that, Sabine stood in Cullen’s arms, and he was kissing her like a man who’d already tasted more than her mouth. That kiss was hot and deep and full of emotion. A heartfelt goodbye. With his back to the camera, most of his face was concealed, but his lips and jaw were in clear profile. Part of one closed eye was visible through a few strands of hair. With the concrete pillar on one side and a wall on the other, there weren’t many angles a camera could capture him from where he stood. Even someone who knew Cullen would have a hard time recognizing him in this photo.
Her eyes lifted. Cameras went off with a flurry.
Sabine could see the blonde around the security guard’s shoulder. The woman smiled a knowing smile, then wrote furiously on her small notebook.
Sabine turned and resumed her trek to the car. Shouted questions trailed after her.
“Where is he now, Miss O’Clery? Why isn’t he with you?”
“Was that a farewell kiss instead of a welcome home?”
“It’s been rumored your rescue was funded by a private source. Would that be your father?”
“Is the man in that photo one of the men who got you out of Afghanistan? Does he work for your father?”
“Is it true your rescue plane crashed on a Greek island, Miss O’Clery?”
Seducing the Colonel's Daughter: Seducing the Colonel's DaughterThe Secret Soldier Page 26
