Page 76 of Protecting Bree
“Nothing to be sorry about. Let’s get you inside.” He didn’t give her time to take even one step before picking her up once more.
Ducking down again, he brought Bree into the small island of safety—at least, he hoped that’s what it was—under a section of ceiling that remained intact. He leaned over and gently set her on a wide board. Then he went to work, trying to shuffle away the worst of the glass and debris out of the area immediately around her.
“Smiley? Will you sit?”
He shouldn’t. There were a million things he needed to do. Further secure the area, go out and find something for Bree to eat and drink—if she felt secure enough to allow him out of her sight—and contact his team. But he couldn’t deny this woman anything.
He sat, then picked up Bree and placed her on his lap.
She inhaled sharply, and he froze. “Fuck. Did I hurt you?”
She shook her head. “No. My ribs are a little sore though.”
A little sore, his ass.
Smiley began to gently probe her side, noting when she flinched, where he was touching when she did so. Then he held her head in his hands once more and studied her bruised face, the eye that was still swollen shut.
Honestly, she looked like hell. She had black circles under her eyes, her lips were chapped and peeling, she had bruises everywhere, and he could tell she’d lost weight in just the few days it had been since he’d last seen her.
“You found me,” she whispered, staring into his eyes. “I’m okay now that you’re here,” she told him.
Smiley swallowed hard. He didn’t want to ask this next question, but he had to. Had to know what he was dealing with. Whattheywere dealing with. “Did they rape you?” he asked quietly, not beating around the bush.
She shook her head.
“Be honest with me,” he pleaded. “Nothing between us changes if they did. I love you so much, andnothingthose assholes did will ever change that.”
Her expression shifted then. Any pain she was feeling seemed to disappear. “What?” she whispered.
“If they violated you, that’s a stain ontheirsoul, not yours. We’ll get you some help when we get home, so you can talk it out, process it. I want you to understand that nothing that happened to you is your fault. You did nothing wrong.”
Bree laid her palm on the side of his face as she shook her head. “No. You love me?”
Understanding dawned. “Love seems like such a tame word for what I feel for you. Nothing in my life scared me as badly as when I realized you’d been taken. Did you mean what you told Julie and Fiona? What you asked them to tell me?”
“They’re okay?” she asked urgently. “You found them?”
“Yes. Cookie and Tex took them back to California. I came here with the rest of my team to find you. They told us you’d been taken on a boat, and I think I lost ten years of my life, wondering if we’d be able to find you.”
“Where are we? Ecuador?”
“Yes. Guayaquil.”
She sighed.
“Bree? Did you mean it?” Smiley repeated. It didn’t matter, not right now. Not when she was almost naked,hurting, and starving. But he couldn’t stop himself from asking. He felt exposed. Vulnerable. And didn’t like it one bit. He needed the words from her own lips.
“If that was going to be the last time anyone saw me, I wanted to be sure you knew what you meant to me. How much I loved you.”
Smiley’s world turned upside down once more. He knew how much this woman meant tohim, but hearing from her own lips that she felt the same made him all the more determined to get them home so he could spoil the hell out of her. To give her as easy a life as he could. He never wanted to let her down. Never wanted her to regret loving him.
He gathered her into his arms gently and rocked back and forth.
As soon as the sun dropped below the horizon again, if his team hadn’t found him by then, they’d venture out and attempt to make their way to the motel. The sooner he got Bree on a plane back to the States, the better.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Bree was lightheaded and feeling quite sick. She needed food. And water. But it wasn’t as if Smiley could produce those things out of thin air. He’d explained that he didn’t have anything with him, any supplies, because he and the rest of his team expected that if they found her, they’d go straight to the motel, and then the airport.
