Page 52 of Risk Everything

She tilted her head, obviously seriously considering the stress levels of both. “Actually, about the same.”

He wanted to yank her to him but couldn’t force his left hand to work at all. Instead, he threaded the fingers of his right hand into the hair at the nape of her neck. He’d known the wedding planning had been stressful for her but had no idea she’d been feeling such pressure about the ceremony itself.

He leaned his forehead against hers. “If you got up there and couldn’t say a single thing except ‘I do,’ I wouldn’t care. All I care about is that you’re willing to give me forever.”

“I do. I do want forever. But everyone you’ve known your whole life is going to be there. All your people. I just don’t want to mess it up.”

He’d been selfish. He’d wanted a big wedding—talked her into it—and why?

Because he’d wanted to make his declaration of love for and commitment to her as public as possible. But he should’ve taken into consideration more what she really wanted. Bree could barely stand to be around a group of people at the best of times. And standing up in front of five hundred of them, many of them she barely knew... No wonder this had been so stressful for her.

He leaned forward and kissed her. “I never really thought about the wedding, the event itself, and how it would affect you emotionally. I’ve been joking all these months about taking you in front of the judge. Let’s just do that. We don’t need a big event. At the end of the day, our love, our marriage, is between you and me. Nobody else matters.”

She smiled at him, the sight so beautiful and pure it nearly took his breath away. “Last week I might’ve taken you up on that. Hell, the night of the fire I almost got killed because I was in the office working on those stupid vows.”

He smiled at her description. No one was ever going to accuse Bree of being overly sentimental. That was just fine with him.

“But they came to me while I was trying to sleep,” she continued. “All this... And they just came to me. Honestly, that’s why I was crying. I was just so relieved.”

“Tell me them.”

She reached up and kissed him softly. “I will. On Saturday. Four days.”

He could wait. “Are you sure that’s all that was upsetting you? You seemed flustered.”

“I just want to get back so I can write all this down, so I don’t forget them.”

Tanner shook his head. “I’ve seen you memorize entire pages of coding after reading it just a couple of times. Your brain is like a computer.”

“Exactly. I can remember coding, but words? Emotions? Not so easy.”

He tucked her against his chest with his good arm, ignoring the pain as best he could in the other. “If you’re worried you won’t be able to remember the words, just write a program in your mind that includes them.”

“What? I—” she paused. “Damn it, Dempsey, you’re a genius.”

She lay down next to him and he could almost hear her brain running like a machine. He had no idea what program she was writing, or what it would do, but knew whatever information she needed was now safely locked away in that brilliant mind of hers.

When she slept this time, there were no tears.

Chapter Nineteen

Two shots firing into the air woke Tanner immediately. He and Bree had changed back into their clothes as soon as they were dry in case they had to run again. They’d slept side by side, but without her curled up next to him. The slightest touch on his left arm sent spikes of agony through his system. And he’d wanted to have his right arm free in case he needed to get to the Glock quickly.

Five minutes later shots rang out again.

“Freckles, wake up.”

“I don’t want any more beans,” she muttered, not opening her eyes.

“We’ve got to get moving.”

Now those green eyes popped open. “Did they find us?”

“Not the hunters.” He forced himself to stand, bent over because of the low ceiling and, tucking the gun inside the waistband of his pants, took a look outside.

No more rain.

Two more shots.