Page 13 of Let It Burn (The Barrington Billionaires 4)
Why, because gorgeous people can’t be evil? Really, what else does he need to do to prove to me that he’s not sane?
He opened the car door, and she allowed herself to be pushed inside. It wasn’t as if they were in the woods. They would still have to stop at several red lights, and when they did she would jump out.
He walked around to the driver’s side, tossed her purse in the backseat, and slid in. He started the engine and said, “There’s no reason to be afraid, Helene. I would never hurt you.” She gasped at the brush of his arm across her breast as he reached to buckle her in. “I only want you to be safe.”
“Then let me go back to my uncle.”
Before answering, he reversed down the driveway, through the gate that automatically opened for them, and pulled out onto the street. “I wish I could, but I can’t.”
She studied his profile, looking for any hint as to what he was thinking. “Maybe you’re confused or maybe you’re angry at my uncle, but you don’t have to do this. You haven’t hurt anyone yet. Not really. Stop and let me out. I won’t call the police. I promise.”
He removed a hand from the steering wheel to rub his forehead as if he had a headache. “I am confused and angry, but that’s not why I’m doing this.”
She would have asked him why, but he looked distracted enough that she jumped at the opportunity to escape. She grabbed the wheel and pulled it in her direction, causing the car to nearly hit a pole. He swore, righted the car, then pulled over. “What are you trying to do, get us both fucking killed?” he yelled.
“Yes,” she yelled back and released the seat belt. She turned her back to the car door and kicked him in the jaw. The move stunned him, and she was able to open her door and scramble to her feet on the sidewalk before he had a chance to stop her. There were people out, but they were far away, too far to hear her unless she screamed. She opened her mouth to do just that, but he grabbed her, spun her, and placed his hand over her mouth.
“I’m trying to help you,” he said angrily.
She kicked at him. Punched him. Tried to bite at his hand.
He backed her up against the car until the weight of him restrained her movements. The evidence of how the fight excited him pressed against her and confused her even more. She questioned her survival instincts along with her sanity. There was nothing sexy about being held against her will, and yet her body was hot with hunger for him. Her sex was wet with need. Her nipples hardened against his strong chest.
“Don’t look at me that way,” he growled. “I’m trying to do the right thing.”
She would have asked him what the hell that was but his hand still covered her mouth, so she kicked him as hard as she could.
He grunted and adjusted himself more fully against her so she didn’t have the leverage for another strike. “I don’t know why your uncle expected you to go along with this. Does he know you at all?”
She struggled against him, inadvertently moving her stomach back and forth across his bulging cock. When she realized how her movements were actually exciting both of them more, she stopped.
He closed his eyes briefly, then said, “I’m going to take my hand off your mouth. If you start screaming I’m going to kiss you, and we both know where that will lead. Stop fighting me, because I’m not a knight in shining armor, and you’ve already got me revved half out of my mind. Calm down so I can.”
She took a deep, calming breath and nodded once. He removed his hand slowly. “How could I possibly go along with this, when I don’t know what this is?”
He also took a deep breath and straightened so she was no longer pinned beneath him. “I’m trying to rescue you, but you’re making that fucking impossible.”
Andrew hadn’t gotten to nearly thirty without ever being betrayed by his dick, but he’d assumed he was well past that stage. He wasn’t a schoolboy accidentally dancing too close to a girl and involuntarily sporting an obvious boner. Men learned to control that shit. Okay, yes, when he’d sunken to the point where he’d needed a drink in the morning just to make it to the drinks he’d indulged in the rest of the day—he’d given his dick free rein. This was different, though. This was him sober, trying to remove a woman he was growing to like from harm’s way, looking like an oversexed kidnapper. Something I could talk myself out of if those big eyes of hers didn’t reduce me to a bumbling idiot.
Given a little space, she folded her arms across her chest and looked up at him warily. “You must think I’m pretty gullible.”
“No, I think you’ve got a lot of fight in you, considering you’ve lived a sheltered life. I understand how confusing this must be for you, but it doesn’t change the reality of your situation. Your uncle asked me to get you back to your parents, and that’s what I intend to do.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “I don’t believe you, but pretend for a moment that I do. If my uncle didn’t think I was safe here, why wouldn’t he just tell me to leave? Why would he have someone like you take me anywhere?”
Someone like me. I can’t even dispute her assessment that I’m the wrong man for this job. “He said he didn’t know who he could trust.”
Her eyes rounded in disbelief. “But he trusts you?”
Andrew sighed harshly and turned so he rested against the car. “Listen, I didn’t go to dinner hoping to be flying you home tonight. I thought your uncle seemed like a nice guy. I was going to stick around long enough to make sure you were safe and then go back to my own crazy family.”
She rolled her eyes skyward. “Keep me safe from what? I wasn’t in any danger before you arrived.”
“You may be right about that.”
She shivered visibly. “Would you just tell me whatever or whoever it is that you think is out to get me? Because, frankly, I’m not sure anything or anyone could be scarier than you.”
“I would tell you if I knew.”
She raised one hand in a motion to stop. “Wait, you’re saving me, but you don’t know who from?”
“I would know if you hadn’t interrupted when your uncle was about to tell me.”
Her mouth rounded in shock. “Interrupted? You were mauling him.”
“We were talking.” He hadn’t planned to tell Helene anything her uncle had said, but she wouldn’t leave with him unless she knew why she needed to. “He did something that he’s afraid has put you, as well as him, in danger.”
She put her hand up and waved for him to stop. “First, I don’t believe that my uncle would turn to you for help. He doesn’t know you. Second, I can’t imagine my uncle doing anything besides helpin
g people. So, let me tell you what I think really happened. You threatened my uncle. Maybe with your gun. I don’t know. He said whatever he needed to, to get you to leave so he could call the police. They are probably out looking for us already. Any minute now we’ll see them tracking my cell phone, and they’ll haul you off to jail. If you don’t touch me again, I’ll suggest they go easy on you.”
“If your uncle wanted the police called, he wouldn’t have taken your phone. And he wouldn’t have given it to me.”
“Maybe he was afraid they’d be too late to arrive if I called then.”
“So he sent you away with me? To buy time for them to arrive? Does that make sense? He wanted you to leave with me. Remember what he said? ‘She’s all yours.’ Does that sound like someone who is rushing inside to call the authorities?”
She brought her hands to her ears. “No. Shut up. I don’t know why he said that. I don’t understand any of this.”
Andrew turned on his hip so he was facing her. “He said it because he knows I care about you, and that I’ll do whatever I need to do to get you back to your parents.”
She shook her head and blinked back tears. “I don’t know what to believe.”
He turned her face gently toward his. “Look at me. Believe me.”
“Who is my uncle afraid of?”
“I told you—I don’t know, but he said involving you will put you in danger.”
“Is it drugs? Gambling? Does he owe someone money?”
Andrew didn’t answer.
She turned fully to face him. “I have a right to know. If you really think my uncle is in trouble, then I need to know how to protect him. He’s my family. I’m not leaving without him.”
Andrew’s hands clenched at his side. He didn’t want to say it, but maybe she did need the truth. “He killed my brother.”
She gasped. “No. No, he didn’t.”
“He told me he did.”
She searched his face. “He used those words? He said, ‘I killed your brother’?”
“Not exactly. He said it was his fault.”
She let out a shaky breath. “That’s not the same.”
