Chapter Twenty-Two
Mac
Italked the Captain into making a special trip out to pick us up.
He also made sure there was help on the boat for the people who were injured.
I stayed close to Cori, but I also had to make sure everyone was alright and that our story was believable.
Thankfully, Drake didn’t remember anything.
The last thing he remembered was the night before.
Ripley came up with the story that the two of them went to the waterfall and fell, with her going into the water below and him hitting his head on a rock.
Theo needed some rest, but was more than happy to blame it on bad tuna fish sandwiches.
The others had no idea anything was going on because we left them at the house when all hell started breaking loose.
Even with me keeping an eye on her, she still almost slips away. I take her arm once everyone is off the boat and ready to go home.
“Share a cab with me.”
“Oh, um, okay.”
Roxie pulls her in for a hug and gives me a big grin and wink. “Call me when you get settled.”
“I will.”
Roxie looks back at me, “Don’t mess this up.”
“I won’t,” I promise.
I help her put her bags in the trunk and wait for her to climb in.
“Does he need my address?” She leans forward before I pull her back.
“No. I already told him where to go.”
“Oh. Thank you.” Would she be thanking me if she realized the address I gave the driver was my own and just mine? “What now?”
What now?
If everything goes the way I want it to, we start something wonderful.
I look down at her and take her by the hand.
The question has so many answers. What now that we’re off the island?
What now that one of the producers tried to kill one of my investigators?
What now that it’s just me and her? So many unknowns and yet…
I know one thing for certain. Cori is mine, and I am hers.
“We wait and see how everything turns out. Now, we take a much-needed break so we can regroup and do it all again if everything goes right.”
She gives me a soft smile and starts to look out the window, but I gently pull her face back around to look at me - and not where we are going.
I lean forward to take her mouth in a soft kiss, but I should have known better.
Nothing is soft about me when I’m with Cori.
By the time I break the kiss, we’re only moments away from my place.
“Mac, where are we going?”
Damn! Didn’t kiss her good enough.
“Well, um, we’re going home.”
Her eyes narrow. “Home?”
“Mm-hmm.”
The driver interrupts anything else she was about to say, “We’re here.”
I offer a big tip and start pulling her out before she can tell the driver any differently. I pull her to the back of the car and grab our bags before taking her by the hand and leading her up the front steps.
“Is…this where you live?”
“It is.” And if everything goes to plan, it will be where she lives from now on, too.
I place my hand on her lower back and lead her to the elevator. She stays quiet all the way up and on the walk to my front door. Once we're inside, she places her bags by the door and turns to me.
“You don’t have to worry about any of it, Mac.” My brows rise. She’s lost me. “I understand it was the island and…everything that happened. I know it was situational and you didn’t mean…”
“Whoa! You think I brought you back to my place so we could…what? Dump each other?”
Her mouth opens and closes, and her brows furrow. “I…yeah, I guess I thought you wanted to talk about what happened the last night and…I know you don’t want to hurt me.”
“I brought you back to finish what we started on that island.”
“Finish?”
“There was no way I was going to take your innocence on a fucking haunted island with cameras set up everywhere. What kind of man do you think I am?”
“Take my innocence? You mean…you still want me?”
“Fuck yes. What…? We kissed in the cab.”
“I thought you wanted to find out if we still…excited each other without all the… You stopped.”
“We were home already.”
She seems so confused and uncertain…and sexy as fuck!
“Is this like…a getting-it-out-of-our-system thing or…?”
I wrap my arms around her and pull her into me, “This is a you’re-mine-and-I’m-yours kind of thing, baby. I understand you don’t have anything to compare this to, but trust me, it’s never been like this before for me.”
“How do you know it wasn’t all because of the island, though?”
I run my tongue over my lip before giving her a grin, “Because I wanted you the first time I saw you in that crowd, the very first night. If I had been a lesser man, I would have jumped off that stage and taken you home with me that night.”
“Oh.”
“Tell me you feel it too. Tell me it wasn’t just the island for you.”
I need to know this isn’t all one-sided. I need to know she feels this thing between us, too.