Longing for You: From Secret to Fearless Lovers (A Romance Suspense Novel) by Alessa Kelly

Author:Alessa Kelly [Kelly, Alessa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781922363190
Published: 2022-05-12T16:00:00+00:00

16

ARI

After I’ve been discharged from the hospital, we leave the city in peace this afternoon—no Hell Horse, and not even a protest from my bodyguard. Mark decides to stay in the city, an action which tells me he has full trust in Lucas. He even fixes Lucas’ truck tire—apparently a casualty of Mark’s bullet when he’d fired to stop the ‘hoodie man’ from taking me away.

Gazing up the cloudless Montana sky, I soak up the sun streaming through the windshield as we head northbound in his beat-up Chevy. The truck drives like a tank, but he’s careful enough not to rock me too much. He has also lined my seat with blankets, and with the blanket from the Moose Tracks Hut covering my lap, I’m more than comfortable.

“Did you pack warm clothes?” Lucas asks.

“Yeah.” It’s spring here, and I’m aware of how cold it can get.

“You know, there’s a spot in Helena Forest called Rogers Pass. It recorded the coldest temperature in the continental US.”

“How cold?”

“Seventy degrees below zero.”

“Shit…” I murmur. “Should I be worried?”

“No. As long as you stay close to me.” He gives me a little whisk of a smile.

There’s been only us on the road for quite some time now. But the landscape is changing. The farm fields are disappearing, the hazy mountain backdrops loom to take center stage. The shades of green around us deepen as the pine-clad terrain closes in from both sides.

I angle my face toward Lucas. His strong profile is steady as the scenery outside the driver’s window passes by. He’s tired, but alert.

“Am I right in thinking we’re going to be off the grid?” I ask.

“Yes,” he replies, keeping an eye on our surroundings as he’s done since Belgrade.

“I need to call my dad before he sends a search-and-rescue party.”

“If you call him now, he’ll send the cavalry to kill me.”

I palm his cheek. “Relax. I can be more diplomatic than you think.”

“Diplomatic, or hiding the truth?”

“Lucas, didn’t we agree to take it slow? My parents can’t know about us yet.”

He softens, glancing at my blanket-covered belly.

I hold his hand. “I need time. Please?”

“You do whatever best, Snowberry. Don’t stress yourself out.” He pulls my hand over and gives my palm a kiss.

I give the Preston Oil handover files a once-over, fixing typos and rechecking numbers. I earned Lucas’ stern talking-to when he found me working on these files in the middle of the night, but I had to do it then.

Putting on my earbuds, I start the call without the video.

“Dad, it’s me.”

“Ari. Where have you been? I’ve been trying to call you.”

“I’m fine, Dad. Come on, don’t be so dramatic.” I hit the send button. “Check your inbox.”

“Got it.”

“Peter basically agreed to everything, but I had to adjust the timeline by a month.”

“It was actually better than I expected. Didn’t I say three?”

“Yes, you did.”

“I’m impressed,” he says. “So, when are you going back to New York?”

“In a week or so.”

“A week?”

I know he’s about to interrogate me, and I cut him off.

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