“Hard to do when you’re trapped underground.”
“Details.”She laughed.“I promise, when this is done, I’m coming to Florida.”
“Good, because I’m learning how to surf.And I want to teach you too.”
She punched in the code to her apartment entrance.“I don’t know.You always loved the ocean more than I do.”
“No, Em.You were the one who put this dream inside me.We’d lay in our tiny little bed and you’d tell me stories of how someday we’d have the sand in our toes, the salt on our lips.”
She took the stairs up.“I blame that book I stole from the library?—”
“Island of the Blue Dolphins.I still have it.Come and get it.”
Emberly laughed.“I miss you.”
“You can fix that.There’s a bedroom here that’s unused, just for you.”
“Roger that.I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
“Don’t make me wait another two months.I...was really scared.”
Me too.Emberly stopped at the door.“I’ll be okay, Nim.You know me.Survival over smarts.”
“Em—”
“Gotta go.Love you.”She clicked off before her throat tightened.Then she keyed in the code and opened the door.
An arm snagged around her waist, whisking her back from the door, which slammed behind her.Then Steinbeck pushed her against the wall.Clearly she was still off her game, because he had her cornered, just like that.
Stormy blue eyes, a grim slash to his mouth, and his breaths escaped as if?—
“Wait.Were you worried?”
“Where were you?”He stood, one arm over her shoulder, his hand braced against the wall.
The other held his handgun.
“Um.”
He was terribly close, the smell of his shower lifting off his skin.He’d shaved too, and cleaned up from that wretched beard, his hair tousled and dark blond again.He wore a white T-shirt that outlined his shoulders and his trim torso, and the way he looked at her turned her entire body into a snarl of...
Oops.Friend, friend,friend!
Except, why not?She’d kissed him before and?—
“Are you trying to get yourself killed?”
She blinked at him, her gaze on his lips, then back on those intense blue eyes.
He seemed to notice, because his eyes roamed her face too.Then he swallowed, blew out a breath, and stepped back.
Because, friend.
Evenfrenemy, if he stood in her way of getting what she needed from Declan.To her knowledge, Stein didn’t work for the billionaire anymore, but things could change while a girl was locked up on a ship.
“You...”
“I scared you?”She raised an eyebrow.
