“I’ve got you. I’m here, Nina. Settle down now. We’ll go back to the ambulance and I promise I’ll stay with you. Okay? You’ll be fine. Safe.”
She nodded, sniffling, as she burrowed as close to him as she could get. There was no one else in this entire country she could trust at the moment. “Thank God you were here!” Then a thought occurred. “Why were you here? How did you get here so quickly?”
“Followed you, you little nitwit. I just gave you too much slack in the leash.”
“Leash?” she demanded, suddenly incensed. “What am I, a puppy?”
“Don’t start with me, all right? I was minutes behind you, but you faked me out. From what you told the guard, I thought you’d gone into the palace to ask questions. By the time I found out you weren’t there, the fire alarm sounded. Now hush. We’ll discuss that later. Count on it.”
“Okay,” she murmured, grasping him tighter as another stranger approached.
“Take it easy,” he said soothingly. “It’s Dr. Chiara. He’s the palace physician.”
Ryan placed her back inside the ambulance and left her there with the doors open while he spoke with the doctor. Nina gave up trying to hear what they were saying. The noise outside obliterated everything else. She did keep her eye on him, however, to make certain he stayed near.
The doctor checked her out, administered oxygen and gave her an injection.
“I should send you to the hospital overnight,” he told her.
“No!” she argued. “I just want to go back to my apartment.”
Dr. Chiara addressed Ryan. “She should be fine, but watch her. If she shows any sign of respiratory distress, get her over to Augustus on the double.” He patted her arm.
“I will, Nick. Thanks,” Ryan said.
After the doctor had bandaged the cut on her leg, Ryan carried her back to the car he had taken her to after the rescue. This time he put her in front and went around to the driver’s side.
“I wish you’d agree to go to the hospital,” he grumbled.
“Not a chance.”
“Stubborn.”
Though he was obviously angry with her, he still hadn’t upbraided her the way she’d expected, nor had he threatened her with any reprisals. But she knew he wasn’t through with her. Not by a long shot.
As soon as he fastened his seat belt and checked hers, he sat there, silently pinning her with a gaze so intense, she felt interrogated already. Tired. Wrung out. Incredibly sleepy. “What in the world was in that shot?”
“Antibiotic,” he snapped, then abruptly launched into another tirade. “You had no business being in that guesthouse. You nearly got yourself killed.”
“I wanted to see for myself,” she muttered, “because… because Desmond lived and died there. I promise you I didn’t strike any matches.”
He said nothing, and Nina felt obliged to fill the silence.
“I swear I didn’t,” she insisted, her words slurring. “I only wanted to be in there by myself, see if I could feel what he felt, what he was like. Only… only there was nothing there of him.” Tears leaked down her cheeks and she swiped at them angrily. “And then…”
“Did you see anything?” McDonough asked finally.
“No, nothing. I was in the bedroom. Heard the back door creak. I hid in the bathroom, in the shower. Next thing I knew, the place was on fire.”
“Whoever started it used an accelerant. Had to, in order for it to spread that quickly,” he told her. “The arsonist went out through the back. As soon as the guard out front saw flames through the window, he reported it.”
“You sniffed my hands,” she accused. “You thought I set it.” Nina wished she could summon the energy to get really angry about that. But she was so tired.
“And now I know you didn’t.” He sighed. “You need to get to bed.”
Panic begin to rise again. “You won’t leave?”
His mouth quirked, more in resignation than reassurance, she thought. “No. I won’t be leaving.”
“Thanks,” she said, breathing the word as she leaned her head back against the headrest and closed her eyes. She felt like a hundred and ten pounds of molten lead.
Nina was vaguely aware of the car stopping near the flashing lights of the fire truck and Ryan speaking to someone out the car window, but she couldn’t seem to rouse herself enough to listen to the conversation.
Tomorrow he would tell her everything he had found out. Tomorrow, when she showed him the earring, he would have to agree that she’d discovered something his team had overlooked, even if it was insignificant. Then he would take her attempts to help seriously. He would have to.
The car rolled forward, soon picked up speed, and the noises associated with fighting the fire faded into the distance. She yawned widely, drawing in much needed oxygen to try and stay awake, but her eyelids refused to open.
“Not antibiotic,” Nina guessed.
“Nope.”
“’Gainst the law,” she said, yawning again, wishing she sounded more irate.
“Sue me in the morning.” Had he chuckled? Was he laughing at her?
“Found a clue,” Nina murmured, hardly able to form the words.
“What?” he demanded. No humor now, she noted. “What did you find?”
She sensed his full attention on her now. Payback time. Nina allowed her head to loll to one side on the headrest and faked a soft snore. She knew the second or third snore would probably be for real and tried not to smile.
The smell of fresh coffee ought to bring her around, Ryan thought as he waved the steaming cup of it close to her nose.
She gave a little grunt of pleasure in her throat and turned her head on the pillow, following the scent. Her eyes opened slowly, lids still at half-mast as she licked her lips.
Ryan could no more suppress his rush of lust than he could have held back the tide in the harbor. The feeling took him by surprise at the oddest times. She should be haggard and pale after the night she’d endured. Instead she looked as if she’d given some lucky man a wild night of hot sex. No, not that exactly, he decided. Too innocent for that. Too unaware of her sensuality.
He continued to tempt her with the coffee, moving it closer, then drawing it away to watch her seek it out. Then he realized what he was doing and stopped the motion immediately.
He took a fortifying breath and looked away as he spoke. “C’mon, Nina, wake up. How am I supposed to get any work done if you sleep all day?”
She slowly pushed herself up until she was leaning on one elbow. His peripheral vision caught that and also noted the covers slipping down around her waist.
He’d undressed her in the dark last night, leaving her bra and panties on so she wouldn’t freak out when she woke up. Still, he’d had a rough time getting to sleep on her sofa after that. His imagination had been working overtime, fueled by the remembered sensation of her velvety skin against his hands.
The touching had been unavoidable, of course. Inadvertent and innocent. Totally innocent. Reliving it later and adding fantasies was not, he admitted. Neither were his thoughts at the moment, seeing her deliciously rumpled, tousled and sleepy-eyed.
“Timeizzit?” she grumbled, reaching for the coffee like it was an antidote to poison she’d just ingested.
“Nearly