FREE (The Billionaire's Rules, Book 16) Read Free Page B

a face. “That’s horrible.”
    Lanie went on. “Brayden said what he said because my kidnappers wanted to have the public be manipulated into hating him. You’re giving a couple of horrible kidnappers exactly what they wanted by infringing on our privacy, throwing food and calling us names. This is what they wanted and you’re helping them. Is that what you want to do? Help kidnappers and criminals achieve their awful goals?”
    Nobody was replying anymore. But they were filming and taking pictures, and she could see that they were thinking this was all gold, footage and audio and pictures that would net them the money from all the magazines and tabloids.
    “Disgusting,” she said, and then she allowed Brayden to take her hand once more and escort her into the building.
    Nobody called after them.

    * * *
    L ater still .
    Soaking in a warm bath that Brayden had prepared for her.
    She’d never felt so grateful in her life to soak in a tub and never had hot water felt so amazing against her skin.
    Lanie sank down into it, squeezed the washcloth and then laid it gently over her eyes, smiling. She’d never liked to close her eyes in the tub before, let alone put something over her face that would create a feeling of darkness.
    But now, she closed her eyes, laid the washcloth on her face and felt the warmth, and the darkness was no longer threatening.
    In the darkness, she saw Brayden’s face, his eyes, that wry smile.
    In the darkness, she’d found the truth of herself and the man she’d come to love.
    After her bath, Brayden had fixed her a simple meal of toast and jelly and bacon strips on the side. She ate it curled up in bed with the television on, the tray of food beside her.
    She watched some silly Tom Cruise film from the eighties and laughed and smiled, and ate. The food tasted incredible.
    Everything felt like a dream—a beautiful, perfect dream—only real.
    It was so vivid.
    Life, she thought, was better and more rich and complicated than any fantasy.
    Even the horrible parts contained the seeds of beauty and redemption. But in order to find that out, you had to be willing to cross the desert and walk through fire.
    Brayden showered while she ate, and then he came out of the bathroom in his white t-shirt and white boxers.
    His body looked as delicious to her as the meal she’d just eaten.
    “Should I take that tray now?” he asked, smiling. “Or are you going to eat the plate as well?”
    Lanie smirked as she licked the jelly from her fingertips. “Maybe I will eat the plate,” she said. “Or maybe I’ll need something else to put in my mouth.” She raised an eyebrow at him suggestively.
    He grabbed the tray and lifted it, shaking his head. “What you need is rest.”
    She slid under the covers. “I don’t need anything right now,” she sighed, relaxing that much more as her body felt the soft silken sheets and her head sank down into the pillow. “Well, I do need one more thing…”
    “Yes?” he asked, turning back to her as he was carrying the tray out of the bedroom.
    “I need your body next to me,” she said, the smile fading. “Right away.”
    “I’ll be back before you know it.”
    He made good on his word, climbing into bed next to her and then sliding his fresh, hard body up against hers as she curled into his arms.
    His lips kissed her cheek and then her neck. “Don’t ever frighten me like that again, Lanie,” he whispered. “For awhile there, I was sure I would lose you.”
    “You’ll never get rid of me now,” she said.
    “That’s a promise?” he said.
    “A promise,” she laughed.
    They snuggled closer, and she breathed his scent deeply into her nostrils, drank him in—his body, his soul, intertwining so perfectly with hers. Never in her wildest imagination would she have thought they could truly come together so perfectly as they had.
    “I thought I’d been turned to stone,” he said softly.
    She started to drift to sleep despite her best intentions to stay