Page 11 of Rescuing Tobias

Pausing, she looked up at him, startled. It was clear from her expression that she hadn't thought any further ahead than getting home.

It was a shame she didn't have her own home there, but she’d lived her entire life as a nomad, following her parents around the world as they dedicated their lives to being aid workers. Then she’d started her own aid agency as soon as she graduated college, and never really returned to the country of her birth. Her parents had owned a house they left to her, but apparently, she’d never lived in it and hadn't seemed interested in going to it. If she had a home base she could return to, it would make her feel that much safer and secure.

At least she had her best friend coming to collect her in the morning, but until then, he wanted her not to feel alone. Tobias couldn’t imagine the thoughts that had run through her headthese last seven months, but he could make some pretty good guesses that loneliness and despair had been among them.

“Oh, umm …” She trailed off and looked around the small private airfield that Prey used as though the answer might suddenly appear out of thin air.

“Becca and Connor are on their way, should be here late morning, but you need somewhere to sleep,” he reminded her.

“I guess a hotel then? I don’t have any money to pay for one, though,” she said, clearly frustrated.

“Your purse, identification, and all your cards were still in your office in Cambodia when you were taken. Becca has them all,” he assured her. That was at least one concern she wouldn't have to worry about. She definitely had enough on her plate without having to handle replacing her ID and credit cards.

“That doesn’t help me tonight, though.” It was probably more helplessness than frustration that had her body so tense. She needed a place where she felt safe enough to let go and get the rest her body needed, but she hadn't yet found.

Likely wouldn't find it in some sterile hotel.

“Prey has some apartments in their main building. I could take you there if you wanted.” Tobias felt himself almost holding his breath as he awaited her answer. He didn't want her in some lonely apartment, she was only going to pace around it, searching for something it couldn’t give her.

She shouldn’t be alone right now.

That he was certain of.

So he hoped like hell she would take him up on his offer.

“Uh, yeah, I guess that would be okay. Not like I have many choices.” Her tone had gone flat, and he missed the sass she’d dished out to him and Rocco’s team back when they first found her.

Placing his hand on the small of her back, he guided her toward the entrance of the airfield. She didn't shy away from histouch, and he was eternally grateful for that, because he found that he liked touching her. That sass of hers, the bravery she’d shown in standing up to an entire team of men who had more than a foot of height on her, and doubled her weight easily, was impossible to ignore.

It drew him in like a siren song.

“You have choices,” he told her.

“Oh yeah? What are they?” When she looked up at him, she arched a brow like she didn't believe him in the least.

“You could stay the night at my place.”

She froze.

Her eyes widened.

Her breath hitched.

“Stay at your place?”

Not an outright denial, so he’d take it.

Urging her on, he wanted to get her into a bed—not the way that sounded, just so she could sleep—wherever she chose, and they still had the drive into the city.

“Not as nice as the hotel I’d take you to if you choose that, but more homey than one of the apartments at Prey. They’re nice, have every amenity you could think of, but they’re pretty sterile. My place isn’t fancy, it’s small, and I don’t spend a lot of time there, but it’s clean, it’s a real home, it has a spare bedroom, and it’s in a secure building.”

“Why would you offer to let me stay with you?” There was genuine curiosity in her voice and her question forced him to confront the answer.

Why would he offer to let her stay with him?

Because he wasn't ready to say goodbye to her yet. Because he didn't want her on her own when she needed to be surrounded by people. Because he couldn’t stop thinking about her, even though he knew he wasn't in the market for a girlfriend, and she’d just been through a terrifying ordeal.

Because he wanted to.

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