Page 109 of High Seduction
It didn’t matter. If he took her home, she’d pack a bag. If he took her straight to his place, she’d steal a shirt from his closet and wear that until she found something else.
The one thing she didn’t expect was for him to drive them back to Lifeline HQ.
“Tim?”
He put the truck into park and stared ahead, his expression serious enough she didn’t want to interrupt. Outside the building more of the ground cover had been trampled by the RCMP, but a fresh layer of snow was slowly covering the tracks that wandered in all directions.
A fresh, clean start.
It was pitch-black out, the falling snow visible in the lights shining like spotlights. Fluffy flakes landed on her lashes as Tim tugged her from the truck and headed back up the steps, his hand wrapped carefully around her fingers as he guided her forward.
“Don’t set off the alarm,” she teased.
“Poor overworked RCMP.”
“Poor Marcus.”
They grinned at each other, slipping into the main area. “You brought us back so we could start cleaning up the mess in the staff room,” she guessed.
“Bullshit on that. I plan to shovel it all into a pile and tell Tripp it’s a training exercise in searching for small objects.”
She poked him in the side. “He’ll never fall for that.”
“What about Anders? Or maybe Alisha?”
Erin snickered, then fell silent as he led her into the back room where so recently they’d stood under totally different circumstances.
Tim faced her, examining her from top to bottom with a careful thoroughness that she’d come to expect. She let herself indulge in the same satisfying scrutiny. There were cuts on his knuckles that he’d gotten at some point since the second appearance of their kidnappers. A faint darkening on his cheek as a bruise surfaced.
She stroked the spot gently. “Ken hit you.”
“He didn’t like the suggestions I made regarding what I’d do to his guts if he laid a hand on you again.”
“Oh, Tim.”
He covered her fingers with his own. “I was perfectly polite, and not a bit over the top. But the truth was... in the end, you saved me.”
“We did what we had to do,” Erin insisted.
Tim eased away from her, his hand dropping to his side as he paused beside the storage shelves. “I don’t know any other way to tell you this than straight out, and straight up. I love you, kitten. Claws and all.”
Erin held her breath. The intense passion in his blue eyes was enough to burn her where she stood.
“Hell, I love your claws most of all.” Tim took her hand and kissed her knuckles before flipping her brain offline as he sank to one knee.
“Tim?” The word whispered out through a throat gone tight with emotion at the love shining up at her.
“Whatever it takes to convince you, I’ll do it. Whatever promises I need to make, I’ll make them.” He took a deep breath, his hands growing unsteady. “I sat here in the dark, Erin, and considered a life without you, and I didn’t want to have to face that reality. And then you showed up, with all the fire you have inside you. The passion for life and the power you bring to whatever you do, and I knew in here I couldn’t live without you another minute.”
He put a fist to his chest, knocking solidly.
“You don’t have to live without me,” Erin promised. “We belong together. Whatever thattogetherlooks like, we’ll figure out the same way we figured everything else out.”
“With pepper spray?”
The joke came at the perfect moment to stop her from bursting into unwanted tears. “Do you plan these things in advance, or is perfect comedic timing a God-given gift?”
Tim lifted a hand and tilted it from side to side. “A bit of both. Now take off your clothes.”
