Maybe he could love her without destroying them both. Maybe he already did.
Chapter 41
Hannah woke slowly and stretched, feeling every sore spot. The night before came back to her. The fire. Stephen doctoring her, holding her, looking edgier than she’d ever seen him. She rolled on the smooth chocolate-brown sheets. Stephen’s bed, but she was alone. She took in his room. Dark beige walls and carved black wood under a high ceiling. The skylight above the bed, letting in the morning.
There were voices at the front door and she strained to hear. Stephen’s and a woman’s. Lexie.
She rushed out just in time to see him closing his front door. “Who was that?”
“No one.”
“It was someone.”
He crossed the room in quick strides and laid his hands on her shoulders.
Fear gripped her chest and her mind raced to the worst. “Tell me.”
“You’re right. I’m sorry. It was just business. I already called the hospital. Lexie’s stable. Improved.”
“Okay.” She let out the breath she’d been holding. Took another. “Okay. I need to go there.”
“I’ll drive you.”
She touched the soft cotton of Stephen’s T-shirt hanging to her knees. “I have to go home first. I need clothes.”
“I like you in that.”
She tried to smile, but the fire and the fear invaded. “No. I need to go home. I need to see the horses. I need to see Winnie. She’s probably scared and I just left last night and…”
“Hey.” His hands moved up to cup her neck.
She felt her burning eyes fill with tears. “I’ll get my car and…”
“Shh.” He kissed her soft and sweet, giving her something wonderful to replace the awful. Then he didn’t say anything for several seconds, just studied her like he was trying to make a decision. Finally, he took her face gently and pressed another kiss to her lips.
“Give me a second to change. You want some water?”
“I can get it.”
“Okay. I’ll be right back.”
She wandered through the massive A-frame she hadn’t noticed last night. It was a work of art, all redwood and glass. A masterpiece on the side of a mountain.
She’d never been here before. Hadn’t really thought about it, or why. She had the horses to take care of, he had a business to run. But she thought about it now as she walked through, passing a series of prints on the walls. All buildings. Singapore. Dubai. Hong Kong. She wondered if they were all his.
She ran a hand along a wooden bookcase, coming to a picture of a striking blonde laughing into the camera, blue water behind her. Perfectly gorgeous in a tiny bikini, something she’d never wear, showing off miles of perfectly sun-kissed skin, something she’d never do.
“I’m ready.”
Startled, she bobbled the photo, trying to put it back, and he took it from her hands. “Your fiancée?”
“Yes.”
“She was beautiful.”
He looked at it a moment, then set it back in its place. “Come on. Let’s go.”
He’d skipped a shower and thrown on jeans and a T-shirt. He’d have to come back to get ready for work, she thought, walking out to his truck. For some reason that seemed significant, like her mind was thinking of so many things, she couldn’t weed out the important from the unimportant.
His truck smelled like smoke when she climbed inside and it turned her stomach with the blast of reality. The barn had burned. The horses had barely gotten out. They could have died. Lexie could have. She could have.
“You’re missing work,” she said as he slid in beside her and turned the key.
“It doesn’t matter. I’ll have to go into the office for a while, but just to clear my schedule. Cancel any trips.” He reached across and took her hand. “We’ll get this sorted out.”
She nodded, still completely confused about what had happened, why, and how it could all be sorted.
“You need to eat something.” His fingers clenched around the steering wheel. “I should have made you eat something, damn it. You never even ate dinner.”
“Neither did you.” She gave his hand a squeeze. “I’m fine. I’ll eat something before I leave.”
Her mind was a jumble of thoughts as they drove. She needed to call the owners of the horses she boarded. Tell them what happened. They were her responsibility and they could have died. It made her sick. She’d need to call out a vet to look them over.
“I’ll check on insurance,” he went on. “Try to get that moving. In the meantime I’ll get someone out there to build something temporary. Hell, I’ll build it myself.”
He sounded angry, but in charge. All she could do was nod, with the lump in her throat threatening to choke her. Because it might not matter. It might all be taken from her anyway. In a way she felt like it already had been.
She needed clothes, didn’t even have on pants, so Stephen drove straight to her cabin. The drive through the woods was interminable and her heart hurt.
He pulled to a stop and she opened the door, ready to jump out, but at the last minute leaned over and kissed him. As bad as it was, it was easier because of him. “Thank you.”
She grabbed the door handle to jump down and her bare foot brushed against something on the floorboard on her way out. Thinking it might be something he needed, she reached for it before it fell.