Hell if he’d let that happen.
Catie ate another pancake before saying, “I think you should go. I’m feeling okay now, and I’ll be busy with the training I have coming up.” A gulp of orange juice. “Plus I think Harlow really needs you. He was texting me last night—he’s freaked out about the job. More than he shows.”
ísa’s brow furrowed. “He’s only just started. What’s freaking him out?”
“He heard a rumor that the other interns all had sit-downs with Jacqueline every day. He’s worried that Jacqueline doesn’t like something he’s done and he’s already been sidelined.”
ísa rubbed her face. “None of that is true. Why is he acting crazy?”
“It’s the Dragon—you know how he wants to be her mini-me. Any sign of trouble and he turns emo-Harlow.” Catie shook her head at Sailor. “Normally he’s smart, sane Harlow, but the Dragon scrambles his brain cells.”
“What about his parents?” Sailor asked, intensely curious about the dynamics of ísa’s family.
“Losers from Loserville,” Catie said before ísa could answer. “They both got married again and totally did the happy new families thing like Harlow’s not even there.” A curl of her lip. “Good thing he has me and Issie and his nutso crush on the Dragon, or he’d probably get bad friends, turn to drugs, and have greasy hair.”
Yes, definitely a mini-spitfire. One who knew how to love as fiercely as the woman who haunted Sailor’s dreams. Even when he slept, he dreamed of his ísalind. Nope, no way was Sailor letting her go. Not this time.
* * *
THE DRIVE BACK TO AUCKLAND was surprisingly easy once ísa managed to leave Catie. She’d waited until Martha was up and able to confirm that Catie had a busy schedule that wouldn’t be impacted by her minor injuries.
Catie had given her a crushing hug before she left. “I love you, Issie.”
The sleepless nights, the sheer terror, that made it all worth it.
A brush of knuckles against her cheek. “You still worrying about Catie?”
Not fighting the urge to rub up against those knuckles before Sailor had to return his hand to the steering wheel, ísa said, “No. I know her independence is important to her.” More important than most girls her age. “She can be militant about it sometimes, but it didn’t feel like it today.”
“Kid’s crazy about you.”
ísa looked at Sailor’s profile and thought, Yes, like I’m crazy about you. But she couldn’t say those terrifying words. “At least she hasn’t turned to drugs, taken up with bad friends, and started going in for greasy hair.”
Sailor’s chuckle was a warm caress, the glance he shot her just as caressing.
Scared and happy and breathless, ísa settled back to enjoy the early-morning drive, shoving thoughts of the future out of her mind. Those thoughts, those fears, would still be waiting in the shadows when she was ready to face them again. ísa wasn’t willing to give in to them and ruin this gorgeous morning.
The direction of her thoughts had her frowning and realizing that Nayna hadn’t messaged her the previous night. Her best friend always gave ísa the lowdown on her marriage dates, and given her panic over this latest one, ísa would’ve reached out herself if she hadn’t been so stressed out over Catie. Either something had gone wrong, or Nayna hadn’t been able to find privacy to make the call until it was too late.
ísa made a mental note to touch base with her friend once she was back in Auckland.
It was a half hour of comfortable silence later that Sailor nodded at a sign for an upcoming rest stop that had one of those little full-service cafés. “You want to fill up on coffee?” he asked. “It’s been at least an hour since our last one.”
ísa laughed, wanting desperately to kiss him. “I didn’t know you were a coffee hound.”
* * *
SAILOR DECIDED HE COULD VERY easily come to live for that laugh. First, however, he’d have to convince her that he planned to cherish her as she deserved. It was dead clear to him that his redhead was used to giving and giving.
Sailor planned to care for her in turn, so she’d smile, so she’d laugh, so she’d play with him. But he knew it wouldn’t be easy. Not with the demons that howled at him to achieve his ambitions, be something better than the man who’d sired him had ever been. Those demons threatened to possess him body and soul.
No, he vowed. That bastard doesn’t get to steal ísa from me.
“Coffee is nectar from the gods,” he said on the heels of that mental promise. “I try to keep it to two cups a day, but sometimes I crack under the pressure of its siren call.”
ísa laughed again. “In that case, we’d better pull in.”
Jumping out at the coffee stop before he could, she said, “You’re driving, so I’ll be the assistant. What kind of coffee do you want?”
“Plain black.” Sailor took in the delight in those pretty gray-green eyes and barely resisted the urge to tug her back into the vehicle and into his lap. “I like coffee that puts hair on my chest—though I prefer yours hairless, just in case you were getting ideas.”
She blew him a kiss before turning to walk to the café, the scarlet of her hair brilliant in the morning light and the smile she threw him over her shoulder a sucker punch to the gut.
ísa Rain was perilously closer to owning his heart.
Now all he had to do was figure out how to convince her that he could be trusted with hers.
26
A Little Industrial Espionage to Spice Things Up
AUCKLAND’S URBAN SPRAWL APPEARED FAR too soon, the highway splitting off into many more lanes, the traffic intense, the bridges that arched over the roads steel constructions that shone in the sunlight.
Usually ísa loved her city, but today she wished it was a little farther away.
At least she and Sailor had managed to finalize the financial changes to the Fast Organic project during the drive. It was important to her that Sailor not be hamstrung in what he could achieve because of her own family crisis.
Sailor took her to his place so she could pick up her car; she’d called Jacqueline from the his truck and updated her on what was happening. As usual when it came to her youngest daughter, the Dragon hadn’t said much, but ísa knew Jacqueline wouldn’t breathe fire at ísa about being late.
“Hey.” Sailor’s hands on her hips, his body pinning her to the side of the truck. “Were you going to run off without a kiss?”
Last night was already beginning to feel like a dream, a sensual, astonishing dream. But when ísa rose on tiptoe and touched her mouth to his, the dream became hot, raw reality. Fisting one hand in her hair, Sailor cupped her face with his other as he kissed her, and ísa felt both utterly cherished… and totally devoured.